Spanish language Q&A Forum

I use the app SpanishDict to help me check myself on certain concepts, especially on conjugations. For this concept, the gerund, the app uses past and present participles. Frankly, I did not receive a whole hell of a lot of instruction when it came to the difference between a participle and a gerund when I was younger but hey, I turned out ok! I have gotten the gist but the two things don't do the same thing  in Spanish as they do in English. I asked a Spanish professor friend of mine about this and he said one of them  (I can't remember which) was the gerund and the other is the participle. Is he correct? I got a questions wrong because I typed one form but it was actually the other. Also, is SpanishDict throwing me off?  

I'm afraid I have to join the others on this one. This is has got to be the hardest concept I have encountered so far. I'm glad that you mentioned that if you use "nunca" or "siempre" then the verb would be in the simple past. However, that is where my understanding stops. I tried thinking about whether one is recent past (perfecto) and one is more distant but still somewhat recent (indefinido), but that is confusing and probably not correct. Thank you also for stating that this is something that is different across all the different countries. I will just keep trying and hope that something sticks at some point.   

Hi, there are two questions on the quiz that I don't understand: (1) "Esos chicles son mentolados pero  ____  no tienen sabor" and (2) "Esos estudiantes van a viajar a Asia pero ________ no tienen dinero." Kwiziq is saying that the correct demonstrative pronoun in both cases is "estos." However, my understanding was that demonstrative pronouns should vary in gender with the noun they refer to, unless it isn't known or we are referring to statement, idea, or situation. In 1, the noun being referred to is "chicles," which is a masculine plural noun, so the demonstrative pronoun should be "estes," not estos, correct? With 2, I understand that we may not know the gender of the group, so we use esto. Can you explain?

Do you have se lessons for things like, se me hace, no se te quita, ya no se te nota mucho acento, ya no se les atiende, se percate.  I ask because none of these seem to find homes in the lessons, in order to practice and understand. I mean they are not accidental. Thanks

Hola

In relation to "después de que", I have questions:

(1) why "hallase" (instead of "se halla") is used in this sentence:

"...es el final de un camino [...] después de que la Guardia Civil hallase en la 'tablet' de la víctima un enigmático mensaje."

(2) what construction is this? what are the grammar rules?

Muchas gracias.

I have a question about constructions like this: "Omar y Cristina son nuestros panaderos," e.g. "Omar and Cristina are our bakers." I understand it is "nuestros" because it is the nosotros form of the possessive adjective. However, I'm confused about the gender. Why is it masculine here?

here it says ¨Nosotros no deberíamos haberlo escuchado.¨ Should it be  Nosotros no deberíamos haberle escuchado? Le instead of Lo?

In this question from a quiz:

"El presidente ________ Gobierno tiene su residencia oficial en el Palacio de la Moncloa, en Madrid"

I was told that it should be del. However, in the lesson it says not to use contractions prior to proper nouns. Is this not a proper noun, despite the fact it is capitalized?

Is there any problem with adding "se" to the verb "reír" here?