Hot answers tagged tiempos-verbales
11
"Te va encantar" is gramatically incorrect. I had never heard it before, at least in Spain. The sentence should be:
Te va a encantar
as it has a future meaning
Ir a + infinitive = going to + infinitive
Probably it's a mistake made because we link the words when speaking so "te va a encantar" would be pronounced as "te va-a encantar", we say it ...
11
The compound verb "ir a" is roughly the same as "going to" in English: we primarily use it when talking about the immediate future.
¿Va a comprar un coche nuevo?
Are you going to buy a new car? (= Have you decided to buy a new car?)
Here you can find a detailed analysis of different ways to express the future. They do not elaborate on regional ...
10
Español
Lo he oído explicado así:
El pretérito de "ser" viene de la versión del latín de esse, que usa la raíz 'fui'.
La historia va de que "ir" es irregular en el sentido de que estaba compuesto de múltiples verbos, y por tanto toma su pretérito del latín "esse".
El presente, pretérito, subjuntivo del latín vadere.
El infinitivo del latín ire.
El ...
8
Before your question, I never heard nor read about Spanish verbs that change their meaning when used in some preterite verbal tense. So I read about it, and I found out that:
This issue is mainly a way to teach Spanish verbs to English speaking students.
This issue is not formally stated in Spanish grammar.
For example, when you analyse the verb saber, ...
7
Para responder esta pregunta primero es necesario entender el tiempo verbal copretérito. Este tiempo indica:
Una acción pasada que sucedió al mismo tiempo que otra.
Una acción pasada que no se sabe cuando terminó o que no ha terminado.
Basándome en el ejemplo y en el título de la pregunta, infiero que estamos en el primer caso. El primer ...
7
The difference is very clear-cut. You use the preterite for an action that happened at a distinct point in time. So to expand on your examples:
Comí tacos ayer.
I ate tacos yesterday.
Besé a una chica en la fiesta anoche.
I kissed a girl at the party last night.
These were both specific points in time.
The imperfect is used for actions that ...
6
The "simple future subjunctive" is a verbal tense whose function is to express some action that:
Hasn't happened yet.
There's some possibility that it will happen in the future.
These features aren't expressed by any other verbal tense in a direct way, and in order to approach to it, they should need some additional adverbs or just simply use the context ...
6
An almost literal translation is indeed a right option:
Present:
¿Cómo está el bistec?
¿Cómo está siendo tu día hasta ahora? → (you should use present continuous (gerund) in case the day hasn't finished yet).
¿Cómo está el tráfico hoy?
Preterite:
¿Cómo estuvieron tus vacaciones?
¿Cómo estuvo la reunión?
¿Cómo ...
5
If you check RAE you'll find the answer here and in this othe link with more details. Depending on the different grammars published there are different names.
There are 2 simple tenses for past
Pretérito imperfecto /Copretérito [de indicativo/ subjuntivo]
(Pretérito imperfecto is the most used)
E.g. En indicativo, amaba, temía, vivía; en ...
5
Imperfect, always.
That is the correct tense to use whenever you have an habitual action in the past.
Edit:
As César mentioned, a possible literal translation of your example would be
Ellos solían viajar todos los días
Whether you use solían, and cada día vs. todos los días will depend on how the sentence continues and what is the main point you ...
5
I think others have already explained the correct form of the imperative, but I want to point out that the imperative of "saber" is never used in practice in the second-person singular ("sabe"). In fact I never knew it even existed before reading this thread. You can use "Que sepas que..." instead.
4
To be honest I never thought about it. It has been so natural to be saying "de donde fue"...our population has been saying that for decades. We had a big major earthquake in 1972 that destroy most of our city. So people started to have those type of references. To complicate more the things we do not have street names which can be very confused. We use ...
4
There is, indeed a regional preference. In Argentina, for example, ir a ... is almost always used in spoken language, and the future tense only appears in writing.
You are likely to find the future tense used in speech in Spain, for example.
Both forms are acceptable anyway.
4
Wait until I call you before you leave for the restaurant.
Espera a que te llame antes de que salgas hacia el restaurante.
Wait for me to come home before you buy the tickets.
Esperame a que llegue a casa antes de comprar los billetes.
You should wait until those shirts go on sale.
Deberías esperar a que esas camisetas salgan a la venta.
I ...
4
También escucho esto bien seguido. Ahorita no es una palabra ni concepto fácil de traducir.
Aunque sí se usa parar referirse a eventos en el futuro inmediato también se usa para expresar sucesos en el pasado reciente. Para mí si oigo a alguien decir algo como:
Sí, lo vi ahorita en el Starbucks en Plaza.
En mi mente pienso:
Sí lo ví hace rato en ...
4
A very reduced explanation of the use of subjunctive tense in Spanish, is related to the subordinated sentences explained in Spanish syntax.
