Spanish language Q&A Forum

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

Why is "unas técnicas básicas" wrong?

I shouldn’t have been marked wrong by answering 2 questions just because I entered the word into the box that is to the right of the box. 

I've seen your lessons on que without an accent including one on que used in question format with indicative to indicate disbelief.  But my question is about que without an accent in declarative statements that seem to show emphasis or surprise.

I can think of one example.  "Ahora que recuerdo!"

Is there a lesson on this type of que or can you explain it a little? Is it simply emphasis and can I use it an any sentence where I want to put emphasis?

Thanks, Philip

Just curious, does the intonation of the voice rise at the end of the sentence with this type of usage of "que" as it does in yes or no questions in Spanish? 

Or, does it fall, as in declarative sentences in Spanish.

Ex. Que tienes novio?   Does voice rise at end as with a yes/no question or drop as in a statement.

Thanks!

Philip

One question on a quiz I just took was something like 

 _________ menos me impresiona del cuadro es el color. (What impresses me least about this picture is the color.) 

I entered 'Lo que el,' which was wrong.  The correct response was 'Lo que.'  To me, this seems to mean 'What impresses me less..., ' and it strikes me as a tricky combination of the lessons about 'lo que, etc', and 'el menos/la menos etc.'  The lesson that I was referred to for review was the 'lo que etc.' lesson, but I found no example of it used immediately followed by a superlative.  

It's been my understanding that an article is required to form a superlative (as in - menos=less, el/la/los/las/lo menos=the least).  So it seems that the superlative article gets dropped immediately after 'lo que?'  What if the sentence had been constructed slightly differently, 'Lo que me impresiona el menos del cuadro es el color?'