Spanish language Q&A Forum

Hi Inma

In the lesson you say: 

"There is no difference in meaning. Using one or the other depends on what the person is used to; some regions in Spain use one form more than the other, but both are correct."

However, I always believed their is difference that exists between the two: 

Olvidar = to forget by accident 

1) Siempre olvido las llaves del coche = I always forget my car keys 

2) ¡Ay no, olvidé hacer los deberes! = Oh no, I forgot to do the homework! (olvidar+infinitive)

Olvidarse de = to forget by choice, on purpose.

1) Ella se olvidó de sus problemas de dinero y se fue de compras = She forgot about her money problems and went shopping anyway (she chose to forget)

2) Solo quiero olvidarme de arruinar la fiesta de cumpleaños de mi hermano = I just want to forget about ruining my brother's birthday party (he's trying to forget)

I've always thought of it like the 'se'  is indicating that someone is doing something to his/herself (like ducharse, bañarse etc). I'm unsure where I learned this!

The accidental 'se' part is new to me

Saludos 

Los adultos compran este calendario para los niños porque tienen chocolates y son deliciosos.

Tienen is plural while calendario is singular. So who have the chocolates? The adults or the children? Neither makes sense.

This sentence is funny in a way because you could read as the children have chocolates and the children are delicious. I guess the adults buy the calendar to lull the children, to capture them and eat them. Yum, delicious children:-)

Is miramos wrong instead of vemos? “Mi familia y yo miramos películas de terror”

Sorry, Im a little confussed.

Before I attempt to answer this, isn't patience an adjective (modifying Victor, the noun).  Or is it referring to "few patients (pacientes)- not little patience" as a quantity?  

In otherwords, I believe paciencia is an adjective (quality - not quantity), and I think the poco would be a modifier and not be changed.  It would stay poco. Right?

But if the word was patients (pacientes- quantitiy of patients), then the poco would change to poca, because paciente is a feminine noun.

I have read all the correspondance around this lesson, but my problem has not surfaced. It is this:-

if 'mirar' is intransitive and needs pronoun 'a' before inanimate objects, then I don't have a problem. If, however, it is transitive and takes a direct object ( of inanimate objects ) then I cannot see why there is an indirect  object pronoun at all. Can you explain?

Could someone attempt to clear something up for me?

In a quiz question on this subject we are asked to choose subjunctive vs indicative as follows:

"Aunque no ______ (tiene/tenga) mucho éxito en general, la película me parece interesante" (Although it is not very successful in general, the movie seems interesting to me)

The hint given is that there is no doubt in the speaker's mind regarding the aunque clause.

The answer is tenga (subjunctive)

In English, even if and although have quite different connotations: even if can indicate an element of doubt, but although generally does not, so I can usually work out how one or the other determines either indicative or subjunctive in Spanish translation. But I don't understand how this phrase triggers the subjunctive in this question.

Firstly, from the hint given, the phrase doesn't necessarily imply that this is shared information (that the accompanying lesson suggests would trigger the subjunctive). This info might be known only to the speaker, so shouldn't that would point to the indicative? Secondly, if there's no doubt in the speaker's mind, why consider using subjunctive at all?