Spanish language Q&A Forum

I always equate 'impersonal' with 'passive', as they seem to express the same thing. And, I've always used 'se' to express passive. So using third person is new to me, and I'm confused by this lesson and a question Kwiziq asked me to translate: 

'They took ages to build the hospital'

 among the choices were:

Han tardado mucho en construir el hospital (correct)

Se han tardado mucho en construir el hospital (incorrect)

Can someone explain why the second one is wrong.

Here are two other similar examples I found on Kwiziq that relate to this:

Tardaron mucho en construír los apartamentos = It took a long time to build the apartments.

Se tardó mucho en construir este hospital = It took (them, whoever built it) a long time to build this hospital.

What is the rule regarding seasons of the year. When do we use the definite article el and when not. En el invierno/en invierno.

Thank you

The first person plural of present tense "to work" is nosotros trabajamos. The simple past is also nosotros trabajamos. Is the difference in translation based on context?  I may be overthinking this, but say it's noon and my mom asks me "how are you guys doing?" "Como estan?" and I reply "nosotros trabajamos."  Am I saying "we work (later) today" or "we worked (this morning)"?  I guess I'm supposed to follow this up with "esta manana" or "despues" to avoid confusion?

Select the option with the verb in the correct form of the imperfect tense.

Can we use parar synonymously as dejar or are these terms used in different contexts?

I am unsure why you choose imperfect for being able to see the view on that particular occasion. 

Hola,

I took the full-in-the-blanks quiz "Asando Castañas" today and one of the blanks, where I should choose between El Subjunctivo Presente and El Indicativo Presente, was the following:

muchas personas se suman a ella con tal de pasar un buen rato,hasta que ______ (llega/llegue) el amanecer.

Apparently the correct answer was El Indicativo (llega not llegue), but I don't understand why. Isn't sunrise a future event that is yet to happen and therefore the sentence requires El Subjunctivo?

Thanks as always!

Deborah

An example given in the lesson Dejar vs Dejarse suggests the following:

Dejad que os explique mis planes = Let me explain my plans to you

Firstly, I guess subjunctive is being used here because it adds an extra level of politeness to this request? 

However, if I was asked to translate this from English to Spanish I would probably use the indicative: Déjame explicarte mis planes.

So, is my translation wrong? Or is it, let's say, simply less refined? If so, would my translation be quite acceptable if I was talking to a close friend for instance? 

Saludos