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- "Cualquier cama es mejor que …
"Cualquier cama es mejor que no tener cama."
Translation:Any bed is better than not having a bed.
39 Comments
I am going to analyze this sentence but please keep in mind I am learning here too. I checked and "mejor que" is a compound preposition. When we have two verbs (first one conjugated [ser] and second one infinitive [tener]) referring to the same subject [cama] we generally need a preposition between. Normally the prepositions are 'a' or 'de' (There are exceptions verbs like poder where none are needed as you've seen in this module). The infinitive can be 'to have' or it can be 'having' depending on context. Hope it helps.
2142
At all, as you say, is not strictly necessary, but it imparts poetic emphasis to the finality of the statement. "A worm in the cabbage is better than no meat at all."
126
Why doesn't the program explain these verb conjugations as they did the others? Am I missing something?
20
I think a more natural translation is “.... not having one “ . And something else regarding cualquier/cualquiera . Cualquier is used before a noun and cualquiera after a noun and have no gender as in “cualquier teléfono / casa“ and in “un teléfono /una casa cualquiera “ .
If I translate every word as such I get: "Whatever bed is better than to have no bed." Editing that translation I arrive at: "Any bed is better than not to have a bed." Looking at the fact, that in English a construction with "-ing" is used very frequently, I chose to translate "tener" as "having" >> Any bed is better than not having a bed.