Word
El ajo no es tan fuerte como para enmascarar un toque sutil.
Meaning
The garlic is not strong enough to mask a subtle touch.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of El ajo no es tan fuerte como para enmascarar un toque sutil.
ser
to be
no
no, not
un
a, an (masculine)
para
for
Questions & Answers about El ajo no es tan fuerte como para enmascarar un toque sutil.
Why do we use the infinitive enmascarar here instead of que + subjunctive?
We use como para + infinitive because there is no change of subject. The garlic (el ajo) is the subject that is not so strong, and it is also the thing doing the masking. If the second action had a different subject (like 'strong enough for us to mask'), you would need como para que followed by the subjunctive.
The English translation says 'strong enough to', but I don't see a word for 'enough' in the Spanish sentence. How does that work?
English uses 'strong enough to', but Spanish builds this threshold by saying 'so strong as to': tan fuerte como para. You could also use a literal translation for 'enough' by saying lo suficientemente fuerte para, but the tan... como para structure is very common and natural in Spanish for expressing this kind of threshold.
Why use es instead of está if we might just be talking about the garlic in one specific dish?
By using es (from the verb ser), the speaker treats the lack of strength as a characteristic of this specific garlic or the type of garlic being used. If they had used está, they would be focusing on the temporary state or taste of the garlic in the dish right now. Both can work in cooking contexts, but es describes its baseline nature.
Can I put the adjective before the noun and say un sutil toque?