indirect objects w/ la gente, plural or singular
so, if the sentence could either be: los escuchan la gente y no los donadores, or it could be la escuchan la gente y no los donadores.
any ideas'
17 Answers
In the case of "escucho la radio", yes, but in the case of people, the "personal a" comes in. So, in "los políticos escuchan a la gente" the "a" goes with "la gente" and not "escuchan".
The "a" in this case is not a part of the verb escuchar, but rather the personal A that is a distinctive feature of Spanish.
Estoy cuidando a mis hijos.
Le compré un juguete a mi hijo.
¡A mí me toca esta vez!
So, although escuchar doesn't take an "a," some personal nouns do, which gives us this:
Escucho la música todas las noches.
Escucho a mi esposa cuando me habla.
ok, one more question. i thought in spanish class they drilled it into us that "escuchar" means to listen to, and therefore you never use "a" afterward because it's already included in escuchar.
Sorry, whit, I just saw you actually did give the sentence.
candidates spend their time listening to voters not big donors.
Spanish:
Los candidatos se pasan el tiempo escuchando a los votantes y no a los donadores (Spain: donantes)
There you are, James, in the end it was not a command...(guiño)
Whit, this is getting really complicated as we are simply guessing what you want to say. Please, post your sentence in English and then we will see.
James, I am not cross, I am simply stating that we do not use the word donador. You will not find it in the Rae (I should have added that) which I consider always mandatory.
nevertheless I can see it is often used in American countries, so it might be better understood, too, so I would go for donadores too.
Los políticos escuchan a la gente.
"Escuchen" is subjunctive and it doesn't apply here.
Los políticos escuchan a la gente (the pay attention to the people = politicians listen and people is listened)
aha, that's interesting. so, is that still true if it's a bullet point and not a complete sentence? so the heading is Elecciones Limpios Sirven! (please correct if not right) and then the bullet point is in english, "candidates spend their time listening to voters not big donors." Anyone who wants to correctly translate would have my utter appreciation, if this is making any sense. thanks!
This isn't an objection to the message, but the spanish structure which would be:
"Los políticos escuchen/escuchan a la gente y no a los donadores".
Los políticos escuchen/ escuchan la gente y no los donadores, says that the first listen, but the donors do not.
No objections at all, if that is what you want to say. It means "They (or you plural) listen to the people and not the donors." Is that it?
I may be off here, but I sense that you are thinking of this:
' Listen to the people, and not the donors
In this case, "listen" could be a command, or it could be an ellipsis of "they listen," so it is vague in English. The problem is that in Spanish you have to decide one way or the other, because the conjugation changes. You could use "escuchar" and just leave it as a noun phrase ("Listening to..."), but that may not be what you want.
HTH
ok, good discussion. and the tricky part with spanish is that it's used so differently in different places. i am reaching out to a mexican audience, with perhaps a few central americans. the literature i have used written by mexican-americans uses donadores, though i know donantes exists too. once, i met a boy in peru who didn't know the word "zapatos" for shoes and he was about 10. though, i'm not writing a command, it's more a bullet point. you know how in spanish they use so much more reflexives, i thought i would throw it in there, but i'll just leave it as escuchan la gente y no los donadores. any objections to that'
Actually, I do find donador in my dictionary. Just double click on donador and you'll get the definition from the dictionary of this website, too.
And why so cross? I was only telling you what Whit already said: "so i'm saying politicians listen"
Donadores may not be used in Spain, but it is used elsewhere. See the following for an example.
This is true, James, but that doesn't make if more correct. You will not find this word in the dictionary.
Whit is trying to say: Politicians, listen to the people, and not your donors! (mandato)
Are you whit? I don't think so.
Donadores may not be used in Spain, but it is used elsewhere. See the following for an example.
http://amigosmsc.org/donations.htm
Whit is trying to say: Politicians, listen to the people, and not your donors! (mandato)
Hi whit:
donadores is not the absolutely correct word: it should be : donantes
If I am understanding:
politicians listen to the people:
(ellos) los escuchan
Ellos escuchan a la gente
Please, give us your English sentence and we will understand better.
You want to say:
Escuchen a la gente, y no a los donadores/donantes.
You don't need a pronoun in the first clause.
