Aunque + subjunctive in the sense "Even though ..."
As Inma says, sometimes it is quite difficult to draw a 'sharp line' between occasions when we should, and when we should not use the subjunctive.
My grammar book [by Butt & Benjamin] offers a simple and interesting guideline to help decide which would be best in the context of "aunque, referring to present [and also past] events". As is to be expected, expressing something in the subjunctive "strengthens the concession". Thus, they suggest that if you can translate it as "even though ...", then the subjunctive will be more appropriate:
"Even though you don't like films, you will like this one" >
"Aunque no te gusten las películas, ésta te va a gustar".
The Butt & Benjamin "rule" is of course quite consistent here with the concept of "shared information which is known both by the speaker and by the listener".
Butt & Benjamin cite another example [quoting a Peruvian Scholar]:
"I'll never blame Octavia, even though I may have tried to sometimes" >
"Jamás culparé a Octavia, aunque lo haya intentado alguna vez".
In the lesson it says convertirse en and hacerse can both be used to talk about a career change with the former indicating a more drastic change. However in the quiz both answers are listed (for a sentence about a career change) but only hacerse is marked as being correct.
Hola,
Is there any way I can get help besides taking quizzes here to understand the difference between Estar and Ser uses?
As written in the title, it seems like they contradict themselves.
One of the questions for this section was
Yo soy directora en una empresa. (I am a company manager).
Wouldn't it be better to say
Yo soy directora de una empresa. ?
As if Spanish doesn’t involve enough ambiguous distinctions (par vs. para, ser vs. estar, pretérito indefinido vs imperfecto, etc., etc.). Does this issue (perfecto vs. I defy) pertain to Spanish usage outside of Spain? Spoken as well as written Spanish? Me vuelve loco. Español es como una mujer ambigua, seductora, y mandona . Bellísima y llena de contradicciones, me vuelve loco
Why is my answer wrong, I have used desde but the tense is marked wrong
I've = I have
so why not present perfect?
As Inma says, sometimes it is quite difficult to draw a 'sharp line' between occasions when we should, and when we should not use the subjunctive.
My grammar book [by Butt & Benjamin] offers a simple and interesting guideline to help decide which would be best in the context of "aunque, referring to present [and also past] events". As is to be expected, expressing something in the subjunctive "strengthens the concession". Thus, they suggest that if you can translate it as "even though ...", then the subjunctive will be more appropriate:
"Even though you don't like films, you will like this one" >
"Aunque no te gusten las películas, ésta te va a gustar".
The Butt & Benjamin "rule" is of course quite consistent here with the concept of "shared information which is known both by the speaker and by the listener".
Butt & Benjamin cite another example [quoting a Peruvian Scholar]:
"I'll never blame Octavia, even though I may have tried to sometimes" >
"Jamás culparé a Octavia, aunque lo haya intentado alguna vez".
‘The local police has captured the murderer.’
I’d say this should be ‘have captured’ in English, ‘has’ sounds unnatural to me
Why don’t “senderismo, escalada y snowboard” have definite articles?
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