Breakdown of No digo que la prensa arruine la imagen del actor.
no
no / not
del
of the / from the / about the (topic)
que
that (relative pronoun, conjunction)
decir
to say / to tell
el actor
the actor
la prensa
the press
arruinar
to ruin (completely, financially)
la imagen
the image
Questions & Answers about No digo que la prensa arruine la imagen del actor.
Why is arruine in the subjunctive instead of the normal present tense arruina?
The phrase no digo que (I am not saying that) is a negative communication verb, which triggers the subjunctive. Verbs of communication, opinion, or perception like decir (to say) or creer (to believe) take the indicative when positive. However, when you make them negative with no, they deny a statement or introduce doubt, so the verb that follows must be in the subjunctive. That is why we use arruine.
What is the infinitive of arruine, and how do we form this subjunctive spelling?
The infinitive is arruinar (to ruin). To form the present subjunctive for regular -ar verbs, you take the standard present tense stem (arruin-) and add -er or -ir verb endings. Since the subject is the singular la prensa (it), we add an -e to the end, giving us arruine.
La prensa refers to many journalists and news outlets. Why is the verb arruine in the singular it form?
Just like its English equivalent "the press", la prensa is a collective noun. Even though it refers to a group of people or organizations, the word itself is grammatically singular. Therefore, it must be paired with the third-person singular verb conjugation.
I noticed imagen doesn't have a written accent mark here. Did it lose it?
A lot of learners mix this up because of the plural form! The singular imagen does not have an accent mark because words ending in -n naturally stress the second-to-last syllable (i-MA-gen). However, the plural imágenes gains an extra syllable. To keep the stress on the same vowel (i-MÁ-ge-nes), a written accent mark becomes necessary.
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