Spanish language Q&A Forum

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

But in this specific example of the Preterito Perfecto Subjuntivo....

Cuando hayas hecho tus deberes puedes ir a jugar fuera. 

Is it incorrect to also use.....

Cuando has hecho tus deberes puedes ir a jugar fuera. 

Just curious if they are interchangeable in their use. Thank you.

Nelson

It would really help if the English translations were closer to the answer you're looking for, especially in this lesson where depending on whether you're in Latin America or Spain, people could choose either option and be correct.

This is the question from the quiz that I got wrong:

Hoy no _________________ a nadie interesante.I haven't met anybody interesting today.
I selected "he conocido" because that is the direct translation and it seems like that's what they'd say in Spain due to the timing. But in Latin America (which is my selected profile but I'm not sure that it actually impacts my quizzes or not), it would be "conoci".
If you translated it to "I didn't meet anyone interesting today", that would make sense in English and prompt the correct answer, would it not? Because it seems like based on this lesson, either answer is correct depending on what Spanish-speaking country you're in!

Hello

I do not understand why you use « la » in this sentence?

Se la estamos decorando.
We are decorating it for him.