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- "The worst has passed already…
"The worst has passed already."
Translation:Lo peor ya ha pasado.
61 Comments
"Lo" before an adjective makes it into a noun: lo peor, lo bueno, etc. You can't put 'el' before an adjective. Just the way they do it.
I see some complaints about duolingo's fallibility here and there, but sometimes I think half the site's value is to be found in the comment sections. It's really helpful to find info like this from helpful people like yourself.
Indeed! I learn at least as much from reading the comments as I do from the exercises themselves. It was a brilliant move on Duolingo's part to include this Discussion feature.
Exactly. It may help some English speakers to think of this as "The worst THING", just the way the neuter is used.
It seems to me that the adjective is not converted to a noun but that the 'lo' serves as the noun. So 'lo peor' means something like 'that which is worst'. I could be wrong and either way this rule of thumb works :)
2589
"El peor" or "La peor" would be correct if the gender were known. It is not known here, so "Lo peor" is correct. CzarnyCzesio (below) has provided an authoritative link directly in point. http://spanish.about.com/od/adjectives/a/best_worst.htm. My dictionary also confirms the usage of all three forms (lo peor, la peor and el peor) for the noun form of "peor".
"You can't put 'el' before an adjective." I suppose this applies only when there is no noun after the adjective?
Yes, I think you do put el or la before an adjective when it is modifying a noun.
How would someone say "The smartest wins" Could that be said in Spanish where the "one" is implied but not stated? All I could find is "Gana el más inteligente". Still though Smartest in this instance is a noun but normally an adjective. Thanx
Thanks, rspreng. You are a wellspring of knowledge about things I've not been taught anywhere else.
I keep seeing your picture answering many, many questions. Thanks for taking the time to help everyone out.
Putting el or la before an adjective happens all the time. Prefieres el vestido rojo o EL AZUL?
- 330
el vestido... you answered your own question. Different from this example which is referring to a completely unknown subject/thing. The worst ____ is yet to come, we don't know what that blank is, so its Lo not El
There we go.... the complete explanation. I hope everyone sees it. You can have el/la/los/las in front of an adjective, but only if you know the gender of the thing(s) you're talking about but not saying. If you don't have an object in mind, use lo. Ahhhh... got it now.
I've known heard this explanation before and it makes so many things clearer now. Thanks!
- 1780
rspreng has the best comments, too.
I haven't seen him around the forums forever, but I always looked for his input in the comment section when I first started, 'cuz he really knows his stuff.
- 1534
Puedes ponerlo tranquilamente, sin contexto es imposible saber a que se refiere. Podría referirse a un ciclista, por ejemplo, en una competición en la cual un aficionado le dice a otro "el peor (ciclista) ha pasado ya"...Bien es verdad que yo, como español, lo primero que he pensado ha sido en poner "lo peor ha pasado ya", lo cual no quita que "le" esté igual de bien.
Actually it's because it's in reference to an abstraction vs a specific noun. Not the worst person or the worst weather -- just the worst.
- 326
why does "already" have to be after the word "worst"? is semantic order that important here? Why can't I say "ya lo peor ha pasado"?
I put "lo peor ha ya pasado". would also like to know about "ya" with regards to word order.
Yeah, we've seen this before with questions about where it's possible to put adjectives, or even where the 'no' goes in making a verb negative. As far as I can tell, you can't split up verbs that go together in Spanish. I think of this as being like the often-challenged rule in English about not splitting infinitives (e.g., 'boldly to go', rather than 'to boldly go'), which we got entirely from Latin (though I'm not sure if it is actually related or not).
- 827
I have struggled the 'ya' placement as well. But if I put it before the verb, it seems to work. Look for that word order.
Same problem. I put the ya to open the sentence as I have seen it done a million times. Think I will submit and see.
Even though I have finished my tree, I'm afraid I'm never going to fully understand when and where to use "lo."
You fellow duoes are great! DL would not be nearly as useful without the comments! Thanks for the help =)
I also want to know why the ya was not allowed at the beginning of the sentence
''ýa'' is an adverb. As an adverb it must be close before or after a verb, or before or after another adverb, such as the negative adverb "no".
Ya means a lot of things depending on context. In the present tense it means now or already, except in a negative construction when it means no longer. In the past tense it nearly always means ''already'' such as in this sentence. In the future, it means later....Ya lo haré - I'll do it later.
In this sentence I think it works to place Ya either before the noun, before the verb or at the end of the sentence. It generally translates the same given this sentence is in the past tense. It's never placed between the auxiliary verb and the conjugated verb.
Thanks for this answer, I knew where it went from practice, but it's great to know why
Well, all my Spanish teaching is that "The worst" is "El peor"..What am I missing?
From other comments:
"Ha pasado" is a state of being, not an action, so no additional pronouns are needed.
Can the words in this sentence be in a different order, such as: Lo peor ha pasado ya. Or : Ya lo peor ha pasado?
