15 votes
Accepted

Why does Spanish have three different command forms (positive/negative tú, usted)

Depending on how one counts, Spanish has a great deal more than three forms for commands. There are only three true imperative forms of each verb (I'll use the verbs hablar, comer, and vivir for my ...
user0721090601's user avatar
14 votes
Accepted

"No se hable más" - Why the "se"?

That's an interesting usage of se. The verb hablar (as many others) can be used in an impersonal way if you don't want to specify who is talking about something or you just simply don't know who is ...
Charlie's user avatar
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13 votes
Accepted

What type of construction is verb+"se", like in the word "veíase"?

En el español literario, es algo más frecuente encontrar enclisis, o el posicionamiento de un pronombre átono después del verbo (y en tal caso, se escribe junto al verbo, tildando si es necesario). ...
user0721090601's user avatar
12 votes

Grammar in a Juanes song

I think you may be confusing nunca (Eng = never) with nadie (Eng = nobody).Juanes sings that "You never know what you have until you lose it".
mdewey's user avatar
  • 5,773
10 votes

How do you say in Spanish, "I am waiting for my boyfriend to open the door"?

That's almost right. You need the subjunctive mood for abrir (i.e. abra) because you're describing an irrealis situation. The correct sentence would be: Estoy esperando (a) que mi novio abra la ...
Yay's user avatar
  • 6,248
10 votes

Are any verbs conjugated the same in preterit and present tenses?

In the indicative mood hablamos is both present and past and is the rest of the sentence that tells you the time. Nosotros hablamos del partido = We talk about the game. Ayer hablamos del partido = ...
DGaleano's user avatar
  • 10.6k
9 votes
Accepted

"Let's go" in Spanish: vayamos vs vamos vs vámonos

I'm a native speaker, and I have never realized this strange anomaly. I've found a possible explanation for this difference in the conjugation of the Spanish verb ir, given by the Diccionario ...
Nicolás Ozimica's user avatar
9 votes
Accepted

How can you distinguish "viste" from "you saw" vs "you dress" or "he/she dresses"?

Like most ambiguities of this kind, we know what is really meant by looking at the context. That means not only the rest of the sentence but possibly the rest of the paragraph (if written) or the ...
pablodf76's user avatar
  • 39.4k
8 votes
Accepted

¿Por qué el verbo "tener" introduce una "i" en ciertas conjugaciones, como "tú tienes" o "ellos tienen"?

Muy resumido, /e/ breve latina en posición tónica diptonga en español a /ie/. Ocurre de forma regular: feram > "fiera", herbam > "hierba", etc. Es una cuestión fonética.
Paco's user avatar
  • 2,347
8 votes
Accepted

Why is the "í" accented in conditional mood conjugations?

Because without the accent, the ia forms a diphthong resulting in the syllabification mos-tra-ria or e-cha-ria, and then the default stress would be on the tra or cha syllable instead of on the i. ...
user0721090601's user avatar
8 votes
Accepted

Segunda persona de singular de imperativo de 'salir', en forma pronominal

La pregunta Are there other words in Spanish that can't be written? (like sal-le) contiene a su vez un enlace en el que comentan que la RAE ya reconoció que sal·le es una palabra del español que se ...
Charlie's user avatar
  • 77.4k
8 votes
Accepted

Why is "yo me quedo en casa" instead of "yo quedo en casa"?

"Quedar" is an intransitive verb, which can also be use as pronominal (quedar(se)). This pronominal use means roughly that their subjects are acting upon themselves (I do this action upon myself). ...
Diego's user avatar
  • 48k
8 votes

¿Cómo conjugo verbos con el pronombre indefinido "One"?

A pesar de que se puede usar uno tal y como en inglés (y así usando la 3.ª singular del verbo), como debe de ser obvio por el primer verbo en esta oración, el español te permite usar el verbo en forma ...
user0721090601's user avatar
8 votes
Accepted

Conjugation rule for "enclitic pronouns"?

A full answer would require the equivalent of a few Spanish course classes, so I'll just clear the basics up. What you found are combinations between verbs and pronouns. These are not different ...
pablodf76's user avatar
  • 39.4k
8 votes
Accepted

Can someone explain why 2nd person plural is used when speaking to a single person?

