One of the most confusing topics for me in Spanish was ‘making comparisons.’
I guess that’s because in English the rule is pretty simple. In English
we use a ‘more… than’ construction. (e.g. She has more magazines than he has.)
Generally, in Spanish when making comparisons one uses a ‘más… que’ construction. But there are exceptions . . .
I remember feeling so confident because I thought that I had mastered the topic of making comparisons in Spanish. Or so I thought.
I was so confident that I could make comparisons in Spanish because I was able to say things such as ‘Pedro tiene más libros que Carlos’ (‘Peter has more books than Charles has’)
But the real shocker came to me when I was in the gym and I was speaking to a native speaker from Peru. We were admiring how a man in the gym who was more than 70 years old was in such great shape.
And I said to the Peruvian man ‘El tiene más que setenta años’
There’s only one way that I can describe the look on the Peruvian man’s face when I said that.
My sister has a set of plates that appear as if they were made from some type of ceramic substance. Every time a fork, knife or other utensil is scraped across one of those plates, the plate releases the most excruciating noise that I have ever heard in my entire life.
When I said to the Peruvian man ‘El tiene más que setenta años,’ his
facial expression suddenly looked as if he had just heard me scrape a fork across one of my sister’s plates.
Of course, I would not want this to ever happen to you. So we have put together a lesson on the topic of Making comparisons.
Here’s the link:
http://www.learningspanishlikecrazy.com/Spanish_Grammar/Lesson020.html
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