some spanish trouble

Question

Hello everyone I 'm facing some diffuclties in spanish that i'm confused about :

1/ Can we say " venir con retraso " ?to mean " to come late " or we say " venir tarde " ?

2/ What's the difference between " lejano/a " and " lejos " ?

3/I could'nt understand how to use the verb ( quedar )

4/do we always say "cuánto" or with plural nouns it becomes " cuántos" and if yes do we say " cuánta" with feminin nouns ?

5/What do we mean bu the expression " es una paliza" ?

i will be so thankful if you can help me

I think you would do better to ask one or two questions and then open a different thread to ask another one. - rac1, Mar 12, 2015

:) - ian-hill, Mar 12, 2015

Answer 1

1- You can use both

• Disculpa, vengo con retraso. (while making a phone call, maybe).

• Person a: ¿Y Mónica? person b: No tarda, dijo que venía tarde.

2- "lejano" is an adjective and "lejos" is and adverb

3- "quedar" typically means "to stay"

Él se quería quedar (he wanted to stay)

But you can also say this

• Se quedó atónito. (He was astonished)

• Se quedó mudo. (He was speechless)

• Se quedó quieto. (He stood still)

4- You have to keep the gender for adverbs, nouns, articles, adjectives (I know, it must be a pain but it is not that hard n.n), so YES

• ¿Cuántas manzanas hay en la bolsa?

• ¿Cuántos perros viste?

• ¿Cuánta gente había en la fila?

• ¿Cuánto dinero tienes?

5- "Paliza" means beating, but it's hard to maintain the english construction because of its modal verbs. You can use it like this:

• A él le dieron una paliza. (They beat him)

• Me dieron una paliza. (I got beaten up)

Thanks alot ! :D - Rihab14, Mar 13, 2015

Answer 2

1) yes you can. "Vengo con retraso", "Voy a llegar tarde", "Voy tarde", "Estoy atrasado" etc.

2) "Lejano" is an adjective "Voy a la casa lejana", "Nueva York es una ciudad lejana", "En ese país lejano hablan inglés". "Veo hacia esa montaña lejana"

and "Lejos" is an adverb "Voy a una casa que está lejos", "Nueva York está lejos de aquí.". "Se habla inglés en ese país que está lejos". "La montaña se ve desde lejos"

3) Quedar. It something means that you forgot something, for example "Se me quedó el teléfono en mi casa". Another example if you want to stay here you can say "Me quiero quedar aquí." or "Me quedaré aquí". There is another example but i dont know how to explain it, but : "Quedamos en ir a jugar al tenis" i think the verb is "agree" i dont know exactly

4) Not always. You can say "Cuánto, cuánta, cuántos y cuántas" deppending on what you want to know. "¿Cuánto falta para llegar?""¿Cuánta energía se necesita?""¿Por cuántos días iremos a acampar?""¿Cuántas horas dura el viaje?" etc.

5) una paliza mmm its like when you soccer team loses 9-0, or when Roger Federer wins 6/0 6/0(sports), or someone punched you and you couldnt do anything to avoid it (violence). Its when somebody beats you by far.

espero haberte ayudado

Gracias :D - Rihab14, Mar 13, 2015