Re: Kioshu update, plea for help.

On Oct/11/2002, Jeff Goguen wrote:

> Building a house is complicated.
>
> Okay...now "building" is the gerund of the verb "to build", it turns
> it into a noun. In this case, though, it takes a direct object in the
        Don't take this as a general rule. In spanish (and most romance
languages, maybe?), the verb used for this is not the gerund, but the
infinitive. So, we'd say:

        Construir una casa es complicado.

        ("To build a house is complicated.")

        In galician, there's even "conjugated infinitives" :-) For
example:

        Construirmos unha casa é complicado.

        ("Building a house is complicated for us")

> gerund, and I don't think I necessarily want it to. However I figure
> this out, it will probably involve the infinitive, i.e.:
> To build a house is complicated.
        Ooops. Well, I think at least the bit about conjugated
infinitives would be worth the time spent reading this mail O:-) :-D

> Now...this seems to be the optimal solution of everything I've
> thought, but is "To build a house is complicated." the same sentence
> as "A house is complicated to build."? I don't think it is, because
> in the first one "a house" is the direct object of the verbal "to
> build", in the second it is the subject of "is"!
        Yes, you're right. And in fact, the meaning is slightly
different. With "To build a house ..." you mean the the building
proccess is the complicated thing; with "A house is ..." you mean that a
house, for any reason (not only the building process), is hard to build.
Languages are full of slight differences like these, it seems :-)

        Anyway, when speaking with someone, I think I wouldn't care of
this difference, and the meaning would need to be further specified by
some other sentence (if needed, that is).

        I'm afraid I have no advice to give. Just my $0.02 :-)

        BTW, does someone know what's the origin of the "only my two
cents" thing? I've seen it everywhere, but don't know where it comes
from. And I'm sure it has a nice story behind it :-)

--
        Roberto Suarez Soto

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