Got these wrong, can someone please help?

Question

Hi everyone! I learning spanish and am on the preterite section of the verbs "conocer poder querer saber", I got the following questions wrong. Can someone help me understand why.

Señor Ramírez, ¿por qué nunca quisiste cambiar de trabajo? ¿No se aburrió de hacer lo mismo toda la vida?

Después de la cena, Viviana y Matías salieron a pasear por el centro. Así conocimos hablar y conocerse un poco más en su primera cita.

These made sense to me...

Try to remember in English that it is correct grammar to capitalize the names of languages: Spanish. Also please fill out your profile for English and Spanish proficiency. Thanks! - Jubilado, Nov 7, 2014

Please only post a question once. - rac1, Nov 7, 2014

Answer 1

In your first sentence you used the familiar form of the preterite to someone you are addressing as "Señor". You should have used the "usted" form quiso

I don't understand why you used conocimos in the second sentence. Did you want to use poder? If you did, use the third person plural form because it is not "We were able" but "They were able".

Thank you. I did type the wrong word. That was from the question before. I had used pudimos, it was till wrong. - mzpmj1, Nov 7, 2014

Poder is the right verb. Just put into the 3rd person plural "pudieron" - Daniela2041, Nov 8, 2014

Answer 2

Hello mzpmj1

Welcome to the SpanishDict forum

You asked/said:

Got these wrong, can someone please help? Hi everyone! I (you need the word am here) learning spanish and am on the preterite section of the verbs "conocer poder querer saber", I got the following questions wrong. Can someone help me understand why. Señor Ramírez, ¿por qué nunca quisiste cambiar de trabajo? ¿No se aburrió de hacer lo mismo toda la vida? Después de la cena, Viviana y Matías salieron a pasear por el centro. Así conocimos hablar y conocerse un poco más en su primera cita. These made sense to me...

I normally address answers to questions raised in a logical and systematic way, but I feel here that I need to respond to the second question, first, in this case!

2.I completely agree with Jubilado concerning the second example, and I was also left wondering why you used the word we met (or we knew) rather than they and the verb conocer instead of poder, since poder would make more sense; but I would like to draw attention to a difference in meaning regarding the first example! I will explain why a little later on! Let's go back to the second example

You said: Así conocimos hablar y conocerse un poco más en su primera cita.

We would say: Así pudieron hablar y conocerse un poco más en su primera cita.

Now to address the first example:

1.You said: Señor Ramírez, ¿por qué nunca quisiste cambiar de trabajo?

Jubilado said:: Señor Ramírez, ¿por qué nunca quiso cambiar de trabajo?

The word quiso is correct for the Ud form. but please note that the authors of the Barron's 501 Spanish verbs (7th edn and others) Christopher and Thoedore Kendris state in their section about the preterite form in the beginning section fo the book page 17):

Tense number 3 Pretérito. (preterit) In Spanish, some verbs that express a mental state have a different meaning when used in the preterite example 4. Quise llamarle = I tried to call you. (Querer which means to wish or want, means tried in the preterite). example 5 No quise hacerlo = I refused to do it. (Querer when used in the negative in the preterit means refused).

Therefore, while I believe that Jubilado is correct in saying that the verb should definitely correspond to the Ud form because you are referring to Señor Ramirez, I am sticking my neck out here by agreeing with these authors and saying that this verb may also be correctly wriiten either in the preterite or the imperfect but the meaning would be different because the meaning of the sentence may have changed from what the writer originally intended! The problem is that we don't have the English translation to enable us to know what the writer of this sentence originally intended to say: Why did you never try to or Why did you never want to change your job.

The change in meaning however, is subtle (minor) rather than drastic!

Your original sentence: Señor Ramírez, ¿por qué nunca quisiste cambiar de trabajo? = Mr Ramirez, why did you (familiar form not appropriate here) never change your job/ Mr Ramirez, why didn't you ever try to change your job? (work)

Jubilado's change: Señor Ramírez, ¿por qué nunca quiso cambiar de trabajo? = Mr Ramirez, why did you (formal Ud form correct here) never try to change your job/ Mr Ramirez, why didn't you ever try to change your job? (work)

An alternative meaning using the imperfect: Señor Ramirez ¿por qué nunca quería cambiar de trabajo? = Why did you never want to change your job? / Why didn't you ever want to change your job (work)?

It is possible that I may have misapplied the principle regarding the verbs changing when they express a mental state and perhaps it doesn't apply to this sentence, or the authors could be wrong/mistaken ..(although I doubt the second.is true since they are both teachers with PhD's in their chosen languages) if either is the case, please forgive me for my mistake!

I hope this helps

Corrijan mi español, por favor

Very precise and complete answer and discussion on the use of the preterite and imperfect. Of course I thought about what you said but didn't want to get beyond preterite for the questioner not knowing the skill level. - Jubilado, Nov 7, 2014

Thank you very much fro your positive comments, Jubilado! :) Of course you are right in not wanting to confuse te questioner, nevertheless I thought it important to draw people's attention to the subtle differences in meaning between the preterite and - FELIZ77, Nov 7, 2014

imperfect . - FELIZ77, Nov 7, 2014