#3 Explanations for a few sentences needed

Question

Hi all,

Questions: 1. A: Qué envidia! Tienes una casa nueva y un trabaja muy bien pagado! B: Sí, pero, "de" qué me sirve la casa nueva si solo voy a ella a dormir? Why is de used here? Does it mean the same if I write "qué me sirve la casa nueva si solo voy a ella a dormir"?

1. Must the verb after "a menos que" be used in subjunctive form?

2. Ahora voy a seguir trabajando, pues todavía "queda" por tender la ropa lavada, aliñar la carne, cocinar y regar las plantas. What is the subject of a sentence containing the verb phrase "quedar por"? In this sentence, are the series of actions seen as the subject? Why is quedar listed as single if there are more than one action involved?

Thank you for reading!

Answer 1

Un trabaja should be un trabajo, the noun form.

I don´t know that I can explain why, but de is necessary in "¿...de qué me sirve ...?" Here the de indicates "of / about" what is the new house useful and without the de the sentence seems incomplete of direction.

The verb following "a menos que" is in subjunctive because the action has not yet happened at the time of speaking.

The subject in the sentence of queda is not mentioned, but from context we know that it would be something like la tarea, el trabajo, etc. This is a form of sentence structure somewhat idiomatic. If they were reversed, por would not be used and then the sentence would have multiple subjects. Quedar in this case would still be singular because the words that follow it are infinitive phrases. If a noun follows, such as muchas tareas, then quedar will be plural. but even with multiple nouns following, the verb will be singular as long as the first verb listed is singular.