Spanish language Q&A Forum

Regardless of gender, would you always use un when talking of self?  For instance, Soy un cocinera mala. 

There are a number of good questions below about the use of the preterite vs the imperfect.  There is some confusion about the speaker choosing to bend the rules in order to express an action in a certain way.  This is a very useful topic and might be a good lesson of its own, "When the speaker bends the rules for a specific reason".

How would you say, "They work as much as they play," meaning quantity of time they spend? 

¿«Trabajan tanto como juegan.»?

But if you say, "They work as well as they play," meaning with the same quality of enjoyment, ¿would you say, 

«Trabajan tan como juegan.»?

Can you use the preposition "con" after the article instead to denote posession? For example: 

-La mujer de allá es muy guapa. 

-¿Qué mujer?

-La con la blusa roja. 

Would that be correct? Thanks

I know a lot of people have brought up the fact that seguir + present participle and continuar  + present participle have the same meaning, so they selected one answer which was marked as incorrect. I realize that the question specified that multiple answers could be correct but the fact that so many people were confused by this makes me think it wasn’t very clear. Maybe you should instead say “Select all of the correct answers” instead. Anyway, I do have an actual question - is there any subtle difference between the two, or any situations in which you would use one over the other? Does it vary by country or region? Just curious. Muchísimas gracias, y que tenga un buen fin de semana!

Thank you Silvia,

You write that  "for" in 

"she has made many sacrifices for her children"

implies a cause / an originating reason.

If so, why  "for" in 

"she has made many books for her children"

does not imply a cause?

Also, is the following ungrammatical:

"Ha hecho muchos sacrificios para sus hijos."

¿Podría ser correcto usar ambas verbos en el pretérito indefinido para decir algo diferente? 

Por ejemplo "cuando vine a casa, ví el nuevo coche" en vez de "cuando venía a casa, ví el nuevo coche", para decir que lo ví inmediatamente después de que hubiera llegado (una acción cumplida, no interrumpida). 

Eso me parecería lógico y algo similar sí se puede usar en inglés, pero  ¿tiene sentido o es correcto en Español, o hay una forma distinta de decir algo así?

Espero que lo haya explicado suficiente claro... Muchas gracias.

Suggestion, along with having vocabulary words presented before each exercise also have the lessons that one should have done/review prior to doing the exercise.  For example, somehow I did missed the lesson on conjugating in the near future lesson, and I was lost with those sentences.  Thanks.

Hi, why is preterite used here instead of the imperfect? The preterite implies that Ustedes no longer exist.

What is the indirect object pronoun for

A Javier ya a Sara ____