Breakdown of Nominaron al cantante por haber vendido un millón de discos.
de
from / of
un
a, an (masculine)
el cantante
the singer
vender
to sell
por
for / by / through / in/during (part of the day)
haber
(auxiliary) have
el millón
million
el disco
record / disk
nominar
to nominate
a
personal 'a' (marks a human direct object)
Questions & Answers about Nominaron al cantante por haber vendido un millón de discos.
Why is it por haber vendido instead of just por vender?
We use the perfect infinitive (haber + past participle) after por to show that the cause was an action completed before the main verb. The singer sold a million records first, and then they were nominated. If you used por vender, it would sound like they were nominated for the ongoing or general act of selling records.
Who is doing the nominating in Nominaron?
We don't exactly know! Spanish frequently uses the third-person plural (the "they" form) to express an impersonal action when the specific subject isn't important, isn't known, or is just a general organization (like an award committee). This is why it feels very similar to the passive voice in English: "The singer was nominated."
I see al cantante. Is this a reminder of the personal "a"?
Exactly. When the direct object of a verb is a specific person, Spanish requires the personal a. Because the singer is a specific person, we use a + el cantante, which must contract to al cantante.
Why do we need the word de in un millón de discos? Shouldn't it just be un millón discos?
Unlike smaller numbers like cien or mil, the word millón is actually considered a noun in Spanish. Because it is a noun, you must use the preposition de to connect it to the item being counted, translating literally as "a million of records."
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