Spanish language Q&A Forum

Hello, I'm trying to get a better understanding of when to use different constructions.

Specifically:

Si Amalia va al mercado, comprará pescado fresco.

Si Amalia fuera al mercado, compraría pescado fresco.

These two constructions express the same idea.  How do we know which one to choose?  Is our choice solely based on the probability of the action in the "si" clause?

Thanks.

Test question uses "Nos impresiona que," with the subjunctive however this lesson referenced for the answer never discusses this grammatical construction. It would be good to add this to the lesson so there is no ambiguity.

Cümlenin başında unos amigos diyor.un amigo olması gerekmiyor mu? Yani bir arkadaşımın evinde

Hi, is the reason for not using an indefinite article with acento that acento is an uncountable noun? Thanks, 

Shirley. 

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?

We were told to form an adverb you take the feminine form and add 'mente' so it would effectively be 'Amente' So why does it say fuertamente is wrong, it's fuertEmente? 

I understand that no articles are used in negatives 

e.g no hay tienda

Therefore, I am asking whether you would also drop the article in this sense?

e.g hay el de rojo--> no hay de rojo?

Is there a way to eliminate vosotros from lessons and quizzes? It's not something I've ever studied or used.

That guy worked for us for a few months.

why are we not translating the second for in the sentence: 'for a few months'?

Should it not be: Durante unos meses?