Spanish language Q&A Forum

Hola,

The last sentence says "Los pájaron volaban sobre nosotras.", shouldn't it be pájaros?

Obviously Hacer does not mean to walk and we already know that the Camino is a walking event. Wouldn’t it be better to just go ahead and translate as “doing the Camino?” Perfectly acceptable English and a more accurate translation, it would seem.

Que tiene que tener un DNI para poder votar?     

In the beginning of the story, using present perfect was clear because she is saying that her best friend has come to visit.  Afterwards, when she is narrating what they did each day, we have specific time (the day mentioned) and what they did which to me seems to be how we use preterite for a specific time (day) in the past, so it is confusing to see present perfect for specific time events in the past.  Can you please explain why you continued to use pr. perfect and did not switch to another tense. To me (the "has come" in the beginning) would have been more appropriate with what they are going to do in the future since she mentions that "they have made tons on plans."

Is there a reason that the verb tense is "buscaria" "reduciria" instead of "busca" "reduce" etc.?

How can I unsubscribe from Spanish and keep only French? Do I need to delete the account in the spanish section? I am afraid that will delete my French lessons too...

Thank you in advance for your help :).

Hello Lawless Spanish,

I JUST found your excellent web site. I've been using various means to learn Spanish over the last 1.5 years, but your site seems to be the best resource so far. I'm still at A1 however.

Here's a thought that I'd be interested to know your opinion on. Often while reading an English interpretation of a Spanish phrase or sentence, I think I would like to have the more literal translation rather than the Spanish being re-worded in order to be a grammatical English sentence. Because I don't care about English grammar or want my English reinforced when I'm trying to understand how a Spanish speaker constructs their thoughts linguistically. Do you know what I mean?

Take the example from the first exercise I happened to land on,  Corro para estar en forma. It would be helpful to see a more literal translation, then I get a better idea of the words and structure a Spanish speaker uses. In the example, "estar en forma" is re-interpreted as "to keep fit." That is quite a departure from the literal. I think an English speaker is quite capable of recognizing a more literal translation "to be in form" because it is identical to the common English phrase "to be in shape." So while I know authors are trying to be helpful with English re-interpretations, I often feel cheated out of knowing a more literal construction and wording, and in the process authors may even be making less-accurate interpretations (such as "to keep fit" instead of the better "to be in shape."). What do you think?  

Just want to remind people that we use the infinitive when we have the same subject in both clauses.

Hi,

The link to the above takes you to a page with the sub-heading 'Spanish Present Perfect'.

I thought 'preterite' was always related to the past as it says in the text on that page. So, why is it present perfect in Spanish?

Thanks.

Colin