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Questions answered by our learning community with help from expert Spanish teachers
5,954 questions • 9,734 answers • 990,587 learners
Though it is a bit formal sounding, another way to translate the passive form in English referring to a '"general you", i.e. people in general ', is "ONE must/can...". For example "One must always tell the truth".
I find that helps me differentiate between "you must" - debes (a specific person), and the passive "One must" - se debe (people/individuals in general)
I am interested in the reasoning for using "los cuales" in "no se sabe si permitirán a los niños a llevar sus móviles apagados dentro de sus mochilas, los cuales podrán encender al final del día". My understanding is that "que" is used by default when referring to a specific noun, in this case "sus móviles", while "el/la/los/las cuales" is an optional, more formal alternative. But in my answer the simple "que" was deemed incorrect. Is this because the "que" would refer to "sus mochilas", being the noun immediately preceding, so the "los cuales" is required to disambiguate? Or have I misunderstood something more basic?
In the quiz I just did, the question was: “¡Qué ________ tiene ese hombre!” and the answer was manazas. Is there a reason that Mano with an “o” ending becomes Manazas and not Manazos? Is it simply because Mano is feminine even though it ends with an “o”?
In the writing challenge 'Melon with ham' we are asked to translate "You just need to cut some melon slices"
I wrote "Solo necesitas cortar algunas rodajas de melón" and it was corrected with "unas rodajas".
I understood these were interchangeable, and I'm yet to find any definitive to the contrary. Could someone please explain my error here?
Saludos
Hi, from previous discussions I understands there's no easy to identify "ser" and "estar", however may I confirm "en" must come with "estar". And if I see "a/al" it must come with "ir" (ir and ser have same El Pretérito Indefinido)?
Thank you, Hayley
Hola,
Could we say something like ‘qué menos poco’, etc, to emphasise to an even greater extent the very little of the action/ verb that is going on?
Gracias,
I've been taught that this usage of the passive voice is discouraged in English, especially in formal writing, and especially when the active voice is easily possible. Is the same true in Spanish? Thank you!
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