I'm going to need the native speakers to add to this because I can only speak from my more limited experience here

So again, followers please let me know what you would say or what sounds natural to you

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For these, you're more likely to use estar en or estar a OR you can use ir; it's often a matter of preference... I tend towards ir when I am actively reading or watching something, and estar when I am at a certain point specifically

You can also see casi "almost" used here... like casi estoy al final "I'm almost at the end", or you can phrase it a different way like sigo en el prólogo "I'm still in the prologue"

You can use ir por in these like voy por la mitad "I'm halfway through", which to me feels more like "I'm working on it" rather than "this is where I am"

You can say things like estoy en la última página "I'm on the last page", or estoy con el último "I'm on the last one"... I'm not 100% sure what is most common, but you can see ir used too

I think estar en could also be used here too... like estoy en la página 45 to me reads the same as voy por la página 45 the only thing is that ir to me conjures a feeling of motion while estar is static... sort of like "I'm in/at" vs. "I'm going through"

If you're talking minutes my experience is it's estoy en el minuto X... like apenas estoy en el minuto 5 "I'm hardly five minutes in"

My instinct for specific problems is estar en el seis de nueve "to be on six of nine" or something like estar en el ejercicio seis de nueve "to be on problem six of nine"... the "out of" is usually de

Sometimes you see estoy en el último "I'm on the last one", estoy en el número tres "I'm on number three"... I think in some contexts and with certain verbs you could use con like estoy con el primer ejercicio which feels like "I'm focusing on the first exercise"

You'll also see things like voy por la primera temporada de siete "I'm on the first season out of seven (seasons)" for TV shows, or voy por la segunda película de la serie "I'm on the second movie of the series". In both cases I think estar would make sense here too

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Note: You will also see the verbs pasar "to pass", or something like alcanzar "to reach"... like he alcanzado la última parte "I just reached the last part" or something like that, sometimes llegar a "to arrive to/at" as well

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Side Note: You didn't specifically ask for this, but this also shows up with ages... this is more regional though. You often use tener for a specific age [because tener is just the verb you use for "to be X years old"], but estar or ir/andar por approximate ages or age ranges

I think in Spain you say something like estar en la veintena "to be in your twenties", estar en la treintena "to be in your thirties" etc etc

In Latin America you often say estar en los veinte (años), estar en los treinta (años)

Another one is andar por "to be in"... like andan por los ochenta (años) "they're in their eighties"

-Note that andar por is "to be around", so it could be like anda por los quince (años) which is like "he/she is around fifteen"... it could be a whole decade, or it could be "approximately + specific number"

That reminds me, I thought about making a shirt that said something like “an usted is speaking” which I’d 100% wear

But at the same time if someone spoke to me in usted a part of me would shrivel up and be compelled to immediately tell them tú is fine

I think it mattered a lot more in the past than it does now, where there was a stricter hierarchy

I don't think people would be too upset if you used informal instead of formal; but I would say that if you're approaching an older person or you're a service worker talking to a customer it's best to use formal just to be polite

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But to answer your second question, I don't know if they slip exactly but there are definitely times where you can feel the disdain or implied hierarchy in speech

In historical dramas or things like that, you sometimes see lords or owners of businesses etc speaking to their staff in informal while they respond more formally

I feel like in general, the formality isn't something often dropped in the middle of a sentence unless it's agreed upon; there are specific things you say like "oh you can use tú with me"

I'm not saying it doesn't happen, but to me I think if someone goes from formal to informal very quickly without asking it feels more like over familiarity, or thinking someone is below your station

That being said, in the not too distant past it was considered polite to use formal with anyone you didn't know, regardless of station... the difference more being with house staff who might also use informal with the person in charge if they knew them for a while, but still it's very contextual

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Modern day Spanish it depends on the country I think. Most countries are far more lax about informality [I was taught to use usted with teachers growing up but in college everyone used tú with each other]

You also run into certain countries that have specific pronouns they use... like some countries use vos for everyone [Argentina], and some have little differences between tú and vos, and some countries use usted for everyone

In Mexico I think it's generally okay to use informal. I personally try to preempt it in official settings like customers/clients by mentioning that I'm used to only using informal with people when I was learning Spanish so I'm not trying to be disrespectful if I slip. It's much easier to catch it in written Spanish for me, since even growing up usted was taught but we all tended to use tú more

If anyone has any questions, send them in!

