liminary steps.

4. The Director himself is coming towards us, he will tell you more
about it.

5. I am going to attend to several trifling matters which however want
looking after (hay que cuidar).

6. Whenever (siempre que) I decided on (he decidido) a thing, I have
always acted on my decision (la he puesto en ejecucion).

7. I tell you if I had a larger stock, I should feel rather uneasy at
(con) the prospects of the market.

8. Come and see me to-morrow at my office and we shall come (llegaremos)
to a friendly understanding without beating about the bush.

9. He told me the figures did not compare well with (no eran buenas en
comparacion de) those of last year.

10. Please go through the accounts again and tell me the result by
return of post.

11. Short reckonings make long friends (las cuentas claras y el
chocolate espeso).

12. He lost money as a result of his bad temper.

LESSON XLI.
(Leccion cuadragesima primera.)

THE VERB (_contd._).

_Ser_ and _Estar_. Such expressions as "Smoking is prohibited," etc.,
are translated either "Es prohibido fumar" or "Esta prohibido fumar."
Both translations are grammatically correct ("Esta prohibido fumar" is
the general expression in this particular case).

If we say "Es prohibido fumar," we are referring to the "doer" of the
action: "Es prohibido _por la ley, por la policia, por los jefes_, etc.,
etc."--a case of passive voice.

If we say "Esta prohibido fumar" we have no "doer" in our mind, but only
the thing itself = a case of "a condition of things" resulting from the
action (the prohibition).

=EXAMPLE--=

El fumar es prohibido por el jefe, por esto esta prohibido fumar en
nuestro despacho: Smoking is prohibited by our employer (viz., our
employer prohibits smoking), therefore it is not allowed in our office.

_The above example is given for the sake of illustration by contrast; in
practice, of course, such oddities are avoided._

The English expressions, "It is I, you, he, we, they, who ..." must be
rendered in Spanish by "Soy yo, es V., somos nosotros, etc., quien _or_
quienes ..."; i.e., the English impersonal "it is" must be made
personal in Spanish.

We said that verbs may have a different government in the two languages,
as--

Colgar de un clavo: To hang on a nail.

Entrar en una casa: To enter a house.

This, one of the points for which rules cannot b