Breakdown of Su charla parecía un cuestionario.
un
a, an (masculine)
su
his/her/its/their/your (formal)
parecer
to seem
la charla
chat
Questions & Answers about Su charla parecía un cuestionario.
Why is it parecía un cuestionario instead of se parecía a un cuestionario?
Parecer (without the reflexive pronoun se) means 'to seem' or 'to give the impression of being'. Parecerse a means 'to physically resemble' someone or something. Since the chat gave the impression of an interrogation, rather than physically looking like a printed piece of paper with questions on it, we use parecía.
Why do we use the imperfect tense (parecía) here rather than the preterite (pareció)?
We use the imperfect to describe background information, ongoing states, or what things were generally like in the past. Here, it describes the ongoing vibe of the conversation. If you used the preterite (pareció), it would sound like a sudden, one-time realization, such as 'at that exact moment, it suddenly seemed like a questionnaire'.
Does charla only refer to a casual conversation?
Not always! While it translates to 'chat' here, charla is also the standard word for a 'lecture', 'talk', or 'presentation'. For example, a TED Talk is called a charla TED. Context tells you whether the person is having a casual conversation or giving a formal speech.
Since su can mean multiple things, how do we know it translates to 'his' here?