Spanish language Q&A Forum

Hi,

I am confused by the above.

I would have thought that 'yo gusto' = I like.  Can anyone explain please?

Thanks.

Colin 

In this lesson, peninsular Spanish is specified (however I am in the US and speak Spanish with Cubans, Mexicans, etc., so not only is this sort of new to me, it's not clear how useful it is). From what I've heard & read, there are many differences in the Americas in how the simple and compound past tenses are used (e.g., https://www.scribd.com/document/148697440/El-sistema-verbal-del-espanol-de-America-De-la-temporalidad-a-la-aspectualidad-Quesada-Pacheco-Espanol-actual-75-2001). If we include both peninsular and American (and other world) Spanish speakers, this is quite a range of variants. English speakers have a parallel set of past tenses in went/has gone. Obviously this is a false friend when compared to a specific dialect of Spanish such as the peninsular dialect (although I wonder how perfectly consistent this is across the peninsula). But is the English parallel any more “false” than the Ecuadorian, Peruvian, or Mexican one, relative to the peninsular one? How would a Spaniard respond if an American Spanish speaker consistently used the false English parallel to these tenses, compared to their response to an Ecuadorian, Peruvian, or Mexican speaker who consistently used their own native variant?

Thanks,

Greg Shenaut

I [incorrectly] made "mejor" plural - to agree with "they" - by writing: "Eran aún mejores que en mis sueños". [Or could it also be correct with "mejores"?]

Perhaps we have to regard "mejor" as an adverb here, not as an adjective - so we should not make it plural - despite the fact that (in English) it looks like a complement of the verb "eran".

My grammar book (by Butt and Benjamin) seems to confirm that^ by giving the example "Aquí estamos mejor" = "We're better [off] here".

It seems that we need to be careful in deciding whether a particular word in Spanish should be treated as an adverb rather than an adjective. In particular, we should avoid the temptation of trying to judge it according to its grammatical context in English. [A well known example of that, is of course "Está bien"].

¿Se puede usar “¿Te anima a visitar Paris?”  o sería mejor decir “¿Te animas a visitar Paris?” ? Me parecen posibles las dos preguntas.

Newbie here: I’ve always been told that Spanish accent is usually on the penultimate vowel, and only the exceptions need an explicit tilde mark. 

However, there are conjugations, like actuéis where the accent mark is on the penultimate vowel. I would have thought that the accent wasn’t needed anymore. Any place I could go to with a fuller explanation?

Thanks.

I learned naranja as the fruit and anaranjado/a as the color.  Obviously language can be used differently throughout the Spanish-speaking communities! Is that the case here?

OK.  I get it...I think!  It is because the first clause expresses "emotion".   Therefore it seems to be more a function of formality, a rule, not a matter of doubt. Because, I could be in fact happy that you travelled the world. Right?  Or, is there another way to convey that "I am pleased that..." as fact and not use the subjunctive?

I appologize if I appear to be running in circles, and chasing my tail! I greatly appreciate your imput!