Spanish language Q&A Forum

> My boyfriend is always asking me to be patient with him.

Translating this into the English subjunctive would be “My boyfriend is always asking that I be patient with him.” And that keeps the “que=that” part of things too!

In a sentence like "I don't know what he knows" or "I don't know if he knows" the sentence can express doubt or merely be a statement of fact. Wouldn't the choice of whether to use the indicative or subjunctive depend on what you are trying to convery (ie:  "No sé lo que sepa" if I am trying to express doubt about what he knows but "No sé lo que sabe" if I am simply stating the fact that I don't know what he knows)?

Can you explain what an impersonal verb is an how I know when to use it, please?

One of the examples is:

Su actitud se volvió violenta de repente.

Is it correct to assume that the change is a lasting one, as with someone who got hit on the head with a shovel and after that was a violent person?

Compared to:

Su actitud se puso violenta de repente.

In this case, cowboys in a saloon in a Western movie insult someone and he stands up quickly and draws his gun?

Just want to double check that these differences are correct.  Thanks.

I wish it was better explained when to use this tense instead of just giving examples 

In the explanatory pop-up for "Como se prepara una tortilla de patatas:" https://progress.lawlessspanish.com/revision/grammar/expressing-instructions-and-general-statements-with-the-impersonal-se-one. 

I'll spend some time on this exercise because I find these uses of "se" to be very interesting.

Also this was my first encounter with "echa/echan." There does not appear to be a lesson dedicate to its conjugation, but there is this which seems to be sufficient: https://progress.lawlessspanish.com/revision/grammar/expressing-instructions-and-general-statements-with-the-impersonal-se-one.

>In sentences where the indirect object is represented by "a + pronoun", and it is at the beginning of the sentence, for example  "a mí, a tí, a ella", it is necessary to repeat the indirect object by using the "short" pronoun (me, te, le, nos, os, les) in the same sentence.

I think this should be reworded. That "and it is at the beginning of the sentence" makes it seem like you don't need the shrot pronoun if you put the "a + pronoun" elsewhere in the sentence. I know one of the examples and the little tip box later clarify this, but I still think rewording that paragraph would help. 

Hi, can I say una bolsa is a handbag as well as un bolso? 

I learned the hard way that I shouldn't try to reason it out.  Just use aun when there is a preposition.

aun con

aun sin

and even with the clause words, like the lesson says

aun si

aun cuando

Sometimes you just have to use tricks until you have a better understanding of the larger rule!