Past tense of "deber" Spanish speakers seem to habitually use the imperfect tense for "deber" where English speakers would use the past tense, e.g.,
"Paul owed her his life" => "Pablo le debía la vida" instead of "Pablo le debió la vida"
"You guys must've figured something out" => "Debíais haber descubierto algo" instead of "Debisteis haber haber descubierto algo"
... and sometimes where English speakers would use the present tense, e.g., "But the Lord said he must go to Ninevah" => "Pero el Señor insistió en que debía ir a Nínive" instead of "Pero el Señor insistió en que debe ir a Nínive."
They also use the imperfect in situations that seem to call for a past-tense conditional ("should have"):
Si querías baile, debías haber recurrido a mí => If you wanted dancing, you should have come to me
I would have expected "Si querías baile, deberías haber recurrido a mí" (should have). Sometimes I do see "deberías haber" for "should have", and I can't see any pattern to why one is chosen instead of the other.
In some cases, the imperfect is used where the present-tense conditional seems clearly called for, e.g., "debias esperar hasta que llamara" for "you should wait until he calls." There's nothing past-tense-ish about that sentence.
"deberían" ('they should") in particular is used interchangeably with "debían" (literally "in the past they must"), and neither is used for past-tense "they should have".
Can someone explain how Spanish speakers conceptualize these tenses of "deber"? Does the choice of tense work the same way for "deber" as "owe" and "deber" as "must", or are they treated differently?
Kwiziq question:
Los niños iban juntos ________ la playa.
a and para are correct
hasta is incorrect
I've seen hasta used with desde to mean 'from/to' (trains etc). And I'm sure I've seen hasta used on its own to mean 'to'. Can someone explain why it's incorrect in this case?
Saludos
Wishing all the Kwiziq team and all the students here a very Happy Christmas and all the best for the New Year!
¡Feliz Navidad! :))
Cuando sea mayor, seré médico.When I am older, I will be a doctor.Cuando vayas al mercado compra fruta y verdura.When you go to the market, buy fruit and vegetables.
Also, when the subjunctive is used is it always part of the cuando clause?
If one translates: "I learned everything"
It is written: "J'ai tout appris."
But if I translate: "I learned everything I needed to know"
It is written: "J'ai appris tout ce que j'avais besoin de savoir."
Why does "tout" move out from between the verb to behind it? Is it because of the subordinate phrase?
It's a little unclear, but I think you're saying in this lesson that in English we couldn't use an imperfect tense, but although it might be less common, I've certainly heard people say things like "I wasn't finding my keys" to mean that they had been looking unsuccessfully but now had found them.
Suppose I wanted to say something like, "I wouldn't have minded if they got married, I was seeing someone else", or "I didn't care if the wrecked their's appetite with ice cream, I wasn't going to make dinner anyway" is there no combination of tenses that would admit the use o "por mí que"?
How is the future perfect used for probability in the past
In the tip it says - Unlike in English where as if is often followed by a past tense in the indicative, in Spanish como si can never be followed by a tense in the indicative or El Presente de Subjuntivo, or El Pretérito Perfecto Subjuntivo. But there is a C1 lesson that is about using como si followed by the indicative. Is this tip incorrect, or am I missing something?
Spanish speakers seem to habitually use the imperfect tense for "deber" where English speakers would use the past tense, e.g.,
"Paul owed her his life" => "Pablo le debía la vida" instead of "Pablo le debió la vida"
"You guys must've figured something out" => "Debíais haber descubierto algo" instead of "Debisteis haber haber descubierto algo"
... and sometimes where English speakers would use the present tense, e.g., "But the Lord said he must go to Ninevah" => "Pero el Señor insistió en que debía ir a Nínive" instead of "Pero el Señor insistió en que debe ir a Nínive."
They also use the imperfect in situations that seem to call for a past-tense conditional ("should have"):
Si querías baile, debías haber recurrido a mí => If you wanted dancing, you should have come to me
I would have expected "Si querías baile, deberías haber recurrido a mí" (should have). Sometimes I do see "deberías haber" for "should have", and I can't see any pattern to why one is chosen instead of the other.
In some cases, the imperfect is used where the present-tense conditional seems clearly called for, e.g., "debias esperar hasta que llamara" for "you should wait until he calls." There's nothing past-tense-ish about that sentence.
"deberían" ('they should") in particular is used interchangeably with "debían" (literally "in the past they must"), and neither is used for past-tense "they should have".
Can someone explain how Spanish speakers conceptualize these tenses of "deber"? Does the choice of tense work the same way for "deber" as "owe" and "deber" as "must", or are they treated differently?
Let's see -at what moment in time?- you find a good job!
Let's see - at the time that- you find a good job!
As you can see both options work in this context, and I can use lots of examples like this but to understand the difference we need sentences which cannot work as both options
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