Breakdown of Llevamos las cosas manejando el montacargas.
manejar
to drive
llevar
to take (carry, transport)
la cosa
thing
el montacargas
forklift
Questions & Answers about Llevamos las cosas manejando el montacargas.
How does manejando work here without a word for 'by'?
In English, we often say 'by driving' to explain the method used to do something. In Spanish, you don't need a preposition like 'por' or 'con' here. You just use the gerund (-ando or -iendo form) entirely on its own. Here, manejando acts as an adverb meaning 'by driving' or 'by operating'.
Why is it el montacargas with a singular 'el' if the word ends in 's'?
Montacargas (forklift) is a compound noun made from monta (hoists) and cargas (loads). In Spanish, compound words formed this way are masculine and always end in 's', even when you are only talking about a single item. Other common examples you might know are el paraguas (umbrella) and el abrelatas (can opener).
Does manejar just mean 'to drive' a car?
While it is the most common word for driving a car in Latin America, manejar also broadly means 'to operate' machinery or equipment, like a forklift here. It can even mean 'to manage' a business or a situation.
Could Llevamos mean 'we carried' in the past tense here?
Yes! For regular '-ar' verbs like llevar, the 'we' form is exactly the same in both the present tense (llevamos = we carry) and the preterite past tense (llevamos = we carried). You have to rely on the surrounding context of the conversation to know exactly when the action happened.
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