Confused about multiple uses of the present tenseHello,
There have been a number of questions in different topic areas along the lines of “Why don’t we use the present progressive tense for such and such an example in Spanish when the English translation is in the present progressive tense?” An example might be “Compro unas playeras” being translated as “I am buying some t-shirts”.
The answer that the instructors give is usually along the lines of, the Spanish present tense can often be translated as the present progressive tense in English.
In addition, I rarely hear the present progressive tense being used from day to day here in Mexico. Google AI agrees with me:
"In Mexican Spanish, the present indicative (voy) is significantly more common for everyday use than the present progressive (estoy yendo). While both can describe actions happening in the moment, the simple present is the "default" choice in most social contexts."
In the kwiz questions I keep answering using the present tense, just out of habit. It's not that I don't know how to use the present progressive tense, it's just that I'm not used to hearing it. This habiit is so strong that sometimes I even miss the instructions.
So maybe the present tense answers shouldn't always be marked wrong, and trigger words such as "en este momento" should be used more often? Also, maybe this idea could be added to the above lesson.
PS You may wonder why I'm studying level A1 if I already speak Spanish daily. It is because I want to strengthen my foundation and in general Kwiziq has been invaluable with this.
It was also the year I started a new personal project is translated as:
También fue el año en que empecé un nuevo proyecto personal.
Shouldn't it be... el año en el que empecé?
Gracias
I would add one other usage that took me by surprise when my Mexican students first corrected me, which is to use “cuál” with the verb “ser”. “Cuál es tu restaurante favorito?” “Cuáles son los mejores restaurantes por aquí?”
I notice that you consider as correct all answers that are theoretically correct from a grammatical perspective, even if they are not idiomatic and it is highly unlikely that a Spanish speaker would use the expression. Example: “No deberías nunca salir con ella.” Or am I missing something?
Hello,
There have been a number of questions in different topic areas along the lines of “Why don’t we use the present progressive tense for such and such an example in Spanish when the English translation is in the present progressive tense?” An example might be “Compro unas playeras” being translated as “I am buying some t-shirts”.
The answer that the instructors give is usually along the lines of, the Spanish present tense can often be translated as the present progressive tense in English.
In addition, I rarely hear the present progressive tense being used from day to day here in Mexico. Google AI agrees with me:
"In Mexican Spanish, the present indicative (voy) is significantly more common for everyday use than the present progressive (estoy yendo). While both can describe actions happening in the moment, the simple present is the "default" choice in most social contexts."
In the kwiz questions I keep answering using the present tense, just out of habit. It's not that I don't know how to use the present progressive tense, it's just that I'm not used to hearing it. This habiit is so strong that sometimes I even miss the instructions.
So maybe the present tense answers shouldn't always be marked wrong, and trigger words such as "en este momento" should be used more often? Also, maybe this idea could be added to the above lesson.
PS You may wonder why I'm studying level A1 if I already speak Spanish daily. It is because I want to strengthen my foundation and in general Kwiziq has been invaluable with this.
What would be the correct way to express losing a game?
(ex: "We lost the game [and the other team won]" vs. "We missed the game [because we arrived late]")
Would “fuera de” be used in the same manner as “dentro de”?
In the above examples, all of the feminine objects (gafas, pruebas, ausencias) are plural so that the past participle of the action ends with -as. Does this mean that for a single object (chica, casa, etc) the past participle takes on -a?
Example: La casa fue construida por Miguel.
Note that the last example above expressing it's about to rain, could also use por with the same meaning: "Está por llover"
Hola, what is the difference between estar por and estar para. Muchas gracias, shirley.
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