Spanish language Q&A Forum

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?

Hello, there is a section called "Variable Subjunctive" that has the sentence: 

no tengo un profesor que viva en madrid 

which means: 

I don't have a teacher that lives in madrid.

My question is why would this be a subjunctive, it seems like what this person is saying is a fact that he knows that he doesn't have a teacher that lives in madrid. Or maybe he's trying to say that he doesn't have a teacher that he KNOWS OF. Idk I just want to know why it's a subjunctive. thank you 

HI in the expression lo que admiro mas es la generosidad I put la que because generosidad is feminine but duolinguo said it is lo que, why is this

I don’t understand any of this at all, whatsoever. I’ve read it many, many times, including the comments. I know there is a difference between Spain Spanish and Latin American Spanish for has/have, but how can one differentiate between them? I am so lost. 

Hello

I am using US International keyboard. I keep typing "está"  but some how your programing is registering it as "es" and therefore marking my answers as incorrect. Qué pasa?