Spanish language Q&A Forum

(1) Juan leyó más libros.

 (2) ¿A quién ha regalado Juan más libros? (Gramatica Descriptiva de Lengua Espanola 1999, p. 1181)

 Que yo sepa(cf. Rohena-Madrazo 2007 p.1), en (1) ‘más libros’ solo tiene una interpratación: comparativa, mientras que en (2) puede tener dos interpretaciones: comparativa o superlativa. Es decir, aunque en (2) no aparece el complemento restrictivo o coda superlativa, se puede interpretar como superlativa como (3).

 (3) ¿A quién de todos esos chicos ha regalado Juan más libros?

 Lo que me gustaría saber es qué es lo que hace posible que en (2) ‘más libros’ se pueda interpretar como superlativa. ¿ La frase-qu ‘a quién’ licenciaría tal interpretación? Es decir, la frase-qu ‘a quién’ jugaría un papel de asignarle  el significado superlativo a 'más libros'?

 ¿O el movimiento de ‘a quién’ al inicio de la oración(la posición de foco) crearía una circunstancia en que ‘más libros’ pueda obtener la interpretacion superlativa?

Muchas gracias por leer mi pregunta.

¡Hola, Inma!

En un intento de utilizarte como última opción, me he puesto en contacto con mi primo en Chile y mi amigo en Guatemala, pero ni siquiera pueden responder a mi pregunta, así que contaré con tu ayuda. 

Re: To arrange a date / to meet

The construction of He + Quedado + Con makes perfect when making simple two party statements, but what I cannot figure out is how to keep the same He + Quedado + Con structure when adding another party.

Example: 

I have arranged to meet the plumber at 4 PM = He quedado con el fontanero a las 4.

But... How do I keep the same structure and say, "I have arranged for US to meet the plumber at 4."?

Todas mis amigas españolas me dicen que no es posible con esta estructura de la oración, pero no lo creo.

Gracias, Pato Quique

When used as a compound adjective, as it is here, "last minute" requires a hyphen between "last" and "minute," thus: "last-minute." When it's inside a prepositional phrase, however, as in "he found offers at the last minute," no hyphen is necessary. 

This lesson says «present tense is used to talk about the past event», which is fine, in English too it happens.

However, there is another lesson in C1, «simple future or conditional tenses are also used» to talk about the past event.

Can someone please explain when to use the present tense, and when to use simple future/conditional to talk about the past event? Or, in the same situation, present tense and future/conditional tense is inter-changeable??

For "I was shaking", is  "estaba temblando" a valid answer?  If so, is there a difference between "estaba temblando" and "temblaba"?  Is there a time where it's more appropriate to use one over the other? thanks in advance!

Hi.

This is quite a comprehensive list to refer to people from Europe and most of North, Central and South America. I notice though that “hondureño” is missing from the list of Central American nationalities. Perhaps it could be added? Also, countries in Asia, Africa and Australasia are listed in the corresponding exercise on countries but not mentioned here. Perhaps the two lists could be tweaked to make them match up? And finally, why not list “Escocia”, “Inglaterra”, “Irlanda” “ Irlanda del Norte” and “Gales” in the list of countries (companion exercise) since people from those places would rarely say - at least initially - that they’re from the “Reino Unido”?

When do I use imperfect or preterito with past progressive

customer: quiero un café.

me: qué tamaño?

customer: pequeño por favor.

(the coffee shop in question has creative names for its sizes, so I often hold up a cup to clarify. :p)

me, holding up a small cup: cómo esto?

my understanding is that since the phrase "like this?" doesn't contain a noun after "this," then "esto" should be used. but technically we've been talking about "el tamaño," so is "este" correct instead? I've never been able to find something explain this exact scenario. 😅 

What does that expression mean?