Spanish language Q&A Forum

Dear Kwiziq,

In virtually all of the dictations I have completed, I have found that it is quite difficult to discern when a sentence ends based on the speakers voice. This is to say, the speaker lowers his/her voice in a way that implies the end of a sentence, but when the answer is shown it becomes apparent to me that the lowering of the speaker's voice was actually meant to convey a pause. Is this the natural way hispanohablantes speak --- whether from Spain or Central/South America?  Of course, as recommended, I do listen to the dictation before attempting to write it out, but I cannot memorize where sentences end vs. when there is a pause in the speaker's speech. Consequently, I'm constantly guessing at when the sentence ends. I am a native English speaker and typically, when translating spoken English to written form, lowering of the voice signifies a period --- not a pause (comma). As such, I often find it confusing (indeed, quite frustrating) to differentiate pauses from ends of sentences in the Kwiziq dictation exercises.

Pati Inez Ecuamiga

in one of the examples,

Verás, el chico se va a enfadar y va a coger y le va a dar un puñetazo.

You'll see, the guy is going to get cross and he's going to go and give him a punch.

where does 'se va + a' comes from? is this irse with other meanings?

Could you direct me to the appropriate lesson?

thanks

In this construction, can the "se" also go at the end of the infinitive, like this:

    No debe fumarse.

?

Thanks!

Can you guys give us a full breakdown of what things (verbs) use the third person "they did this for me" but it's translated in English as "I had done." ?? It's very confusing and it seems kinda random what things you can use this with or not. The only reason I even knew that this structure existed is because I have some Mexican family members who use this structure but in English. For instance they might they "they're fixing the car right now." But they mean they're having the car fixed for them right now. 

In some lessons you guys mention personal care "being done for oneself" but it's still first person, like cutting hair, doing nails. I'm just confused as to when it's ok to use third person or not. 

No entiendo por qué el Rey hizo eso. Él lo hizo porque quiso

Unless the Spanish have a definition of "conjunction" that differs from the one I've always understood, both "por qué" and 
"porque" are both being used as conjunctions in those sentences. It is the sense of their use which differs.

Can these two uses be distinguished in spoken Spanish and if so, how?

when choosing adjectives for las lámparas, rosa but not rosas was offered as a choice. Why not rosas?

Why isn't "las" used to modify both bicicletas and cintas de correr? I thought bicycles and treadmills were a general class of equipment, and not a specific bike or a specific treadmill. Thank you.