Learning Spanish language

[xiurell]

"Ya es tarde pero para adelante, uno sufre un día pero el otro llora pero mientras pasan los días, uno se resigna poco a poco"

Now is late but go on, one day you can suffer and on the other day, cry but as the days go by, you rising yourself little by little (gradually)

la tarde = the afternoon
tarde (adv.)= late

[dmoney101]

Originally Posted by maria_gr

It's Catalan!

oh, it looks like portuguese. i guess it's because this character - ç. What sound does that make?

[xiurell]

Originally Posted by dmoney101

oh, it looks like portuguese. i guess it's because this character - ç. What sound does that make?

Catalan pronunciation

· A - When stressed always has an open sound between the sound of the a in bat or father. Examples: pa (bread), mà (hand), pare (father).Unstressed sounds like the a in sugar or the e in butter. Examples: porta (door), roba (clothes), dona (woman).
· B - sounds like the b in bar. Bonic (pretty), també (also, too), balcó (balcony)
· C - Before e or i sounds like the c in acid. Examples: cel (sky), cita (appointment).In almost all other cases sounds like the c in cat. Examples: poc (little, not much), casa (house).
· Ç – Like s Examples: cançó (song), començar (to start)
· D - like the d in door. Examples: divendres (Friday), demà (tomorrow).
· E - Open e is like the e in set. Examples: cel (sky), nen (child), cafè (coffee). Closed e is like the e in they without the final gliding sound. Examples: llengua (language), llet (milk), carrer (street). Unstressed e is like the e in butter and sounds just like unstressed a. Examples: mare (mother), jove (young). Unstressed e before a sounds like a closed e. Examples: teatre (theater), real (real).
· F - like the f in far. Examples: família (family), estufa (heater).
· G - With an a, o, u, r, or l at the beginning of a word or after n, sounds like g in get. Examples: gos (dog), gana (hunger).
· H - Always silent
· I - like the i in marine
· J -like the s in measure or vision. Examples: jove (young), netejar (to clean).
· K - Only appears in assimilated foreign words. Always sounds like the k in kitten
· L - like the l in love
· L.L - as two ls. Examples: mal·leable (malleable), idíl·lic (idyllic).
· LL - like the lli in the word million
· M - like the m in mother
· N – like n in noun
· NY – like the spanish ñ Example: Espanya (Spain)
· O - Open is like the o in coffee. Examples: bo (good), allò (that). Closed is like the o in note without the final glide. Examples: cançó (song), boca (mouth).Unstressed is between the oo in boot and foot. Examples: potser (maybe), comprar (to buy).
· P- like p in pain
· Q- like k
· R – as in Spanish has two sounds, one strong Rosa (Rose) and the other weak Però (but)
· S – like s in sound. Dissabte (Saturday). Like z in zoo. Rosa (rose)
· T – like t in time
· U – like the u in rude
· W - Only appears in assimilated foreign words
· X – like ch in champagne
· Y - Only appears in assimilated foreign words. (For ny see n.)
· Z - Pronounced like the z in zebra. Examples: zèfir (zephyr), zel (zeal), zona (zone).

[dmoney101]

Originally Posted by xiurell

Catalan pronunciation

· A - When stressed always has an open sound between the sound of the a in bat or father. Examples: pa (bread), mà (hand), pare (father).Unstressed sounds like the a in sugar or the e in butter. Examples: porta (door), roba (clothes), dona (woman).
· B - sounds like the b in bar. Bonic (pretty), també (also, too), balcó (balcony)
· C - Before e or i sounds like the c in acid. Examples: cel (sky), cita (appointment).In almost all other cases sounds like the c in cat. Examples: poc (little, not much), casa (house).
· Ç – Like s Examples: cançó (song), començar (to start)
· D - like the d in door. Examples: divendres (Friday), demà (tomorrow).
· E - Open e is like the e in set. Examples: cel (sky), nen (child), cafè (coffee). Closed e is like the e in they without the final gliding sound. Examples: llengua (language), llet (milk), carrer (street). Unstressed e is like the e in butter and sounds just like unstressed a. Examples: mare (mother), jove (young). Unstressed e before a sounds like a closed e. Examples: teatre (theater), real (real).
· F - like the f in far. Examples: família (family), estufa (heater).
· G - With an a, o, u, r, or l at the beginning of a word or after n, sounds like g in get. Examples: gos (dog), gana (hunger).
· H - Always silent
· I - like the i in marine
· J -like the s in measure or vision. Examples: jove (young), netejar (to clean).
· K - Only appears in assimilated foreign words. Always sounds like the k in kitten
· L - like the l in love
· L.L - as two ls. Examples: mal·leable (malleable), idíl·lic (idyllic).
· LL - like the lli in the word million
· M - like the m in mother
· N – like n in noun
· NY – like the spanish ñ Example: Espanya (Spain)
· O - Open is like the o in coffee. Examples: bo (good), allò (that). Closed is like the o in note without the final glide. Examples: cançó (song), boca (mouth).Unstressed is between the oo in boot and foot. Examples: potser (maybe), comprar (to buy).
· P- like p in pain
· Q- like k
· R – as in Spanish has two sounds, one strong Rosa (Rose) and the other weak Però (but)
· S – like s in sound. Dissabte (Saturday). Like z in zoo. Rosa (rose)
· T – like t in time
· U – like the u in rude
· W - Only appears in assimilated foreign words
· X – like ch in champagne
· Y - Only appears in assimilated foreign words. (For ny see n.)
· Z - Pronounced like the z in zebra. Examples: zèfir (zephyr), zel (zeal), zona (zone).

so it's really close to spanish, with a little bit of english (i.e. the z)

[xiurell]

THE VERB 'ESTAR'

PRESENT

Yo estoy
Tú estás
Él/Ella está
NOS. estamos
VOS. estáís
Ellos/as están

Here are the main uses of estar:

-To indicate a state or condition, often one resulting from a change:
estoy enfermo (I'm sick)
-To indicate location
Estamos en casa (we are at home)
-With a present participle to form a progressive tense
Están comiendo (They are eating)

SER VS. ESTAR

As in English both verbs mean "to be" (as in greek too)
I try esplain the difference of use with some exemples
Ser tells you what something is, the nature of its being, while estar refers more to what something does.

