Spanish language Q&A Forum

There is a lot to unpack in this lesson and I'm finding parts of it quite difficult to comprehend. For example, I see three forms of traer used in examples that express "we." Also examples for "can we have" that do not contain a conjugation of "poder."

Also I don't know where to find explanations of the different tenses, preteritos, etc. of both traer and llevar that are used in this lesson, so a link to the related lesson would help us out. Thank you. I can tell this was a difficult one to put together and I appreciate your effort.

1. In the second sentence, "para que te acuerdes de que me he portado muy bien"...Why isn't recordar accepted here?

2. In the sentence, "Además, desearía que ayudaras a las personas enfermas"... why isn't "ojalá que" accepted as a translation of "I hope"?

I said this phrase was incorrect as I though the a in ave would change the una to an un.

However I was marked wrong and apparently it is a correct phrase.

Is this another exception to the rule?

Hello Lawless Spanish,

I JUST found your excellent web site. I've been using various means to learn Spanish over the last 1.5 years, but your site seems to be the best resource so far. I'm still at A1 however.

Here's a thought that I'd be interested to know your opinion on. Often while reading an English interpretation of a Spanish phrase or sentence, I think I would like to have the more literal translation rather than the Spanish being re-worded in order to be a grammatical English sentence. Because I don't care about English grammar or want my English reinforced when I'm trying to understand how a Spanish speaker constructs their thoughts linguistically. Do you know what I mean?

Take the example from the first exercise I happened to land on,  Corro para estar en forma. It would be helpful to see a more literal translation, then I get a better idea of the words and structure a Spanish speaker uses. In the example, "estar en forma" is re-interpreted as "to keep fit." That is quite a departure from the literal. I think an English speaker is quite capable of recognizing a more literal translation "to be in form" because it is identical to the common English phrase "to be in shape." So while I know authors are trying to be helpful with English re-interpretations, I often feel cheated out of knowing a more literal construction and wording, and in the process authors may even be making less-accurate interpretations (such as "to keep fit" instead of the better "to be in shape."). What do you think?  

I think Alfredo got trapped! He only proposed after Susana got pregnant . . .

The correct answer was listed as “La gente siempre quiere …”. My response was “Siempre la gente quiere …” Do you have any guidelines on word sequence/placement? It seems like I’ve seen “siempre” at the beginning of a sentence or clause in other contexts. As always, muchas gracias for your insights!

“Nunca hubieras pensado que hubiese tantas formas de disculparse.” Hola, this sentence is from the B2 Listening exercise on how to apologize in spanish. I don’t know why Nunca triggers the imperfect subjunctive. Maybe this example could be included in the examples in this lesson? Muchas gracias, Shirley. 

This word seems to change all the time! I had the wrong answer so next time it came up in a question I put the answer it gave me last time and it said wrong and gave the answer as the one I chose in the first place!  This has happened several times. How and why does this word change?

Hola,

Would the sentence above still make sense in Spanish if it were reordered thus:

El otro día mi abuela me llamó tres veces.

Saludos,

Colin

Hola, the second last sentence says " Todo esto haría crecer nuestro negocio.". Can it be "Todo esto crecería nuestro negocio."? If it can, what would be the difference between these two expressions? Thank you.