Breakdown of Como el contador no justifique la declaración, la empresa pierde dinero.
no
no, not
el dinero
money
perder
to lose
la empresa
company
como
if (as a warning/threat)
el contador
accountant
justificar
to justify
la declaración
tax return
Questions & Answers about Como el contador no justifique la declaración, la empresa pierde dinero.
Why is the sentence using como instead of si to mean 'if'?
In Spanish, starting a sentence with como followed by the subjunctive is a common way to give a warning or make a threat. It means 'If this happens, a bad consequence will follow'. Using si would just be a neutral condition, but como adds a strict tone of warning: 'He had better justify it, or else...'.
Why is justifique in the subjunctive here?
The word como triggers the subjunctive when it is used to express a threatening or warning condition. Since the warning is about a current or future action, we use the present subjunctive (justifique) rather than the normal present tense (justifica).
Why is justifique spelled with a qu instead of a c?
The verb is justificar. To form the present subjunctive, you usually take the present tense 'yo' form (justifico), drop the 'o', and add the opposite ending 'e'. However, if you wrote justifice, the 'c' before an 'e' would sound like an 's'. To keep the hard 'k' sound of the original verb, Spanish spelling rules require changing the 'c' to qu, giving us justifique.
Does declaración mean 'return' like returning an item to a store?
No, here it refers to a financial or tax document. Because the sentence mentions an accountant (contador), declaración is short for declaración de impuestos (tax return). To talk about returning a physical item to a store, you would use a word like devolución.
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