Spanish language Q&A Forum

Please explain 'al' in Mis amigos sintieron una gran alegría al verme.

Gracias,

Ricky

I love this article!  I spent over two years in the ROP and I loved the people!  I think an article on how Spanish affected the major indigenous language Tagalog would be fascinating.  For example the Tagalog greeting "Komo staka" is very close to Como esta and the term for very good "may sarap" is from muey sabroso.  (My spelling of Tagalog words are probably wrong.)  I also remember that the word for stop in Tagalog is "parar".  I know that during my time of the ROP I never heard anyone speak in Spanish.  I only wish that I had known some Spanish back then (circa 1977-1980).  It certainly would have helped me to learn more Tagalog phrases.  

There was a question in the test where the correct answer was:
´Las islas canarias SON en el oceáno atlántio´

Why is it ´SON´ and not ´ESTÁN´?

Why is it "Mi abuela sabia cocinar", but "Mi abuela supo cuidarme muy bien"?  Shouldn't both sentences be in imperfect tense? My assumption is that the action is descriptive and doesn't have a definite start or end.

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!

Can they be used synonymously? What is the difference in meaning and use between the two?

I believe that a couple of the examples used are commands (Imperatives), not subjunctive.  Please clarify. Thanks

example:

¿Dígame? - Hola, ¿puedo hablar con Juan?[on the phone, lit: speak to me] Hello?  - Hello, may I speak to Juan?

Why is it ‘hacer la lumbre en la cocina', then later ‘hacer el fuego'? Is it because, the second time, we are more focused on actually getting a fire going, and the first time we're thinking about the type of fire?

That guy worked for us for a few months.

why are we not translating the second for in the sentence: 'for a few months'?

Should it not be: Durante unos meses?