Breakdown of El equipo recibió el mérito por ganar el campeonato.
recibir
to receive
ganar
to win / to earn
por
for / by / through / in/during (part of the day)
el equipo
the team
el campeonato
championship
el mérito
merit
Questions & Answers about El equipo recibió el mérito por ganar el campeonato.
Why do we use the infinitive ganar here instead of the gerund ganando for 'winning'?
In Spanish, prepositions like por must always be followed by an infinitive, never a gerund. Even though we say 'for winning' in English with an '-ing' ending, Spanish requires the infinitive form por ganar.
How does this sentence demonstrate a 'causal abbreviation'?
Could I use the perfect infinitive here and say por haber ganado?
What is a more natural way to think about el mérito in everyday English?
While it literally translates to 'the merit,' a very natural English equivalent in this context is 'the credit' or 'the recognition.' When a person or team gets el mérito, they are getting the credit for an achievement.
Since a team is made up of multiple players, could we use the plural verb recibieron?
No, collective nouns like el equipo (the team), la familia (the family), and la gente (the people) are strictly grammatically singular in Spanish. Even though there are many players, the noun itself is singular and must take the singular verb recibió.
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