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Thinking...
Questions answered by our learning community with help from expert Spanish teachers
5,923 questions • 9,691 answers • 981,042 learners
A little off topic, but consider:
1. donde, adonde/a donde
2. dónde, adónde/a dónde
and for that matter (or maybe especially for the case of),
3. quizá, quizás
Within each group the various options can be used interchangeably. But what factors influence the chosen form? For example do some people tend to use the same form all the time? Do people just randomly use all the forms equally? Do some localities tend to use one form more than others? Is there a pronunciation efficiency issue (similar to y and i or o and u, but not a hard-and-fast rule)?
I guess my questions especially apply to quizá versus quizás.
I have noticed that the word “video” is pronounced differently in Spain and Latin America. In Latin America, the word is pronounced as 3 syllables and the accent is on the “e” (2nd or middle syllable). In contrast, in Spain the word seems to be pronounced with the accent on the “i” (1st syllable) and it seems like the word may only have 2 syllables in the peninsular pronunciation (with the “eo” pronounced as a one syllable diphthong). Is this correct, and if not, what is going on here?
The answer insisted on dónde, but there is no question being asked here. So I do not see the reasoning. The rest of the sentence could easily be considered (actually is) the major clause: "I don't know" I think your answer is wrong, or at best an alternative.
Hello,
Just to note that in one of the examples above, the English translation is not correct:
Él no te habría querido tanto como yo.He would not have loved you as much as me.While some (many!) English-speakers may say this (incorrectly), the actual meaning of what they are saying is: "He would not have loved you as much as (he loved/s) me."
The correct translation of the Spanish sentence would be:
"He would not have loved you as much as I do/did."
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?
Hola a todos. I primarily use SpanishDict.com for my Spanish-English dictionary. Has anyone run across other options you like for LatAm Spanish? Gracias de antemano por sus sugerencias.
QWhat Is the difference between estuve/estaba/era/fui
In one question, I was tasked to translate "I want to buy it for him." I selected " Quiero se lo comprar." and was marked wrong. I understand that one could say "Quiero comprárselo." , which was the correct answer. But I always thought that you could have the pronouns attached to the infinitive or put them in front.
Hoy invito yo, así que escoged ________ os guste.
This sentence has subjunctive so am i right to say it means = choose whatever you like?
if it means = whatever you like, then why is cual or cuales wrong for this sentence?
thanks
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