Spanish language Q&A Forum

I always equate 'impersonal' with 'passive', as they seem to express the same thing. And, I've always used 'se' to express passive. So using third person is new to me, and I'm confused by this lesson and a question Kwiziq asked me to translate: 

'They took ages to build the hospital'

 among the choices were:

Han tardado mucho en construir el hospital (correct)

Se han tardado mucho en construir el hospital (incorrect)

Can someone explain why the second one is wrong.

Here are two other similar examples I found on Kwiziq that relate to this:

Tardaron mucho en construír los apartamentos = It took a long time to build the apartments.

Se tardó mucho en construir este hospital = It took (them, whoever built it) a long time to build this hospital.

Is there a difference between using ´en´ and ´por´.

For example ´voy a hacerlo por/en la mañana´?

Since the question asked for a formal question as I would be addressing an elderly man, I would only use company esta? I would not use question tal? That is a very informal way of asking and means more ‘how’s everything?’

how do we know how to choose between ser and estar? i thought ser was used for permanent things but estar is for not permanent things?is that thought true?if not how do we know which to choose?

What is the rule regarding seasons of the year. When do we use the definite article el and when not. En el invierno/en invierno.

Thank you

Let us imagine the following scenario. There is a crowd of people at a cinema. what would the ticket controller use to invite those who had bought tickets in advance. haya or han comprado/reservado?

What is the difference between ´sufficiente´ and ´lo sufficiente´?

Or rather when should you each either one.

I’ve been getting the quantifiers mixed up with how to remember they do agree with the gender and plural when it’s applied. 

Especially for demasiado and poco. When is it that it does match the thing it’s describing; and when does it not? 

Kind regards, 

Fran 

Hola,

I took the full-in-the-blanks quiz "Asando Castañas" today and one of the blanks, where I should choose between El Subjunctivo Presente and El Indicativo Presente, was the following:

muchas personas se suman a ella con tal de pasar un buen rato,hasta que ______ (llega/llegue) el amanecer.

Apparently the correct answer was El Indicativo (llega not llegue), but I don't understand why. Isn't sunrise a future event that is yet to happen and therefore the sentence requires El Subjunctivo?

Thanks as always!

Deborah