When you're using subordinated sentences, its verb is usually conjugated in subjunctive tense while the main sentence's verb is conjugated in indicative.
When you must analyze the specific cases when subjunctive tense ...
4
Well... it's pretty... subjective and probably complex to explain to English native speakers, but I would say that
When I use the subjunctive mood, I am expressing some conditional idea or desire.
Actually, why not...
...When I use the subjunctive mood, I am expressing doubt, uncertainty, emotion, desire, recommendation, denial, or disbelief
...
3
El tiempo condicional o pospretérito se suele usar por cortesía o para expresar opinión o probabilidad. Por ejemplo, “me gustaría” en vez de “me gusta”, “querría” en vez de “quiero”, etc.
Por otro lado, el tiempo condicional suele conjugarse como el pretérito imperfecto del subjuntivo. Mucha gente dice “quisiera pedirle un favor” en vez de “querría ...”.
...
3
Pretérito simply means past. RAE has an excellent explanation of all of them, but here's a very simplified summary.
There are 3 different forms:
Pretérito Perfecto (preterite perfect)
Pretérito Imperfecto (preterite imperfect)
Pretérito Pluscuamperfecto (pluperfect)
In turn, preterite perfect subdivides in:
a. Preterite [perfect] simple - Ex: ...
3
La respuesta de Sergio es muy exhaustiva. Aun asi, doy mi opinión sobre "uso habitual":
No vi nada mientras estaba corriendo : Me suena perfecto. El "mientras" indica una acción de una cierta duración, así que el "estaba corriendo", que indica una acción que quizá aún no hubiera terminado, suena perfectamente.
No vi nada mientras corrí : Suena muy forzado, ...
3
In the book, Advanced Spanish Step by Step written by Barbara Bregstein, on page 188, she writes:
"the simple future transmits more of a commitment or a strong decision than does the future periphrastic (ir+a+infinitive). The difference also exists in English: I will arrive at 7 p.m. is a little stronger than I am going to arrive at 7 p.m.
3
I'm not from Nicaragua, but "De donde fue" sounds like something unique to Nicaragua. Here in Chile, we say "De aquí, 3 cuadras hacia ..." and "Desde el estadio, 3 cuadras hacia..."
UPDATE
If you're refering to something that was there but does not longer exists, that's more rare, but you could expres it as Donde estaba el estadio, 3 cuadras hacia ...
...
3
As far as I know, the imperative form doesn't change with or without pronoun.
From the conjugation of Spanish Saber verb, you have this:
sabe (tú)
sabé (vos)
sabed (vosotros)
sepan (ustedes)
And regarding singular second person, formal form:
sepa (usted)
Even though these forms do exist, in real life they're not often used.
To express ...
2
The imperative forms of saber are:
tú: sabe.
usted: sepa.
vosotros: sabed.
ustedes: sepan.
The second person sabe seems strange to some people, but it is used: in Dias y Flores (a well know song by the Cuban Silvio Rodríguez) we have:
Sabe que dentro tengo un tesoro que me llega a la raíz..."
(which it's sometimes misunderstood ...
1
Complicaciones con los tiempos aparte, yo pienso que el principal problema de "ahorita" es que en diferentes paises se entiende de manera diferente.
Me parece que se intercambian las nociones de ahora y de ahorita. Si en Cuba (y me parece que en España y otros países) ahora es ya, presente o futuro inmediato, ahorita es un futuro (o pasado) ligeramente mas ...
1
When I use the subjunctive I am making a statement about an assertion, instead of indicating that the assertion is true.
This description is kind of informal. But I think it gets the gist of it.
Example of subjunctive in English:
"If I were to go on a diet, I would feel better about myself."
Note the "I were". That's unusual. Also note that I'm not ...
1
I would say is a slang from Nicaragua, I would describe that usage as a solecism , it happen with every language and in every country, as a matter of fact the usage of "de donde estaba" doesn't seem quite correct either UNLESS the place you are referring is not there anymore.
1
I believe that the preterite refers to the IMMINENCE of the verb. For instance, puedo and podía refer to "could have done it" in the present and past respectively, which represent POTENTIAL. Pudo (the preterite) means she just DID it, not she could have done it, and of course no pudo means the opposite.
In the other example, Sé and Sabía means know and ...
1
In Spanish, the usage of these two tenses is very similar to English.
When talking in the 1st person, one difference is whether you have previously made a decision to do something, or you are making the decision at that point in time.
"Your mother is sick, have you been to visit her?"
"No, but I'm going to visit her tomorrow"
i.e. I had already ...
1
Future subjunctive is deprecated but not unused. See for example legal documents.
If you are writing a legal statement for the winner of the lottery you could write something like:
Aquel que haya comprado la boleta cuyo número es el número resultado del sorteo, será el ganador.
Wich translates: one who buy the ticket with the winner number will be ...
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