Spanish language Q&A Forum

I'm reassured to see that even Mexican reporters sometimes conjugate their verbs incorrectly.

The title of the question says it all!  Thanks.

 CORRECTION:Lucrecia earns a living by acting in comedies.....................In english you do not use the word LIFE in this sentence

As an extremely well-educated native North American speaker trying to learn Latin American Spanish, I find the semantics in this lesson frustrating. This is punctuated by all the comments seen here. There is insufficient context provided. For example (ignoring the hint since hints aren't given in real life), one of the quiz questions asks to translate: "They are having ice cream." I would immediately think "Están tomando helado." - or perhaps "desfrutando" given some of the loose lesson translations. However, to think: "Van a tomar helado." I need further context. For example: "They are having ice cream this afternoon." - "Van a tomar helado esta tarde." Otherwise in English you are much less ambivalent saying: "They are going to have ice cream." I understand both sides of the arguments and I fall more on the side of "They are going to have," but a better solution is to provide a more complete explanation and context in the lesson, after all, it is more common to say "They are going to have." Concede that we use the exact same literal expression in both Spanish and English but then take it further in the lesson to explain the nuanced differences in English thought compared to Spanish thought. 

I am trying to get my head around your example of probability needing the future tense:

 Estoy muy ocupada así que llegaré sobre las doce o doce y media.

Aunque with subjunctive when information is shared / background - why? I can't find this elsewhere, only that the subjunctive is used if the information is unimportant or irrelevant. Is this what this statement on 'shared' really means?

There are four examples given of fractions in the end of the lesson : 

 tres cuartos, 

dos decimos,

 tres octavos, 

 un septimo  

These examples are supposed to show the need for plurals when the numerator (top number) is more than one.  Unfortunately all the numbers choosen ( dos and tres) end in "s".  I found myself somewhat confused, and wondering if this meant that the top number should also  have an "s", por ejemplo sietes ochos instead of siete ochos.   

 It would be clearer if you used included a fraction that did not end in "s";  por ejemplo  cuarto octavos instead of tres octavos. 

Hola,

Would 'han estado viniendo' be an acceptable answer here?

Thanks,

Ben

Shouldn’t ‘tengo’ in the first line be ‘tenga’ in the subjunctive? Why isn’t it? 

"Tú ________ el primero de la lista." (You are the first on the list.)

I made a mistake on this one by using estar. My reasoning is it referred to a location (the first position on the list). It appears the answer you're looking for is to use ser, and that the recommendation is to treat the list and its contents as descriptive. 

Would this change if I said "You are the first in line?" Or should I still use the ser verb? Is it a description of a trait of the line, or is it a position that is relative?

Are these types of cases subjective? Or is it pretty common for everyone to use the same verb?