Quote:
Originally Posted by funkcanna
Thank you! Just one question - for example with the verb preguntarse, why did you correct it to the imperfecto tense? As the act was completed, i would have thought it would be the preterite?
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The action not only didn't happen ("el no se preguntaba") but it wasn't even conceivable. It's sort of a rhetorical
non-question and it didn't require an answer so it's not connected to the present in any chain of events. Such contextual references call for imperfect mood: we don't need to state the action had an end because we are interested in it as a frame for another action in the past or it's valuable now just as a "what if?".
Quote:
Originally Posted by funkcanna
 It was intended to be humorous, not disturbing! The boring assignments on LiveMocha want me to say things like "The man is swimming in the lake. Yestrday he was not swimming in the lake"! |
About LiveMocha, you know. When in Rome ...
Quote:
Originally Posted by funkcanna
You'd be surprised just how non-monastic it actually is here!
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Good for them. I have forgotten how cosmopolitan is Abu Dhabi these days. One of my cousin's step-daughters moved there recently. I suppose the times when people smuggled alcohol inside furniture cases is long time gone [Sir, we bumped your case and your sofa seems to be leaking ...]