Questions & Answers about La banda es mediocre y, encima, el cantante está desafinado.
How does encima change the meaning compared to just using y?
While y simply links two facts together, adding encima emphasizes that the second fact makes the situation even worse or more extreme. Literally meaning 'on top', here it translates to 'on top of that' or 'to make matters worse'. Could I use es más instead of encima in this sentence?
Yes, you could use es más (what is more), but it slightly changes the tone. es más simply adds escalating information that can be positive or negative. However, encima is very frequently used when complaining or stacking negative annoyances, which fits this sentence perfectly. Why do we use es for the band but está for the singer?
This is a great example of the difference between ser and estar. We use es (from ser) for mediocre because the band's overall quality is a defining characteristic. We use está (from estar) for desafinado because being out of tune is a temporary state happening during this specific performance. What does the word desafinado literally mean?
It comes from the word afinado (in tune), combined with the negative prefix des- (meaning un- or out of). You can use desafinado to describe both a singer and a musical instrument, like a piano, that is currently out of tune. Learn La banda es mediocre y, encima, el cantante está desafinado and more in Spanish
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