Long time since I’ve been on the forum, but noticed the native speakers “subtly” inverting thing here and there. Here’s an example; Challenge 18.
“How much he’d like to speak Spanish”
I would have translated(excuse the missing accents)
“cuanto el quisiera hablar espanol” or “cuanto a el le gustaria hablat espanol”
but the native speakers said “cuanto quisiera el hablar espanol”. Are my alternatives correct, or have I been daydreaming instead of concentrating and missed something.
Yes, as Aran said either is fine. I’ve chosen this translation because “How much he’d like to speak Spanish” is not really a phrase that you would use on its own, but it could be seen as a part of a longer sentence; for example “You’d be surprised to know, how much he’d like to speak Spanish”. Seen as an affirmative sentence you are right that Cuanto el quisiera…" would probably be better. So, as a subordinated phrase, we give relevance to the verb (quisiera) and therefore the subject (él) comes after: “…cuanto quisiera el hablar español”.
SSi courses are designed to create building blocks that connect to each other helping your brain design patterns to use in real life conversations in a natural way. I know it is frustrating sometimes to hear a different sentence organization from what you might have expected, but most of the time either way is just fine. Keep up the good work!
