Breakdown of El escultor trata de representar una emoción, de modo que el mensaje es subjetivo.
ser
to be
de
from / of
una
a, an (feminine)
el mensaje
the message
que
that / than
la emoción
emotion
el modo
way
el escultor
the sculptor
tratar de
to try to
subjetivo
subjective
representar
to represent
Questions & Answers about El escultor trata de representar una emoción, de modo que el mensaje es subjetivo.
Why does this sentence use trata de instead of the impersonal se trata de?
Because there is a specific, defined subject performing the action: el escultor (the sculptor). The personal form tratar de means "to try to [do something]." The impersonal form tratarse de means "to be about" or "to be a matter of." If we used se trata de, it would translate to "it is about representing," and we would lose the sculptor as the subject.
I thought phrases like de modo que triggered the subjunctive. Why is es in the indicative here?
De modo que only triggers the subjunctive when it expresses an intended purpose (meaning "so that [something might happen]"). In this sentence, it expresses an actual result or a statement of fact (meaning "and so" or "therefore"). Because it's stating a factual result, it takes the indicative es rather than the subjunctive sea.
Could I use intentar instead of tratar de in this sentence?
Yes, you could say El escultor intenta representar... and it would mean exactly the same thing. Just keep the grammatical difference in mind: tratar requires the preposition de before an infinitive verb, while intentar connects directly to the infinitive without a preposition.
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