Spanish language Q&A Forum

La narradora dice “las pilas” pero el texto dice “la pilas”, y el programa te corrige si escribes “las pilas” en tu transcripción. Me gusta esta expresión que no conocía antes. Creo que ya la entiendo, pero tal vez merezca una pequeña nota. ¡Gracias!

I'm confused about Kwiziq vocabulary choices. The words in quotes are those presented as correct whereas as those in bold were the words I chose in my translation.

Why "alguna" instead of cualquier? [ ... do you have any color and style preferences...]

why "rosa" instead of rosado? [... with my pink dress...]

Why "voy a" una boda instead of voy a ir una boda? [I'm going to a wedding...]

Thank you.

Pati Ecuamiga

There are a number of good questions below about the use of the preterite vs the imperfect.  There is some confusion about the speaker choosing to bend the rules in order to express an action in a certain way.  This is a very useful topic and might be a good lesson of its own, "When the speaker bends the rules for a specific reason".

Hi Inma, I had a thought about V's question below and wanted to check it with you.  This applies to statements which don't give any time indicators.

If the speaker is thinking of themselves in the present time, then they will see the past event as complete.  "Mi prima fue Miss Universe."  In other words, "We're here in the present, and that is a past event which is complete."

However if the speaker is mentally placing themselves in the past, they would say "Mi prima era Miss Universe,"  as a way of placing you inside the narrative in the past time frame.  Kind of like saying, "Let's mentally travel to the past, when my cousin was Miss Univetse."

Hope this is makes senss.  If it's correct, it will be a useful concept for me.  Thanks.

this is 'to him' which is to me should us le not lo. 

Don't bother answering, no one ever answers me here anyway

Just when I thought I'd gotten the hang of gustar and verbs like it, along comes: Pues, me ha dicho Lola que le gustas a Ricardo. 

So, "me ha dicho Lola que" = "Lola told me that", "gustas" is second person singular as applies to "you" the person being spoken to, no? "le" is the Indirect Object for "to/by him", si? Is the "a" before "Ricardo" the personal "a" or the preposition "to" ? Entonces; "le gustas a Ricardo" = to him you are pleasing (Ricardo) ?? 

But Ricardo is the subject and I thought it would be "te gusta Ricardo" = Ricardo is pleased by you / you are liked by Ricardo. Does "gustas" refer to Ricardo or to Sonia and to whom would 3ra persona "gusta" apply?

But I'm thinking: 

Le gustas a Ricardo = to him you are pleasing (liked) by Ricardo (personal a ?) Ricardo likes you.

whereas: Te gusta Ricardo = By you is liked Ricardo. You like Ricardo.

HELP?? porfis . . .

Hola! Yo tengo una pregunta- agua is feminine but the sentence says “el agua es clara”. Is this an exception? Are there others like this? Thank you! 

I came across this phrase whilst reading and suspect it means we make a good team? I think it's Cuban Spanish

Both answers are correct and based on the response from Inma, the correct answers should be " El Pretérito Perfecto". Please revise this lesson to make it clear as to which answer you want maybe by prefacing each question with "In Latin America". 

Why was there no translation for "Venir a cuento" (To come to the point) , "San Ginés" (Saint Genesius), "El asilo del libro" (the Book Asylum) and "Tusitala? Do the choice of names for the librerías have no relevance? It might be of value to know why such names were chosen. Ej:

¿Qué significa Tusitala?, La Librería dice, "nos preguntáis con frecuencia: Tusitala significa "el que cuenta historias", es el nombre que los nativos de Samoa daban a Robert Louis Stevenson cuando se reunían con él para escuchar sus cuentos.
En la librería Tusitala siempre dedicamos un espacio al escritor escocés, que ahora se amplía con 'Olalla', novela ambientada en España y que ha recuperado Ediciones Invisibles. Una joya de la narrativa que os recomendamos encarecidamente."

Interesting, no?