Spanish language Q&A Forum

"What does "Laura fue actriz cuando era joven." mean?"

When would that sentence be used vs "Laura era actriz cuando era joven."

Thanks, K

How would you say 

I need (number) 400 to win.

Necesito el cuatrocientos para ganar.

Or 

Necesito el cuatrociento para ganar.

Also, We need 14 and 20 to win. 

Necesitamos los 14 y 20 para ganar.

Necesitamos el 14 y el 20 para ganar.

"A new Reference Grammar ..." by Butt and Benjamin discusses Spanish verbs which can be followed by an infinitive instead of the subjunctive - even when the subjects are different  in the two halves of the sentence, e.g. persuadir, ayudar, enseñar, [+ preposition 'a']. The authors suggest that "pedir" may be starting to move in that direction (mainly in Latin America, where rules are perhaps more relaxed than in Spain, particularly in conversations?) In addition, the infinitive construction with 'pedir' seems to be creeping into casual journalistic style, especially in headlines.

Tu tiene   should be correct   but only   tiene was accepted as correct.  I  have learnt that both should be accpeted.

Please can you verify this.

Is it because it is being used as an adjective in this sentence. Thx

Hola a todos,

Solo decir, Feliz Navidad y próspero año! 

Gracias por todo 

Clara

Why is there 'le' for 'Tú le das el biberón a tu hijo' but not for 'Él da una carta a su hermana', 'Ustedes dan mucho dinero a la gente pobre', 'Vosotras dais los billetes de avión a la azafata', and 'Nosotros damos dinero a organizaciones de caridad'?

One question on a quiz I just took was something like 

 _________ menos me impresiona del cuadro es el color. (What impresses me least about this picture is the color.) 

I entered 'Lo que el,' which was wrong.  The correct response was 'Lo que.'  To me, this seems to mean 'What impresses me less..., ' and it strikes me as a tricky combination of the lessons about 'lo que, etc', and 'el menos/la menos etc.'  The lesson that I was referred to for review was the 'lo que etc.' lesson, but I found no example of it used immediately followed by a superlative.  

It's been my understanding that an article is required to form a superlative (as in - menos=less, el/la/los/las/lo menos=the least).  So it seems that the superlative article gets dropped immediately after 'lo que?'  What if the sentence had been constructed slightly differently, 'Lo que me impresiona el menos del cuadro es el color?' 

Why is the "quedarse + gerund" translated throughout as "stay...". I'm a native U.S. English speaker, and I don't know anyone who would say that someone "stays doing" anything. We'd say the person "keep doing...". 

Pati Ecuamiga