Meanings of Dequeism

By | August 7, 2022

Dequeism is a concept that is used in grammar to name the incorrect use of the expression “that”. The notion, therefore, refers to an improper way of using “of” (a preposition) together with “that” (conjunction) in the same sentence.

In these times, dequeism has become one of the most frequent grammatical errors by citizens. So much so that even characters of a certain depth and type also sometimes fall into that.

Dequeism is a fairly common grammatical error.

Dequeism, an anacolute

It is possible to place dequeism within the anacolutuses, which are produced when a certain element generates an inconsistency within an expression. In the case of dequeism, it occurs when combining a verbal regimen complement with a direct object.

Let’s look at some examples. The expression “Eduardo has told me that he will arrive on Friday morning” is correct, while “Eduardo has told me that he will arrive on Friday morning” is not appropriate since the use of the preposition and the conjunction, in this case, it is not normative.

There are different resources that help avoid dequeism.

How to avoid this error

When there are doubts about an expression in terms of queísmo or dequeísmo, it is necessary to follow the steps that we use below because they will come to indicate what is correct:

  • When we don’t know if a sentence should have the duality “de+que” or not, what we should do is turn it into an interrogative. Thus, if in the latter case it is necessary to form with the aforementioned sum, it is mandatory to use it.
  • In the same way, it will also be possible to know how to correctly say or write a sentence about it if we proceed to replace what is the noun subordinate clause with a demonstrative pronoun such as “that” or “this”.

Dequeism associated with certain types of verbs

Dequeism also appears in phrases such as “He believed that the circuit was more complicated” (instead of “He believed that the circuit was more complicated”), “The neighbors maintain that security is deficient” (the correct thing would be “The neighbors maintain that security is deficient”) and “Marta stated that the painting was stolen” (when it would be appropriate to say that “Marta stated that the painting was stolen”).

It can be affirmed, therefore, that the actions linked to expression and thought (saying, indicating, explaining, thinking, analyzing, etc.), imperatives (ordering, ordering), perceptions (glimpsing, intuiting, seeing) and the emotions (happy, sorry) must appear in sentences that do not use the “what” formula: “The teacher says to go back to the classroom”, “Mom ordered us not to leave the house”, “I sense there will be problems”, “ I’m glad you got a new job. ”

The cheism

It should be emphasized that whenever dequeism is spoken of, reference is made to what is known as queism. We can say that this is another grammatical error that occurs when a verb that already has the preposition “de” is used using another preposition or without using any.

A clear example of queísmo can be the following sentence: “Manuel insisted that we had to stay longer to be able to enjoy the dinner he had prepared.” In his case, the correct thing would be to say “Manuel insisted that we had to stay longer to be able to enjoy the dinner he had prepared”.