Once a week Spanish & Valencia publishes linguistic tips to help you reach a new level in Spanish. In the beginning, we give an expression that is correct from a grammatical point of view but sounds boring. Then we give its a more advanced analog.
• No tienes que hacer el trabajo DE OTRAS PERSONAS.
• No tienes que hacer el trabajo DE LOS DEMÁS.
For some reason, the expression “others” is often difficult. And we, with doubt and a vague feeling that this phrase doesn’t sound quite interesting in Spanish, find a way out of this situation using the phrase “otras personas”. It´s time to end the doubts! Take it and use the phrase “los demás”! And put the right preposition as needed. It can also refer to people and change in a system of noun classification (masculine and feminine).
•No le importa la opinión de los demás. – He doesn’t care what others think.
•Agregue la cebolla y los demás ingredientes. -Add onions and other ingredients.
•¡Propone tus ideas para el planeta y vota por las de los demás! – Offer your ideas for the planet and vote for the ideas of the other participants!
•Las demás denuncias no se pudieron confirmar por falta de pruebas. – Other complaints were not confirmed due to lack of evidence.
• El lunes pedí un cable de Estados Unidos y a los cinco días ME LA TRAJERON! ¡TAN RÁPIDO!
• El lunes pedí un cable de Estados Unidos y a los cinco días ¡YA ME LO HABÍAN TRAÍDO!
Did you know that pluscuamperfecto in Spanish expresses not only the action preceding another action in the past but also the gladness and surprise that something happened very quickly? Let us explain: in the example above, the mobile phone was delivered, of course, after the order, but it happened so fast for the speaker that he was pleasantly surprised and expressed this speed with pluscuamperfecto.
More examples:
•Le pedí que me comprara un café cuando pudiera ¡Y a los 10 minutos ya me lo había traído! – I asked him to buy me coffee as soon as he could, and in 10 minutes he brought it to me!
•Ella es un cielo – le pedí que preparara un plan, y, aunque no era urgente, ¡al día siguiente ya lo había hecho! – She’s good as gold. I asked her to prepare a plan, and although it wasn’t urgent, she did it the next day!
•Es un genio – recién le explicaron el problema ¡y al poco rato ya había encontrado la solución! -He’s a genius. He was barely explained to him the problem, how he found a solution right away!
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