Spanish language Q&A Forum

I just missed this question:

¿Viajan ustedes ________ placer? Are you travelling for pleasure?

I chose "para" because I read "for pleasure" as indicating purpose. The endorsed answer is "por"; apparently I'm supposed to read "for pleasure" as an originating cause.

Looking at the examples here, the most relevant would seem to be:

Va a estudiar medicina por seguir la tradición familiar.
She is studying medicine because it's family tradition.

It seems to me, you could also use para here, with a different meaning:

Va a estudiar medicina para seguir la tradición familiar.
She is studying medicine to follow the family tradition.

Here it's pretty easy to tell them apart because they differ in English. With

Are you travelling for pleasure?

... I guess I don't even know what "originating cause" means in this example. It's because you wanted to obtain pleasure, right? That seems to me like a purpose.

If the originating cause were a noun ("amor", "los niños"), or a pre-existing state/action ("ser el primo"), then it's pretty easy to see it's an originating cause as opposed to a purpose. But for a verb that seems to relate to future action, I don't know how I would know.

Any guidance?

What’s the reasoning for ruling out el pluscuamperfecto de subjuntivo?

I don't feel like there is good guidance in this.  I see what appears to be mixed modes- Mi and ti, but not nos- it's nosotros.  If nosotros is the valid pronoun for this form, why is ti valid and tu not valid? There is no guidance here and I am constantly getting these screwed up.  To me, nosotros=we, nos=us, and nuestra=our.  I get it if they truly use those in that way, but please call it out as an exception so I know to memorize it that way.  Otherwise I am trying to find and fit a pattern and am hitting the wall trying to pass these tests in a way that I know I can replicate this in a week or a month from now and get it correctly then as well, and not just memorize it long enough to pass the test today.

Hola Inma,

I am much more “comfortable” with the alternative “se debe haber retrasado.”  Is it not counterintuitive to add the reflexive pronoun to the verb haber? 

Invariably we never put anything between the two verbs when using the pretérito perfecto but in this case we do. Is there a particular explanation / logic?  I must be missing something!

Saludos. John

The sound stops halfway through this example:

Yo voy al gimnasio, no porque me gusta, sino porque debo perder peso.I go to the gym, not because I like it, but because I must lose weight.

Hola Inma, 

The translation of the above is given as “Come up here without stepping on the white floor tiles.” This sounds like an imperative, so would it be one of the appropriate conjugations ¡Ve/Vea! etc? Or is it a typo?

Saludos. John

To say sth is protected, are está and es interchangeable or is one preferred than the other?

Si él gana ellas pagar la cuenta pero si Rafa no gana?