Spanish language Q&A Forum

Like Alan, I was puzzled by the use of the subjunctive in some of your examples, particularly this one:

"Coge un par de plátanos, los que estén más maduros" - because to me it seemed that the speaker had indeed noticed that some of the bananas were riper than others. Maybe it makes sense, though, if s/he had not yet seen them - but in this latter case s/he would probably have said: "Coge un par de plátanos, preferentemente dos que estén más maduros" - [is that correct?] 

I can understand the use of the subjunctive when it is referring to the future - e.g., your sentence-example which begins: Quienes lleguen… [because it is not yet known who will reach the top first].
 

In your example: "Esa chica me parece de lo más insensata" you used a feminine adjective?

In the quiz, I got the sentence

Antes de que tú digas nada, .... ( before you say anything )

Why is 'nada' here ? Can it be 'algo' ?

Another example from the other lesson is, though I don't remember the exact phase but it's like

No creo que hayan llegado todavía.

The original phase to be denied should be 'han llegado ya'. Again, why it changed to 'todavía' ?

I agree that whole expression has something negative, which hasn't happened yet. But I'm confused, because the phase in 'que' is totally affirmative.

So the expression in 'que' isn't independent from its use ? And how ?

what does afueras de la ciudad mean? 

 Al haberse portado tan mal, lo expulsaron del colegio.

the pronoun se came right after haber not after portado nor in front of haber.

This is different from any other rules I knew, like:

Me lo dijo. Me lo ha dicho. Dímelo ! Quiero dárselos.

So which rule applies to this ? 

FYI: this sentence in English is incorrect.

I bought her some books about Mexico in case they were useful for his trip to Acapulco.

"in case they would be useful"

Finding this lesson on Kwiziq has proved a real revelation for me!  I've been learning Spanish for the last 3-4 years through online courses geared toward Latin American Spanish and wasn't aware of this difference. I've always been aware of some regional vocabulary differences but, since I've geared my learning toward Peninsular Spanish (which I need), I'm now finding quite a few grammatical differences too. I had seen the perfect used in this way in El País articles and books etc but I'd not been able to find any resource that actually explained it... until now! 

Could you answer how specific times might influence choose of tense? 

I spoke to him at 3am this morning 

His flight left at 6pm today

These specific times seem to indicate start and finish times. Do they point toward preterite?