Breakdown of El que asocies cada dígito con una palabra funciona.
una
a, an (feminine)
con
with
que
that / than
funcionar
to work / to function (machines, devices)
la palabra
the word
cada
each / every
el dígito
digit
asociar
to associate
Questions & Answers about El que asocies cada dígito con una palabra funciona.
Why do we start the sentence with El que instead of just Que?
When a clause starting with que (meaning "that") is the subject of a sentence, Spanish often puts El in front of it to make it act like a noun. It translates closely to "The fact that..." or "The idea that...". While you sometimes see sentences starting with just Que, using El que is very common and clearly frames the whole idea as a single subject.
Why is asocies in the subjunctive?
The phrase El que usually triggers the subjunctive when it introduces a concept, a known fact, or a topic of discussion, rather than declaring new information. Here, the sentence isn't just declaring "you associate digits"; it's bringing up "the fact that you associate them" as an established concept in order to comment on it. The actual commentary (that this method works) is given by the indicative verb funciona.
What is the subject of the verb funciona at the end of the sentence?
The subject is the entire clause El que asocies cada dígito con una palabra. In English, this is like saying "[The fact that you associate each digit with a word] works." Because the whole clause acts as a single, abstract idea, the main verb funciona is conjugated in the third-person singular, just like the pronoun él or ella.
Could I use trabaja instead of funciona here to mean "works"?
No, you must use funcionar. A great refresher for this level: use funcionar when you mean "to work" in the sense of being effective, functioning properly, or a machine running. Use trabajar when you are talking about a person doing physical or mental labor. Since a memorization technique isn't a person doing a job, funciona is the correct choice.
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