Spanish language Q&A Forum

As an extremely well-educated native North American speaker trying to learn Latin American Spanish, I find the semantics in this lesson frustrating. This is punctuated by all the comments seen here. There is insufficient context provided. For example (ignoring the hint since hints aren't given in real life), one of the quiz questions asks to translate: "They are having ice cream." I would immediately think "Están tomando helado." - or perhaps "desfrutando" given some of the loose lesson translations. However, to think: "Van a tomar helado." I need further context. For example: "They are having ice cream this afternoon." - "Van a tomar helado esta tarde." Otherwise in English you are much less ambivalent saying: "They are going to have ice cream." I understand both sides of the arguments and I fall more on the side of "They are going to have," but a better solution is to provide a more complete explanation and context in the lesson, after all, it is more common to say "They are going to have." Concede that we use the exact same literal expression in both Spanish and English but then take it further in the lesson to explain the nuanced differences in English thought compared to Spanish thought. 

La vendimia comienza en el antiguo Egipto. Por qué no el pretérito comenzó?

Hi,

Es esencial que haya un acuerdo entre ellos

1)It is essential that THERE IS an agreement between them. Using "there is" rather than "come". What do you think? Come implies in the future.

2)Why is "los pájaros irán HAYA donde comida" Why HAYA in the subjuntive

I’ve noticed that nouns with accents on the last syllable, such as el motín, el bastón, and el almacén, are masculine (of course the feminine ión ending is an exception).  Is this a general rule?  It helps to us automatically think of ataúd and laúd as masculine without having to remember them separately.

I looked on Wiktionary and noticed that ‘prediccion ‘ means ‘prediction’ in Spanish. When I took the quiz, why was ‘pronostico’ the correct answer?

I haven't seen this use of "que" before.

Ya son las tres. Andando, que llegamos tarde.  It's 3 already. Let's get a move on, we're late.

¡Corriendo que nos mojamos!  Hurry up, we're getting wet!

I like this.  Is there a lesson on it?

"Nicaragua está en el puesto número seis en la lista de ciudades seguras..." 

This has me confused because Nicaragua is not a city.  Maybe I'm misunderstanding the sentence?

Just wondering what triggers the subjunctive in this example sentence from the lesson:

Se trata de que nos reunamos para pasar un buen rato

Thanks.

To say sth is protected, are está and es interchangeable or is one preferred than the other?