Spanish language Q&A Forum

¡Hola!

I would like to pay your attention to the following constructions:

Quién + iba a/podía/podría + infinitivo de pensar, suponer... + que (+ sujeto) +  iba a + infinitivo/condicional/imperfecto de indicativo (+sujeto)

Examples taken from GRAMÁTICA DE USO DEL ESPAÑOL: Teoría y practica C1 - C2 by Luis Aragonés y Ramón Palencia. Unidad 27

¡Quién podía pensar que Lorenzo tenía dos hijas!

¡Quién podría pensar que la empresa tenía pérdidas!

Could you tell me whether the mentioned examples refer to the Present and past tenses are used because of Concordancia de Tiempos or to the Past?

If they refer to the Past, is it possible to use Pesente and Pluscuamperfecto in the second part to express different periods of time?

Regards, 

Alexander

Hi,

I don't understand why some of these phrases have "de" or "que" in parentheses - what does this mean? 

 antes (de) que (before), con tal (de) que (provided that), mientras (que)

Are there certain times when you would use the words in parentheses or not use them? I'm confused as to why this isn't explained.

Thank you!

enlace: "https://progress.lawlessspanish.com/learn/reading/hamburguesas-veganas-de-avena?utm_source=blk&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=msg_503134"

Por lo general el video es bueno pero la presentadora no hace caso a la pronunciación. No pedi diferenciar unas palabras.

La transcripción tiene un error en la última oración : "....comentar Éste...".

Is it still true that in some areas coger should be avoided due to negative connotations?

Hola soporte,

En la frase 'estoy estudiando español', ¿por que es no 'estoy estudiando el español'? 

I have seen the use of el español elsewhere, so ¡estoy confusito!

Amable gracias

I can not understand the meaning of the idiom ´lucir el pelo´. I have searched on internet but still the significance is unclear. Please can you clarify? Thanks.

Are Spanish restaurants really rated in tenedores? I would've thought that it would ha derived from Michelin stars. At least, I always assumed stars was the literal translation of whatever the French is. 

Is it common in Spanish to use the first name of a person and the formal form together?

Hi!
After going through this lesson, I understand that these endings are used to soften the words, and in some cases I understand why you would use it, but there are also some cases where I'm not sure why you would use it. For example, for "hace calorcillo", why would you want to soften this sentence? I can't see what the meaning would be?