Breakdown of Me molesta que subrayes la portada.
que
that / than
me
to me / me (direct object)
molestar
to bother
subrayar
to underline
la portada
the cover
Questions & Answers about Me molesta que subrayes la portada.
Why do we use the subjunctive subrayes instead of an infinitive here?
We use the subjunctive because there is a change of subject after a verb of emotion. It bothers me (first person) that you underline (second person). If there were no change of subject, you would just use the infinitive. For example: Me molesta subrayar la portada means It bothers me to underline the cover.
Since the current lesson is about causal clauses, could I use por + infinitive here instead of que?
You can only use por + infinitive when the subject remains the same. Because this sentence involves two different people, you must use que + the subjunctive. If you were annoyed at your own actions, you could use the reflexive verb molestarse with por: Me molesto por subrayar la portada (I get annoyed because of underlining the cover).
Why is it Me molesta instead of Yo molesto?
The verb molestar works structurally just like gustar. The person experiencing the emotion receives an indirect object pronoun (me), and the thing causing the emotion is the grammatical subject. Literally, the sentence is structured as: That you underline the cover is bothersome to me.
Does portada only mean the cover of a book?
While it most commonly refers to the front cover of a book, magazine, or notebook, portada is also widely used to mean the front page of a newspaper or the main homepage of a website.
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