Confused about a passage in Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal The Next CEO of Stack OverflowWhy is subjunctive used when talking about a fact?Using “qué” or “quién” when talking about peopleSer vs estar in sentences about compositionSome questions about Spanish tenses and sentence structure“No es culpa mía (de) que …”Talking about headaches in SpanishUsing “lo que” or “que” as the relative pronounHow do you use Alguno and its other forms correctly?The proper use of le as the indirect pronounWhy is subjunctive used when talking about a fact?Speaking about body parts in Spanish

What do "high sea" and "carry" mean in this sentence?

Why here is plural "We went to the movies last night."

How to start emacs in "nothing" mode (`fundamental-mode`)

Can the Reverse Gravity spell affect the Meteor Swarm spell?

Too much space between section and text in a twocolumn document

What does this shorthand mean?

Does it take more energy to get to Venus or to Mars?

Where to find order of arguments for default functions

I believe this to be a fraud - hired, then asked to cash check and send cash as Bitcoin

Why is there a PLL in CPU?

How to count occurrences of text in a file?

Solution of this Diophantine Equation

Grabbing quick drinks

What is the difference between "behavior" and "behaviour"?

How to write the block matrix in LaTex?

MAZDA 3 2006 (UK) - poor acceleration then takes off at 3250 revs

Any way to transfer all permissions from one role to another?

What is the point of a new vote on May's deal when the indicative votes suggest she will not win?

Explicit solution of a Hamiltonian system

How do I go from 300 unfinished/half written blog posts, to published posts?

Is HostGator storing my password in plaintext?

Why did we only see the N-1 starfighters in one film?

How to use tikz in fbox?

What makes a siege story/plot interesting?



Confused about a passage in Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal



The Next CEO of Stack OverflowWhy is subjunctive used when talking about a fact?Using “qué” or “quién” when talking about peopleSer vs estar in sentences about compositionSome questions about Spanish tenses and sentence structure“No es culpa mía (de) que …”Talking about headaches in SpanishUsing “lo que” or “que” as the relative pronounHow do you use Alguno and its other forms correctly?The proper use of le as the indirect pronounWhy is subjunctive used when talking about a fact?Speaking about body parts in Spanish










4















I'm reading Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal, and I'm a bit confused about how this passage works gramatically:




La profesora McGonagall los observó mientras convertían un raton en
una caja de rapé. Sumaba puntos la belleza de las cajas, pero los
restaba que tuvieran bigotes.




First, is Professor McGonagall the implied subject of sumaba? If so, how does la belleza de las cajas fit in? I would have though you'd need a preposition in there, something like sumaba puntos por la belleza de las cajas.



And finally, I'm confused about how que tuvieran bigotes works; I again would have thought you'd need a preposition, e.g. something like los restaba por las (cajas) que tuvieran bigotes.



Gracias!










share|improve this question


























    4















    I'm reading Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal, and I'm a bit confused about how this passage works gramatically:




    La profesora McGonagall los observó mientras convertían un raton en
    una caja de rapé. Sumaba puntos la belleza de las cajas, pero los
    restaba que tuvieran bigotes.




    First, is Professor McGonagall the implied subject of sumaba? If so, how does la belleza de las cajas fit in? I would have though you'd need a preposition in there, something like sumaba puntos por la belleza de las cajas.



    And finally, I'm confused about how que tuvieran bigotes works; I again would have thought you'd need a preposition, e.g. something like los restaba por las (cajas) que tuvieran bigotes.



    Gracias!










    share|improve this question
























      4












      4








      4








      I'm reading Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal, and I'm a bit confused about how this passage works gramatically:




      La profesora McGonagall los observó mientras convertían un raton en
      una caja de rapé. Sumaba puntos la belleza de las cajas, pero los
      restaba que tuvieran bigotes.




      First, is Professor McGonagall the implied subject of sumaba? If so, how does la belleza de las cajas fit in? I would have though you'd need a preposition in there, something like sumaba puntos por la belleza de las cajas.



