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?
Is Deberías habermélo dicho equivalent to Habemélo dicho?
Is Podrías habermélo dicho equivalent to Habemélo dicho?
Is Habrías habermélo dicho also correct?
I would like to ask about the construction lleva incluida, how does it work? It seems to be differdng from the construction llevar plus active participle (lesson in level B1) as incluida is a passive participle.
There is a note at the top of this lesson informing me that it is a Europe focused lesson, (whereas my focus is Latin America).
I learned my Spanish from a combination of university classes and living in Guatemala, so I chose the Latin American option. (However, several members of my family have learned Peninsular Spanish.) Could you explain how this lesson would be different for Latin American Spanish?
The use of antes de/despues de is very familiar Spanish to me. I found the lesson to be easily understandable and had no problem with it, so I am curious as to why it is not considered to be Latin American Spanish.
Gracias y saludos
These tickets for the tennis match are cheap. : ___ entradas para el partido de tenis son baratas.
The key word here to me is "These". The answer of "Estas entradas" is marked as wrong and should be "Las" -- which would be "The tickets for ..."
This looks like a mistake to me.
Hi,
I find some of the recorded examples too fast to clearly hear the pronunciation. Is there a way of slowing it on replay?
This leads to another question: when Spanish is spoken quickly, can some of the sounds be omitted or words run together.
Thank you.
Colin
When we write objects after the verb, do we always write them in the order Direct Object followed by Indirect Object, like this?
(Les) cantaron una canción a Pedro y Pablo por su despedida.
Or can we change the order like this:
(Les) cantaron a Pedro y Pablo una canción por su despedida.
Thanks.
PS How can I find my answered questions? I don't seem to be getting notifications.
Marcos
En la discoteca había muchos chicos guapos. Shouldn't this be habían as "muchos chicos guapos" is plural?
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?
is there a rule if adjectives are before or after the noun?
Tengo dos hermosas hijas OR Tengo dos hijas hermosas?
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