Page:Dictionary of spoken Spanish (1945).djvu/23

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GRAMMATICAL INTRODUCTION


b)In all other tenses the impersonal form is identical with the third person singular of the auxiliary:

había "there was, there were"
hubo "there was, there were"
habrá "there'll be"
habría "there'd be"

4.tener, which means "have" in the sense of "possess", used with que + infinitive expresses a strong obligation equivalent to English "have to, must":

Tenemos que hacerlo hoy. "We must do it today."

a)hay que is substituted for tener que in impersonal constructions and is translated into English as "must, it's necessary":

Hay que decir la verdad. "It's necessary to (One must) tell the truth."

b)tener as used in many idioms is translated "be" in English. In such cases the Spanish adjective mucho is rendered in English by the adverb "very":

Tengo hambre. "I'm hungry."
Tengo mucha hambre. "I'm very hungry."
Tengo sed. "I'm thirsty."
Tengo frío. "I'm cold."
Tengo miedo. "I'm afraid."
Tengo prisa. "I'm in a hurry."

5.The pronoun "it", which is used in the impersonal construction in English, is never required in Spanish:

Llueve. "It's raining." Escampa. "It's clearing off."
Truena. "It's thundering." Hace fresco. "It's cool."

6.hacer is used impersonally in expressions of weather:

Hace calor. "It's warm." Hace frío. "It's cold."

a)hace . . . que, hacía . . . que, and hace (hacía) preceded by desde may be used to indicate time elapsed:

Hace dos días que llegó. "It's two days since he arrived."
Está aquí desde hace dos días. "He's been here two days."
No la había visto desde hacía dos años. "I hadn't seen her for two years."

III. Phrase Structure

Two or more words may be combined into groups of words, or phrases, which are used in sentences to take the place of, and fulfill the functions of, the various parts of speech. In this section we shall list the main types of phrases which occur in Spanish, according to the parts of speech whose place they take. We shall use the term head to refer to the central word of the phrase, and modifier to refer to a word modifying the head: thus, in English "good boy", the noun "boy" is the head of the phrase and "good" is a modifier.

2.0Universal phrase types are such as occur with all parts of speech. In them two or more heads, usually belonging to the same part of speech, are

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