Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Explaining Explain


Yes, I need to explain this. Explain is a tough word for Spanish speakers. It trips up even the most advanced of speakers.

I see this type of sentence a lot:

Incorrect: They can explain us what sources to use.

Correct: They can explain what sources to use.

Incorrect: Can you explain me this?

Correct: Can you explain this (to me)?

Fortunately, the mistake is very easy to fix!

The structure is ALWAYS:

explain + direct object (explain what?)

And the indirect object is often optional:

explain + direct object (explain what?) + indirect object (to whom?)

There are more verbs like this as well. I found some more examples here:

Existe un grupo de verbos ditransitivos que solamente permiten la configuraciĆ³n Complemento directo seguido por el complemento indirecto: donate, push, carry, explain, suggest, describe, take.

donate money to the museum (y no: donate the museum money)

carry the baby to the doctor (y no: carry the doctor the baby)

suggest a good restaurant to me (y no: suggest me a good restaurant)

explain your decision to the director (y no: explain the director your decision)

describe your friend to us (y no: describe us your friend)

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