Spanish language Q&A Forum

Hola,

Trying to understand why this isn't an indicative? Seems more of a statement of fact? (appreciate that I guess that this is pointing to future occasions they will wake the dog - seems a very grey area!) 

It is odd that the children wake up the dog so early.

Es extraño que los niños despierten al perro tan temprano.

Gracias,

Hola,

Re: Se la había comprado. 

How can one tell when reading or hearing this sentence, - if it was a standalone sentence -  that the “se” means  the plural “les” .

    For example if this sentence is entered in Reverso:  “Se la abía comprado.”  they translate it as “ I had bought it for              "him”.  So there’s no way to know from the sentence that it was bought for “plural someones”.  

Would this conundrum ever happen in real life, i.e. in converstion or writing, or would it always be clear from the preceding sentence?

Thank you for your patience,

Nicole

Regarding "After I tried so hard...", couldn't "Despúes de que me esforzara tanto..." be another acceptable answer?

I think this might be more common in written Spanish?

Saludos