Tant si és defectuós com si està danyat, retorna'l.

to be

Breakdown of Tant si és defectuós com si està danyat, retorna'l.

• estar: to be
• defectuós: defective
• danyat: damaged

Questions & Answers about Tant si és defectuós com si està danyat, retorna'l.

What does tant si ... com si ... mean?

It is a fixed Catalan pattern meaning whether ... or ... or regardless of whether .... It presents two alternatives and says the main result is the same in either case. Here, the instruction is the same in both situations: return it.

Why is si repeated twice?

Because tant si ... com si ... is a correlative structure: both halves need si. Literally, it works like whether if ... or if ..., even though that sounds unnatural in English. In Catalan, this repetition is normal and expected in this pattern.

Does com si here mean as if?

No. On its own, com si can mean as if, but not in this sentence. Here it is part of the fixed expression tant si ... com si ..., which means whether ... or .... So you should understand the whole chunk together, not word by word.

Where is the word for it in és defectuós and està danyat?

Catalan often leaves out subject pronouns when they are understood from context. So there is no separate word for English it here. The verbs és and està already show that the subject is third person singular, and the context tells you what object is being talked about. This is very normal in Catalan.