Breakdown of El tatuador tarda una hora en delinear el hombro.
una
a, an (feminine)
en
in / on / at
la hora
hour
tardar
to take time
el tatuador
tattoo artist
delinear
to outline
Questions & Answers about El tatuador tarda una hora en delinear el hombro.
The current lesson is about the progressive passive (estar siendo). How would we change this active sentence to say 'The shoulder is being outlined by the tattoo artist'?
Why do we need the preposition en right before delinear?
In Spanish, to express that someone takes a certain amount of time to do a task, you use the set formula tardar + [amount of time] + en + [infinitive]. While English uses 'to' (takes an hour to outline), Spanish strictly requires the preposition en for this specific verb expression.
Why does the sentence use el hombro (the shoulder) instead of a possessive like su hombro (his/her shoulder)?
In Spanish, definite articles (el, la, los, las) are almost always used instead of possessive adjectives (mi, tu, su, etc.) for body parts and clothing when the 'owner' is obvious from context. This is a rule from earlier levels that is easy to forget since English always uses possessives for body parts.
Could we just say dibujar instead of delinear here?
You could, but it changes the meaning slightly. Dibujar is the general word for 'to draw'. Delinear specifically means 'to outline' or 'to draft the lines of', which perfectly describes the specific tattooing stage of doing the linework before moving on to shading or coloring.
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