Spanish language Q&A Forum

This was listed as B2, but required knowledge from C1 areas: Using dicho, dicha, dichos, dichas to say this/these (formal) and Using Spanish relatives el que, la que, los que, las que = the one/ones who/that (relative pronouns)

As stated by one example, "Yo conocí a Susana hace 6 meses."

However, as stated by another, "Hablé con Clara hace 2 horas." 

Why didn't the second example utilize "a"

Is it because "con" had already been used?

I don’t really understand how you can tell when not to translate verbatim? Is there a reason “ Now I cannot stop thinking about her” cannot be translated as “Ahora no puedo dejar de pensar en ella “. I am not seeing why it is translated as “ahora no dejo de pensar en ella”. Why wouldn’t the translation for that just simply be “now I don’t stop thinking about her”. Please help me understand why this is incorrect. These examples are the only reason I am doing poorly. Thank you. 

I thought Inperative was the same as commands! How do they differ in usage and form?

Why is yo me sumerjo los manos wrong here ?  

Está rica esta cancion. Es de pura poesía. O sea que no entiendo todas las palabras; pero siento con Clarissa la alegria de la banda y la que la cantante expresa. Esta cancion me eleva.

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.

El profesor llevaba hablando con el estudiante diez minutos cuando entramos en la habitación.

El profesor había estado hablando con el estudiante diez minutos cuando entramos en la habitación