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: summerless_year (summerless_year) wrote in linguaphiles,
2008-11-11 22:42:00

summerless_year
summerless_year
linguaphiles
2008-11-11 22:42:00

gender question: Spanish

So I get (or at least I thought I did) how agua is masculine but takes feminine adjectives, and how it's el agua, yet agua fría, where the final letter in fría "matches" the final letter in agua, not the gender. Makes sense.

But here's where I'm tripped up. Can someone explain why in this article from today's El Mercurio (www.elmercurio.cl) about water desalination plants, potabilizarla is with la and not lo at the end?

1860: año en que se prueba en el norte chileno el primer sistema para sacarle la sal al agua de mar y potabilizarla.

It makes it sound like they're trying to make the salt potable. Any thoughts? Thanks in advance

(here's the whole article: http://diario.elmercurio.com/2008/11/11/nacional/nacional/noticias/D59BB703-0D66-4204-AA9F-045033DBA8DC.htm?id=D59BB703-0D66-4204-AA9F-045033DBA8DC )

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Three one-hundredths of a second

(Somewhat prompted by watching the Olympics.) Why is that silly redundancy there in "three one-hundredths of a second"? Nobody says "two one-thirds…
Helena and Penelope, HISTOS (a large web, tapestry) and HISTORY that was not written, but embroided

...Like Penelope, Helen is described as weaving and spinning wool, common tasks for women in the Homeric world. Also in an episode of the…
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"... Agenor, king of the Phoenician city of Sidon, had a beautiful daughter Europa, literally (in Greek) the "wide-eyed". In fact, of course, not…

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gender question: Spanish

Three one-hundredths of a second

Helena and Penelope, HISTOS (a large web, tapestry) and HISTORY that was not written, but embroided

EUROPA, etymology

Error

Three one-hundredths of a second

Helena and Penelope, HISTOS (a large web, tapestry) and HISTORY that was not written, but embroided

EUROPA, etymology