Spanish language Q&A Forum

Why is it “compramos dos billetes de ida y vuelta en ventanilla” and not LA ventanilla? I don’t think I’ve seen this before, it doesn’t seem to fit with the other rules on definite articles?

ves el mapa costa rica

Hola Inma: Regarding El Preterito Perfecto, I don't know what you mean when you say the speaker sees herself inside that same timeframe. For example: “¿Vosotras pudisteis reservar ese hotel tan barato?” In what way does the speaker see herself inside that timeframe? Likewise, for El Preterito Indefinido, in what way does the speaker see herself outside the timeframe, ex: “No pudimos conseguir entradas para el concierto”?

Hi Inma,

The test questions given at the end of this section are as follows:

1.       ________ poner el despertador. He [accidentally] forgot to set the alarm clock.HINT: Use a construction with the verb "olvidar" that expresses an "unintentional action"

Correct answer given: Se me ha olvidado

2.       ________ poner el despertador.He [accidentally] forgot to set the alarm clock.HINT: Use a construction with the verb "olvidar" that expresses an "unintentional action"

Correct answer given: Se le olvidó

Both examples feature an action represented by a verb that follows a form of olvidar. This is apparently an example of the accidental “se”. But the examples in this lesson use a different structure. The object forgotten is the subject of the sentence and olvidarse is conjugated with that in mind. It is explicitly stated that the verb is conjugated in the third person plural “to agree with the subject .”  That is not the case on either test item. Plus the test “hints” given are not useful for two reasons:  1) They ask that you use the verb “olvidar” instead of “olvidarse” (misleading) and 2) it says that the verb expresses an “unintentional action”; which is true of all forgetting , no? However, I think I could have figured out what was wanted If the sentence structure of the test item were not different from the lesson (e.g. in the lesson the thing forgotten was the subject of the verb).

The question in the lesson was "Do you have a toaster?" (it did not specify formal or informal 'you').  My answer was Tiene usted and was marked wrong.  I think it's correct

The intro says "Aunque, generally translated as although, even if, or despite of". I'm not sure there's any English construction "despite of", I think you may be conflating "despite" with "in spite of". As far as I can think of, these two phrases are used pretty interchangeably in English. 

Hola Inma,

I'm trying to understand better why the subjunctive is used. Are negative opinions like no creo que, no opino que, no pienso que, no parece que etc, always assumed to reflect an element of doubt on the part of the person i.e. "I don't think so .... but I may be wrong." 

If you are adamant that the negative opinion is correct [for example using one of the examples in the associated lesson] "I don't think María is jealous," couldn't that also be taken as a clear statement of my opinion without any doubt in my head at least? This would be possible in English. In which case would it be expressed differently in Spanish for example "Estoy seguro de que María no es celosa."

Saludos. John

Hola,

Could you shed some light on why that is used here, please?

Es fantástico que ellos estén a salvo.

Gracias,