      And finally, I'm confused about how que tuvieran bigotes works; I again would have thought you'd need a preposition, e.g. something like los restaba por las (cajas) que tuvieran bigotes.



      Gracias!










      share|improve this question














      I'm reading Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal, and I'm a bit confused about how this passage works gramatically:




      La profesora McGonagall los observó mientras convertían un raton en
      una caja de rapé. Sumaba puntos la belleza de las cajas, pero los
      restaba que tuvieran bigotes.




      First, is Professor McGonagall the implied subject of sumaba? If so, how does la belleza de las cajas fit in? I would have though you'd need a preposition in there, something like sumaba puntos por la belleza de las cajas.



      And finally, I'm confused about how que tuvieran bigotes works; I again would have thought you'd need a preposition, e.g. something like los restaba por las (cajas) que tuvieran bigotes.



      Gracias!







      gramática






      share|improve this question













      share|improve this question











      share|improve this question




      share|improve this question










      asked 2 days ago









      Alan O'DonnellAlan O'Donnell

      1433




      1433




















          3 Answers
          3






          active

          oldest

          votes


















          10














          The sentence:




          Sumaba puntos la belleza de las cajas, pero los restaba que tuvieran bigotes.




          is perfect as is, and I wouldn’t go so far as to criticize the translation.



          The first part of the sentence is a case of subject/predicate inversion, and is to be understood as follows:




          La belleza de las cajas (subject) sumaba puntos (predicate).




          This inversion is very usual in Spanish.



          In the second part of the sentence, we find a nominal clause as subject, and in this case inversion is not mandatory but convenient:




          Que tuvieran bigotes (subject) los restaba (predicate).




          The sentence is fine as stated because reference is being made to the rules by which the students would be assessed, and by omitting “the teacher” the rules sound more impersonal and objective. This would be a literal translation:



          • The beauty of the boxes added points, but the fact that they had whiskers subtracted them.

          The original is in the passive form, which is in line with the idea that some impersonality was meant to be assigned to the sentence:



          Points were given for how pretty the snuffbox was, but taken away if it had whiskers.






          share|improve this answer




















          • 1





            Ah, very helpful, I hadn't realized you could use que like that in Spanish to use a nominal clause as a subject (although coming from French, it makes sense). For future reference, one of your other answers was related and helpful too: spanish.stackexchange.com/questions/25679/…

            – Alan O'Donnell
            2 days ago


















          7














          Based on the comment OP made in a different question ("I understand what the passage means, I'm just confused about how the Spanish grammar works"), I propose another way of analyzing the second sentence. To me it's clear that this is neither an impersonal sentence nor is the subject implicit.



          The sentence consists of two propositions coordinated by the conjunction pero:



          1. sumaba puntos la belleza de las cajas

          2. los restaba que tuvieran bigotes

          In (1) the subject is «la belleza de las cajas». It's after the verb instead of before, but that's not unusual in Spanish. What this proposition means is that "the beauty of the boxes added points", i.e. when there was beauty in the boxes, that beauty counted for more points. Puntos is the direct object of sumaba.



          In (2) we have a plural 3rd person pronoun, los, which stands for puntos and is the direct object of the verb restaba. The subject in this proposition is the subordinate phrase «que tuvieran bigotes». That is: "that they had whiskers (or "having whiskers") subtracted them (=points)".



          "Normalizing" and making everything explicit, this would be




          La belleza de las cajas sumaba puntos, pero que tuvieran bigotes los restaba.







          share|improve this answer






























            0














            Basically, it is saying the following:




            The professor awarded points to the students based on the beauty of their boxes
            and took off points if the boxes had whiskers (imagine a mouse's whiskers...)




            And for the following:




            los restaba que tuvieran bigotes




            First of all, "los" refers to the points and not the boxes, so using las is inappropriate in this case. It's already clear what he is taking the points off for (the boxes) so it is unnecessary to repeat it. No other prepositions are needed to clarify in Spanish, though from an English perspective, it is a different way of employing language.






            share|improve this answer




















            • 1





              Sorry, I should have been clearer—I understand what the passage means, I'm just confused about how the Spanish grammar works.

