Quote:
Originally Posted by Jacob6503
¿Por qué? v.s. ¿Por qué aquí?
I understand the second may mean "Why here?" but is there another meaning to it due to the aquí?
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It means "Why here?" Without "
aquí," it means "Why?"
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jacob6503
I am learning frequency of time. For example, "dos veces por semana" or "una vez al año". Is there a difference between por and al here?
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The prepositions '
por' and '
a' can mean different things, but in the two examples you cited, they are translated into English as synonyms.
You'll hear both '
por semana' and '
a la semana' about equally.
You'll hear '
al año' much more than '
por año', but they mean the same thing when translated.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jacob6503
Lastly, the sentence was "¿Os estaís ocupando de todo?". What significance does the "Os" have here? Isn't "Os" reflexive?
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The phrase, in its infinitive form, is 'estarse ocupando de'. This appears to be a set phrase that means 'taking care of'. I don't know if it's used everywhere.
Pronominal verbs (infinitives that are suffixed with 'se') are often called reflexive verbs, but reflexive verbs are only a subset of the pronominal verbs. The suffixed pronoun is always called a reflexive pronoun, even when the pronominal verb is not reflexive. So, calling '
os' a reflexive pronoun will always hold true, when using a pronominal verb. Here, however, I believe we're dealing with a set phrase and can't make the action reflect back on the subject. A native speaker may want to chime in, but I think we should just recognize the phrase as an entity that has a certain meaning.
By the way, 'te estás ocupando de', 'se está/están ocupando de' and 'nos estamos ocupando de' all mean 'taking care of'; just the subject/person changes.