Spanish language Q&A Forum

#46. I must be missing something. Why is seguí estudiando better than continué estudiando?

In a test, I got the question "Yo _____ mis manos en el agua". The verb was sumergir. Is it more correct to say "mis manos" here than "las manos" and if so, why? Are there certain verbs you are more likely to or would always use the possessive rather than definite?

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. 

¡Hola a todos!

Me ha gustado mucho esta lectura, pero quiero dejar un comentario.**

El autor escribe:

"Finalmente, quiero ver el amanecer sobre el Océano Pacífico, en Ciudad de Panamá, y el atardecer en el Océano Atlántico, en Colón."

Nunca he estado en Ciudad de Panamá. Dicho esto, ¿alguien ha visto salir el sol sobre el Océano Pacífico desde la costa oeste de Panamá? O, ¿ha visto ponerse el sol sobre el Atlántico en una playa de Colón?, en la costa este de Panamá?    ;>)

**Utilicé DeepL translator y SpanishChecker para ajustar mi composición. Los errores son míos.

The vocabulary and long sentences should make this type of story A2 or even higher. Eamples, bodegon to mean still life and lienzo. I wish there were some easier real A1 stories for me to start with. I either have to forget them or spend a lot time 

I interpret "es" as "is", so how/why is "He" assumed for "Es un excelente actor." -> "He is an excellent actor"?

Va a estudiar medicina por seguir la tradición familiar.

Le dieron el trabajo por ser el primo del director.

I think these sentences would be better translated as:

She is going to study medicine because it's the family tradition.

He was given the job for being the manager's cousin.

So, I'm trying to solidify this idea in my head by contrasting it with the imperfecto de subjuntivo. Is the subordinate clause not in the subjunctive here because the speaker (presumably the 3rd party and the person repeating the statement) take for granted the factual of the idea (ie in the sentence "el hombre de tiempo dijo que llovería hoy" that the idea that it is going to rain is considered a fact, and not a supposition. 

Estoy wondering que es la differencia entre Español spoken ayer than in Latin American. I know  “ll” is a hard L ( ama-re-lia) instead of a soft double LL as used in la palabra “amarillo” in Latin America. What are some other differences?