              – Alan O'Donnell
              2 days ago











            Your Answer








            StackExchange.ready(function()
            var channelOptions =
            tags: "".split(" "),
            id: "353"
            ;
            initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);

            StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function()
            // Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
            if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled)
            StackExchange.using("snippets", function()
            createEditor();
            );

            else
            createEditor();

            );

            function createEditor()
            StackExchange.prepareEditor(
            heartbeatType: 'answer',
            autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
            convertImagesToLinks: false,
            noModals: true,
            showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
            reputationToPostImages: null,
            bindNavPrevention: true,
            postfix: "",
            imageUploader:
            brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
            contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
            allowUrls: true
            ,
            noCode: true, onDemand: true,
            discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
            ,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
            );



            );













            draft saved

            draft discarded


















            StackExchange.ready(
            function ()
            StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fspanish.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f28961%2fconfused-about-a-passage-in-harry-potter-y-la-piedra-filosofal%23new-answer', 'question_page');

            );

            Post as a guest















            Required, but never shown

























            3 Answers
            3






            active

            oldest

            votes








            3 Answers
            3






            active

            oldest

            votes









            active

            oldest

            votes






            active

            oldest

            votes









            10














            The sentence:




            Sumaba puntos la belleza de las cajas, pero los restaba que tuvieran bigotes.




            is perfect as is, and I wouldn’t go so far as to criticize the translation.



            The first part of the sentence is a case of subject/predicate inversion, and is to be understood as follows:




            La belleza de las cajas (subject) sumaba puntos (predicate).




            This inversion is very usual in Spanish.



            In the second part of the sentence, we find a nominal clause as subject, and in this case inversion is not mandatory but convenient:




            Que tuvieran bigotes (subject) los restaba (predicate).




            The sentence is fine as stated because reference is being made to the rules by which the students would be assessed, and by omitting “the teacher” the rules sound more impersonal and objective. This would be a literal translation:



            • The beauty of the boxes added points, but the fact that they had whiskers subtracted them.

            The original is in the passive form, which is in line with the idea that some impersonality was meant to be assigned to the sentence:



            Points were given for how pretty the snuffbox was, but taken away if it had whiskers.






            share|improve this answer




















            • 1





              Ah, very helpful, I hadn't realized you could use que like that in Spanish to use a nominal clause as a subject (although coming from French, it makes sense). For future reference, one of your other answers was related and helpful too: spanish.stackexchange.com/questions/25679/…

              – Alan O'Donnell
              2 days ago















            10














            The sentence:




            Sumaba puntos la belleza de las cajas, pero los restaba que tuvieran bigotes.




            is perfect as is, and I wouldn’t go so far as to criticize the translation.



            The first part of the sentence is a case of subject/predicate inversion, and is to be understood as follows:




            La belleza de las cajas (subject) sumaba puntos (predicate).




            This inversion is very usual in Spanish.



            In the second part of the sentence, we find a nominal clause as subject, and in this case inversion is not mandatory but convenient:




            Que tuvieran bigotes (subject) los restaba (predicate).




            The sentence is fine as stated because reference is being made to the rules by which the students would be assessed, and by omitting “the teacher” the rules sound more impersonal and objective. This would be a literal translation:



            • The beauty of the boxes added points, but the fact that they had whiskers subtracted them.

            The original is in the passive form, which is in line with the idea that some impersonality was meant to be assigned to the sentence:



            Points were given for how pretty the snuffbox was, but taken away if it had whiskers.






            share|improve this answer




















            • 1





              Ah, very helpful, I hadn't realized you could use que like that in Spanish to use a nominal clause as a subject (although coming from French, it makes sense). For future reference, one of your other answers was related and helpful too: spanish.stackexchange.com/questions/25679/…

              – Alan O'Donnell
              2 days ago













            10












            10








            10







            The sentence:




            Sumaba puntos la belleza de las cajas, pero los restaba que tuvieran bigotes.




            is perfect as is, and I wouldn’t go so far as to criticize the translation.



