A friend is trying to refresh her Spanish skills, has gotten some vocab & grammar books & is struggling through. She needs help with this phrase- esp the beginning “Day ella…” Thanks to any who can help us. (Btw, this was over the phone so I assume the first word is “Day” and not “De”).
Day ella parton los principales calles.
OR
De ella parton los principales calles.
I just talked with her & here is the corrected version-
De ella parten las principales calles.
Did you run it through Babelfish?
Babel Fish Translation
In English:
From her they leave the main streets.
Does that help?
Babelfish is almost always wrong. If you are concerned about an accurate translation, it is nearly useless.
It is impossible to give a definite translation without more context. However, the most likely translation is something like “From there [some location or landmark] the main streets take off [start, radiate out].” “Ella” is a pronoun referring to some feminine noun, such as “plaza.”
Thanks, but my friend is wondering if a Spanish sentence would start out with a prepositional phrase like “De ella…”
Sure, about as common as in English. Although for that particular construction, I’d guess that “de alla” or “de alli” (with proper accents) would be more common?
Anything refering to a feminine noun:
De ella son los lapices.
The pencils are hers.
De ella se espera mucho.
Much is expected from her.
De ella es la paella.
The paella is hers.
What they said. (I am still having an idiot’s laugh at lalenin’s last example). Especially Colibri’s answer. That form is not only perfectly valid but also fairly common.
That’s the impression I got, but it’s been 20+ years since 5th year Spanish.
“Ella” certainly sounds like a place to me: “la plaza”, like Colibri said, or “la biblioteca” (the library), “la libreria” (the bookstore), “la café” (the coffeehouse/cafeteria), etc. And yeah, it sounds perfectly natural.
Am I the only person who would do it las calles principales?
De ella parten las calles principales.
What is ‘‘ella’’ referring to?
Depends what you want to stress: “Negra Modelo” versus “Modelo Especial” for example. I’d normally do it your way, though. In either case, though las in lieu of los.
Sometimes it’s used in a poetic form as in it is emphasizing the beauty an/or greatness of whatever particular thing is being talked about. So. For example, if the writer is talking about a monument or main city plaza, the writer is emphasizing the centrality and grandness of that plaza or monument.