Modern Spanish Grammar: A Practical Guide

26ComplementationBy complementation we mean the kind of structures which are associated with verbsand verbal expressions, and with nouns which represent a verbal idea. There are threekinds of complementation in Spanish:• Sentence complementation. The sentence is introduced by one of twocomplementizers, que or si: e.g. Pienso que tienes razón ‘I think you’reright’; Me pregunto si es tan fácil como dicen ‘I wonder if it is as easy asthey say’.• Infinitive complementation. Sometimes the infinitive is preceded by apreposition, although prepositions used in this way do not necessarily have thebasic meanings given in 25.1; e.g. Me gusta nadar ‘I like swimming’, Soñabacon ir a la luna ‘I was dreaming of going to the moon’.• Gerund complementation. This is much less common than the first two; e.g.Terminé borrándolo todo ‘I ended up rubbing it all out’.It is beyond the scope of this book to give a comprehensive list of the complementationpatterns of verbs and verbal expressions: looking up the verb in a good dictionary willusually provide the information you need. What follows is only a representativeselection of the more commonly-occurring constructions.Rather than reading through the whole of this chapter, you may find it quicker to findout about the complementation of individual words by looking them up in the index atthe end of this book to find their location in the appropriate section.26.126.1.1Sentence complementationWith queQue is used for reported (indirect) speech, indirect commands, and in a large number ofconstructions involving the subjunctive.131(a) Reported speechDijo que no tenía la menor idea.He/she said he/she hadn’t the faintest idea.(b) Indirect commandsMe pidió que le ayudase.He/she asked me to help him/her.