Spanish language Q&A Forum

For this question:  Es improbable que los niños ________ la puerta. These options show as correct:  hayan roto / rompieran.  I understand hayan roto, as the impersonal beginning signifies "subjunctive", and the event is in the past. However, I learned at a language school in Cuernavaca that present tense statements (es improbable) could only match with haber + participle, and that only past events (eg "era improbable" could match with imperfect subjunctive (rompieran). The teachers made a big deal out of that. However here it shows up as a legitimate option. Can you explain?  Thank you.

Hola Inma,

I'd like some help with the following. Since the present and indefinido "we" form of -ar verbs are spelled the same, I would like to check something. The related lessons are all about the indefinido, but there is a strong implication that some of the events would still be on-going, such as cultivating crops etc, raising livestock and producing electricity. Do we assume that these are no longer being carried out, or does this narrative style of events over a fixed period of time allow us to use the indefinido throughout, even if some of the events have been started and are still ongoing?

Saludos

John

When I ask a question I would like to see if other people have asked a similar question, but when I try to search for my question, no search is done; I am only allowed to ask a new question.

Gracias, Jaime 

FYI...This answer was marked incorrect:

Yo coincido contigo en ese tema. I agree with you on that subject.HINT: Conjugate "coincidir" in El Presente

Every example in the lesson includes "Have, Has or 've  +  past participle)   To say "You put in there already is very American.  England would rarely if ever miss the 've as in "You've put it in ther already. "  which would be more natural English for an Englander. 

Hi Silvia. In the example, "Tal vez yo haya estudiado mucho para el examen," the English translation says, "I might have studied a lot for the exam".  Is that "I might have studied a lot" in the sense "maybe I would have studied a lot [if I had time?"] Or "Perhaps (it possible) I studied a lot for the exam"? Both?

Oh wait, after writing this I realized that the sentence perhaps means, "I should have studied a lot for the exam.” We Americans almost never use the word “might” in this sense. I’m not sure how much you Brits (all British residents) do. Is this the sense in which it is used here?

I'm still a little confused about how to determine which to use - cual or que. In this lesson, you have an example that says: 

"En esta tienda hay flores bonitas, ¿cuáles prefieres?