Is this sentence grammatically correct?

Stodgord said:

Last night I was watching a tv program in spanish and the following sentence caught my attention.

T? sabias que ?l est? vivo y callaste

I would say the following,
T? sabias que ?l estaba vivo y callaste

the situation is as follows, a kid in the tv program was thought to be dead and a person knew that this was not the case and remained quiet. The above sentence came about when the father of this kid confronted the person with the information.

I am not a good friend of grammar in any language but I think the first one is wrong because you got present and past tense grouped together.

Click to expand...

You are correct, but not for the reasons stated.

How about this...

I think...T? sabias que ?l est? vivo y callaste... is correct...because as you explained the kid is still alive and not dead as originally thought ...

If you say: T? sabias que ?l estaba vivo y callaste...it would imply that the kid WAS alive (estaba) but now is dead...

But, either way would be fine...people don't usually think about things like that when they speak...

Just my 2 cents...(but I think I'm right! )

MQ

The first sentence is correct based on the scenario described

MQ,

Tienes toda la raz?n.

LDG.

Musicqueen said:

I think...T? sabias que ?l est? vivo y callaste... is correct...because as you explained the kid is still alive and not dead as originally thought ...

If you say: T? sabias que ?l estaba vivo y callaste...it would imply that the kid WAS alive (estaba) but now is dead...

But, either way would be fine...people don't usually think about things like that when they speak...

Just my 2 cents...(but I think I'm right! )

MQ

Click to expand...

Callar vs callar[se]

Please disregard. I answered my own question.

I was looking at the phrase more closely and questioned the usage of callaste and not te callaste but I understand the choice of one over the other.

LDG.

Stodgord said:

Last night I was watching a tv program in spanish and the following sentence caught my attention.

T? sabias que ?l est? vivo y callaste

I would say the following,
T? sabias que ?l estaba vivo y callaste

Click to expand...

Would agree with you comment

I personally can't believe that the first statement is correct ..It's based on common sense en contradiction in the tenses . How can you know (in the past ) that he is still alive now ..Something must be wrong at least incoherent or do I miss the point ?

Stodgord said:

Last night I was watching a tv program in spanish and the following sentence caught my attention.

T? sabias que ?l est? vivo y callaste

I would say the following,
T? sabias que ?l estaba vivo y callaste

the situation is as follows, a kid in the tv program was thought to be dead and a person knew that this was not the case and remained quiet. The above sentence came about when the father of this kid confronted the person with the information.

I am not a good friend of grammar in any language but I think the first one is wrong because you got present and past tense grouped together.

Click to expand...

Titles , headings in newspapers

First of all Idon't want to improve my English but my Spanish .. Both aren't 100% ok. ..However since last thread was speaking about a TV program I have a question on titles or headings in Dominican Newapapers ,,I have a diificulty in understanding titles or headings of articles in Dominican newspapers .The seem to be written in a way titles in newspapers in the US where I also have a difficulty in understanding them .. I understand the articles not the headings ,, Most of the time they don't use articles , and make like a short version of the contents but without any grammatical control ..
Ejemplo :

El Pais (de hoy )en Spain :

Una Ley prohibir? el .....
El presidente de Ucrania distituye al Gobierno ...
La prensa abandona la correcci?n politica

I think that these examples would sound in a Dominican Newspaper something like (although it's not easy to imagine what they would be ..) :


Ley prohibir? ....
Presidente Ucrania ,,,,,,,
Prensa abandona correcci?n politica ..

Why is that ? Because grammatically speaking I believe these Dominican headings are really incorrect .. Correct ??..Is this US influence where I have the same problem ?

Stodgord said:

Last night I was watching a tv program in spanish and the following sentence caught my attention.

T? sabias que ?l est? vivo y callaste

I would say the following,
T? sabias que ?l estaba vivo y callaste

the situation is as follows, a kid in the tv program was thought to be dead and a person knew that this was not the case and remained quiet. The above sentence came about when the father of this kid confronted the person with the information.