So, la sátira does mean "satire" so I can't rule it out

But, sátiro/a also means "satyr" the mythological animal [half goat half man] - which is known for being literally and figuratively "horny"... like a satyr is always ready to go and known for being animalistic, a little vulgar, maybe even hedonistic with physical pleasure. Satyrs are commonly understood as being related to worldly pleasures related to Pan [music/sex] and Dionysus [wine/merriment/madness]

ponerse can also be "to become" with emotions/moods [like me pongo triste "I get sad"]

So I'd read this as "I get naughty" possibly since it would make more sense with ponerse since you do use poner with "to get horny" or "to get aroused"

Typically the longest is one conjugated verb and two unconjugated verbs - quiero poder viajar "I want to be able to travel", or you might see a progressive/gerund form:

Bear in mind a lot of these are just for the sake of example, but essentially you're talking about using lots of auxiliary/modal/helping verbs, or something called "periphrastic verbal expressions"... which just means that you keep adding words to be able to carry a meaning across, and some of them are like ir + a, and other times it's verbs that take specific prepositions

It would also depend on if you accept prepositions in between because there are many verbs that will take prepositions:

More about the progressive:

A more acceptable sentence with progressive would be like no puedo seguir yendo a su casa "I can't keep going to their house", or maybe something like no pienso andar diciendo estupideces "I don't plan on going around saying stupid things"

Especially with poder it's something like quiero poder seguir nadando "I want to be able to keep swimming" or quiero poder continuar aprendiendo "I want to be able to keep learning"

The more you add on the clunkier it sounds.

So again, I'd say this is maybe possible but super super awkward and clunky and not recommended:

But again, REALLY awkward phrasing. Potentially viable, but weird. It becomes a matter of "should I say this" rather than "can I say this" because the more you string along the less understandable you are

Not Spanish, but I needed to share

The French word for paper clip is “trombone”

That is all

I don’t know how many years later it’s been, but I’m still mad at Mi Vida Loca for Merche spending the entire series doing investigative reporting and almost dying but her final article looked like the first slide of a powerpoint presentation

I honestly couldn't say because I haven't studied abroad

I think in general your vocabulary grows, but I do know they have specific vocab lists like how to check into hotels, how to order at restaurants etc. I think it really depends on where you plan on going

I know the BBC Spanish section did something similar for this for an interactive set of lessons for "Mi Vida Loca" which is lowkey super unhinged and I went on a journey going through it

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But as far as how proficient you need to be, I'll leave it to my followers because I know many of them have studied abroad.

Followers?

As far as I know there are two basic answers

The most colloquial is aquí tienes which is literally "here you have"; it would be aquí tiene (usted) for a more formal one

The other is a straight command for tener or tomar... For tú it would be ten "have/take", or it would be toma "take", where the "it" is implied... and in formal it's tenga or tome

It's also possible to use plural; aquí tienen and then as commands tengan or tomen

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So you might say aquí tienes tu comida / aquí tienes tu bebida for "here's your food" and "here's your drink" if you're using tú

This is a rather advanced concept, so I'll try to be clear without overwhelming you

Basically, ir is "to go" and irse is "to go away / to leave", where irse is often more emphatic or it implies more distance or a personal investment in leaving

This is part of what's called "dativo ético" or "ethical dative" which uses reflexive pronouns [me, te, se, nos, os] in situations where a verb isn't truly reflexive as a way to add some extra emphasis

Put more simply, reflexives means that the subject and object are the same; the doer, and the thing/person receiving the action - me pongo la camisa "I am putting on the shirt", literally "I am putting the shirt on myself", or something like me lavo las manos "I am washing my hands" literally "I wash myself the hands" where "hands" are your own so you are also the object

In the case of ir "to go", irse cannot literally mean "to go oneself"... instead we often translate this expressions with an additional word or preposition to get the point across, so irse is more like "to go away"

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You could potentially say me voy a a la playa but it sort of feels like "I'm off to the beach" or "I'm heading to the beach", as if there might be more emphasis on the distance or the act of leaving. It's hard to explain but voy a la playa feels like the action, but me voy a la playa focuses more on the intention of going or the desire to go

And similarly you can say voy contigo "I go with you" or "I'm going with you", but me voy contigo "I'm leaving with you" or "I'm going away with you" focuses more on the action of it and how it affects the subject

It's weird, you just sort of get a feel for it over time where you sort of know what it literally means but also get a sense that it means something a bit more

[Note: There are some verbs that take on a whole different meaning if they're put in reflexive, but that list is fairly small like acordar is "to agree" or "to come to an agreement", while acordarse is "to remember"]

unos/unas is "some" or "a few"

And algunos/algunas is "some (in particular)"

alguno/a is literally made up of algo "something" and uno/a "one", so it's a more specific "one/some"

In general, they're very similar, but alguno/a becomes more particular

In many cases they're so similar you could overlook the nuance like un problema "a problem" vs. algún problema "some problem" or "a problem (in particular)", or una mujer "a woman / one woman" and alguna mujer "some woman (in particular)"

