Spanish language Q&A Forum

Hi,

Little confused.. I read in the examples: 
Mi hijo mayor (my eldest son)
Su hermana menor (her younger sister)

How would 'my older son' (not 'eldest') (context: moving from the youngest to the middle of three sons in age) be said?

How older be different from eldest in these expressions? I know about 'el mejor' or 'el mayor', but I don't see that back here.

An example given in the lesson Dejar vs Dejarse suggests the following:

Dejad que os explique mis planes = Let me explain my plans to you

Firstly, I guess subjunctive is being used here because it adds an extra level of politeness to this request? 

However, if I was asked to translate this from English to Spanish I would probably use the indicative: Déjame explicarte mis planes.

So, is my translation wrong? Or is it, let's say, simply less refined? If so, would my translation be quite acceptable if I was talking to a close friend for instance? 

Saludos

Hola,

Can I check my understanding of one of the questions I completed please. The question was ¿Crees que es bueno que Juan ________? (venga).

I thought that when we use "Creer" [I think / believe] it takes the indicative because it is our opinion / belief, there isn't an element of doubt. My question is, does it take the subjunctive because it is a question about what someone else thinks / believes?

Thanks. John

Instead of está tumbada, I wrote está acostada. I've seen tumbarse used more in literature, but are there any others differences between these two that determined your choice in this instance? 

Likewise with al mismo tiempo que, I wrote mientras instead.

These 2 were not given as alternative answers

Saludos a todos

Select the option with the verb in the correct form of the imperfect tense.

I’m not quite clear about the use of the ‘se tardan’ plural. The examples given are with a plural number of hours/minutes. Are the time units the ‘subject’ of the passive?  In other words if the time was one hour or one minute, could you still use the plural verb? Or is there some other rule that indicates singular or plural?  Or are they just equivalent?

Hola Inma,

Two questions

1. Could "trasladar" be used instead of mudar?

2. Since the subject of the story has taken a decision to move [herself] to another city, would the pronominal form mudarse / trasladarse be appropriate?

Saludos

John

At first I wanted to translate as "la marca está conocida como La Leyenda del Vino" - because to me it seemed to emphasise the result rather than the process. Not too long ago, we discussed this at https://progress.lawlessspanish.com/questions/view/alternative-passive-with-estar (where Inma gave a very useful explanation)... and I remembered that [in that other lesson] I had tried to apply the rule [also with "conocido"] - incorrectly using "estar". So here, I changed my mind and made it "la marca es conocida" [despite emphasising the result?] - and was right. Perhaps there is something about "conocido", cautioning us about interpreting a process as a result?

Just curious! Is there a difference in use in terms of formal/informal register with these two constructions, or is “tan...como” just more common? Thanks!