Breakdown of Vi a la jirafa al lado del elefante y la escuché masticar.
y
and
ver
to see / to look / appear
escuchar
to listen
del
from the / of the
la
it / her (direct object)
al lado de
next to
masticar
to chew
el elefante
the elephant
la jirafa
the giraffe
a
personal 'a' (marks a human direct object)
Questions & Answers about Vi a la jirafa al lado del elefante y la escuché masticar.
Why is there an a before la jirafa? I thought the personal "a" was only for people.
Why does the sentence use the infinitive masticar instead of the gerund masticando for "chewing"?
With verbs of the senses like escuchar and ver, Spanish heavily prefers using the infinitive rather than the gerund. While la escuché masticando is grammatically okay, la escuché masticar is much more natural and common, even though we translate it as "I heard her chewing" in English.
Why does la go before escuché? Can I attach it to the end of masticar?
No, you cannot attach it to masticar in this structure. When using a perception verb plus an infinitive, the object pronoun (la, representing the giraffe) is tied to the conjugated verb (escuché). Therefore, it must go immediately before it: la escuché masticar.
Just to be sure, why is it del elefante?
This is a mandatory contraction. Whenever the preposition de is followed directly by the masculine article el, they combine into del. So al lado de (next to) plus el elefante becomes al lado del elefante.
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