Other times you see the nuance more clearly

For example: hay unos estudiantes en el patio, algunos están jugando "there are some students in the courtyard, some of them are playing"

Side Note: Similarly you have quién "who" turning to alguien "someone/somebody"

I think I need to see what you're looking at because I'm not entirely sure I'm following. Please let me know if this isn't answering your question or I'm missing it

Bear with me, I'm going to explain what I am understanding:

"I offered Jose my car" uses both an indirect and a direct object. Jose is the indirect object - le ofrecí "I offered (to him)"

The mi carro here is the direct object, using a possessive adjective - "my" - instead of just "the car". That would be called a "possessive determiner" - in more linguistic cases, or languages with case systems I think this would be understood as "the genitive"

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You could potentially change the sentence to use a kind of possessive that works as a noun/adjectival.

In other words, le ofrecí el mío "I offered him mine"; where mío/a means "of mine" and it changes for gender of the thing

Like le ofrecí la pluma "I offered him the pen" vs. le ofrecí la mía "I offered him mine"

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If you're asking why the le is there for indirect objects, this is really more of a 3rd person thing

me ofreciste "you offered me" needs no pronoun because me only applies to yo as its object

When you use le or les it could refer to "him", "her", and also usted / ustedes, or "them" of any gender

le ofrezco a José is for emphasis, as le ofrezco "I offer to him/her/usted" is simple... but if I'm specifically singling out the person you add the a

This is just like me gusta being regular, but a mí me gusta being for emphasis

As an example: le ofrecí mi carro a José, no a ella reads as "I offered my car to Jose, not to her"

The a (alguien) isn't strictly necessary but it does make it clearer who you're talking about because le and les have more ambiguity

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Again, please let me know if this is not what you were asking about, I feel like I need more information

It's a weird quirk but essentially it comes down to creer vs. no creer; if it's positive it's indicative, if it's negative, it's subjunctive

In your case - creo que no nos conocen "I believe they don't know us" is an expression of certainty

If you wrote it as negative, no creo que nos conozcan "I don't believe they know us" it becomes an expression of doubt

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In affirmative, your beliefs and thoughts are counted as certainties so they're indicative. In negative, they're uncertainties and doubts so they're subjunctive

In the case of subjunctive clauses like this, you're going based on the first verb and how it affects the second clause...... which is just another way to say creo affects the second clause by making it indicative as a statement of belief or probability, and no creo makes the second clause open to doubt and interpretation

In other words, it's the creer that affects the mood conjugation of conocer; it's not a matter of different subjects here

Me personally? I grew up with English as my first language so my B and V are more distinct. In Spanish, there's gray area. I can't say it matters as in Spanish speakers won't understand you, it just comes across as an accent you have

I think this video does probably the best at explaining it

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The sound really depends on the speaker

That's why you hear a lot of people say B de burro [B as in burro "donkey"] or V de vaca [V as in vaca "cow"] with the alphabet because the two letters can sound similar... you also hear it like B grande or V chica or something like that when spelling it out

Though, it really depends on the word.

Take beber for example; there are two options:

The first one that looks like be'ber means it could be two strong B sounds. The second one that looks like be'β̞er means that the second B can be a soft sound and could sound like V.

That soft B sound looks like Greek "beta", so if you look at dictionaries and see it, it means the B/V interchangeable sound

...But as you can see, both pronunciations are acceptable. If you look at something like Wiktionary, you can often see the IPA for different words.

The only hard rule I know of is that when it's a proper name like Barcelona or Valencia, you tend to have a stronger sound than a regular word like beber or valer.

This is why some people treat haber as a ver in some informal writing. It's more important that you actually spell it correctly as the pronunciation can often go either way

It's not wrong as far as I know, and yes it would be idiomatic in this case. But it doesn't come naturally to me since I too read it literally

For me personally if I'm saying "I can't help it" in an idiomatic sense, my instinct says no puedo evitarlo [lit. "I can't avoid it"] or no puedo resistir "I can't resist"

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Side Note: If the expression is more impersonal like "it can't be helped", then you would say no hay nada que hacer "there's nothing to be done", or you might say no hay más remedio which is like "there's no helping it" or "there's no other choice", and you can also see it as no tener más remedio though you'd have to conjugate the tener

All tenses and moods are used in writing... although commands [which is the imperative mood] is mostly used in dialogue and quotations

If you mean past tense specifically, there are two of them - preterite [simple past], and imperfect [continuous or incomplete past]

Imperfect is more used for description and narration, while preterite is more used for specific actions. As an example: "was speaking" is imperfect, while "spoke" is preterite

But if you want a breakdown of specific tenses or moods, let me know