Breakdown of Cuando nazca el bebé, vamos a visitar a la familia.
la familia
the family
ir
to go
visitar
to visit
el bebé
the baby
cuando
when (statement)
nacer
to be born
a
personal 'a' (marks a human direct object)
Questions & Answers about Cuando nazca el bebé, vamos a visitar a la familia.
Why does this sentence use nazca instead of nace?
Nazca is the present subjunctive form of nacer (to be born). When we use cuando (when) to talk about an action that hasn't happened yet, Spanish requires the subjunctive. Since the baby isn't born yet, we use nazca!
Why does nacer change to nazca with a 'z'?
Verbs ending in -cer (like nacer or conocer) change their c to zc in the 'I' form of the normal present tense (yo nazco). The present subjunctive is built from that 'I' form, so the zc spelling carries over to all the subjunctive forms: nazca, nazcas, nazcamos, etc.
Why is the subject (el bebé) placed after the verb (nazca)?
Why is there an a before la familia?
This is a great reminder of the 'personal a'. Whenever the direct object of an action is a person, a pet, or a specific group of people (like la familia), you must put an a right before it. Here, the family is receiving the action of being visited.
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