Need help understanding this Spanish phrase

[donkeygoatee]

I'm working my way through this simplified version of Don Quixote https://www.amazon.com/Don-Quixote-Beginners-Exercises-Vocabulary-ebook/dp/B01E8B6LTA as part of my attempt to learn Spanish. It's going well and I can understand most of it with no trouble, but every now and then I find phrases that don't follow the pattern I expect, and I could use some help, if anyone can explain this:

Y aunque no sabia leer y de poca cultura

(please excuse the omission of accents as I haven't found a keyboard layout that works for me yet)

The second clause of this sentence is what is giving me trouble. I'm guessing they are saying that he was uncultured, or something very similar. But there's no verb in that clause, and no pronoun. How does this work? Is the verb saber from the previous clause understood to apply to the second clause? Or is "De poca cultura" a complete figure of speech that could be used on it's own?

Another way of asking what I mean is: suppose the first half of the sentence wasn't there, and we just wanted to say that this person was uncultured or whatever. What would it look like? Would it be:

Sabia de poca cultura

Or is there another verb that's implied, like ser or tener?

Can anyone help? Thanks!

[Ogrim]

I'll try to explain.
A structure like "de poca cultura" is equivalent to an adjective in this sentence. It does not relate to the verb "saber" but to the subject of the sentence (which is not written but understood to be Don Quixote). You can't say "*sabía de poca cultura" but rather "Un hombre de poca cultura". And yes, the meaning is that of uncultured.

[donkeygoatee]

I'll try to explain.
A structure like "de poca cultura" is equivalent to an adjective in this sentence. It does not relate to the verb "saber" but to the subject of the sentence (which is not written but understood to be Don Quixote). You can't say "*sabía de poca cultura" but rather "Un hombre de poca cultura". And yes, the meaning is that of uncultured.

Thanks for the reply - it's a big help to hear someone explain it. But I'm still a little confused about having an adjective hanging there on it's own with no verb. Should I assume that something like "era" is implicit here? In other words, is "de poca cultura" in that context equivalent to "era de poca cultura"?

[Querneus]

What you quoted is certainly not the whole sentence. Perhaps it makes sense once you look at the whole thing.

As it is, yeah, you'd have to supply era, but this is not normal in (modern) Spanish. This is not to say there aren't strange constructions in El Quijote, but I also found something interesting when googling "y de poca cultura Don Quijote". There's this short book (of 46 pages) for kids called Las Increíbles historias de Don Quijote y Sancho Panza, by Adela Basch, where the following lines appear at some point:

Sancho era un hombre sencillo, dedicado a labrar la tierra. Aunque era analfabeto y de poca cultura, tenía una gran sensatez.

It's almost like the author of your book took the beginning of the second sentence and reworded the first bit (aunque era analfabeto -> aunque no sabía leer) while forgetting to modify the following bit (y de poca cultura -> y era de poca cultura).

[donkeygoatee]

What you quoted is certainly not the whole sentence. Perhaps it makes sense once you look at the whole thing.

As it is, yeah, you'd have to supply era, but this is not normal in (modern) Spanish. This is not to say there aren't strange constructions in El Quijote, but I also found something interesting when googling "y de poca cultura Don Quijote". There's this short book (of 46 pages) for kids called Las Increíbles historias de Don Quijote y Sancho Panza, by Adela Basch, where the following lines appear at some point:

Sancho era un hombre sencillo, dedicado a labrar la tierra. Aunque era analfabeto y de poca cultura, tenía una gran sensatez.

It's almost like the author of your book took the beginning of the second sentence and reworded the first bit (aunque era analfabeto -> aunque no sabía leer) while forgetting to modify the following bit (y de poca cultura -> y era de poca cultura).

Ah OK...here's the exact sentence in full:

Y aunque no sabia leer y de poca cultura, tenia una gran sensatez.

The other stuff about him working the land etc. is in a previous sentence.

So it sounds like it's a mistake then?

A couple of things worth mentioning about this book:

* it's one of a series of simple novels for people learning the language, so I was hoping it wouldn't have much in the way of archaic language.
* I've already established (from the English translations they provide of certain words and phrases) that it's very badly proofed and full of mistakes.

However I assumed that these mistakes were because the author just didn't understand English very well, which was not big deal for me because I generally get what's being said. But if it's going to contain mistakes in the Spanish, well that's annoying!

[Jar-Ptitsa]

What you quoted is certainly not the whole sentence. Perhaps it makes sense once you look at the whole thing.

As it is, yeah, you'd have to supply era, but this is not normal in (modern) Spanish. This is not to say there aren't strange constructions in El Quijote, but I also found something interesting when googling "y de poca cultura Don Quijote". There's this short book (of 46 pages) for kids called Las Increíbles historias de Don Quijote y Sancho Panza, by Adela Basch, where the following lines appear at some point:

Sancho era un hombre sencillo, dedicado a labrar la tierra. Aunque era analfabeto y de poca cultura, tenía una gran sensatez.

It's almost like the author of your book took the beginning of the second sentence and reworded the first bit (aunque era analfabeto -> aunque no sabía leer) while forgetting to modify the following bit (y de poca cultura -> y era de poca cultura).

great explanation. I thought as well that the "era" was missing, but it's ok in the complete sentence you have posted. The mistake was made during the paraphrase.

So he meant "Although he was illiterate and uncultured, he had a great common sense." I suppose.

[Querneus]

So it sounds like it's a mistake then?

Yes.

However I assumed that these mistakes were because the author just didn't understand English very well, which was not big deal for me because I generally get what's being said. But if it's going to contain mistakes in the Spanish, well that's annoying!

Poor proofing is poor proofing.