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Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2017 September 8

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September 8

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Can lo que es be used at the beginning of a sentence?

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  • Una manzana, la que es muy roja, está en la mesa.
  • An apple, which is very red, is on the table.
  • La que es muy roja.
My Spanish is somewhat minimal, but "La que es muy roja" doesn't seem like a complete sentence to me. If you want to say "That one is very red", why not "Esa es muy roja"? Relative clauses beginning with "which" aren't very commonly used at the beginning of sentences in English... AnonMoos (talk) 08:13, 8 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]
I thought lo que es can be translated as "that which is" and "which is" and "that is". In fact, I first encountered the term to have the meaning "that which is", which confused me because there seemed to be no equivalent in English. 50.4.236.254 (talk) 11:53, 8 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]
La que es muy roja = "The one which is very red". The article lo has a similar usage, but cannot refer to actual objects — only to abstract concepts. MuDavid (talk) 01:17, 9 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Remember that there's a big difference between lo que and la que. Lo is usually a rare neuter pronoun, and it is used for abstract ideas. La is feminine and must refer to a feminine noun. The answer is yes, you can begin a sentence with it. Examples:
Lo que es más, durante siglos nos la hemos disputado en guerras.
(What is more, for centuries we have been fighting wars over it.)
La que es vinculante es la posición adoptada en sesión plenaria.
(What is binding is the position adopted in plenary session.) —Stephen (talk) 01:24, 9 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]
The first example, "an apple, which is very red, is on the table" would translate into Portuguese as uma maçã, que é muito vermelha, é sobre a mesa. If you wanted to say "An apple, the one which is very red, is on the table" you could say uma maçã, a que é muito vermelha, é sobre a mesa. If you don't mention the apple you would say aquela que é muito vermelha, "the one which is very red". "That is very red" as a sentence would translate as Isto é muito vermelho. In the abstract, "what is important is the position adopted in the session" would translate as o que e importante é a posição adoptado na sessão. I doubt that Spanish is very different. 82.12.63.55 (talk) 15:24, 9 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Google "Lo mas importante..." (as in, the most important [thing] es llegar temprano). Its a sort of dummy or neutral gender article used when the item described (mas importante) has no inherent gender due to its abstract nature. μηδείς (talk) 22:47, 13 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

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