1

I'm not sure if this question should be added to my my previous question from yesterday or not so fogrive / tell me if that is the case.

In that question I asked if it was always the case that when you have two verbs in a sentence the second one should be in the infinitive form. From which I learned that it was not the case.

One of the answers gave me this useful webpage on clauses. So I was reading the example, the line below.

Tara ate a cheese roll after she watched the news

1.Tara ate a cheese roll is an independent clause. It works as a standalone sentence.

  1. The clause after she watched the news is a dependent clause. It does not work as a standalone sentence.

According to goolge translate (I am aware this is not always accurate) in Spanish the translation is the line below.

Tara comió un rollo de queso después de ver las noticias

Should the "ver" be vio or visto?

Improve this question
1
  • 1
    In English you can say after she watched or after watching. In Spanish it's después de que vio or después de ver. It's basically the same (in this case), though English uses the -ing form in some contexts where Spanish uses the infinitive.
    – pablodf76
    Dec 12, 2017 at 14:45

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1

Curiously the google translation is ok however as you suspected there are cases when you can use vio or visto but the meanings are different and you have to add some things for the sentence to make sense.

I'll give you the following examples

Tara comió un rollo de queso y después vio las noticias.
Tara comió un rollo de queso , después vio las noticias.

These two sentences translate to:

Tara ate a cheese roll and after (that) she watched the news
Tara ate a cheese roll and afterwards she watched the news

So she ate and at a later time watched the news.

Tara comió un rollo de queso y vio las noticias.

Now this means.

Tara ate a cheese roll and watched the news.

In this example both actions are in the past but both happened probably at the same time.

Tara comió un rollo de queso, después de haber visto las noticias.

And this translates to:

Tara ate a cheese roll after having watched the news

Here she first watched the news and then ate.

I know this doesn't really answer when to use infinitive but it gives you and idea of when to use the other two conjugations and it's too long to be a comment :-)

Improve this answer
5
  • 1
    thanks that is helpful actually, understand there isn't always a clear and cut rule. Tricky old things languages!
    – mHelpMe
    Dec 12, 2017 at 14:26
  • Actually después de ver las noticias would work fine as well, wouldn't it? In any case it would use an infinitive.
    – pablodf76
    Dec 12, 2017 at 14:44
  • Thanks @pablodf76 I did not include that because it was what google gave him.
    – DGaleano
    Dec 12, 2017 at 14:48
  • While a useful answer, i dont see why this should be accepted. It doesn't answer the question...
    – Brian H.
    Dec 13, 2017 at 10:28
  • @BrianH. I agree and said exactly that but if the OP feels it is the answer he is looking for he is free to accept it. If you or somebody else have a better answer the OP can change his mind and accept that other answer. In the mean time it is what it is.
    – DGaleano
    Dec 13, 2017 at 14:28

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.