Spanish language Q&A Forum

How do you do the upside down question mark? 

Of course numbers are read all kinds of ways, but I was always taught that in reading a number without a decimal (i.e., "20, 354") the word "and" is not to be used. Thus, your example "20,354" would be vocalized as:  "twenty-thousand, three hundred fifty-four". No "and".

Pati Ecuamiga

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

A sentence in the quiz for this lesson says, "Me ofrecieron trabajo...." Should be "Me ofrecieron un trabajo."