Questions from Babbel.com

[Jacob6503]

Hello,
I have a few questions that have come up while studying on Babbel.

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?

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?

Lastly, the sentence was "¿Os estaís ocupando de todo?". What significance does the "Os" have here? Isn't "Os" reflexive?

Thanks for any help you can offer,

Jacob

[Rusty]

¿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?It means "Why here?" Without "aquí," it means "Why?"

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?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.

Lastly, the sentence was "¿Os estaís ocupando de todo?". What significance does the "Os" have here? Isn't "Os" reflexive?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.

[Jacob6503]

Rusty, Thank you for taking the time to answer my question. I appreciate the help in this journey of language learning. Best, Jacob