Breakdown of Dejemos de triturar; es ahora cuando debemos leerlos.
ser
to be
de
from / of
leer
to read
ahora
now
deber
must / should
dejar
to stop / to leave (something behind)
cuando
when (statement)
los
them (masculine direct object)
triturar
to shred
Questions & Answers about Dejemos de triturar; es ahora cuando debemos leerlos.
Why say es ahora cuando instead of just debemos leerlos ahora?
This is a cleft sentence, used to add strong emphasis. While debemos leerlos ahora just means 'we must read them now,' es ahora cuando... singles out the timing: 'it is now when we must read them.' You put the spotlight on the time by sandwiching ahora between the conjugated verb es and the relative adverb cuando.
Can I use que instead of cuando here, as in es ahora que debemos leerlos?
Yes, you absolutely can! In everyday Latin American Spanish, people often use que instead of a specific relative word like cuando (for time) or donde (for places) in these emphatic sentences. However, using cuando is more precise and is often preferred in formal writing.
Why is the verb dejemos instead of dejamos?
Dejemos is the nosotros (we) command form, which is used to say 'let's do something' (let's stop). Like all plural commands, it borrows its form from the present subjunctive. If you used the present indicative dejamos, it would just be a factual statement: 'we stop shredding' or 'we are stopping shredding.'
Since the English translation says 'shredding,' why don't we use the gerund triturando?
The phrase for 'to stop doing something' is dejar de followed by an infinitive. In Spanish, any time a verb immediately follows a preposition like de, it must be in the infinitive form (triturar), never the gerund (triturando).
Is it possible to move the pronoun los to a different part of the sentence?
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