Espanol Switcharoo

Question

Im confused about the ending of the following sentence;

No queremos ir a la fiesta que organizan los estudiantes.

what i dont understand is the ending, 'que organizan los estudiantes.' To me it looks as if its saying, 'that organized the students' but its really saying 'that the students organized.'

this switcharoo confuses me a lot in espanol

Answer 1

Yes, it seems confusing, but keep in mind that is Spanish -- not English. With that being said, there are ton of stuff that Spanish speakers confused about...in English. ...I mean if we translate exactly what we see... It will not make sense....so we just need to translate it into a way that we use it in english

What i tried to say is that.... we do not translate word by word from a sentence... because that will make a whole different meaning..

SO____

"Que" is that but can also be means something else...like which... we just need to translate that into english grammar ......in other words... que can be severed as a preposition in english....

No Queremos = We do not want

ir = to go

a la fiesta = to the party

Que organizan los = Organized by the

estudiantes = students

OR.... We can say that...

No queremos ir a la fiesta que = We do not want to go to the party that

Organizan los estudiantes = organized by the students.

Answer 2

Many times in Spanish we use a verb in a simple tense that you would expect to hear in English in the continuous form and this is the case here.

No queremos ir a la fiesta que organizan los estudiantes.

"We don´t want to go the party that the students are organizing."

Remember, in Spanish continuous is used only at the moment the action takes place.

organized by the students

This is not exactly what is being said in the original sentence, but in Spanish it would be "organizada por los estudiantes".

It is a curve ball of sorts, actually. But who knows how they play the game in Bangladesh. - EugenioCosta, Jul 7, 2013

Not to worry about the knuckle ball. Knucklers only work as a change of pace and if the pitcher has some heat. - EugenioCosta, Jul 7, 2013

Answer 3

"No queremos ir a la fiesta que organizan los estudiantes."

My take on this is just a little different, for the reason that the word "organizan" is in present, therefore the students are organizing it at the moment, it is not in past tense.

So literally then I see it as;

"We do not want to go to the party ( that) the students organize."

In English (that) is optional.In Spanish in this case the "que" is not optional as it is acting as the link between the two actions.

Another example;

"No me gusta comer la comida que mi suegra cocina." 'I do not like to eat the food ( that) my mother- in- law cooks"

E.g: No me gusta comer lo que mi suegra cocina" - EugenioCosta, Jul 7, 2013

There are two different species of ambiguity at work here, one in English and one in Spanish. - EugenioCosta, Jul 7, 2013

Eugenio, in this case it is not "lo que" That is not what the phrase says. - pacofinkler, Jul 7, 2013

Answer 4

http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~struck/classes/latin309/syntax/quod.html

How does that go again--"Hope this helps"?