Spanish language Q&A Forum

Some of the English answers in this exercise use the past tense in English, and some use the past perfect tense, por ejemplo:

We hope that you HAVE finished it on time.  NOT We hope that you finished it on time.  

I hope that you booked the restaurant in advance.  NOT I hope that you HAVE booked the restaurant in advance. 

In English, there may be very little difference, if any, in the meaning of the sentence, but I wonder why in some examples, "have" is used and in others, it is omitted.

In Spanish the word Pachamama is their way of telling if it's a masculine or feminine word.

I am a bit frustrated with this lesson.  I guess my question is this: with my limited (A1) knowledge of Spanish, how am I supposed to know "that sometimes the feminine and masculine forms are the same" when repeatedly the test gives adjectives I do not (yet) know in Spanish?  

For example, placid.  I do not KNOW how to say placid in Spanish, thus how can I know if I should use the feminine adjective form or simply add mente?  The assumption of adjective knowledge doesn't work unless, as is sometimes done in the test, you GIVE the adjective form in the test question; example: Los coches son rápidos: van rápidamente.   In this example test question it is easy to understand rápidos (masculine form) will change to the feminine because I can SEE rápidos!  The frustrates me to get wrong when it seems to be testing me more on knowing a large range of adjectives in Spanish more than the specific assignment of adding the "ly" form! I don't see my scores getting better based on the lesson given.

Hello.  I'm a bit confused on the optional placements of "le" in sentences.  For example, if i want to say "I don't want to ask my brother for money".  Would both sentences below be correct?  And if so, is one construction more commonly used in Mexico and Latin America?  

No le quiero pedir dinero a mi hermano vs. No quiero pedirle dinero a mi hermano. 

Thank you!

Hola, what does ya mean in this sentence. Muchas gracias, Shirley. 

A valuable lesson! But can you please explain the difference in the use of "hace" and "desde hace"? It seems that "hace" means "ago":

Lo compré hace tres semanas. - I bought it three weeks ago. 

And that "desde hace" means "for": Lo tengo desde hace tres semanas. - I’ve had it for three weeks.

However I keep coming across examples where either "desde hace" or "hace" can mean both "for" or "ago". Does it depend on context as to which one means "for" or "ago" or are they interchangeable?

It seems that translation is dependent upon interpretation:

"que no saldrá del cajón y le saldrán telerañas" translates as "which won't leave the drawer and it leaves with cobwebs" BUT is interpreted to mean "which will stay in the drawer gathering cobwebs". 

I note that in Mexico, official documents have to be translated "literally" but in the case above, that really wouldn't make much sense! How far can one go in interpreting versus translating? 

xx

?Por qué usas "muchAs frutAs" (género femenino) al principio de esta cuenta, pero al fin dices que "La guayaba es otrO de lOs frutOs en temporada"(género masculino)?

!gracias!

Mis hermanos mayores, ____ son gemelos, tienen personalidades diferentes.

i know that los cuales is possible but feel so awkward. should it not be erased from an option? this sounds very invasive. 

Could this be translated as "Let him (her, it) help you?

Claude-3.5-Sonnet dice que

"They may want a higher salary"

puede traducirse como

"Quizás querrían un salario más alto".

El bot dice que el condicional da un matiz más tentativo o hipotético que el subjuntivo y suena más cortés o diplomático. ¿Qué opinas?