Hi @effegee!
As @lenagardariki has rightly pointed out, “nieve” is the present subjunctive form of “nevar”. It is used in this form because the sentence is a hypothesis. Thank you for your question! 
Best,
Ángela
Yes, of course. The online dictionary I used didn’t open the subjunctives and I missed the link to do so.
Thanks all!
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Hi,
Regarding the words for “this” and “that” (este/esta/esto and ese/esa/eso), I’m finding that there is no consistency as to when to use the masculine or neuter form. For example, “Is it possible to try this on?” is translated as “Es posible probarse esto”, yet “look at that one” gets translated as “mira ese”. I keep choosing the wrong one because no indication is given of whether you want masculine or neuter. It would help if both forms were accepted in most circumstances.
Thanks,
H
Hello @CapabilityBrown,
Thank you very much for your post. I understand it can be confusing, but I will try to explain why we use “esto” in the first sentence" and “ese” in the second one. In “Es posible probarse esto”, “esto” is neutral since it is not referring to any particular item, it could be a feminine or a masculine item, but “this” does not refer to anything that has been mentioned before. In “Mira ese”, we use the masculine because it is within a context where we have already been talking about a masculine item, for example “¿quieres un pantalón? Mira ese”, if the object we are talking about would be feminine it’d look like this: “¿quieres una falda? Mira esA”. I agree that since you have not been exposed to this previous context, it is impossible to know whether you should choose a masculine, feminine or neutral pronoun. Hence, I will add the necessary alternatives, thank you for bringing this to my attention and I hope the explanation was clear enough.
Best,
Ángela
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Hello Ángela,
In Spanish 5 L16 there’s a sentence “las próximas elecciones son en dos años”.
Shouldn’t it use “dentro de”?
Tibor
Hello @VT22 and thank you for your question!
In fact, both dentro de and en … dos años are correct, both mean the same.
Thank you and happy learning!
Best,
Ángela
I have been using Memrise to learn Spanish for several months now, and I have started to use the new course Spanish 1-7. I am now encountering quite a few questions where my response is rejected in one question but is accepted in another.
For example: “doctor” can be “doctor” or “médico” but there is no indication in the question which response is wanted. Likewise, “A lot” can be “un montón de” or “mucho”; “talk about” can be “hablar sobre” or “hablar de.” Is there any way the program can be modified to either: (1) accept either/any of the correct answers or (2) give a hint as to which option is wanted?
A similar problem is that many questions ask us to translate statements that contain “you” in them, but there is no indication whether we are talking to one or more people, or if the response should be formal or informal. Is there any way to modify these questions so that we know which “you” we are supposed to be translating?
I felt I was making a lot of progress at first, but now I am frustrated because, although I believe my translation is correct when I use a different verb tense than the translation in the answer, I can´t check it, so I have to wait and hope at some point the question will use the same verbs and the same person as I used in my original translation.
I love the Memrise format, but I can’t read the minds of the people who wrote the questions, and I need to know if my verb usage and conjugations are correct.
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Hallo Merlijn,
Ik heb weer een lijstje gemaakt van probleempjes in de Spaanse cursussen.
In het algemeen is het jammer dat bij geen van de woorden staat vermeld om welke woordsoort het gaat (zelfst.nw, ww, bijv. nw).
Spaans 1
level 12
mucho gusto - aangenaam
accepeert geen agradable, misschien een aanwijzing dat niet het bijvoeglijk naamwoord gevraagd wordt?
Het onderscheid tussen de volgende woorden valt niet mee:
level 5
genial - schitterend
level 10
maravilloso - prachtig
level 12
estupendo - geweldig
level 12
entender - begrijpen; snappen
no entiendo - ik begrijp het niet
¿entiendes? - snap je?
kunnen comprender, ¿no comprendo? en ¿comprendes? worden toegevoegd als alternatieven?
Spaans 2
level 2
algún (alguna) - wat; een
ningún (ninguna) - geen
accepteren antwoorden tussen haakjes niet
graag toelichting enkelvoud of meervoud voor de volgende zinnen:
¿qué quiere? wat wil zou u willen?
wat wil u, zou u willen? (enkelvoud)
¿qué quieren comer? - wat zou u willen eten?
(meervoud)
¿quiere una botella o un vaso? - wilt u een fles of een glas?
(enkelvoud)
¿tienen algún postre? - hebt u een nagerecht?
Literal translation ¿jij hebt een nagerecht?
waarom is dit in meervoud? letterlijke vertaling klopt niet
level 4
el cliente siempre tiene razón
Deze zin ontbreekt in de NL->ES cursus
level 5
estos (estas) - deze
esos (esas) - die
accepteren antwoorden tussen haakjes niet
quién; quiénes - wie (enkelvour; meervoud)
typefoutje in enkelvoud
level 6
el marido - de man (echtgenoot)
graag alternatief: el esposo
este (esto, esta) - deze; dit
ese (eso; esa) - die; dat
accepteren antwoorden tussen haakjes niet
¿tu novio tiene trabajo? - heeft je vriend werk?
in A1 Spanish level 7 was de volgorde andersom: ¿tiene trabajo tu novio? - does your boyfriend have a job?
graag alternatief toevoegen
level 10
las zapatillas de deporte
Dit woord ontbreekt in de NL->ES cursus
level 13
el pez - de vis
De vrouwelijke stem spreekt het niet goed uit. Er staat niet bij dat het om het dier gaat, dat is natuurlijk wel duidelijk wanneer je het woord leert, maar niet wanneer je herhaalt en bovendien komt “de vis” tweemaal in de database voor.
