Spanish language Q&A Forum

In this sentence:  "Les lanzo la pelota y deben apagarla con las dos manos."  

I throw you the ball, and you must stop it with two hands.

I don't understand the use of 'Les" is it referring to 'you"?

I never heard a sentence with yendo till now. Could you make a list of different sentences in relation to the pronouns?

Algo que no entiendo :

*Aguafiestas* - party crasher ( de donde/por que agua ?)

*Agua Anoche* -  Que significa ? (water last night not possible)

Escuché en varios lugares (canción/calle), una jerga española ?

Gracias de antemano

Usage differences between ser y estar 

(1) In this sentence the personal “a” is repeated: “ A Pedro y a Pablo les cantaron una canción por su despedida”.  

However in this sentence the second “a” is omitted: “ (Les) cantaron una canción a Pedro y Pablo por su despedida.”

 Is the second “a” arbitrary or is there a rule for when to omit it?  

(2) I notice two uses of IO pronouns in the examples and questions. 

The first is the common usage such as giving something to someone, saying something to someone, or taking something from someone. This usage always has a direct object. 

The second usage is from a lesson from a higher level, called the “dativo de interés”, which has an entirely different meaning altogether. Instead of always having a DO and giving the DO to someone, there may not be a directobject at all (intransitive verbs), and the IO simply emphasizes that someone is affected by the action.  

Sometimes there is a DO: Mi hija pequeña no me come nada.

 and sometimes there is not:  Ayer nos cayó un buen chaparrón.

Inma’s answer to Thea reflects this type of usage.  

Spanish dativo de interés - specific use of Spanish indirect object pronouns

 So there are different layers to the usage of the IO. 

 Could you make a lesson contrasting the different types of IO usage? It could be useful for many of us.

In the above example from a kwizz I understand the use of the present participle but should the subjunctive conjugation of seguir and continuar not be used here? Thanks

Hi,

For the sections "Eran aún mejores que..." and then after this "...en mis sueños.", I believe it might be a bit confusing to separate these parts of the same sentence as the use of the imperfect or preterite tense for the 'Ser' in this sentence relies on the context of to when this action refers. Just seeing the prompt "They were even better than...", I assumed that it was referring to the actual concert, which you would use the preterite of 'Ser' (Fueron) as it is a single and defined event, however when you see "...in my dreams." you then see it was referring to multiple, repeated instances so you would hence use the imperfect tense (Eran).

Perhaps I am mistaken?

Regardless, these quizzes are very good for practical and realistic Spanish usage.

Thanks,

Angus.

Your article says: "In most places El Pretérito Indefinido will be used with "nunca" and "siempre" and even with time expressions which have a connection to the present, such as: hoy, este mes, este año, esta noche, esta mañana, esta semana..."

On a quiz, I used the indefinido in a question with a "time expression which has a connection to the present" (i.e. "hoy") and got the question wrong-- it was corrected to the perfecto. 

Is there something wrong with what I did? Are the quizes looking for peninsular or latin american answers? 

Hello, one of my study recommendations was tan...como. On the dashboard, the feedback indicates I should keep working on this. However, I think I've got it, and wanted to test it to move on. But when I click the quiz from my dashboard, it's over everything that is recommended that I study, and I am not ready for that. How do I just take a quiz over one topic that I think I have mastered?