the usage of " de que" , help pls?
hola, todos, i'm a new learner of spanish and i sincerely hope that we can achieve our common goal in the way of learning spanish. As i'm not english , i shall put my question simply as posible, hope u understand what i intent to convey.Thanks!
As to the use of DE QUE, can i translate literally to "'''''''''in all occasions or it is used differently according to various circumstance'? can anyone give me few examples?
Gracias por ayudame!
7 Answers
Margarita said:
Thanks! but i am still quite confused. the word " que " and the phrase "de que" (if it be called). can i say "ME ALEGRO QUE VENGAS" INSTEAD OF "ME ALEGRO DE QUE VENGAS"'what is the difference then? Is it right that because there exists a "que" in the phrase "alegrarse de algo " that i have to make it " ME ALEGRO DE QUE VENGAS" accordingly'''?
The difference is simple: prescriptive grammars demand that "de" is used whenever you say "Me alegro", regardless of what comes afterwards. This rule actually is intended to maintain a syntactic coherence in the language, even though some people don't care about it. So, quite a few Spanish speaking natives say "Me alegro que..." instead of "Me alegro de que...", but in a Spanish exam or any formal situation, they would get corrected right away. Any Spanish teacher with a decent education is going to correct you if you say "Me alegro que...", and it will be considered unacceptable in any serious translation or academic written work, so my advice is: do not use it, even if you hear it from natives every now and then (at least until you are fluent enough to have your own speaking habits)
lazarus1907 said:
Margarita, "de que" is not a special construction that can be learnt as such, but two words that happen to be together. "De" has several functions, like connecting nouns and indicating ownership: caja de papel = paper box
vaso de agua = glass of water
Soy de España = I am from Spain
Actually, in these cases it works almost like "de" in Chinese, except for the order is exactly the opposite.
"De" also follows some verbs, like Neil said:
acordarse de = remember
reírse de = laugh at
depender de = depend on
dejar de + verb = stop doing something
hablar de = talk about
alegrarse de algo = to be happy about something
"De" can also be part of some special constructions, like
de pie = standing
de memoria = by heart
If you want to use a clause with a verb, instead of a noun, you can introduce this clause with "que":
Me acordé de eso = I remembered that
Me acordé de que venías = I remember that you were coming
Me alegro de eso = I am happy about that
Me alegro de que vengas = I am happy that you are coming
Thanks! but i am still quite confused. the word " que " and the phrase "de que" (if it be called). can i say "ME ALEGRO QUE VENGAS" INSTEAD OF "ME ALEGRO DE QUE VENGAS"'what is the difference then? Is it right that because there exists a "que" in the phrase "alegrarse de algo " that i have to make it " ME ALEGRO DE QUE VENGAS" accordingly'''?
Am i right in this sense? Thx a million for your advices, gentlemen!
Neil Coffey said:
... ... In English, it's often not grammatical to keep both the preposition and the word that (technically called a "complementizer"), so e.g. the following is ungrammatical: I'm worried about that the TV will break down. ... ....
That said, if we combine the two sentences in English, joined by a conjunction, or even separated by a comma, (and substituting the pronoun, "it", for "TV" in the 2nd clause), then we do keep both the words, "about" and "that": I'm worried about the TV, that it will break down. etc. In Spanish the phrase, the TV, in the first clause in that sentence is simply "understood," as they say in grammatical circles.
Neil and Lazarus, you have really cleared this "de que" construction up for me 
Margarita, "de que" is not a special construction that can be learnt as such, but two words that happen to be together. "De" has several functions, like connecting nouns and indicating ownership:
caja de papel = paper box
vaso de agua = glass of water
Soy de España = I am from Spain
Actually, in these cases it works almost like "de" in Chinese, except for the order is exactly the opposite.
"De" also follows some verbs, like Neil said:
acordarse de = remember
reírse de = laugh at
depender de = depend on
dejar de + verb = stop doing something
hablar de = talk about
alegrarse de algo = to be happy about something
"De" can also be part of some special constructions, like
de pie = standing
de memoria = by heart
If you want to use a clause with a verb, instead of a noun, you can introduce this clause with "que":
Me acordé de eso = I remembered that
Me acordé de que venías = I remember that you were coming
Me alegro de eso = I am happy about that
Me alegro de que vengas = I am happy that you are coming
Sorry, should have occurred to me to include situations with qué with the accent.
By the way, "(no hay) de qué" is more widespread than Chile.
Rodrigo said:
examples ¿De qué estamos hablando? = What are we talking abput?
-Muchas gracias = thank you
-De que = you 're welcome (Chile)
>
examples
¿De qué estamos hablando? = What are we talking abput?
-Muchas gracias = thank you
-De que = you 're welcome (Chile)
If you're worried purely about the translation into English, if you translate de que as that, it'll often happen to be right.
However, to be more certain of your translation, it may be helpful to understand why the combination de que occurs. Essentially, Spanish, like English and other languages, has certain verbs/nouns that can be 'folloewd by' a preposition plus a noun or noun phrase. For example, in English, we can say to be worried about something. And, in many cases, instead of a noun or noun phrase, we can put a clause ("sentence inside a sentence"), introduced by that in English (or its equivalent, e.g. que in Spanish or French):
I'm worried about the TV
I'm worried that the TV will break down
I have the impression of more work in the pipeline
I have the impression that he'll be home late
Now, if we choose to use a clause ("that ...") instead of a noun or noun phrase, it turns out that languages differ in whether they allow (or force) the preposition ("about", "of" etc) to stay. In English, it's often not grammatical to keep both the preposition and the word that (technically called a "complementizer"), so e.g. the following is ungrammatical:
I'm worried about that the TV will break down.
and a similar construction would also be ungrammatical in, say, French. However, Spanish does allow the preposition to stay. So if the preposition would normally be de, you end up with the combination de que, e.g.:
tengo miedo de...
"I'm worried about..."
tengo miedo de que se descomponga la tele
"I'm worried (that) the TV will break down"
There's nothing particularly special about de-- it could be en in some cases, for example-- other than that it's a very common preposition in this type of construction. In particular it's used with "picture" nouns such as una impresión de..., una idea de....
Prescriptively, some commentators argue that the preposition "should" be kept in Spanish if it is "logically expected" (e.g. if it's miedo de... + noun, then you'd "expect" miedo de que... + clause). But such commentators usually don't explain why they consider it to be terribly logical to keep the preposition in Spanish whereas, for example, in French doing so is completely ungrammatical. In practice, there is variation, particularly with "picture" nouns: tengo la impresión (de) que....