In the Middle Ages it was quite common to use vos as courtesy pronoun for the second person, and it uses the verb in the 2nd person plural. This also happened in English, where the 2nd person plural (...
Gorpik's user avatar
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8 votes

Ambiguous -amos ending in all regular -ar verbs in presente and pretérito

There really isn't any confusion. Consider that in English there are many verbs that have identical past and present forms (hit, for instance), but that doesn't cause much if any issue (most English ...
user0721090601's user avatar
8 votes
Accepted

Is "jugar" the only 'u'-to-'ue' stem-changing verb?

Yes. All stem changing verbs fall into one of three categories (e→ie(→i), e→i(→i), o→ue(→u), where -ir verbs do the second change). There are exactly nine exceptions in three special categories: ...
user0721090601's user avatar
7 votes

Is there Spanish verb equivalent of the phrase "was like" in place of "said"?

In peninsular it's not uncommon to hear «en plan», but it's very informal (even slang-ish) and regarded as a lack of vocabulary. Pasábamos con el coche y ella en plan «¿Habéis visto eso?». Y ellos ...
guillem's user avatar
  • 2,407
7 votes
Accepted

How is the conjugation for the "vos" pronoun in forms beyond the present indicative?

In Argentina, the pronoun is normally conjugated identically to the tú form in all forms except for the present indicative (-ás, -és, -ís) and the imperative (-á, -é, -í), although it may popularly ...
user0721090601's user avatar
7 votes

Why isn't "cómo se dice" "cómo dices"?

To express how do you say __?? in Spanish you can use either of your alternatives but in different contexts. If you want to ask in general how something is pronounced the you will use the se sentence....
DGaleano's user avatar
  • 10.6k
7 votes

Diferencias regionales en las conjugaciones de los verbos

Se me acaba de ocurrir que un caso claro, aunque particualr, sería el voseo. Debido al voseo se admiten las formas tú cantas (estándar singular) vos cantáis (Voseo tipo I singular) vos cantás (...
Diego's user avatar
  • 48k
7 votes

Diferencias regionales en las conjugaciones de los verbos

En la zona de Logroño y en las provincias vascongadas no es raro el uso del condicional simple en vez del pretérito imperfecto: «si yo te contaría» en vez de «si yo te contara»
Luis's user avatar
  • 71
7 votes

Why is the verb in plural form in "El número de figuras que entran"?

Entre las muchas funciones de la partícula "que" está el introducir oraciones subordinadas explicativas. Por eso el entran de que entran no concuerda con número. Pertenecen a dos oraciones distintas. ...
Diego's user avatar
  • 48k
7 votes

"Puesto" as an adjective

The correct answer is Cuando tengo puesta ropa elegante... (the rest is up to you; if you go as you did, note it should be trato de no ensuciarla). In dictionaries or lists of expressions you ...
pablodf76's user avatar
  • 39.4k
7 votes
Accepted

¿Es correcto escribir "querría" en vez de "quería" para el condicional del verbo "querer"?

El verbo querer es un verbo irregular y efectivamente querría se corresponde con la primera y la tercera personas del singular del condicional simple yo querría él/ella querría Siguiendo este ...
RubioRic's user avatar
  • 7,749
7 votes
Accepted

"Date de baja aquí" para cancelar una suscripción: significado de "date"

No es "datar". "Datar" no tiene ese significado, y en todo caso su imperativo sería "data [tú]", "date [usted]", "datemos [nosotros]", "datad [vosotros]", "daten [ustedes]". Teniendo en cuenta que en ...
OnlyThenDidIReckonMyCurse's user avatar
7 votes
Accepted

First person plural and third Person plural

The conjunction of your friend is correct, the tenses imply the pronoun. What you propose is another different thing: Creemos que esta distribución se debe a que los alumnos/as tendemos generalmente ...
Danielillo's user avatar
  • 4,808
6 votes

Past "may be" verbs?

The best thing to do in this case is to start with the positive statement in the indicative mood and then transform it to a wish in the subjunctive mood. A key concept is that the subjunctive mood is ...
Yay's user avatar
  • 6,248
6 votes
Accepted

Is there Spanish verb equivalent of the phrase "was like" in place of "said"?

In colloquial Puerto Rican Spanish, there are some forms that seem to adhere very closely to the above-mentioned model: “She was like, ‘Who the heck are you?’” Ella se puso con “¿Quién carajo eres ...
TeachingTom's user avatar

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