Spanish language Q&A Forum

This is more of a complaint that a question. There is confusion in tense nomenclature. What is often referred to here as Pretérito Perfecto is really Pretérito Perfecto Compuesto.  

The Pretérito Perfecto Simple is referred to Pretérito Indefinido.  The action in the Pretérito Perfecto Simple has definitely been "perfected".   When doing quizzes quickly I often make a mistake when the Pretérito Perfecto is asked for. It would be nice if a uniform terminology were used in the teaching of Spanish

In Spanish, the structure "Tan...como" is referred to as a "comparative structure".

What is the name of the structure that utilizes "Tan...que"?

Can you guys give us a full breakdown of what things (verbs) use the third person "they did this for me" but it's translated in English as "I had done." ?? It's very confusing and it seems kinda random what things you can use this with or not. The only reason I even knew that this structure existed is because I have some Mexican family members who use this structure but in English. For instance they might they "they're fixing the car right now." But they mean they're having the car fixed for them right now. 

In some lessons you guys mention personal care "being done for oneself" but it's still first person, like cutting hair, doing nails. I'm just confused as to when it's ok to use third person or not. 

Most enjoyable, perfectly spoken and easy to follow. Thanks. But what is a "menina"? It's not in my Larousse dictionary . . .

I saw it in spain and "IT WAS WONDERFUL". Shouldn't it be in Imperfecto because we are kind of giving description here of how it was. But it was marked wrong. It was "fue marvillosos" . Please answer???  

Dear Kwiziq,

In virtually all of the dictations I have completed, I have found that it is quite difficult to discern when a sentence ends based on the speakers voice. This is to say, the speaker lowers his/her voice in a way that implies the end of a sentence, but when the answer is shown it becomes apparent to me that the lowering of the speaker's voice was actually meant to convey a pause. Is this the natural way hispanohablantes speak --- whether from Spain or Central/South America?  Of course, as recommended, I do listen to the dictation before attempting to write it out, but I cannot memorize where sentences end vs. when there is a pause in the speaker's speech. Consequently, I'm constantly guessing at when the sentence ends. I am a native English speaker and typically, when translating spoken English to written form, lowering of the voice signifies a period --- not a pause (comma). As such, I often find it confusing (indeed, quite frustrating) to differentiate pauses from ends of sentences in the Kwiziq dictation exercises.

Pati Inez Ecuamiga

How to differentiate "Hay" from "Tener"?

Judging by the very high quality of Spanish tuition offered by Kwiziq, I'm sure that you would like to ensure that your texts, too, always convey correct information. A "lunation" takes about 29½ days [this is an average, sometimes it can be several hours longer, or shorter] - not 28. So the moon does not perform 13 orbits every year. Instead, 12 of its circuits are completed in 354 days, so an Islamic year is usually about 11 days shorter than [our] Gregorian year.

The answer says:  Pasó dos días sumergido en plena naturaleza sin que nadie lo molestara enviándole mensajes o llamándolo.

Can you also say: Pasó dos días sumergido plena naturaleza sin que nadie le molestara enviándole mensajes o llamándole.

Is this  Spain vs Latin America  grammar?    Also, in general, I thought molestar was an inverted verb like gustar and required "le."

I understand it grammatically or literately. What I am trying to figure out is what the semantics is. The sentence seems breaking the semantic chain of the text. What is the author trying to tell us?