Spanish language Q&A Forum

Dear Kwiziq,

In virtually all of the dictations I have completed, I have found that it is quite difficult to discern when a sentence ends based on the speakers voice. This is to say, the speaker lowers his/her voice in a way that implies the end of a sentence, but when the answer is shown it becomes apparent to me that the lowering of the speaker's voice was actually meant to convey a pause. Is this the natural way hispanohablantes speak --- whether from Spain or Central/South America?  Of course, as recommended, I do listen to the dictation before attempting to write it out, but I cannot memorize where sentences end vs. when there is a pause in the speaker's speech. Consequently, I'm constantly guessing at when the sentence ends. I am a native English speaker and typically, when translating spoken English to written form, lowering of the voice signifies a period --- not a pause (comma). As such, I often find it confusing (indeed, quite frustrating) to differentiate pauses from ends of sentences in the Kwiziq dictation exercises.

Pati Inez Ecuamiga

Hi Kwiziq experts,

In the phrase "Lo que más me gustó de la gastronomía local fue deleitarme con..."  I wrote "Lo que más me gustó de la gastronomía local ERA deleitarme con..."   I was marked wrong and corrected "era DELEITARSE con"  and I'm not sure why that is. Is it down to whether one uses fue or era in the sentence?

Many thanks

Dee

I think 55% and 37% should be written in letters for the sake of pronouncing "porcentaje"

Apropos of ' "Lo que" vs "la cosa que" ',   I sometimes see "cosa que" used to mean "which", as in 

    Querían detenerme por robo, cosa que no hice.

Is this usage correct?   If so, is there a lesson that discusses it?

More examples here:  

    https://context.reverso.net/translation/spanish-english/%2C+cosa+que

Thanks!

hi,

i would like to clarify a few questions.

Este día tan especial = This special day - why do we use ´tan´?

el día siguiente = the following day - i might have mistaken, but i thought ´siguiente´ is to be placed before the noun ´día´?

When nationalities that end in "e" are plural, when is an "s" added? Or is it never added?

under the dictation, a part of the sentence says

Y nos invitaban a todos a una ceremonia y una fiesta, en una estación de esquí la Navidad próxima. 

i understand that nos invitaban = they invited us

nos invitaban a una fiesta = they invited us to a party

but what does a todos means?

ayudame por favor

muchas gracias