Spanish language Q&A Forum

I don't understand how the text is "periphrasis" - in a roundabout way. How might it have been written other than the way it was?

In one question, I was tasked to translate "I want to buy it for him."     I selected " Quiero se lo comprar."   and was marked wrong.   I understand that one could say "Quiero comprárselo." , which was the correct answer.   But I always thought that you could have the pronouns attached to the infinitive or put them in front.   

It took me three times reading this before I got the real drift of the story. Very funny LOL. Necesitamos más colas sutiles como esta para que la cuenta no menee al perro. 

Here are two phrases from the text, both giving advice.

1 Seguramente sabrás que en primavera deberías consumir espárragos trigueros, guisantes y habas.  NO ARTICLE

2 Si fuera tú, pondría ingredientes como la lechuga, las endibias, las espinacas, etc.  ARTICLES.

In answering a previous question about articles, Sylvia wrote:

In summary, the choice of using or not using the definite article depends on the linguistic function of the phrase within the sentence, whether it denotes a specific entity (requiring the article) or describes a general quality or manner (where the article may be omitted).

Am I correct that the use of 'como' in phrase 2 triggers a specific entity and thus the article?

Gracias

I'm having the same problem. Suddenly my lessons include non-european Spanish. Help!

Hello, when I want to translate "they hit her" (occurring in the past for a period), it is translated as "le pegaban" or "la golpeaban".  Why is it an indirect object pronoun for pegar but direct for golpear?

In one of the questions, Cabrán is the very first word of the sentence, and there is no other part of the sentence (like a mid-stream capitalization.  I was marked only partially right for capitalizing it and it "corrected" me to lower-case.

Cabrán todo mis libros en esa caja?

Isn't that correct?  The quiz said it was supposed to be

cabràn todo mis libros en esa caja?

I assume in the example above salir, the infinitive is not used with después because después is being used as adjective not as a proposition? 

The difference between an "event still to happen" and one that "will happen" can be determined only by the ability to predict the future. It is not a grammatical issue. So neither the indicative nor subjunctive choice is grammatically incorrect. It's a semantic difference, not a grammatical one. I've seen you make very different choices -- different from what I thought was meant.