Spanish language Q&A Forum

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

Hi,

I'm learning Spanish to keep up with my family (mixed origins from spain, latin america, south america, etc.) and I've noticed that I don't quite understand when the people I'm talking to prefer that I use formal or informal.

Are there any general guidelines or standards as for when one is more appropriate? Like if it's someone who is your senior or based on how close you are to each other? Or is this maybe not as big a deal these days as it might have been in the past?

Thanks, Dawn.

In a children's story, people named a baby tapir "Tapete". Does the name carry a meaning of affection by changing the word tapir and making it sound cute? Or do they just want to name the baby tapir with the meaning of the word "mat"? Thank you!

Hola,

Not sure I’m entirely clear on this usage...

I get the ‘to what’... but I was surprised that it also means ‘at what’ in the mini-quiz (thinking that was more naturally ‘en qué’). Don’t think I saw this referenced in the lesson?

Is that the extent of it? - use ‘a qué’ for:

- To what

- At what

Gracias,

Could I say La ultima vez que la vi fue hace...

¡Me encantó esto! 

Muchísimas gracias a Ana y a todo el equipo por este fantástico homenaje al maravilloso Miguel Delibes Setién :))

Saludos 

Clara 

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

hi. Im a litttle confused as to when we use "fui" to represent the past, and say "i was" vs "estuve" vs "era" .... To say, for instance, "i was en Mexico" I can say both "estuve en Mexico" and "fui en Mexico", whats the actual difference between the two...

thank you, Elaine

Tu novia y tú habéis estado comprometidos hasta este año.Your girlfriend and you have been engaged until this year.

The meaning is unclear to me — are they no longer engaged?  

Then, in my opinion,  the English should be:

..Your girlfriend and you.were engaged until this year, not have been. But maybe I do not understand what is being expressed in Spanish. In any case, the English sentence is not clear.