Es fácil cometer un error cuando hablamos rápido.

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Breakdown of Es fácil cometer un error cuando hablamos rápido.

• ser: to be
• cuando: when
• nosotros: we

Questions & Answers about Es fácil cometer un error cuando hablamos rápido.

In Es fácil cometer un error, what is the grammatical subject? It starts with Es, so where is the “it”?

Spanish often uses an impersonal structure where English uses “it is + adjective + to…”.

• In Es fácil cometer un error, the logical subject is the infinitive phrase:
  cometer un error = to make/commit a mistake
• Literally: Cometer un error es fácil (To make a mistake is easy), but Spanish usually prefers the impersonal order:
  Es fácil cometer un error (It is easy to make a mistake).
• There is no separate word for “it” here. Spanish doesn’t need a dummy subject the way English does.
• Es just agrees with the understood subject phrase cometer un error (which is grammatically singular and abstract).

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Why is cometer used here and not hacer? In English we say “make a mistake”.