Spanish language Q&A Forum

I am finding the use of the verb Hay in tenses other Present Indicative confusing. Is it because the verb retains its multi purpose use of meaning? I mean, "hay" means both "there is" and "there are" in the Present Indicative, and "hubo" means "there was" and "there were", even though the following noun is plural? Also, after "si" when is "hubo" used in preference to "hubiera"?

The bot wants “para.” I can see how “para” works if the intention is to say they’ve scheduled their vacation to start at that time. But that’s not the intention that I get from the context. It seems more like this upcoming “puente” is a time period during which they’ll be on vacation and “por” is appropriate. 

Why does the use the preterite perfect rather than the simple preterite? 

A esto libro le faltan dos paginas. I found this sentence and him confused why we use a with it

In the example Nosotros podemos salir antes del trabajo temprano hoy, wouldn't it mean the same thing to say Nosotros podemos salir del trabajo temprano hoy.

Falta la DE, ¿no?

It seems I need to add more detail, so:

The drop-down menu for this question on forming the plural of nouns that end in -e gives four possible answers, none of which includes “de” after “especies”.

Puedo decir,  “para conocer a uno de mis actores preferidos”, también?

I just took a quiz that included this (correct) answer: "ya sea salado o dulce" to complete the sentence "Me encanta la cocina francesa...." Why doesn't the 1st adjective change to agree in gender with "cocina"? I picked it anyway, as there was no option with "salada" (and it was the best available  option) but it still struck me as incorrect.