Help Desperately needed PLEASE

Question

I'm having brain death when it comes to the following concepts:

1. alguno alguna algunos algunas - when to use the singular forms vs. the plural forms

2. ninguno ninguna ningunos ningunas - when to use the singular forms vs. the plural forms

3. I cannot distinguish between pero and sino que. i Have no problem with sino, itself.

I have read the explanations of these topics at least 10 times and I still get them wrong in my quizzes. During my reading of the explanations my brain gets all fogged up and I can't make the necessary distinctions.

Accepted Answer

Thank you so much, John, for your great answer. The extra explanation you have given makes a lot of sense to me and I can't wait to put it into action. It gives me optimism going forward. Thank you again.

Answer

Hi James,I had similar issues with 1 and 2 but found that slogging through the examples in the lessons slowly drove the message home. You begin to get the feel of it and it will flow. Alguno/a invariably means "one" (do you have one?). The plural forms os/as mean "any or some" plurals (did you get any apples / buy some pears?)Regarding pero and sino que. If you have a "no / not"  in the first part of the sentence then the second half is either going to be "sino" or "sino que." Sino que is the same as sino in that it corrects a statement in the first paragraph of the sentence BUT if the verb in the second half of the sentence is different from the verb in the first part, you must use "sino que." One of the lessons has a sentence where the first verb is "(not) going out" and the second is "staying in" so the simple fact of them being different means that you use sino que.In a sentence using pero, the first phrase isn't being corrected it is being contrasted i.e. "he doesn't eat this but he does eat that" - in this case foods are being contrasted. Pero is also used when the first statement is "limited." I find this a bit harder to define but I think an example like "Eating chips isn't good when you are on a diet but (pero) once a week won't hurt." Effectively some kind of constraint is put on the first phrase. I'm sure the teachers can comment on whether that's a good example.I hope this helps. Saludos. John

Answer

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Answer

The light finally came on for #1 and #2. When the indefinite adjective is used, I should use the plural form, but when the indefinite pronoun is used, I should use the singular form.

Does that summarize what we are saying? It feels like it does.

Thank you again, John.