type, and minor clauses are all others. The structure of major clauses and their combinations will be discussed in §§3.1-3.53; of minor clauses, in §§3.6-3.62. A major clause always contains a predicate and may or may not contain a subject as well.
3.1 The predicate always has as its main element a verb or verb phrase: nos inclinamos para ver mejor "we bent over to see better"; estoy cansado "I'm tired"; han matado a la señora "they've killed the lady". Since the verb indicates by its endings the person and number of the agent, a predicate often occurs alone (as in the above examples), where English would have a pronoun subject.
3.2 The subject may be one of the following:
1. A noun or noun phrase: Inglaterra es grande y bella "England is great and beautiful"; las antiguas explotaciones petrolíferas han sido abandonadas "the old oil drillings have been abandoned".
2. An adjective or other part of speech serving as noun: todo le ayudaba "everything helped him"; lo mejor y más granado "the finest and most select type".
3. A pronoun: él iba delante "he went first"; me gusta éste "I like this one".
3.21 Agreement in number. The subject normally agrees in number with the verb of the predicate: lo hago yo "I'll do it"; lo hacemos nosotros "we'll do it".
3.22 Agreement in person. The verb of the predicate is normally in the grammatical person of the lowest-numbered person represented in the subject. (usted, ustedes "you" naturally count as third person in this respect.) If the subject contains heads belonging to two different grammatical persons, the verb is in the first person if the first person element is present, otherwise in the second: nos casaremos, tú y yo "we'll get married, you and I".
3.23 Agreement in gender. A predicate complement (§2.43) agrees in number and gender with the subject: él estaba cansado "he was tired"; las señoritas estaban cansadas "the young ladies were tired".
3.3 Order of subject and predicate is much freer in Spanish than in English. In general, the normal order is subject+predicate; inversion of this order implies emphasis or rhetorical force, but is very frequent: eso lo hago yo "I'll do that"; así continuaba el joven "the young man continued thus". Inverted order is normal in a clause containing a subjunctive used as an imperative: quítese usted el sombrero "take off your hat".
Likewise the direct object, predicate complement, or adverbial complement is often placed before the verb and subject, giving a meaning of greater emphasis than does the normal order: eso es "that's it" (literally, "it is that"); el que no se entera de nada soy yo "I'm the one who doesn't understand"; mejor será avisar a la policía "it'll be better to notify the police"; mucho lo siento "I'm very sorry". In a sentence containing a specifically interrogative word, the phrase containing this word comes first: ¿qué quiere usted? "what do you want?"; ¿desde cuándo le conoces? "since when have you known him?"
3.4 Coordination is the relation to each other of two or more clauses of equal rank in a sentence. Of two coordinate clauses, the second is usually joined to the first by a coordinating conjunction, such as pero "but", y "and".
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