Describing two things at once
Can someone please help me to write this correctly? I am trying to write "the tree-trunks and rocks are rough" in a descriptive essay. The problem is this: in Spanish, I've got "los troncos y las rocas" and the word for rough is "ásperos(as)."
But this is the problem. "Troncos" is masculine, "rocas" is feminine. My gut feeling is to just write "los troncos y las rocas son ásperos," because from experience talking about groups of people I know that if you are describing a group with mixed gender you use masculine adjectives. Is that right in this case, though? Or is there a better way to write it?
Gracias.
2 Answers
At a guess I would say you are correct. I wouldn't have thought you could say "son ásperos y ásperas".
If you had to duplicate the amount of adjectives, articles and pronouns to account for all genders and sexes, many sentences would become at least one third longer than they are, and very very very very tedious to say and listen to. No, you don't say "ásperos and ásperas"; it sounds utterly unnecessary and it goes against the principle of economy of language.
"Ásperos" is just fine.
Can someone please help me to write this correctly? I am trying to write "the tree-trunks and rocks are rough" in a descriptive essay. The problem is this: in Spanish, I've got "los troncos y las rocas" and the word for rough is "ásperos(as)."
But this is the problem. "Troncos" is masculine, "rocas" is feminine. My gut feeling is to just write "los troncos y las rocas son ásperos," because from experience talking about groups of people I know that if you are describing a group with mixed gender you use masculine adjectives. Is that right in this case, though? Or is there a better way to write it?
Gracias.
At a guess I would say you are correct. I wouldn't have thought you could say "son ásperos y ásperas". An even more interesting point would have been how to say "the tree trunks and the rock are rough". I would suspect the answer is still "son ásperos".
