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Aquel vs Ese

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JudieLC
United States of America

Aquel vs Ese

Post by JudieLC »

Didn't see a thread specifically on this. I keep mixing up aquel and ese on Duolingo exercises (especially if I have to type in the answer with no word bank, which I generally prefer).

Both are usually translated into English as that as in: "that car" or "that house." But I'm not clear on why I'm marked incorrect when I use the wrong one (ese when aquel is the expected answer and vice versa).

Hope someone has tips on the usage of these two words. Thanks in advance.

Jimbo

Re: Aquel vs Ese

Post by Jimbo »

I've never seen Duolingo mark someone wrong for aquel instead of ese or the other way around (although, while I'm sure you were only making an example I'll point it out just in case, 'that house' would call for either 'esa casa' or 'aquella casa' because 'casa' is a feminine noun).

Which sentence did that happen on?

Wait, if there's something like 'over there' in the sentence then it would probably call for 'aquel' or 'aquella' because it would suggest whatever it was referring to was a ways away.

Native language: 🇬🇧. Novice getting towards rookie: 🇪🇸. Beginner: 🇬🇷, 🇯🇵.

DmGabin

Re: Aquel vs Ese

Post by DmGabin »

Give a couple of examples. I can only confirm that Duolingo accepts ese/a and aquel/la equally. I usually use ese/a as it is shorter to type :-)

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JudieLC
United States of America

Re: Aquel vs Ese

Post by JudieLC »

I have been marked wrong for switching aquel and ese (or aquella and esa) and I don’t recall in particular that the sentence was indicating “over there.” Didn’t think to record examples of this, unfortunately.

I was just annoyed at having my response marked incorrect with no explanation why
and didn’t make a note of it. Though I may have reported, “my answer should have been accepted “. Sometimes Duolingo provides a tip within a lesson for repeated mistakes of this sort but I never got any tips for this supposed error.

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JudieLC
United States of America

Re: Aquel vs Ese

Post by JudieLC »

I tried to find an example by going back and reviewing lessons. I found one item where “aquel” was suggested in the word bank. I changed to keyboard and typed “ese” instead and got it right. So not sure what happened on the items for which it was marked wrong.

elizadeux
United States of America

Re: Aquel vs Ese

Post by elizadeux »

Both aquel and ese mean the same thing, but I hear ese far more often. I do see aquel in books. I've read that sometimes aquel can sometimes be obligatory when referring to a time long ago in the past.

If I was marked wrong for this, I'd probably write the sentence down. Then, I could double-check the entire sentence on my own or ask someone if I weren't sure. At times, I think I've been marked as incorrect for one thing, but later realize it was something else.

User avatar
JudieLC
United States of America

Re: Aquel vs Ese

Post by JudieLC »

elizadeux wrote: Tue May 30, 2023 11:42 pm

Both aquel and ese mean the same thing, but I hear ese far more often. I do see aquel in books. I've read that sometimes aquel can sometimes be obligatory when referring to a time long ago in the past.

If I was marked wrong for this, I'd probably write the sentence down. Then, I could double-check the entire sentence on my own or ask someone if I weren't sure. At times, I think I've been marked as incorrect for one thing, but later realize it was something else.

Yeah, I've heard ese more than aquel in spoken Spanish as well. I suspect there was something else I got wrong when I posted this query, as I have tested using aquel and ese alternatively multiple times since and never got a wrong answer for interchanging those two words.

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