Spanish language Q&A Forum

Hi,

I seem to have a technical problem with this lesson. My progress has not been increasing anymore after 94.7% no matter how often i take quizzes including this lesson. Please help.

Thanks,

Deborah

The correct answer for "Maybe I should sleep less" is given as: "Tal vez debería dormir menos tiempo", using the conditional. However, under "Your Practice" we are directed to: https:// + "spanish.kwiziq.com/my-languages/spanish/view/5084" - which helps us to choose between: "Using El Subjuntivo or El Indicativo ... [after tal vez and quizás - to express doubt]".

After reading this chapter and the comments I think there is an English usage that is very similar and helps to explain it a little more clearly.  We have the structure "to have got(ten)...done."  (instead of I have done 3 things). Like in Spanish, it usually means that you've done several things toward your goal and you have gotten them out of the way.

e.g. 

I've painted three rooms.  He pintado tres habitaciones.

I've gotten three rooms painted, or I got three rooms painted.  Tengo pintadas tres habitaciones.

You can apply that formula to all the other examples.  Helped me to understand this much better.

Same thing with:

The book has (gotten) me interested.

El libro me tiene interesado. 

This sounds like an amazing hotel! All that yummy food too! I would certainly spend a week there. So, if you could note the address I'd be most grateful, haha

Why isn’t this considered an action that started in the past and is still ongoing?

On the MacBook how do I make the upside down question mark at the beginning of a question?

What an explosion of vocabulary! Does the average hispanohablante use such an extensive vocab? Really good audio. thanks again, I enjoy every one of them . . .

Que Onda

I've been studying Spanish for a while and this concept has still eluded me. I was taught that the structure "creo que..." triggers indicative because the speaker believes it to be true while "no creo que..." is subjunctive because it is not a belief asserted by the speaker. However, in English, we might say "I think..." in two different scenarios with different meanings. 

"I think..." could signify me asserting my belief about something such as, "I think the best designer is Gucci," where one could replace, "I think" with "In my opinion" to create a sentence with the same meaning. This example more or less aligns with what I believe the function of the indicative is. 

However, we often use "I think..." to indicate our speculation or doubt about a situation. For example, if someone asks "Hey, did Joe leave already" I might respond "I'm not sure, I think so." In this case, I'm expressing doubt by using "I think" in this context. I'm not trying to say "I [definitely] think Joe left" because I'm not sure if he actually did, and I'm not necessarily sure if I'm giving the right information so I want to imbue this statement with doubt, wait...

While writing this I'm realizing that all the examples I've written could be written in another way that is conducive to the formula for using the subjunctive. Rather than translating "I think that..." as in my second example with Joe, it would be better for me to use a structure that starts with "dudo que..." or "es posible que..." to better convey the meaning of uncertainty or doubt that I'm intending to. I suppose the issue I had was that "creo que" always meant to me "I think" or "I believe" when really a better translation would be just "to believe" since "to think" has some ambiguity in its meaning when translated to English. 

I know this is post was pretty drawn out and I've already answered my question, but I'll still post it anyway just in case someone more knowledgeable wants to add on or correct something I've said. Or, maybe someone else will find it useful.

Saludos

Nathan