Spanish language Q&A Forum

First, my dictionary has ser/estar(Spain) viudo, but I think it's even more complicated than a dialect issue. Here's a relevant discussion: https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/to-be-a-widow.596749/

Note that the discussion extends to several other relationship-like words such as soltero (but like viudo, these words are to my mind not relationship words, but rather civil/personal status words, which is why I think ser is often correct with them).

What is the difference between empezar and comenzar?  Are they synonyms or does one or the other apply in different situations?

Why is the answer documental not documentario?

I encountered the following question during an exercise at A1 level:

"Yo ______ mis manos en el agua. (I plunge my hands in the water.)"

It is my understanding that mi/mis should not be used with body parts or clothing. Could you please advise?

Thanks

   Por favor, how do I get and upside down question mark on on my keyboard?   I lost half a mark because I could not do this.  Sorry for the inconvenience.  Brenda True

Hi there.

I (a native Spanish speaker) heve been reading texts from the French version of this site for a couple weeks, and after learning that there is a version that teaches Spanish I've come to take a look out of curiosity.

And wow. After reading this text I'm quite sure I'm going to stop using this site to learn French, just in case the quality of the French texts is anything like that of this supposedly C1 Spanish text. That "habré" in the first sentence should be "tendré", most commas are misplaced and the connectors... I mean, I guess they sound correct if you have just read their meaning in a dictionary and have never heard anyone use them, but to a native they sound like Google Translate, or worse. The verb tenses used are also wrong. Technically ok if you've just read the relevant chapter in a grammar book, but an absolute pain for any native ears.

If a native speaker wrote this as a highschool composition their teacher would spend a whole red pen trying to correct it, and they might sent the author to the hospital just in case they have just had a concussion.

Later edit: sorry If I come up a little cranky and dismissive. I just feel like a fool after realizing that the quality of the texts I've been using for French reading practice is probably very low.

I have encountered real-life examples using both indicative and subjunctive with "una vez que..." and I'm just hoping to confirm or correct my understanding of how this works, please...? For examples, In an article about animals' senses of smell, in discussing the properties of volatile scent compounds I read "Una vez que se vaporiza, puede extenderse rápidamente por el aire" and in a tutorial for making tortillas mexicanas I found "Una vez que sepas cómo hacer tortillas..." I'm thinking that the first takes the indicative because its describing something factual understood to happen routinely, whereas the second takes the subjunctive because it's referring to something that from the writer's point of view hasn't happened yet or is more a hypothetical idea. Is this an accurate way to understand this or am I missing something...? If this is accurate, does it generally hold true with other, similar constructions like those discussed in this lesson? Thanks in advance, as I appreciate the help!