Hallo duaal,
Super! Bedankt voor de gedetailleerde beschrijving! Ik ga er nu meteen mee aan de slag en de nodige aanpassingen doorvoeren.
Groeten,
Merlijn
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Hi @angileptol,
Can you tell us why typing tests are suddenly no longer being presented when learning or reviewing phrases, please? All we are currently getting are multi-choice or tapping tests for these.
This seems to be a wide-spread bug so could you also ask a colleague to post something in the ‘Announcements’ area of the forum, too?
Thanks!
Hi @angileptol,
I’ve the same problem as @alanh. I only get multiple choice for reviewing and learning longer phases.
I am not learning anything in this situation and have stopped using memrise for learning and reviewing until i can have typing tests again. I’m so disappointed about this, especially after the huge bug in November - as a loyal paying customer I hope you can sympathise with this situation and can you assure me this is not a permanent situation?
Thank you very much!
Thank you for reporting this issue. I will notify the relevant team to look into it.
Best,
Ángela
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Hello @RPropst,
Sorry for the delay in getting back to you and thank you very much for your post and for your useful suggestions. I have added “el doctor; la doctora” as alternatives for “the doctor” and I have added “hablar sobre” as an alternative for “to talk about…”.
As per the other thing, for the moment you won’t be marked wrong if you choose one form or the other, but I will consider including some kind of information on formal/informal and plural/singular.
Best,
Ángela
I want to flag a possible translation error in Spanish (Spain) 2. In Memrise ningún / ninguna = any. The actual meaning is the contrary = “not any” = not one = none… A simple usage statement is: hay ningún pan.
The software repeatedly requires the user to enter the wrong answer in order to progress. Reinforcing negative learning? I see that a few users have added mems to the “help me remember” (some colourful) to highlight the error. However, the topic may not have been raised on this forum. ?.?
Regards
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Hello @r0madr1d,
Thank you very much for your question, it has been very helpful. The translation is not actually wrong, but it is indeed incomplete. “Ningún/ninguna” can mean “any/no/none” depending on the use. Let me give you some examples:
“No me gusta ninguno de esos”= “I don’t like any of those”
“No hay ningún riesgo”= “There is no risk”
“Ninguno de sus amigos lo sabe”= “None of his friends know”
I hope this helps! I have updated the translation in English and I will teach more phrases with this word.
Best,
Ángela
Hola Ángela (@angileptol),
There was some discussion back in mid-September about confusion caused by some entries being unclear about whether the singular or plural form of “you” should be used. I have encountered two more today in Spanish (Spain) 3:
In Level 4, “would you like more beer?” accepts “¿quieren más cerveza?” but not “¿quieres más cerveza?”.
In Level 24, “what do you want to do today?” accepts “¿qué quieres hacer hoy?” but not “¿qué quieren hacer hoy?”. There is also “do you want to go for a walk?” in Level 24.
Could you either add some ‘alts’ or annotate the phrases to indicate whether the singular or plural form is required, please?
Thanks!
Hola Ángela,
Thank you for your reply. I have not discovered your updates yet. Please allow me to discuss and refine my earlier point.
In your examples, I believe we are dealing with the English grammatic aversion to the double negative, which is used liberally in Spanish. To illustrate, I suggest a more representative translation preserving any double negatives, the grammar and the meaning:
“No me gusta ninguno de esos”= “no, none of those please me”
“No hay ningún riesgo”= “No, there is not any risk”
“Ninguno de sus amigos lo sabe”= “None of his friends know”
For a native English speaker, there are iron clad rules prohibiting the use of double negatives, so we tend to ignore or transform them in other languages. In my opinion, this is how we arrive at ningún = any. However, this requires a sentence to provide context enabling us to ignore the negative.
Here is my point. Where sentences are used In the Memrise course, ningún can clearly be used to infer “any” in English, no debate. When Memrise asks for the definition of ningún, as a word in isolation, the negative should be preserved. That is to say the Memrise definition of ningún = any would be wrong.
Your thoughts?
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Hi all,
I would like / I want some help. Is there a difference? The reason I am asking is as follows: I began Memrise several months ago and started by taking the A1 course for Spanish. I learned that “I would like” is “Me gustaria.” I then found out I was taking the wrong course and began taking the Spanish (Mexican) course 1-7. As I have progressed I am repeatedly asked to translate I would like, you would like, etc. However the Spanish translation in these courses are using Quiero. I learned Quiero is I want. Pouring through the internet I cannot find an example at all where “I want” and “I would like” are the same translations. Everywhere they are different. I feel like I wasted a lot of time on the A1 course. Am taking the correct course? Is the course correct? I want to learn Spanish that is spoken in Mexico. Can anyone clear this up for me?
Thank you very much,
Hola @alanh,
Thanks for your message! You are partly right, “would you like…?” is used in a more formal sense than "do you want…?. Hence why I did not include those alternatives, although I guess depending on the context they can be interchangeable. I will therefor add the pertinent alternatives for those phrases. Thank you for contributing to the improvement of our courses.
Saludos,
Ángela
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Thanks @angileptol.
So, the more formal alternative single form for the Level 4 example, would be “quiere más cerveza”, and not “quieres más cerveza” as I mistakenly suggested? 
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