Spanish language Q&A Forum

Hola Inma,

No entiendo el uso de "a" en la siguiente frase: "Muchos años de trabajo y buen producto han convertido a esta denominación en la mejor garantía ..." ( párrafo 7). ¿ Es un error tipográfico o tiene algo que ver con el verbo convertir ? He buscado en el dictionario y solo he encontrado "convertir en" y "convertir a alguien a una idea". ¿ Me podrías explicar ?

Muchísimas gracias

Ελισάβετ

Is there a way to make flashcards and add these to notebooks? Thank you so much for everything. I love this site. 

this is a helpful lesson with good examples.

but I’m confused.  the lesson says:  The verb is conjugated in the 3rd person singular or plural, according to the subject in the sentence.

aren’t the singular or plural things the objects of the sentences?

Hola Inma,

I don't understand the use of subjunctive here:  "Nunca hubiera pensado". Why not había pensado ?

Un saludo coldial

Ελισάβετ

Hi,

Qu 10

It is good that you read every night..........why does READ have to be in the subjuntive

I think I've managed to wrap my head around how the passive works in a basic sense, but I'm wondering if anyone can offer, or refer me to, any guidance on WHEN to use different passive/impersonal forms, or how the nuances change? I know this is a rather broad question, so I'll try to narrow it down to a couple examples:

When is it prefered to use the true passive versus the se refleja form? for example, I was reading an article that said "las piedras habían sido extraídas de rocas que se formaron hace miles de millones de años." Here we have two different forms used in the same sentence! Could the writer have instead said "las piedras se habían extraído de rocas que fueron formado"--or some other combination--and if so are there different nuances?! Is one simply more formal? Or is there another specific reason the se pasiva wasn't use for one but it was used for the other? 

Also, I know this is a lot at once, but I'm struggling to grasp how the use of the passive with "se" differs from the use of the "ellos" impersonal construction. For example, if a house is under construction down the street, would you say "se construye una casa" or "construyen una casa" and if both are equally valid, how are the nuances different? And are there cases where one is possible but the other isn't? For instance, I've often noticed that when the object of an action is a person rather than a thing the action is often not expressed with se--the ellos form seems to be the choice in some cases like "le robaron" (but not "se robó"?). And yet... we do have "se buscan secretarias"? I can't quite see what is going on here...

Mil gracias in advance for any help on any of these questions... 

You might have fried too much the potatoes.

You might have fried the potatoes too much.  (Is better in English)