Overcomplicating Using the Spanish simple future to express probabilities ...This lesson overcomplicates what should be a pretty straightforward use of the simple future tense. Just look at all the questions on this topic! While all of us know that the future is not fixed or 100% predictable, we still make predictions that sound pretty guaranteed even if they are technically probabilities.
The quiz questions complicate this further by giving us examples that are, frankly, poor translations. For example, one quiz question asks us to translate: "With this crisis, the currency could lose value." I would bet serious money that if you gave this sentence to 100 native Spanish professors, at least in Mexico, not a single one of them would ever give the supposedly correct answer: "Con esta crisis la moneda perderá valor." Not a single one of my three Mexican professors, including a DELE examiner, translated "could lose" as "perderá."
They all used "podría" for "could," with either "podría perder valor" or "podría depreciarse." Conversely, in reverse translation of the Spanish answer to English, they all 100% translated "perderá valor" as "will lose value", with certainty—not as "could lose value."
Maybe Spanish from Spain is different, but that quiz question and translation are not correct in Mexican Spanish. I suggest editing the lesson and quiz questions to remove the "could, might" possibility from translations using the simple future tense—at least in the Latin American Spanish lessons. At best, it's confusing, but more likely, it's just not a good translation.
For example : ¿Te van a reparar la avería pronto?
Are you going to have the problem fixedsoon?Is the implication: Are you going to have the problem fixed (by an unknown third person) and that you won’t be fixing the problem yourself?
Hola! ¿Cómo está? Soy estudiante. Me gusta escuchar música y practico basquetbol en mi calle. En mi famila yo tengo los padres y una hermano. (I Am worried Duolingo is messing me up because my Spanish teachers is from Cuba but I think Duolingo teaches Spanish from Spain but i want to learn Spanish from Latin America . Also I always mess up when to put el or la and when to put una or un can you guys help please)
A quiz example of each:
--Ojalá yo ________ un hijo a los 33 años.I hope I have a son by the time I'm 33.(HINT: Conjugate "tener" in El Imperfecto de Subjuntivo)
--Ojalá ________ mejor nuestra propuesta de trabajo.I wish you considered our work proposal more closely.(HINT: Use the "tú" form to conjugate "considerar" in El Imperfecto de Subjuntivo)
It seems like these both use ojalá + imperfect subjunctive, but that one is a hope for the future and one is a wish/regret about the past. I might be missing something.
How could we distinguish between, for example:
"I hope I have a son by age 33 [and I still might]" vs.
"I wish I had a son by age 33 [but I didn't]"
or
"I hope you consider our proposal more closely" vs.
"I wish you considered our proposal more closely [but you didn't]"
Thank you!
The Kwiziq Spanish Tense Names master sheet I downloaded 8/6/2024 defines El Condicional Simple as "expresses a hypothetical action that would or might happen in the future". El Condicional Perfecto is defined as "Expresses an action that would have or might have happened in the past". Are these definitions correct?
The item "Abuelos ...... muchas patatas en aquel entonces" is given the hint that the speaker is expressing probability about what happened in the past. The correct action is given as comerían, el condicional simple.
If the master sheet has been updated, where might I find it?
Thank you,
Sheila Dickson
I had the following "En España no siempre dormimos siesta" and I looked it up and AI said the response with siesta at the end is somewhat awkward and less native is that correct?
It's such a shame that you used an AI image to illustrate this lesson :/
I don’t understand how the infinitive is less ambiguous than the gerund. Is it because the infinitive is directly associated with the verbal structure while the gerund could hypothetically be separated from the verbal structure by a comma? La escuché, (while I was) cantando en la ducha.
Regarding incomplete and complete actions: Let’s say you’re hypothetically talking to someone about Carlos.
He visto a Carlos fumar.
I saw Carlos smoke. (complete action) Does this mean, I saw Carlos smoking. (But now he’s back at his desk. (action complete))
He visto a Carlos fumando.
I saw Carlos smoking. (action in progress) While this means I saw Carlos smoking. (He is still smoking outside if you are looking for him. (action in progress))
Thanks!
porque no es su calidad es muy bueno? un traje espacial es masculino
This lesson overcomplicates what should be a pretty straightforward use of the simple future tense. Just look at all the questions on this topic! While all of us know that the future is not fixed or 100% predictable, we still make predictions that sound pretty guaranteed even if they are technically probabilities.
The quiz questions complicate this further by giving us examples that are, frankly, poor translations. For example, one quiz question asks us to translate: "With this crisis, the currency could lose value." I would bet serious money that if you gave this sentence to 100 native Spanish professors, at least in Mexico, not a single one of them would ever give the supposedly correct answer: "Con esta crisis la moneda perderá valor." Not a single one of my three Mexican professors, including a DELE examiner, translated "could lose" as "perderá."
They all used "podría" for "could," with either "podría perder valor" or "podría depreciarse." Conversely, in reverse translation of the Spanish answer to English, they all 100% translated "perderá valor" as "will lose value", with certainty—not as "could lose value."
Maybe Spanish from Spain is different, but that quiz question and translation are not correct in Mexican Spanish. I suggest editing the lesson and quiz questions to remove the "could, might" possibility from translations using the simple future tense—at least in the Latin American Spanish lessons. At best, it's confusing, but more likely, it's just not a good translation.
Is it safe to assume that invariable cuanto más can only be used with masculine form adjectives? Or if I wanted to imply that I was just speaking about women in the following example, “Cuanto más rubios, más atractivos para mí” could I use feminine form adjectives?
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