            The first part of the sentence is a case of subject/predicate inversion, and is to be understood as follows:




            La belleza de las cajas (subject) sumaba puntos (predicate).




            This inversion is very usual in Spanish.



            In the second part of the sentence, we find a nominal clause as subject, and in this case inversion is not mandatory but convenient:




            Que tuvieran bigotes (subject) los restaba (predicate).




            The sentence is fine as stated because reference is being made to the rules by which the students would be assessed, and by omitting “the teacher” the rules sound more impersonal and objective. This would be a literal translation:



            • The beauty of the boxes added points, but the fact that they had whiskers subtracted them.

            The original is in the passive form, which is in line with the idea that some impersonality was meant to be assigned to the sentence:



            Points were given for how pretty the snuffbox was, but taken away if it had whiskers.






            share|improve this answer















            The sentence:




            Sumaba puntos la belleza de las cajas, pero los restaba que tuvieran bigotes.




            is perfect as is, and I wouldn’t go so far as to criticize the translation.



            The first part of the sentence is a case of subject/predicate inversion, and is to be understood as follows:




            La belleza de las cajas (subject) sumaba puntos (predicate).




            This inversion is very usual in Spanish.



            In the second part of the sentence, we find a nominal clause as subject, and in this case inversion is not mandatory but convenient:




            Que tuvieran bigotes (subject) los restaba (predicate).




            The sentence is fine as stated because reference is being made to the rules by which the students would be assessed, and by omitting “the teacher” the rules sound more impersonal and objective. This would be a literal translation:



            • The beauty of the boxes added points, but the fact that they had whiskers subtracted them.

            The original is in the passive form, which is in line with the idea that some impersonality was meant to be assigned to the sentence:



            Points were given for how pretty the snuffbox was, but taken away if it had whiskers.







            share|improve this answer














            share|improve this answer



            share|improve this answer








            edited 2 days ago

























            answered 2 days ago









            GustavsonGustavson

            9,2061829




            9,2061829







            • 1





              Ah, very helpful, I hadn't realized you could use que like that in Spanish to use a nominal clause as a subject (although coming from French, it makes sense). For future reference, one of your other answers was related and helpful too: spanish.stackexchange.com/questions/25679/…

              – Alan O'Donnell
              2 days ago












            • 1





              Ah, very helpful, I hadn't realized you could use que like that in Spanish to use a nominal clause as a subject (although coming from French, it makes sense). For future reference, one of your other answers was related and helpful too: spanish.stackexchange.com/questions/25679/…

              – Alan O'Donnell
              2 days ago







            1




            1





            Ah, very helpful, I hadn't realized you could use que like that in Spanish to use a nominal clause as a subject (although coming from French, it makes sense). For future reference, one of your other answers was related and helpful too: spanish.stackexchange.com/questions/25679/…

            – Alan O'Donnell
            2 days ago





            Ah, very helpful, I hadn't realized you could use que like that in Spanish to use a nominal clause as a subject (although coming from French, it makes sense). For future reference, one of your other answers was related and helpful too: spanish.stackexchange.com/questions/25679/…

            – Alan O'Donnell
            2 days ago











            7














            Based on the comment OP made in a different question ("I understand what the passage means, I'm just confused about how the Spanish grammar works"), I propose another way of analyzing the second sentence. To me it's clear that this is neither an impersonal sentence nor is the subject implicit.



            The sentence consists of two propositions coordinated by the conjunction pero:



            1. sumaba puntos la belleza de las cajas

            2. los restaba que tuvieran bigotes

            In (1) the subject is «la belleza de las cajas». It's after the verb instead of before, but that's not unusual in Spanish. What this proposition means is that "the beauty of the boxes added points", i.e. when there was beauty in the boxes, that beauty counted for more points. Puntos is the direct object of sumaba.



