Spanish language Q&A Forum

"Oviedo is a city in the north of Spain" was missing from the translation?

Part of a sentence in the above exercise says "Donde se encerraba a los enemigos del castillo" Should encerraba not be plural i.e. encerraban? Is it singular because " a los enemigos" is indirect? I'm confused. Why not fueron encerrados?

In English, we often express the imperfect tense (a past habitual action) using the modal "would":

When I was young, I would eat sugar.

I can't find examples of the Spanish equivalent:

Cuando era joven, comería azúcar.

But just using the Spanish imperfect seems like it might be wrong:

Cuando era joven, comía azúcar.

... seems to translate literally as "When I was young, I was eating sugar", which doesn't seem to clarify that it was a habitual action rather than a one-time thing.

So, how would you say "When I was young, I would eat sugar" in Spanish?

On this question, "Me encantan los quesos franceses y las tartas ________." the correct answer is marked as francesas. 

Isn't the french cheese masculine, "el queso francés"? So isn't the answer franceses?

What other kinds of quizzes would you like to see on this site? One issue that I have encountered in the 'self-test' quizzes is that I can lazily rely on getting the answer by knowing that I'm going to get a question on a recent grammar point, etc, which means I'm not really thinking with any great depth, only assuming that the answer will be in reference to a recent lesson. For example, if I've just learned that por can refer to 'approximate location' I will know that that is going to be the answer when I encounter that kind of question (which might be amongst several conjugation type questions so will be even more obvious). I think the best way to address this is for the site to offer more general thematic quizzes to help consolidate certain points. For example, there could be a quiz on Por v Para which you could take after Stage A2. I would add these to the library as 'Consolidation Exercises'. Unfortunately, I think that our brains will always take the easiest route to the answer which isn't always the best way to learn. 

you hear - oyen but can hear is pueden oir, no?

Question on why the final bit "we were a little dizzy" should be conjugated in imperfect rather than simple past. I imagined that one moment in time when "we were dizzy" should be the opposite. I get that estar is often conjugated in imperfect, but this seems a lot like one moment that's no longer taking place, encapsulated in the past, not continuing and not one that lasted long (given that "we were *a little* dizzy.")  Help please?

I have noticed in general that spanish speakers have different intonations at the end of sentences or part of sentences which confuse the listener and in dictations result in incorrect  punctuation. 

Hi

9 Vosotros ________ solteros desde siempre. You guys have been single since always. The answer was estáis which would translate to  You guys are single since always.  I was looking for han estado for the answer.  Have I missed something?

Julie