Spanish language Q&A Forum

Can "esto" be used as a demonstrative pronoun?  For example, esto libro?

I just reviewed the A1 lesson on veces/vez in which "sometimes" equals "algunas veces," but in examples above, "sometimes" equals "a veces." Is there a difference? Is "a veces" simply a more convenient way of saying "algunas veces?" Thank you.

Could you say 'poner una chaquetta' instead of 'llevar una chaquetta'?

Hi!! I would like to ask a question. So I'm doing a presentation in Spanish and i want to use the present perfect subjunctive in the last sentence. I want to say "I hope you enjoyed my presentation". The dictionary says that it's "espero que les haya gustado mi precentación", but isn't "haya" the verb form for "usted" and not "ustedes"? Several people are going to listen to me, so I want to address them all. What do I say? Is it "espero que les hayán gustado mi precentación" or "espero que les hayáis gustado mi precentación", or is it the sentence I wrote earlier?

Thank you in advance!!

Does it matter when you use which?

¿Qué sobre "al final de cuentas"?

"dentro del seno de una familia catolica, (etc)" = within the bosom of a catholic family. Why pare down the literary parts to just the basic meaning of "to a catholic family (etc)"? The "dentro del seno" seems to indicate that he was born into a loving, caring family (O.K. plus wealthy and traditional!). But when we read Cervantes and Shakespeare aren't those literary embellishments what made them classics?

 I just wanted to add that it seems like a similar thing IS actually done in colloquial English in certain rare cases and the form and nuance is very similar--eg "they say it's tricky to learn" where the "they" is someone unspecified or people in general and not particularly relevant. (In more formal English, other ways of expressing the idea would sound less "colloquial", but it would  sound very normal in conversation.) But what I'm seeing is that in Spanish this has much broader use, and is quite natural in many cases where in english you'd have to use a passive construction (or another pronoun instead to keep the impersonal sense)--eg, "He was robbed," or maybe "someone robbed him", but not "they robbed him" because in English that implies subjects already mentioned or known and wouldn't sound impersonal (at least, not in any dialect I've encountered). Yet helpfully, the Spanish form isn't TOTALLY alien to an English speaker, just a lot more freely used. Gee, isn't language fun?! 🙃 

How would you say, "They work as much as they play," meaning quantity of time they spend? 

¿«Trabajan tanto como juegan.»?

But if you say, "They work as well as they play," meaning with the same quality of enjoyment, ¿would you say, 

«Trabajan tan como juegan.»?