Breakdown of El director le manda que lea la partitura del violín.
leer
to read
del
from the / of the
que
that / than
le
to him / to her / to you (formal)
el director
the director
mandar
to order (to command)
la partitura
the sheet music
el violín
the violin
Questions & Answers about El director le manda que lea la partitura del violín.
Why is the subjunctive lea used here instead of the infinitive?
Mandar (to order) is a verb of influence. In this structure, because the subject giving the order (the director) is different from the person expected to carry it out, we use que followed by the subjunctive lea.
Could we rewrite this sentence using the infinitive instead of the que + subjunctive structure?
Yes! With indirect object pronouns and verbs of influence like mandar, you can often drop the que and use the infinitive directly, even with a subject change. The alternative is El director le manda leer la partitura del violín. Both structures mean the exact same thing and are very common.
In this sentence, how do we know who the director is giving the order to?
Out of context, we actually don't! The indirect object pronoun le and the third-person subjunctive lea could refer to him, her, or you (formal). We translated it as "he" here, but if it wasn't clear from a previous conversation, a native speaker might clarify by adding a él, a ella, or a usted.
Why does it say del violín rather than just de violín?
In Spanish, when referring to musical instruments in this descriptive way, the definite article is typically included. So instead of just using de (of), you combine de + el to make the contraction del (of the).
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