Spanish language Q&A Forum

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. 

Hello,

Why, for the translation of 'he is at his mother's house' is the spanish version 'el esta en casa de su madre' and not 'el esta en LA casa de su madre'? It feels strange that this article is dropped.

Thanks!

Whenever I click "estas/eres" for the informal/formal where are you from question, it says its wrong and corrects it to "de donde son". The lesson doesn't mention "son" at all.

The quiz question I got for this lesson was:

“No entiendo (qué) te molesta tanto de mí.”

Is there a difference between saying the sentence above and saying “No entiendo lo que te molesta tanto de mí.” ?

HI

I used 'cuando suene la alarma' and was corrected to 'cuando suena la alarma'. I notice that an alternative could be 'cuando suene el despertador' so would my original translation, using the subjunctive with 'la alarma', be ok to use?

Many thanks

Dee

Is there a rule for choosing between the preterite + present participle and the imperfect + present participle eg:

Estuvimos hablando con la gente/Estábamos hablando con la gente

Hola,

I have just completed a test with the above sentence to be completed with an adverb.

I do not have a problem with the adverb but with this part of the sentence:

... no nos quedan más ...

Can you please explain how the above equals 'we have no more' in English?  I wonder why it is quedan and not quedamos.

Many thanks for you help.

Saludos,

Colin

Can anyone explain why the following answer options are all punctuated with a semicolon?  Is this the correct use of a semicolon in Spanish?  In English, it would be a comma instead of a semicolon.

Added by Kent to his previous question [posted about six days ago] entitled Word Order > He went on to ask: "What about noun verb order? An example would be Aquí la gente sale mucho por la noche - or Aquí sale la gente mucho por la noche".

From David M - [an attempt to throw some light on the matter]:

My grammar book [by Butt & Benjamin] devotes the whole of its chapter 37 to discussing word order, in addition to mentioning it several times elsewhere.

It says: "Adverbial phrases of place especially favour the 'Verb before Subject' order" - which would suppport the option: "Aquí sale la gente mucho ...".

It also says: "When the verb is intransitive, inversion is usual"; [i.e., verb first].

It adds that these 'rules' are not rigid.

Reply from Kent:

More good info David. Gracias otra vez. Claramente hay algunas áreas grises

I'm still a little confused about how to determine which to use - cual or que. In this lesson, you have an example that says: 

"En esta tienda hay flores bonitas, ¿cuáles prefieres?