Spanish language Q&A Forum

Spanish speakers seem to habitually use the imperfect tense for "deber" where English speakers would use the past tense, e.g.,

"Paul owed her his life" => "Pablo le debía la vida" instead of "Pablo le debió la vida"

"You guys must've figured something out" => "Debíais haber descubierto algo" instead of "Debisteis haber haber descubierto algo"

... and sometimes where English speakers would use the present tense, e.g., "But the Lord said he must go to Ninevah" => "Pero el Señor insistió en que debía ir a Nínive" instead of "Pero el Señor insistió en que debe ir a Nínive."

They also use the imperfect in situations that seem to call for a past-tense conditional ("should have"):

Si querías baile, debías haber recurrido a mí  => If you wanted dancing, you should have come to me

I would have expected "Si querías baile, deberías haber recurrido a mí" (should have). Sometimes I do see "deberías haber" for "should have", and I can't see any pattern to why one is chosen instead of the other.

In some cases, the imperfect is used where the present-tense conditional seems clearly called for, e.g., "debias esperar hasta que llamara" for "you should wait until he calls." There's nothing past-tense-ish about that sentence.

"deberían" ('they should") in particular is used interchangeably with "debían" (literally "in the past they must"), and neither is used for past-tense "they should have".

Can someone explain how Spanish speakers conceptualize these tenses of "deber"?  Does the choice of tense work the same way for "deber" as "owe" and "deber" as "must", or are they treated differently?

I don’t understand why “mira” is made to match with “tú” and “mire” with “Usted”. Shouldn’t “Usted” match both?

I was told in writing here in this app (and in another Spanish app) that when saying what you are (what your profession is), you do not put an article before the name of your occupation.  Example:  “Mi papá es médico.” (My dad is a doctor.) - No un of una.  I took a test here earlier today and someone is a carpenter.  I left out the article and was correct.  Did I miss an exception?  I will say that in this test, it was the person saying what their own profession is. “Yo soy un ?”  I’ve already forgotten what the job was.  Can anyone let me know?  Gracias. 

The audio is “Le dije que podía usar su movil cuando terminase su deberes...”

The written statement is ”Podría usar su movil cuando...”

Does the imperfect also trigger the imperfect subjunctive? Or is podía in the audio incorrect?

Thanks

Shirley

Why does Aunque SEA por uno minutos or Aunque ESTEMOS encerrados use subjunctive?

Luis y yo no hemos roto ________ nos hemos dado un tiempo para pensar.

Luis and I haven't broken up but we gave each other some time to think.

I don't understand why this sentence doesn't use pero. Doesn't it make a contrast or limitation to the idea expressed in the previous clause?

I was marked wrong for answering "Nosotros LES damos juguetes a nuestros hijos" instead of just "damos" I thought that the indirect object pronoun HAD to be used. What am I missing? When should I be using it? 

Thanks.

Dicha ejemplo, eso es, " Nos costo mucho" = It was difficult, la significa del  verbo COSTARSE en este contexto = i find it hard to/ difficult to in the sense of speaking to someone...... Esta razon.

   BARRY.

Hola,

I just have a general suggestion for these listening exercises. 

When sentences are split in many parts I often forget what the first parts were and who or what actually the subject was. It would help immensely, if I could still see the first parts of the sentence, which I already solved, while I'm listening to the next part. Maybe you can think about introducing that at some time in the future.

Thanks!