            In (2) we have a plural 3rd person pronoun, los, which stands for puntos and is the direct object of the verb restaba. The subject in this proposition is the subordinate phrase «que tuvieran bigotes». That is: "that they had whiskers (or "having whiskers") subtracted them (=points)".



            "Normalizing" and making everything explicit, this would be




            La belleza de las cajas sumaba puntos, pero que tuvieran bigotes los restaba.







            share|improve this answer



























              7














              Based on the comment OP made in a different question ("I understand what the passage means, I'm just confused about how the Spanish grammar works"), I propose another way of analyzing the second sentence. To me it's clear that this is neither an impersonal sentence nor is the subject implicit.



              The sentence consists of two propositions coordinated by the conjunction pero:



              1. sumaba puntos la belleza de las cajas

              2. los restaba que tuvieran bigotes

              In (1) the subject is «la belleza de las cajas». It's after the verb instead of before, but that's not unusual in Spanish. What this proposition means is that "the beauty of the boxes added points", i.e. when there was beauty in the boxes, that beauty counted for more points. Puntos is the direct object of sumaba.



              In (2) we have a plural 3rd person pronoun, los, which stands for puntos and is the direct object of the verb restaba. The subject in this proposition is the subordinate phrase «que tuvieran bigotes». That is: "that they had whiskers (or "having whiskers") subtracted them (=points)".



              "Normalizing" and making everything explicit, this would be




              La belleza de las cajas sumaba puntos, pero que tuvieran bigotes los restaba.







              share|improve this answer

























                7












                7








                7







                Based on the comment OP made in a different question ("I understand what the passage means, I'm just confused about how the Spanish grammar works"), I propose another way of analyzing the second sentence. To me it's clear that this is neither an impersonal sentence nor is the subject implicit.



                The sentence consists of two propositions coordinated by the conjunction pero:



                1. sumaba puntos la belleza de las cajas

                2. los restaba que tuvieran bigotes

                In (1) the subject is «la belleza de las cajas». It's after the verb instead of before, but that's not unusual in Spanish. What this proposition means is that "the beauty of the boxes added points", i.e. when there was beauty in the boxes, that beauty counted for more points. Puntos is the direct object of sumaba.



                In (2) we have a plural 3rd person pronoun, los, which stands for puntos and is the direct object of the verb restaba. The subject in this proposition is the subordinate phrase «que tuvieran bigotes». That is: "that they had whiskers (or "having whiskers") subtracted them (=points)".



                "Normalizing" and making everything explicit, this would be




                La belleza de las cajas sumaba puntos, pero que tuvieran bigotes los restaba.







                share|improve this answer













                Based on the comment OP made in a different question ("I understand what the passage means, I'm just confused about how the Spanish grammar works"), I propose another way of analyzing the second sentence. To me it's clear that this is neither an impersonal sentence nor is the subject implicit.



                The sentence consists of two propositions coordinated by the conjunction pero:



                1. sumaba puntos la belleza de las cajas

                2. los restaba que tuvieran bigotes

                In (1) the subject is «la belleza de las cajas». It's after the verb instead of before, but that's not unusual in Spanish. What this proposition means is that "the beauty of the boxes added points", i.e. when there was beauty in the boxes, that beauty counted for more points. Puntos is the direct object of sumaba.



                In (2) we have a plural 3rd person pronoun, los, which stands for puntos and is the direct object of the verb restaba. The subject in this proposition is the subordinate phrase «que tuvieran bigotes». That is: "that they had whiskers (or "having whiskers") subtracted them (=points)".



                "Normalizing" and making everything explicit, this would be




                La belleza de las cajas sumaba puntos, pero que tuvieran bigotes los restaba.








                share|improve this answer












                share|improve this answer



                share|improve this answer










                answered 2 days ago









                pablodf76pablodf76

                22.1k11467




                22.1k11467





















                    0














                    Basically, it is saying the following:




                    The professor awarded points to the students based on the beauty of their boxes
                    and took off points if the boxes had whiskers (imagine a mouse's whiskers...)




