Spanish C2 · Day 46
Day 46: Temperamentos antiguos y su color tonal — Advanced punctuation that changes Spanish grammar (part 1)
What you'll learn
- Grammar: Advanced punctuation that changes Spanish grammar (part 1)
- Reading: La factura audible del temple
- Try it yourself
Every lesson: vocabulary with audio, grammar, reading, a speaking step and a short test.
Grammar point: Advanced punctuation that changes Spanish grammar (part 1)
At C2, a mark decides which grammatical relation a clause encodes. In notes on temperaments, the explicative comma, the comma before «porque», the colon, and «¿» can resemble pauses, yet they assign different structures. Moving one may silently enlarge a referent or change a negation's scope.
Key vocabulary (8 of 31 words)
- la temperación – adjustment of intervals to make a tuning system usable
- el temperamento igual – equal temperament; tuning with twelve equal semitone steps per octave
- el temperamento mesotónico – meantone temperament; a historical tuning approach favouring thirds
- el buen temperamento – well temperament; tuning that permits all keys with differing interval profiles
- la coma sintónica – small interval separating a Pythagorean major third from a pure major third
- el batimiento – audible beating caused by slightly different frequencies
- la tercera pura – pure third; usually a major third with the frequency ratio 5:4
- la quinta del lobo – markedly mistuned fifth arising in certain unequal tuning systems
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