Spanish language Q&A Forum

For this question:  Es improbable que los niños ________ la puerta. These options show as correct:  hayan roto / rompieran.  I understand hayan roto, as the impersonal beginning signifies "subjunctive", and the event is in the past. However, I learned at a language school in Cuernavaca that present tense statements (es improbable) could only match with haber + participle, and that only past events (eg "era improbable" could match with imperfect subjunctive (rompieran). The teachers made a big deal out of that. However here it shows up as a legitimate option. Can you explain?  Thank you.

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

It only says "We can also form the superlative of some adverbs with the suffix -ísimo", but not which ones these are. 

There's something on cerca & lejos, but how about other irregular adverbs (those having an independant form, like bien)?

It seems these would not have any -ísimo from, as I neither found "lo hiciste bienísimo" nor "lo hiciste buenísimo", but solely "lo hiciste muy bien".

The word "ambiente" was new to me.  I'm surprised that for a beginner lesson/practice that a "hint" wouldn't have been given for this word which I wouldn't consider a part of basic vocabulary for beginners. 

Is there any guidance at all as to which of the accepted placement options is preferred in a given situation? Is the choice totally down to the speaker? Which option is/are most commonly used?

FYI...This answer was marked incorrect:

Yo coincido contigo en ese tema. I agree with you on that subject.HINT: Conjugate "coincidir" in El Presente

When I ask a question I would like to see if other people have asked a similar question, but when I try to search for my question, no search is done; I am only allowed to ask a new question.

Gracias, Jaime 

why is this not accepted as correct when A mí me molesta.... is?

I did not see any discussion as to whether you can split the pronouns and put just one on the end of the infinitive/gerund:

Tengo un libro nuevo y me quierolo  leer pronto.

Tengo un libro nuevo y lo quierome  leer pronto.  (pronoun ordering???)

Would either of these forms be acceptable?

Hi Silvia. In the example, "Tal vez yo haya estudiado mucho para el examen," the English translation says, "I might have studied a lot for the exam".  Is that "I might have studied a lot" in the sense "maybe I would have studied a lot [if I had time?"] Or "Perhaps (it possible) I studied a lot for the exam"? Both?

Oh wait, after writing this I realized that the sentence perhaps means, "I should have studied a lot for the exam.” We Americans almost never use the word “might” in this sense. I’m not sure how much you Brits (all British residents) do. Is this the sense in which it is used here?