Breakdown of El tanque de los tiburones viene a perder veinte litros de agua al día.
de
from / of
los
the (masculine plural)
el día
the day
el agua
water
a
to
al
to the
perder
to lose
veinte
twenty
venir a
to amount to / come to (approximately)
el tanque
tank
el litro
liter
el tiburón
shark
Questions & Answers about El tanque de los tiburones viene a perder veinte litros de agua al día.
Why use viene a perder instead of just pierde?
Using the structure venir a followed by an infinitive (perder) adds a sense of approximation. It tells us that the tank loses roughly or approximately twenty liters. If you just used the simple present pierde, it would sound like an exact, precise measurement.
Could I just use a word like aproximadamente instead of this viene a structure?
Absolutely. You could say pierde aproximadamente veinte litros or pierde más o menos veinte litros. The venir a + infinitive structure is simply a native-sounding alternative that Spanish speakers frequently use to express estimates or summarize a final result.
Why does the sentence use al día for 'a day'? Could I say por día?
Does viene a still carry the literal meaning of 'comes to' in this context?
No, not physically. When venir is used in this approximative periphrasis, it completely loses its literal meaning of physical movement. The speaker isn't imagining the tank or the water 'coming' anywhere; venir acts strictly as a helper verb to soften the number.
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