- Forum >
- Topic: Spanish >
- "Él deja la comida en mi casa…
47 Comments
It is my understanding that the reason why you use "las" IS because it's NOT SPECIFIC food.
SEE: http://www.livinglanguage.com/blog/2014/09/03/6-rules-for-using-the-definite-article-in-spanish/
https://www.thoughtco.com/use-and-omission-of-definite-article-3078144
I thought this was the best explanation: http://www.spanishdict.com/answers/167561/is-there-a-rule-for-when-you-use-the-definite-article-before-a-noun-me-gusta-comida-mexicana-me-gusta-la-comida-mexicana
1194
Covid-19 quarentine means lots of older folks are having their kids go to the grocery store for them and then leave the food at their house.
Ever thought how this illustrates the old use of 'leave' in English that is similar to 'let' meaning 'allow' - I give you leave to do that.... Appreciate the complexiry and inter-relatedness of language. Seems like you have not encountered llevar if you object to dejar. It is wonderful though how there are no such confusing words with multiple meanings in English are there?
1090
It appears that "dejar" means to leave or to give leave (let, allow). "He leaves the house" would use the verb for "exit", salir, for "Él sale la casa."
I was looking at dejar's etymology, and it's from Old Spanish lexar (modern alejar), originally from Latin laxāre, the same root as 'lax', 'relax', 'laxative', etc. It means 'to leave to the side', 'to put down', 'to put away', 'to let go'. So it can be used to leave something somewhere, to let go of a habit, to allow (give leave), to drop off, to leave alone, etc. And as you wrote, salir should be used for personal movement away from. (leaving).
The phrase ‘en mi casa’ literally translates to ‘in my house’, but the translation is given with ‘at my house’. Fine, but there is a subtle difference between these two English phrases: if he leaves it at my house, then he might leave it on the porch, but if he leaves it in my house, then this is ruled out.
So which of these best captures the meaning of the Spanish?