Spanish language Q&A Forum

Why is ‘has been …ing’ sometimes el Pretérito perfecto progresivo and other times a perífrasis verbal?     eg:

Carlos lleva trabajando en ese colegio dos años.

Carlos has been working in that school for two years. 

Laura has been seeing her boyfriend secretly.

Hello,

Can you please explain why in this exercise it is only correct to use preterito imperfecto in the third sentence: Teníamos que conseguir muchos puntos para acceder al tesoro escondido - even though the story starts in the indefinido tense. A few sentences later it jumps again to indefinido: Este juego nos ayudó a ser pacientes - while the rest of the sentences are in the imperfecto tense.

Thank you :)

In the lesson segment discussing use of extra pronouns for emphasis, you show two examples of INCORRECT structure (e.g., "A nosotros gusta el cafe" and "A ellos gustan las manzanas", but do not show the correct structure.  Would the CORRECT forms be "A nosotros nos gusta el cafe", and "A ellos les gustan las manzanas" (?).   Thank you for clarifying.  -Dan  

In the example “Ellos siempre estan comiendo” why is the present progressive tense used. In my research I learned that the progressive tense is used for temporary ongoing action. The use of siempre implies that it is not temporary.

This app seems to find the holes in one's knowledge. I live in Spain, I'm not a fluent speaker, but I get by. I can read most Spanish papers, books etc without too many problems.     Listening, not so good, but not terrible. Been here eight years .  Did test, got A1! Did some of their A1 exercises, and got practically full marks.    Not sure I'd pay for this, but it's more demanding than the green owl related tutor!

In another lesson titled "Como, cuando, donde, quien with indicative or subjunctive in Spanish," it states that "Hablaré con ella cuando llegue a casa" translates to "I will speak to her whenever she arrives home." The term "whenever" implies uncertainty, suggesting that we do not know when she will arrive and indicating a future context. However, in this lesson, the sentence "Cuando vaya de vacaciones a Tenerife me hospedaré en el hotel Olimpia" only implies a future context without conveying the sense of uncertainty as in the previous example ("whenever she arrives"). Therefore, I am curious: does "cuando" + present subjunctive mean "when" or "whenever"? Both examples refer to the future.

Since the question cannot be deleted (or I don't know how), let this comment stay here but I'll use the opportunity to tell you all to keep up with the excellent work as the few days I've been on here have really helped me better my Spanish skills!

'You probably haven't had a good breakfast'  is translated as probablemente es que no habrás desayunado bien

My question is if the 'es que' is obligatory here?

Gracias

As far as food, I looked for restaurants...    is translated as 'En cuanto a la alimentación'  or 'Con respecto a la alimentación'

This is useful language but I can't find any lesson that references this structure. Is there one?

The nearest I can find is 'Preposition + lo que + clause' which would lead to:  

En lo que respecta a la alimentación.  Is that possible?

Gracias

Could someone please tell me why I was told it's wrong here in this quiz?

Kqiziq (B1): El año pasado visité todas las ciudades de Cataluña ___________ Tarragona (Last year I visited all the cities in Catalonia except for Tarragona). 

The options given: menos/sino/pero/aunque/incluso. 

I chose «sino», and I was marked wrong. The correct answer was «menos». I, of course, accept «menos», but why is «sino» wrong here??