Confused about multiple uses of the present tenseHello,
There have been a number of questions in different topic areas along the lines of “Why don’t we use the present progressive tense for such and such an example in Spanish when the English translation is in the present progressive tense?” An example might be “Compro unas playeras” being translated as “I am buying some t-shirts”.
The answer that the instructors give is usually along the lines of, the Spanish present tense can often be translated as the present progressive tense in English.
In addition, I rarely hear the present progressive tense being used from day to day here in Mexico. Google AI agrees with me:
"In Mexican Spanish, the present indicative (voy) is significantly more common for everyday use than the present progressive (estoy yendo). While both can describe actions happening in the moment, the simple present is the "default" choice in most social contexts."
In the kwiz questions I keep answering using the present tense, just out of habit. It's not that I don't know how to use the present progressive tense, it's just that I'm not used to hearing it. This habiit is so strong that sometimes I even miss the instructions.
So maybe the present tense answers shouldn't always be marked wrong, and trigger words such as "en este momento" should be used more often? Also, maybe this idea could be added to the above lesson.
PS You may wonder why I'm studying level A1 if I already speak Spanish daily. It is because I want to strengthen my foundation and in general Kwiziq has been invaluable with this.
Buenos días,
"By the end of the afternoon" in English means "at the point at which the afternoon ended", and would normally be followed by "we *had* eaten..." i.e. looking back at what *had* already happened before that point, not "we ate...". It looks as though this has been translated as "Hacía el final de la tarde" or "Al final de la tarde" which would backtranslate as "Towards the end of the afternoon" or "At the end of the afternoon, we ate ..." i.e. looking back at what actually happened during the later part of the afternoon -- which makes more sense. I suggest tweaking the English to "Towards the end" or "At the end" to avoid this confusion.
¡Muchas gracias!
Note that the last example above expressing it's about to rain, could also use por with the same meaning: "Está por llover"
Hola, what is the difference between estar por and estar para. Muchas gracias, shirley.
How is this an example of an irregular past participle?
Mi amiga estaba harta y se fue.Why aren’t there any -ger examples, only -gir? Are they conjugated the same?
I'm confused about the conjugation of sorprenderse in the present indicative. Is it in the same class as gustar? Just a singular and plural form with indirect object pronouns? OR is it a reflexive verb? I've looked in several of my Spanish grammar books from Spain - but I can't find anything. The textbook I teach from doesn't have any answers either. Thank you.
What would be the correct way to express losing a game?
(ex: "We lost the game [and the other team won]" vs. "We missed the game [because we arrived late]")
In the above examples, all of the feminine objects (gafas, pruebas, ausencias) are plural so that the past participle of the action ends with -as. Does this mean that for a single object (chica, casa, etc) the past participle takes on -a?
Example: La casa fue construida por Miguel.
I am currently placed in C1 even though my brainmap shows a number of B1 and B2 cells described only as "growing confidence". Will my work in C1 contain subject matter with testing that will move "growing" to "good confidence"? If not, how do I earn "good confidence" standing in B after I was moved to C?
Hello,
There have been a number of questions in different topic areas along the lines of “Why don’t we use the present progressive tense for such and such an example in Spanish when the English translation is in the present progressive tense?” An example might be “Compro unas playeras” being translated as “I am buying some t-shirts”.
The answer that the instructors give is usually along the lines of, the Spanish present tense can often be translated as the present progressive tense in English.
In addition, I rarely hear the present progressive tense being used from day to day here in Mexico. Google AI agrees with me:
"In Mexican Spanish, the present indicative (voy) is significantly more common for everyday use than the present progressive (estoy yendo). While both can describe actions happening in the moment, the simple present is the "default" choice in most social contexts."
In the kwiz questions I keep answering using the present tense, just out of habit. It's not that I don't know how to use the present progressive tense, it's just that I'm not used to hearing it. This habiit is so strong that sometimes I even miss the instructions.
So maybe the present tense answers shouldn't always be marked wrong, and trigger words such as "en este momento" should be used more often? Also, maybe this idea could be added to the above lesson.
PS You may wonder why I'm studying level A1 if I already speak Spanish daily. It is because I want to strengthen my foundation and in general Kwiziq has been invaluable with this.
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