Spanish language Q&A Forum

I'm having difficulty distinguishing how to phrase the following two sentences in Spanish:

My old friend is visiting me today.  (meaning he and I have been friends for a very long time.)

My old friend is visiting me today. (meaning my friend is very old in years.)

A better translation of this might be: "Take into account the proposal".  You could also say "Have account of the proposal" but it sounds a bit 19th century.

Fill in the blanks with the correct comparative.  You will use either más adj. que, menos adj. que or tan adj. como.  You might also have to use one of the four exceptions - mejor que, peor que, mayor que or menor que.  Remember that the adjective has to agree with the FIRST item in NUMBER and GENDER.  Do not change the adjective (from small to big, etc.).

examples:  Un huevo es _____ una calabaza.  (grande)      You write:  menos grande que

                    Mi escuela es _______ tu escuela.  (bueno)        You write:  mejor que or menos buena que or tan buena como (I will have all three on opinion questions.)

1.  Mi hermano es  mi hermana.  (alto)

2.  Rhode Island es  Texas.  (pequeño)

3.  El abuelo es  el nieto.  (viejo)

4.  McDonald's es  Chick-fil-A.  (malo)

5.  Una ensalada es  pan dulce.  (nutritivo)

6.  Los jugadores de básquetbol son  los niños pequeños.  (alto)

7.  Los gatos son  los perros.  (bueno)

8.  La clase de español es  la clase de matemáticas.  (fácil)

9.  Yo soy  mis padres.  (joven)

10.  Mi madre es  mi padre.  (estricto - means strict) 

I understand that some verbs are stem changing. In the example of "e" to "ie" verbs, the last "e" of the stem turns into "ie". This rule seems to be true for verbs like nevar (nieva), but why not verbs like "tener"?

In Spanish, the structure "Tan...como" is referred to as a "comparative structure".

What is the name of the structure that utilizes "Tan...que"?

I had a really big cup of coffee this morning!

Your answer to Marcos does not explain why a feminine version exists since, as you say, 'When we form a noun using the augmentative suffix -ón, the new word is always masculine, regardless of the gender of the originating noun. This is because nouns ending in -ón are generally masculine’.

What, if any, are the circumstances in which "si" introduces a clause that is followed by the indicative mode of a verb, rather than the subjunctive mode?

Why is ‘has been …ing’ sometimes el Pretérito perfecto progresivo and other times a perífrasis verbal?     eg:

Carlos lleva trabajando en ese colegio dos años.

Carlos has been working in that school for two years. 

Laura has been seeing her boyfriend secretly.

Is this lesson demonstrating the use of the PRESENT perfect subjunctive after "esperar" or the PAST perfect subjunctive? If the former, why is it referred to as "Pretérito Perfecto Subjuntivo", if we ordinarily translate the word "pretérito" as "past"?

                                                           OR

To phrase this question differently, when I use "haya", "hayas", "haya", etc. plus the past participle of a verb, am I using the Present perfect subjunctive, or the Past perfect subjunctive, or, in fact, is there another name, English and/or Spanish for this conjugation?