Breakdown of ¿Sigues sin llamar al electricista por los focos?
llamar
to call / to attract (attention)
por
for / by / through / in/during (part of the day)
seguir
to continue
sin
without
el electricista
electrician
el foco
lightbulb
a
personal 'a' (marks a human direct object)
Questions & Answers about ¿Sigues sin llamar al electricista por los focos?
Why is it sin llamar instead of no llamando if the English translation says "not calling"?
In Spanish, to express that you are "still not" doing something, you must use the structure seguir + sin + infinitive. Even though English uses the "-ing" form ("still not calling"), Spanish uses sin llamar. You cannot use no + gerund with the verb seguir.
Why do we use por here to mean "about"? Wouldn't sobre make more sense?
Does al electricista use the personal a?
Electricista ends in the letter a, so why are we using the masculine contraction al?
Professions ending in -ista (like dentista, artista, and electricista) are invariable, meaning the word itself doesn't change based on gender. To specify a male electrician, you use the masculine article el, which combines with a to make al. For a female electrician, it would simply be a la electricista.
Is focos the standard word for lightbulbs?
In most of Latin America, foco is the most common word for a standard household lightbulb. If you consume media from Spain, however, you will likely hear bombilla instead.
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