Tough to explain Spanish concepts (cual, la vs el, que)
Person A) I told you to order the eel, not the salmon before we go to the assembly.
Person B) I didn't order that because we would be late. The salmon, which only has half the number of bones as the eel was quicker for me to finish.
Español:
Persona A) Te dije pedir la anguila, no el salmón antes de ir a la asamblea.
Persona B) No pedí esa porque seríamos tarde. El salmón, cual sólo tiene la mitad del número de huesos que la anguila fue más rápido para mí para terminar.
1)First, are there any mistakes?
2)La anguila eel why la not el?
3)La asamblea why la not el?
4)How do I know when to include "que" after decir?
5)Does cual actually need lo or la before it? Why?
6)Is there a shorter way to say the last sentence
Thanks so much!
2 Answers
This is how I'd say it:
A) Antes de ir a la asamblea, te dije que pidieras el salmón, no la anguila.
B) No la pedí porque llegaríamos tarde. Pude terminar el salmón, el cual tiene la mitad de huesos que la anguila, más rápido.
Anguila and asamblea are feminine nouns, therefore you use la with them. Generally, words that end in "-a" are feminine.
You always put the que after decir when you are actually saying what someone said.
Me dijo que estaba cansado.
He told me that he was tired. In English you use it too, although you can omit it.
Me lo dijo cansado.
In this example cansado is a predicativo subjetivo no obligatorio, that is to say, it's an adjective modifying the subject of the sentence. It's saying how the subject was feeling when he told me something. You don't include "que" here because you are not specifying what the subject said.
Edit:
Actually agua and águila are feminine nouns. Why do we use "el" with them? Because we don't like how it sounds! You have a similar rule in English.
You say "a dog" but you say "an animal". You use "an" when the following word starts with a vowel. In Spanish it happens the same. You say "el agua" because if you were to say "la agua" it would sound weird, since "la" ends in "a", and agua begins with an "a".
This happens with a many words. For instance, fairy in Spanish is "hada" (the h is mute, so it begins with an "a" sound, therefore we say "el hada")
For the second question, you use the subjunctive because it's a command.
¡Te dije que lo hicieras! -> I gave you an order.
The technical reason why "la" is used with some nouns beginning with "a" or "h" but "el" is used for others comes down to where that noun is stressed. With "agua" and "águila" the stress is on the first syllable, which is why "el" is used. With "anguila" and "asamblea" the stress is not on the first syllable so "la" doesn't need to be changed.
As Aileribel says, it comes down to the way the words sound together. If you try saying "La agua" the stress on the first syllable of "agua" is difficult and it ends up sounding like "Lagua" hence "El agua" is used. The same problem doesn't exist when the stress is later in the word "La anguila."
