Breakdown of En cuanto al desarrollo económico, el alcalde acaba de proponer un plan.
un
a, an (masculine)
al
to the
el plan
the plan
acabar de
to have just
proponer
to propose
el alcalde
the mayor
en cuanto a
as for / regarding
el desarrollo
development
económico
economic
Questions & Answers about En cuanto al desarrollo económico, el alcalde acaba de proponer un plan.
Why is it al desarrollo instead of a el desarrollo?
The topic marker being taught is en cuanto a (regarding or as for). Whenever the preposition a is followed directly by the masculine singular article el, they must merge into the contraction al. Since desarrollo is masculine, we get en cuanto al desarrollo.
Can I swap en cuanto a for the other topic markers like respecto a in this exact sentence?
Yes, you can easily substitute it with Respecto al desarrollo económico or Con relación al desarrollo económico. All three expressions successfully set the topic of the sentence before the mayor's action is described, though en cuanto a is especially natural in everyday conversation when shifting focus to a new subject.
Doesn't the verb acabar mean 'to finish'? Why does the translation say 'has just proposed'?
On its own, acabar does mean 'to finish'. However, the formula acabar de + infinitive (in this case, proponer) is a special structure that means 'to have just done' something. It is the most natural and common way in Spanish to talk about an action that happened moments ago.
Is the word order strictly fixed here, or could I put the topic marker at the end of the sentence?
While you could grammatically say El alcalde acaba de proponer un plan en cuanto al desarrollo económico, placing the topic marker at the beginning is much more common. Starting with En cuanto a immediately alerts the listener to the specific subject before you introduce the new information about the mayor's plan.
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