Spanish language Q&A Forum

Would you explain why it is el hacha afilada, but it is una ave bonita, please.  Both have feminine modifiers.  I’m becoming more confused as I go.  

Here’s an explanation that I found elsewhere:

“Feminine nouns that begin with a stressed "a-" or "ha-" sound in Spanish use the definite article "el" in the singular."

The example given is:
"Who's incredibly attractive; a real night owl.  Sí, pero indica que no es un ave de paso.”

The above example uses un, not una.

The lesson says "Sometimes "ya" is omitted, and the structure admits some flexibility"

But when is the "ya" omitted? And why?

Doesn't it depend on what the speaker wants to express, whether a subjunctive or indicative of sonar would be used here? Wouldn't "Cuando suena" (indicative) also be a valid way to put it, if the speaker thinks about the event as actually happening?

Because if so, I wouldn't know which answer to pick in the quiz, because they were presented as alternatives.

Thank you!

Instead of just adding "Me llamo", I wrote "me llamo Juan" inadvertently giving the answer "Me llamo Juan Juan". This is accidental! Yet Kwiziq marks it incorrect! Almost certainly, this would never occur in a practical situation.

Also when using my tablet, I sometimes miss out a question by accident. Kwiziq should prompt that all the questions have not been answered. This is also accidental! Yet Kwiziq marks it incorrect! 

Four examples in the lesson.   In the last three ,you could translate con lo que as "despite"but that would not make sense in the first example and seems not to fit the pattern.   

Hola a todos,

No hay muchas carreteras ________ conducir despacio. There are not many roads where one can drive slowly.HINT: ¿Dónde or donde?
Although the required answer here is ‘donde’, I instinctively want to write ‘donde se puede’.  So it’s ok to leave out the ‘se puede’= ‘one can’ and just use the infinitive, in this instance ‘conducir’?  I appreciate that this quiz is only to determine whether to use ‘donde’ or ‘dónde’ but it just read oddly to me. 
Gracias :)

Another question from the quiz: "Las mamás quieren darles de mamar a sus bebés en el parque". In Spanish as spoken in Spain, wouldn't it be more common to use madres instead of mamás? Natives told me not to overuse mamá, papá, abuelito, mis papás etc. because they said it would sound childish.

Why doesn't "hache" follow the same rules as words like "agua" where the intial vowel is a stressed a?

ie, Why do we still say "la hache" and not "el hache" ?