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Es mejor que pegues esos platos rotos. (en → es) Topic is solved

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Es mejor que pegues esos platos rotos. (en → es)

Post by sentence bot 🤖 »

Es mejor que pegues esos platos rotos.

en: It's better for you to glue those broken plates.

Duolingo forum topic: https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/45663949

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dochawk
United States of America

Re: Es mejor que pegues esos platos rotos. (en → es)

Post by dochawk »

The english would be better as, "it would be better for you to glue those broken plates."

This is one of the situations in wheich English does use the subjnctive mood.

Cifi

Re: Es mejor que pegues esos platos rotos. (en → es)

Post by Cifi »

dochawk wrote: Fri Dec 09, 2022 2:37 am

The english would be better as, "it would be better for you to glue those broken plates."

This is one of the situations in wheich English does use the subjnctive mood.

Isn't it simply present conditional? I think they probably reject it because it would have to be "sería mejor que ..." in Spanish then.

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Jimbo

Re: Es mejor que pegues esos platos rotos. (en → es)

Post by Jimbo »

Cifi wrote: Thu Jan 12, 2023 1:35 pm
dochawk wrote: Fri Dec 09, 2022 2:37 am

The english would be better as, "it would be better for you to glue those broken plates."

This is one of the situations in wheich English does use the subjnctive mood.

Isn't it simply present conditional? I think they probably reject it because it would have to be "sería mejor que ..." in Spanish then.

Yes, it is. The subjunctive version would be 'It would be better if you glued those broken plates' or possibly even 'It would be better if you were to glue those broken plates', and all of which could potentially be used, though maybe not as an equivalent of the Duolingo sentence.

I think this is one of those times where the translation depends on how you want to come across. The direct translation seems to be 'It's better that you glue* those broken plates' but that construction requires an implied 'than [something]' and is mainly said in a resigned tone of voice and used to convey a sense of picking the lesser evil when there's no option that's actually good. I'm not sure if the Spanish has any of that context or not, but given that the topic is plate repair, it's probably a valid choice.

*I can't think of a time when English would use a subjunctive there so I didn't.

Native language: 🇬🇧. Novice getting towards rookie: 🇪🇸. Beginner: 🇬🇷, 🇯🇵.

Jimbo

Re: Es mejor que pegues esos platos rotos. (en → es)

Post by Jimbo »

Jimbo wrote: Sat Jan 14, 2023 12:02 am
Cifi wrote: Thu Jan 12, 2023 1:35 pm
dochawk wrote: Fri Dec 09, 2022 2:37 am

The english would be better as, "it would be better for you to glue those broken plates."

This is one of the situations in wheich English does use the subjnctive mood.

Isn't it simply present conditional? I think they probably reject it because it would have to be "sería mejor que ..." in Spanish then.

Yes, it is. The subjunctive version would be 'It would be better if you glued those broken plates' or possibly even 'It would be better if you were to glue those broken plates', and all of which could potentially be used, though maybe not as an equivalent of the Duolingo sentence.

I think this is one of those times where the translation depends on how you want to come across. The direct translation seems to be 'It's better that you glue* those broken plates' but that construction requires an implied 'than [something]' and is mainly said in a resigned tone of voice and used to convey a sense of picking the lesser evil when there's no option that's actually good. I'm not sure if the Spanish has any of that context or not, but given that the topic is plate repair, it's probably a valid choice.

*I can't think of a time when English would use a subjunctive there so I didn't.

OK, I was a bit of an idiot here. 'It's better that you glue those broken plates' technically might be subjunctive, because 'you glue' is both indicative and subjunctive present and this sentence has a 'that' in it.

The point relating to the original post stands though. Not only does subjunctive present take the conjugations for indicative present except in 3rd person singular rather than an infinitive (with the exceptions of 'to be' which just becomes 'be', and 'to beware' which doesn't have conjugations), but the tense has to be correct too, and 'would_____ if__' combines with the subjunctive past 'glued', and I've never come across a form that used 'would__ for_____'.

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