Preterite of "-e#ir" verbs: the 3rd person e>i change almost seems to be the norm
Hola Ana, Silvia, e Inma -
In your lesson Conjugate stem-changing-ir verbs (e > i) in the preterite tense in Spanish (El Pretérito Indefinido) - I am wondering if it might be worth mentioning that the guideline applies to the majority of verbs ending with "-e#ir" - because most of them seem to change the 'e' to 'i' in the 3rd person "pretérito indefinido" [where the # symbol denotes a consonant, or two consonants together, or even no consonant as with 'reír'] >
> i.e., almost all of them follow the pattern "servir > sirvió, sirvieron"...
... and seguir > siguió, siguieron [note that 'gu' is effectively just a consonant with its silent u]
I have come across only a few exceptions to that^ rule:
namely, the three "-cer.nir" verbs: discernir, concernir, cernir(se)... the three "-ergir" ones: sumergir, convergir, divergir... and hendir - [e.g., the third person preterite becomes él discer.nió - not discirnió].
There are also one or two [?] defective verbs which behave like that^, for example 'ellos agredieron' (they attacked), not 'agridieron'.
Saludos, David Mc
Hola Ana, Silvia, e Inma -
In your lesson Conjugate stem-changing-ir verbs (e > i) in the preterite tense in Spanish (El Pretérito Indefinido) - I am wondering if it might be worth mentioning that the guideline applies to the majority of verbs ending with "-e#ir" - because most of them seem to change the 'e' to 'i' in the 3rd person "pretérito indefinido" [where the # symbol denotes a consonant, or two consonants together, or even no consonant as with 'reír'] >
> i.e., almost all of them follow the pattern "servir > sirvió, sirvieron"...
... and seguir > siguió, siguieron [note that 'gu' is effectively just a consonant with its silent u]
I have come across only a few exceptions to that^ rule:
namely, the three "-cer.nir" verbs: discernir, concernir, cernir(se)... the three "-ergir" ones: sumergir, convergir, divergir... and hendir - [e.g., the third person preterite becomes él discer.nió - not discirnió].
There are also one or two [?] defective verbs which behave like that^, for example 'ellos agredieron' (they attacked), not 'agridieron'.
Saludos, David Mc
Is the preposition "a" used for other cases in Spanish besides expressing a part of the day?
The above is an A2 question and the expected answer is te however no guidance is given that a singular informal tense is to be used.
Couldn't le, les or os also be used here if no further context is given.
This lesson doesn't address decidir caminar vs decidir a caminar
You don't need a hyphen between "commonly" and "used" in the first sentence of this lesson, or indeed between any adverb and the adjective it modifies. That's what the -ly ending is for.
Would "no ha" be better thought of as "has not" instead of "didn't?" I don't know what the grammatical difference is between the two, or if one exists.
I am studying Latin Am Spanish and my Mexican teacher told me that preterite perfect is used to describe past experiences (even those finished in the past) AI confirms this : Visité México" is the simple past tense (preterite) and is used for actions that were completed in the past. If you're saying "I visited Mexico" as a specific event that happened, this is the way to go.
"He visitado México" is the present perfect tense and is used to talk about actions that were completed at some indefinite point in the past and have relevance to the present. If you're expressing that you've visited Mexico at some time in your life up to now, this is a good choice.
So it comes down to whether you're highlighting a specific past event (Visité) or a general experience up to now (He visitado). Got another language question? I’m here for it.
Another explanation I have seen tells that when the pronoun is part of a phrase within brackets we should be using el que etc rather than just que. I have fed the sentence into the respected SpanishChecker with both alternatives and neither was identified as wrong.
Find your Spanish level for FREE
And get your personalised Study Plan to improve it
Find your Spanish level