Modern Spanish Grammar: A Practical Guide

70.2 Accepting or declining an offer or invitation 70.2.1 The expressions normally used when accepting an offer or invitation ar ...

¿Vas a venir a mi boda? Are you coming to my wedding? ¿Vendrá usted a nuestra fiesta de aniversario? Will you come to our annive ...

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VI Expressing temporal relations ...

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71 Talking about the present Statements and questions regarding present states and events are expressed in English in more than ...

71.3 Referring to events which are in the present but not in progress In sentences such as ‘Your father’s calling you’, ‘Someone ...

71.5.2 Present tense With verbs denoting actions which can have duration, like ‘speak’, ‘sleep’, ‘play’, etc., actions in progre ...

Trabajo en un banco. I work in a bank. To ask and give information about actions which occur often or regularly, for example ‘Wh ...

¿Qué sueles hacer los sábados por la noche? What do you usually do on Saturday nights? Suelo ir al cine. I usually go to the cin ...

Questions to elicit information like the one above carry the same word order as in a statement but with the rising intonation, o ...

71.7.4 Omission of the gerund with certain verbs The gerund is sometimes omitted with verbs like vivir, ‘to live’, and trabajar, ...

¿Cuánto tiempo lleva en esta empresa? How long has he/she been in this company? 71.7.8 Seguir/continuar+ gerund This constructio ...

Probablemente no sabe quién soy. He/she probably doesn’t know who I am. Both the present subjunctive and the present indicative ...

72 Talking about the future In English you can talk about the future in a number of ways. You can use the future, as in ‘I will ...

Van a viajar a España. They’re going to travel to Spain. 72.1.2 Imperfect of ir+a+ infinitive If we refer to future plans and in ...

72.1.4 Present/imperfect of tener (la) intención de+ infinitive Tener (la) intención de, ‘to intend to’, is much less common and ...

72.2 Referring to the immediate future 72.2.1 Present for future reference To refer to the immediate future in relation to the p ...

Aquella misma noche llegaban nuestros invitados de Londres. Our guests from London were arriving that same night. Ese día por la ...

72.3.3 Present tense for fixed future events To refer to future events which are fixed, such as a national holiday, someone’s an ...