'gender interpretation?
dijo cosas tales como? -> he said things like?
In the above sentence, how would you change this to reflect 'she said things like ...'? What is the rule for that in sentences? I continue to find sentences that don't seem to have obvious clues as to whether the pronoun is masculine or feminine.
12 Answers
Lazarus,
Thanks for you detailed response. Your knowledge is incredible and much appreciated. However, I did not make the above statement.
Gracias
samdie said:
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motley said:
dijo cosas tales como does tales in this sentence mean such?
he/she said such things as/like
Yes.
>
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motley said:
dijo cosas tales como does tales in this sentence mean such?
he/she said such things as/like
Yes.
dijo cosas tales como
does tales in this sentence mean such?
he/she said such things as/like
Mark W said:
In the above sentence, how would you change this to reflect 'she said things like ...'? What is the rule for that in sentences? I continue to find sentences that don't seem to have obvious clues as to whether the pronoun is masculine or feminine.
If you say "She said things like...", I could rightfully say: "She? What do you mean by SHE? Who exactly is she'". Pronouns like "he" or "she" mean nothing unless you provide a clear context beforehand. E.g. "Mary was here. She said things like...". Now that "she" makes sense: it refers to Mary. English verbs don't provide clues about person or number, so it is up to these pronouns to specify whether it is me, you, them... In Spanish this is part of the verb, so the pronouns are normally unnecessary and redundant. The previous sentence in Spanish is as clear as in English: "Mary estuvo aquí. Dijo cosas como...". There is no doubt about who are we referring to (Mary), so we don't need gender distinction nor pronoun.
So, when do we use the pronouns in Spanish? When we want to make a contrast by emphasizing the person, or when there exists the possibility of ambiguity: "Joe and Mary were here. He/she said things like...". "Joe y Mary estuvieron aquí. Ella dijo cosas como...". Here, without making the gender ditinction, we would be clueless about which one we are talking about, so the pronoun must be used. But remember that without a context, gender distinction is pointless anyway.
English doesn't differentiate between male friend and female friend, or male cousin and female cousin, and Spanish does: "Vamos a ver a tu prima" / "We are going to see your cousin". The lack of gender here is really annoying, but no one dies because of it.
Your welcome. Also, notice how the modifier of "cosas" matches in gender and number - "cosas bonitas", not "cosas bonita".
thank you very much. This clears up a lot for me.
If you had a noun or adjective describing her, it would have to match in gender, like -
"Ella es bonita" vs. "él es bonito", "ella está cansada" vs. "él está cansado".
If there was modifier of "cosas", then the modifier would match the gender of the word "cosas", e.g.
"Ella dijo cosas bonitas tales como..."
No, not in this case. "Ella dijo cosas tales como..."
If you did change it to 'she' would you change any of the other words to reflect a feminine subject'
Thank you. I guess I've just been reading it in language books and haven't seen the explanation.
In this case there is no gender differentiation. One knows who is being talked about based on the context. If it is not clear in the context and it is necessary to specify it, you would have to add "Ella dijo...".
