Spanish language Q&A Forum

Hi there, In English it would be ‘rims of the glasses’ not ‘rim of the glasses’. The sentence you have written for translation uses the singular, which is incorrect. Rims would be in the plural, not singular. In Spanish it appears the singular is used not the plural ‘frota el borde de los vasos’. Is this correct?

Hello, please would you explain why the verb SER is used in the sentence "la comida del restaurante era mala".  I'm confused which rule is used to trigger SER rather than ESTAR,

Thanks

I checked to make sure it wasn't a word I didn't know in English ;) 

Puedes ayudarme con una oración en un libro estoy leyendo….No se si el autoro usa la palabra en una manera poética or es normalmente y correcto?  Trying to understand if Aturdir and irritar are normally used like the above verbs ‘ like gustar etc.  The following sentence from New Penguin short stories in Spanish [ de la cuenta ‘ La Indiferencia de Eva].    Me aturden las personas muy activas y, si son mujeres, me irritan. 

Why is está used for the sentence La mahonesa está deliciosa?

Is it because they're speaking about that specific mayonnaise rather than mayonnaise in general?

I don't understand the difference between hace  and hay when talking about the weather.   Can anyone explain the difference to me?

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, can you please explain the choice of el pretérito (creció) as opposed to el imperfecto (crecía) in this context?  I thought that perhaps the time marker "con el tiempo" might indicate a more extended time period, and thus signal el imperfecto.  Thank you!

Does it mean “he doesn’t know who he’s dealing with?”

Thanks again

Shirley