                    And for the following:




                    los restaba que tuvieran bigotes




                    First of all, "los" refers to the points and not the boxes, so using las is inappropriate in this case. It's already clear what he is taking the points off for (the boxes) so it is unnecessary to repeat it. No other prepositions are needed to clarify in Spanish, though from an English perspective, it is a different way of employing language.






                    share|improve this answer




















                    • 1





                      Sorry, I should have been clearer—I understand what the passage means, I'm just confused about how the Spanish grammar works.

                      – Alan O'Donnell
                      2 days ago















                    0














                    Basically, it is saying the following:




                    The professor awarded points to the students based on the beauty of their boxes
                    and took off points if the boxes had whiskers (imagine a mouse's whiskers...)




                    And for the following:




                    los restaba que tuvieran bigotes




                    First of all, "los" refers to the points and not the boxes, so using las is inappropriate in this case. It's already clear what he is taking the points off for (the boxes) so it is unnecessary to repeat it. No other prepositions are needed to clarify in Spanish, though from an English perspective, it is a different way of employing language.






                    share|improve this answer




















                    • 1





                      Sorry, I should have been clearer—I understand what the passage means, I'm just confused about how the Spanish grammar works.

                      – Alan O'Donnell
                      2 days ago













                    0












                    0








                    0







                    Basically, it is saying the following:




                    The professor awarded points to the students based on the beauty of their boxes
                    and took off points if the boxes had whiskers (imagine a mouse's whiskers...)




                    And for the following:




                    los restaba que tuvieran bigotes




                    First of all, "los" refers to the points and not the boxes, so using las is inappropriate in this case. It's already clear what he is taking the points off for (the boxes) so it is unnecessary to repeat it. No other prepositions are needed to clarify in Spanish, though from an English perspective, it is a different way of employing language.






                    share|improve this answer















                    Basically, it is saying the following:




                    The professor awarded points to the students based on the beauty of their boxes
                    and took off points if the boxes had whiskers (imagine a mouse's whiskers...)




                    And for the following:




                    los restaba que tuvieran bigotes




                    First of all, "los" refers to the points and not the boxes, so using las is inappropriate in this case. It's already clear what he is taking the points off for (the boxes) so it is unnecessary to repeat it. No other prepositions are needed to clarify in Spanish, though from an English perspective, it is a different way of employing language.







                    share|improve this answer














                    share|improve this answer



                    share|improve this answer








                    edited 2 days ago

























                    answered 2 days ago









                    KarlomanioKarlomanio

                    41529




                    41529







                    • 1





                      Sorry, I should have been clearer—I understand what the passage means, I'm just confused about how the Spanish grammar works.

                      – Alan O'Donnell
                      2 days ago












                    • 1





                      Sorry, I should have been clearer—I understand what the passage means, I'm just confused about how the Spanish grammar works.

                      – Alan O'Donnell
                      2 days ago







                    1




                    1





                    Sorry, I should have been clearer—I understand what the passage means, I'm just confused about how the Spanish grammar works.

                    – Alan O'Donnell
                    2 days ago





                    Sorry, I should have been clearer—I understand what the passage means, I'm just confused about how the Spanish grammar works.

                    – Alan O'Donnell
                    2 days ago

















                    draft saved

                    draft discarded
















































                    Thanks for contributing an answer to Spanish Language Stack Exchange!


                    • Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!

                    But avoid


                    • Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.

                    • Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.

                    To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.




                    draft saved


                    draft discarded














                    StackExchange.ready(
                    function ()
                    StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fspanish.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f28961%2fconfused-about-a-passage-in-harry-potter-y-la-piedra-filosofal%23new-answer', 'question_page');

                    );

                    Post as a guest















                    Required, but never shown





















































                    Required, but never shown














                    Required, but never shown












                    Required, but never shown







                    Required, but never shown

































                    Required, but never shown














                    Required, but never shown












                    Required, but never shown







                    Required, but never shown







                    Popular posts from this blog

                    Sum ergo cogito? 1 nng

                    三茅街道4182Guuntc Dn precexpngmageondP