I am not a good friend of grammar in any language but I think the first one is wrong because you got present and past tense grouped together.

Click to expand...

It sounds perfectly OK to say tu sabias que el esta vivo y callaste. I don't see nothing wrong with that. I don't see nothing wrong with tu sabias que el estaba vivo y callaste either. And I don't see where tu sabias que el estaba vivo y callaste would mean that he was alive and now is dead. When he says sabias it is talking about the past and that's why estaba is also in the past tense.

Hugoke01.....very good observation

Headline Examples from Hoy Digital

No intervendr? caso de ni?as violadas Hig?ey *
Suben bacalao, cebolla, pl?tanos
Desalojar?n escuela debe 15 a?os alquiler *
El pa?s tiene 2 millones de veh?culos
Educaci?n instalar? 500 pizarras digitales *


Headline Examples from BBC Mundo

Latinos limpian Nueva Orleans
"Hay que ayudar m?s a los hispanos"
Tensa calma tras la tormenta
Dinero contra enfermedades
Una carretera unir? a Sudam?rica

The ones marked with the asterisk (*) are examples of Latin American style headings.

Dominican newspapers are examples of low grade journalism when comparing grammar, writing style and sentence structure (la redacci?n) to other Spanish newspapers. This is a discussion topic that comes up often among my circle of friends and we all unanimously agree that Dominican newspapers leave much to be desired.

Newspapers to certain extent are an example of the education standard and literacy competency of its people and Dominican papers are a blatant example of the education system which has been discussed ten times over on DR1. I read three Dominican newspapers regularly for content only but sometimes it's painful to finish a story due to the grammatical errors that are abundant. Out of the three I read EL Caribe /CDN is the worst and EL Listin Diario is the best but still not at the level that it should be since it's a reputable newspaper.

Now to answer your question regarding the headlines the grammar rule in Spanish that governs the usage of articles applies to Spanish headlines. In Spain headlines follow the rules of grammar regarding the usage of the definite article (retained or omitted) however, in Latin America headlines tend to coincide with English grammar rules regarding omission of the article. Therefore your observation is correct when comparing El Pais (from Spain) to Hoy Digital (from the DR for example).

I don't want to get into details about rules but the other aspect that is taken into consideration in Spanish when creating a headline in comparison to English is 'what is considered most important by the writer' and this is where English is more conservative than Spanish. The word order in Spanish is usually more colloquial whereas in English it is more conservative. I am sure you will gradually notice the difference as you continue to learn Spanish.

Keep reading the newspapers you are reading which will definitely help the quality of your Spanish in the long run. My suggestions for good grammar and sentence structure are the following:

1) El Pais (de Espa?a)
2) BBC Mundo (this newspaper is super with excellent grammar. Go to bbc.mundo.com)
3) El Mundo (de Espa?a)
4) El Espectador (Bogot?, Colombia).


LDG.

contratar a Jayson Blair o alg?n workshop con Matthew Rycroft;

"Dominican newspapers are examples of low grade journalism when comparing grammar, writing style and sentence structure (la redacci?n) to other Spanish newspapers'

En mi experiencia, la redacci?n de los diarios dominicanos es correcta y apropiada. El uso del estilo (AP) como la estrutura de las oraciones, en muchos de los casos, esta determinado por el nivel del lector al que se hace blanco.

"This is a discussion topic that comes up often among my circle of friends .."
Congratulaciones. Es,algo as? como desconocido, que algunos estranjeros en DR se reuna para hablar de estas cosas. Basado en lo que usted dice, le ruego que me permita dos cosas:1) Recomendarle hacer buena selecci?n de lo que lee. 2) May it is a time to improves your friend's circle...

"...and we all unanimously agree that Dominican newspapers leave much to be desired. "

Estoy de acuerdo. Los periodicos all? necesitan continuar abanzando. Por ejemplo, se podria contratar a Jayson Blair o alg?n workshop con Matthew Rycroft; adem?s, por supuesto, nuevos lectores...

Enigma, your post illustrates the point Lesley is making very well indeed.