Breakdown of Si no hay inmigración, la población disminuye.
no
no, not
haber
to be (there is / there are)
si
if
disminuir
to decrease
la población
the population
la inmigración
the immigration
Questions & Answers about Si no hay inmigración, la población disminuye.
Why do we use the indicative hay after Si instead of the subjunctive, since 'if' sets up a hypothetical situation?
In Spanish, you never use the present subjunctive immediately after si (if). Because this is a standard cause-and-effect statement (if A happens, B happens), we use the present indicative hay for the condition and the present indicative disminuye for the result.
How could we express this same idea using the grammar from this lesson (el hecho de que)?
You could rewrite it as: El hecho de que no haya inmigración hace que la población disminuya (The fact that there is no immigration causes the population to decrease). Notice how the verb changes from the indicative hay to the subjunctive haya when you use el hecho de que instead of si.
Why does the verb disminuye have a y in it?
Why is inmigración spelled with nm instead of the double m we use in English?
Spanish rarely uses a double m. When the prefix in- (meaning 'into') is added to a root word starting with m (like migración), the letters combine as nm. This makes the Spanish spelling inmigración perfectly phonetic.
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