Learn Hardcore Spanish (Spain): Falta una retención, de ahí que revisemos el cálculo. - A withholding is missing, which is why we check the calculation.

Falta una retención, de ahí que revisemos el cálculo.

A withholding is missing, which is why we check the calculation.

Breakdown of Falta una retención, de ahí que revisemos el cálculo.

Questions & Answers about Falta una retención, de ahí que revisemos el cálculo.

What does falta mean here, and why is it singular?

Here falta comes from faltar, which often means to be missing or to be lacking.

So:

Falta una retención = A withholding/deduction is missing / There is a missing withholding item

It is singular because the thing that is missing is una retención, which is singular. In Spanish, the verb agrees with the thing that is missing:

Falta una retención = one item is missing
Faltan dos retenciones = two items are missing

This is a very common pattern in Spanish.

Why doesn’t Spanish say something more like Estamos perdiendo una retención?

Because faltar is the natural verb when something is absent from a list, document, calculation, file, etc.

Spanish often uses faltar where English uses expressions like:

to be missing
to be absent
to be lacking

So Falta una retención sounds natural for A withholding item is missing.
Estamos perdiendo... would usually mean we are losing..., which is a different idea.

What exactly does retención mean here?