Past action inside a completed time frameFor the sentence "mientras vosotros ________ el postre, yo hice el café", why is "estuvisteis comiendo" incorrect? The lesson seems to suggest that it should be correct.
For example, the lesson says this: When the ongoing past action is inside
a completed timeframe in the past. See how all examples
above contain a time phrase: "toda la noche", "de 6 a 7 de la
tarde", "el sábado pasado". In the quiz question, the completed timeframe is "while you were having dessert". Isn't that a similar time frame to "toda la noche"?
Also, the lesson says this: We don't know when the "eating" started, but the end is expressed with "hasta que acabamos con toda la comida". This may sound as if that is an interrupting action and may
lead you to wrongly think you need to use El Imperfecto Progresivo [estaba+present participle]. Likewise, in the quiz question, we know that "having dessert" has a beginning and an end, although we don't know exactly when.
Gracias!
Using El Pretérito Imerfecto in the Gabriel example above seems incorrect/confusing to me, also. Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the imperfect here indicate a general inability to do something, like Gabriel just didn't know how to put the key in the keyhole (incidentally, the sentence should read "key in the keyhole", "keyS in the keyholeS", or "key in the keyholeS" if a single key fits two locks), which seems highly unlikely? It seems to me that El Pretérito Indefinido is more appropriate because: Gabriel didn't manage/succeed in putting the key in the keyhole, and we are referring to a specific moment in the past and the time when it happened is relevant.
The test question was to conjugate maldecir into the "they" form but no explanation of how to do so was given, only for "decir" ("dicen"). But maldecir does not follow the same rule as "decir" it seem because the correct conjugation was shown to be "maldicen" (and not "maldecen," which would match the "decir" pattern). Why is there a difference in the conjugation pattern between decir and maldecir? Is there a rule to be learned? Thanks!
Hi,
I searched on the site for the lesson referred to in one of the answers below using various ways of asking the question, but didn't find anything, could you refer me to the lesson Silvia was referring to:
"We have currently a lesson in our system titled "qué" + "noun/adjective""
Thank you. Nicole
you hear - oyen but can hear is pueden oir, no?
Falta la DE, ¿no?
It seems I need to add more detail, so:
The drop-down menu for this question on forming the plural of nouns that end in -e gives four possible answers, none of which includes “de” after “especies”.
In the Tip it says that the above este etc can be used as demonstrative pronouns. This is not quite correct as demonstrative pronouns are éste ,ésta, They have a hyphen above the e . Where as esto is similar in both cases
For the sentence "mientras vosotros ________ el postre, yo hice el café", why is "estuvisteis comiendo" incorrect? The lesson seems to suggest that it should be correct.
For example, the lesson says this: When the ongoing past action is inside a completed timeframe in the past. See how all examples above contain a time phrase: "toda la noche", "de 6 a 7 de la tarde", "el sábado pasado". In the quiz question, the completed timeframe is "while you were having dessert". Isn't that a similar time frame to "toda la noche"?
Also, the lesson says this: We don't know when the "eating" started, but the end is expressed with "hasta que acabamos con toda la comida". This may sound as if that is an interrupting action and may lead you to wrongly think you need to use El Imperfecto Progresivo [estaba+present participle]. Likewise, in the quiz question, we know that "having dessert" has a beginning and an end, although we don't know exactly when.
Gracias!
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