Spanish language Q&A Forum

I saw a sentence "Nos pasamos El día" it means we spent the day, but "Pasamos el día" means the same thing as well. I always get confused what's the reason behind using "NOS" in the first sentence.

There was a lot of food at the party. (completed action in the past)

Había mucha comida en la fiesta.

There was a lot of food at the party. (action not completed in the past, descriptive)

I don't understand why the English translations of the historical present are not in the English historical present. For example, "Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez dies in 2013." would be perfectly acceptable in a historical context. To use the past tense in the English examples is just confusing, since the point of the lesson is that the same tense exists in Spanish as well.

Could you not say Ven instead of Veis?

I'm finding myself very confused because you are assuming something that I haven't been taught to assume. (I've been taught to assume something else.) I don't want to reprogram my brain! I'm content with *recognizing* (in a passive way) when the vosotros form is being used. But I'd like to continue to use ustedes when it is appropriate in the form of Spanish I've been learning and using. I don't want to learn (in an active way) the vosotros form.

Another question from the quiz: "Las mamás quieren darles de mamar a sus bebés en el parque". In Spanish as spoken in Spain, wouldn't it be more common to use madres instead of mamás? Natives told me not to overuse mamá, papá, abuelito, mis papás etc. because they said it would sound childish.