Spanish language Q&A Forum

I have had this problem for a while, and no Spanish speaker can readily explain it:

In English, an adjectival form can only describe a noun; for a verb, you must use the adjectival form. The only exception of which I know is "I am well." Because so few English speakers have good grammar these days, "I am good" has become a colloquialism that is acceptable. But one can never say "I cook good" or "He lives happy".

But in Spanish, I see this all the time though Spanish speakers also acknowledge the rule that adverbs, not adjectives, describe verbs. In this lesson, I just saw it again: 

Espero que vivas feliz en tu apartamento nuevo.

In English, "to hear" is a passive act to the person.  It happens to them, whether they wanted it to or not.   "To listen" is an active effort by the person. "If one listens well, he will hear it."  The Spanish dictionary says that "oir" is to hear.  However, "escuchar" can mean "to listen" or "to hear".  Is that correct?

"La escuché cantando" could mean "I listened to her singing" or "I heard her singing".  ??

Is that right?

Thanks

Hola a todos

I just found this sentence on Kwiziq:

'He estado de viaje y me ha encantado todo'

So, with de I guess roughly this means 'I have been doing travelling'

But please can someone explain...

1) The differences between using 'he estado de viajar' vs 'he estado viajando'?

2) And can we use 'he estado de +infinitive' with all verbs?

Saludos

In your example and in Spanish grammar is the “a ella” repetition of the indirect object “le” essential or is it an optional extention added for the sake of clarity?

"Cuál es" works just fine in Mexico to ask "what is". Just because you haven't introduced it in the lesson yet shouldn't make it wrong. The problem with learning formal speech is that nobody talks like this in every day Life. People don't speak proper English in America, and they don't in Latin America either. The same with "me llamó" v "llamó" In Mexico they don't always say me llamó José, just llamó José. Both are right, they know what I'm saying. I want to learn both proper and common speech. Just learning the proper leads to a lot of confusion when you get to where you're going. Nobody talks completely proper, in fact English is so infused with Spanish, they have many made up spanglish words. When you go into a local neighborhood if you speak proper they don't know what you're saying. Really! No one says como se llama usted, me llamo José. They just stare at you like you're a snob. 

Lo siento por la novela

¡Hola!

Could you tell me why it is subjuntivo that  follows the expression:

"No dudo de que..."?

The full extract is:

"Antes de dormir pásabamos un buen rato por el taller del Belga, un anciano pavoroso que apareció en Aracataca después de la primers guerra mundial, y no dudo de que fuera belga por el recuerdo que tengo de sus acento aturdido y sus nostalgias de navegante" ("VIVIR PARA CONTARLA" by Gabriel García Márquez)

Doesn't "No dudo de que..." imply certainty?

Regards,

Alexander

Let's see when you find a good job! -- I think that this could be answered with either form of cuando/cuándo depending on context:

Let's see (at what point in time - cuádo) you find a good job.

Let's see (when (if) you find a good job - cuando)

I chose the latter and was marked wrong.

Once again, if there is more than one answer, would you please indicate that.
It is very annoying to know the answer(s) but not being informed that more than one my be selected.

Thank you,
Sherri

Hola,

¿Qué es la diferencia de significado entre "Alguien no tiene que hacer algo" y "Alguien no tiene por qué hacer algo"? Y ¿por qué no se use "por que", sino "por qué" con el acento?

Gracias!  (I hope that all made sense!)