Spanish language Q&A Forum

Why does sentence need A at the beginning? (The other examples don’t have it). 

Thanks very much

Shirley

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".

Hola,

In the sentence above, which was in a test today, is 'la' necessary?  I would have thought that it would be 'de educación'.

By the way, I cannot type accents in this dialogue box, I cut and paste from my word processor.  Is there a way to type accents in here?

Also another answer is mixed up:

Prefiero ________ armario porque es más grande. because it is bigger.)I prefer that wardrobe (over there(HINT: The speaker is referring to a wardrobe that is far away from the speaker and the listener.)

Gracias y saludos,

Colin

I like to think that if neither the speaker nor the listener can SEE what they are talking about, then we use allí.  Would this work?

Marcos

The lesson says that gustaría is only used in the third person singular. However, what if the things that would be liked are nouns, not verbs. Wouldn’t the plural be used to reflect this, as an example “nos gustarían unas cervezas” - we would like some beers?

During the translation process, these possible answers were displayed:

>

The best answer is:

La prosperidad es representada por el buey [> thus, my answer "está representada" was marked wrong]

You could also say:

La prosperidad es representada con el buey, 

Or also:

La prosperidad es simbolizada por el buey, 

Or also:

La bonanza está representada con el buey,

- . - . - . -

It seemed to me that this particular passive construction focussed on the *result* rather than the action, so I used "estar"... It is interesting that you do allow the use of an "estar" passive with "bonanza", but not with the others; (is there therefore something different about the word "bonanza"?)

- . - . - . -

However, in the opening sentence: "El año chino es representado cada año con un animal", I think I can see how in this particular sentence we are focussing on the action (rather than the result).

- . - . - . -

We discussed this point in the Q&A of Forming the Spanish passive voice with ser + participle (+ por) (passive - simple tenses) - and I mentioned it again in Forming the Spanish passive voice with ser + participle (+ por) (passive - simple tenses)

Hi, the question is "Which of the following expressions are followed by the subjunctive?"

And the options are: Tememos que , Es incierto que, Es verdad que,Es cierto que.

I say confusing becasue in fact all 4 can be use with subjunctive but just becasue not all answers fall in doubt or uncertain, the system marked me wrong. Maybe you can consider changing the options?

If the main clause uses a tense that implies a past action, for example El Pretérito Indefinido or El Pretérito Pluscuamperfecto,then the por si/por si acaso clause uses a past tense.

Habríamos is conditional tense