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Hong Kong SAR China flagJoey
"En el primer piso, a la derecha está la cocina que da a un jardín que tiene especias plantadas" "En el primer piso, a la derecha está la cocina que da a un jardín que tiene especias plantadas" Is it strange to have xx que xx que ? How do you recommend me to express this more naturally?

Answers · 3

1
Hi Joey, You may change the sentence a little to avoid having two consecutive relative clauses. However, that is not mandatory. In addition, there is a difference in meaning if you add or remove a coma in that clause. Let's see it with your example. First, let's arrange the sentence in the natural order: (1) La cocina, que da a un jardín que tiene especias plantadas, está en el primer piso, a la derecha. (in this case you are explaining that there is a garden next to the kitchen) (2) La cocina que da a un jardín que tiene especias plantadas está en el primer piso, a la derecha. (in this case you are specifying that the kitchen is the one with the garden next to it) I assume you mean the first case, so you need to add comas to your sentence: En el primer piso, a la derecha, está la cocina, que da a un jardín que tiene especias plantadas. (1) or, changing the relative clause: En el primer piso, a la derecha, está la cocina, que da a un jardín de especias/de plantas aromáticas. (1)
1
Joey, la frase es perfecta. Está bien estructurada y suena natural. Debes poner esos dos "que", porque son dos oraciones de relativo con dos antecedentes diferentes.
1
It's not that strange, it's similar to when two "that" words find themselves together in English, for example "I know that that car is not worth what the owner says." Having said that, if you want to say it in a different way, you could say, for example: "En el primer piso, a la derecha, está la cocina. Y la cocina da a un jardín que tiene especias plantadas." You could substitute one of the "que" words for "donde", for example: "En el primer piso, a la derecha, está la cocina, que da a un jardín donde hay muchas especias (plantadas), como albahaca, orégano, y otras." Hope this helps.

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