Spanish language Q&A Forum

If definite articles are used on the subject of a sentence, why are they used with ríos and vegetación? Isn't the subject of the sentence acid rain? If a word that  receives  the action of the verb (contaminar) is the object , doesn't that make ríos and vegetación objects not subjects? 

I think I've reached the limit of all my understanding of grammar in both Spanish and English. I can't get this right. I'm ready to quit.

The test asked me for the correct verb to use with the sentence "Tu ***** la primero de la lista" -  this seemed to be a temporary thing, so I chose "estas". The right answer was "eres"  - i.e. a permanent state. 

I am confused - can anyone explain why use ser rather than estar in this case?

Hello all, sorry if this is a long and unusal question..
Are there any professional teachers here, or professionals who have studied learning methods?
I am determined to get the very best from the software, but wonder if I am. 
For example, i complete each of the "writing practice" exercises twice, back to back, which in my mind means that I am cementing my learning, but on the second run through I'm concerned that I may just have blindly memorised each answer.  I do stop and research every part I get wrong if I don't see my mistake, but I'm still concerned I'm just being a parrot.
So, over to the professionals, what would you recommed for best learning practice in this software?
Thanks

Hello,

I was trying to write this sentence and couldn't figure out which would be the correct way to express what I was trying to say.

English:

"I discovered a very interesting site in my search to understand the word "echar de menos" and I thought it might be interesting to you/of interest to you. "

These are the various Spanish sentences I came up, and I couldn't figure out which one to use and which one(s) are correct and why... :(

Here are my sentences:

Descubrí un sitio muy interesante en mi búsqueda para entender la palabra "echar de menos" y pensé que podría ser interesante para tí.

or:

He descubrí un sitio muy interesante en mi buscando de la palabra "echar de menos" y pensé que te puedas ser interesante.

or:

He descubierto un sitio muy interesante en mi búsqueda para entender la palabra "echar de menos" y pensé que podría ser interesante para ti.

or:

He descubierto un sitio muy interesante en mi búsqueda para entender la palabra "echar de menos" y pensé que pudieras ser interesante para ti.

Thank you for any help in clarifying this and helping me through this morass. 

Nicole

I get this message even after I click around for awhile:

You took this Kwiz 16 minutes ago.

This lesson is already in your notebook. Go to your notebook now to kwiz this topic as many times as you like.

Like Alan, I was puzzled by the use of the subjunctive in some of your examples, particularly this one:

"Coge un par de plátanos, los que estén más maduros" - because to me it seemed that the speaker had indeed noticed that some of the bananas were riper than others. Maybe it makes sense, though, if s/he had not yet seen them - but in this latter case s/he would probably have said: "Coge un par de plátanos, preferentemente dos que estén más maduros" - [is that correct?] 

I can understand the use of the subjunctive when it is referring to the future - e.g., your sentence-example which begins: Quienes lleguen… [because it is not yet known who will reach the top first].
 

I'd love to watch the narrator on this exercise. The lip movements when speaking Spanish area treat to watch . . .

For Question 8   I answered 'trabaje' believing it to be the correct subjunctive form but it was marked incorrect and 'trabaja' was given as the correct answer.  Would you please explain.  Many thanks.

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

"Fastidiar" is another false friend. In English, to be "fastidious" is to be very attentive to detail, accuracy or cleanliness.