I'm sick
(correct)- estoy enfermo
(incorrect) - soy enfermo (That would refer to who I am, to the nature of my being. We might translate that as "I am a sick person" or "I am sickly."

-Está cansada, She is tired. Es una cansada, she is a tired person
-Estoy feliz, I'm happy now. Soy feliz, I am happy by nature

One way of thinking about it is to think of ser as being roughly equivalent to "equals." Another way of thinking about it is that estar often refers to a temporary condition, while ser frequently refers to a permanent condition.

But there are some exceptions and also a few idiomatic expressions that simply need to be learned.

[dmoney101]

Originally Posted by xiurell

THE VERB 'ESTAR'

PRESENT

Yo estoy
Tú estás
Él/Ella está
NOS. estamos
VOS. estáís
Ellos/as están

Here are the main uses of estar:

-To indicate a state or condition, often one resulting from a change:
estoy enfermo (I'm sick)
-To indicate location
Estamos en casa (we are at home)
-With a present participle to form a progressive tense
Están comiendo (They are eating)

SER VS. ESTAR

As in English both verbs mean "to be" (as in greek too)
I try esplain the difference of use with some exemples
Ser tells you what something is, the nature of its being, while estar refers more to what something does.

I'm sick
(correct)- estoy enfermo
(incorrect) - soy enfermo (That would refer to who I am, to the nature of my being. We might translate that as "I am a sick person" or "I am sickly."

-Está cansada, She is tired. Es una cansada, she is a tired person
-Estoy feliz, I'm happy now. Soy feliz, I am happy by nature

One way of thinking about it is to think of ser as being roughly equivalent to "equals." Another way of thinking about it is that estar often refers to a temporary condition, while ser frequently refers to a permanent condition.

But there are some exceptions and also a few idiomatic expressions that simply need to be learned.

one of the things we learned in spanish class for estar is P.L.A.C.E. Basically, if it's place, location, action, condition, or emotion, you would use estar, anything else is ser. i didn't really need that, since i just figure, if it's permanent, use ser, if it's temporary use estar and the only exception is death.

[xiurell]

Originally Posted by dmoney101

one of the things we learned in spanish class for estar is P.L.A.C.E. Basically, if it's place, location, action, condition, or emotion, you would use estar, anything else is ser. i didn't really need that, since i just figure, if it's permanent, use ser, if it's temporary use estar and the only exception is death.

Very useful the P.L.A.C.E. trick, but doesn't always work, look at this sentences:

El espejo está roto (permanent)
Soy soltero (temporary)
Este olivo está recto (permanent)
El océano Ártico está siempre frío (permanent)

It's better to think
SER represent qualites
ESTAR represents conditions

And both qualities and conditions can be permanent or temporary.

Saludos

[dmoney101]

Originally Posted by xiurell

Very useful the P.L.A.C.E. trick, but doesn't always work, look at this sentences:

El espejo está roto (permanent)
Soy soltero (temporary)
Este olivo está recto (permanent)
El océano Ártico está siempre frío (permanent)

It's better to think
SER represent qualites
ESTAR represents conditions

And both qualities and conditions can be permanent or temporary.

Saludos

well i don't know what roto, soltero, or recto means lol. at least i'm white, so i can get away with messing up estar/ser and por/para jaja

[xiurell]

sorry I forgot the translation

El espejo está roto (permanent) 'the is broken'
Soy soltero (temporary) 'I'm single'
Este olivo está recto (permanent) 'the olive tree is upright
El océano Ártico está siempre frío (permanent) 'the Arctic Ocean is always cold'

Greetings

[dmoney101]

Originally Posted by xiurell

sorry I forgot the translation

El espejo está roto (permanent) 'the is broken'
Soy soltero (temporary) 'I'm single'
Este olivo está recto (permanent) 'the olive tree is upright
El océano Ártico está siempre frío (permanent) 'the Arctic Ocean is always cold'

Greetings

i knew the first one because it's a condition, the second one i would think 'toy, the third (i thought recto meant erect, i was right ) i would think es, the fourth, idk, it makes sense but idk what i would've said

[Zahra2008]

hola a todos:

si desean ayuda de una mexicana con el español?...bueno aqui estoy........

[xiurell]

Originally Posted by Zahra2008

hola a todos:

si desean ayuda de una mexicana con el español?...bueno aqui estoy........

Bienvenida al foro

[DeBaires]

Y yo voy a tratar de traer el "castellano" de Argentina a los discursos q tengamos aca.

[dmoney101]

Originally Posted by DeBaires

Y yo voy a tratar de traer el "castellano" de Argentina a los discursos q tengamos aca.

i like the Argentinian accent. i've only heard it a few times, but it's pretty cool. i don't normally like castellano (it's the lisp that gets me), but i like argentina's

[DeBaires]

Originally Posted by dmoney101

i like the Argentinian accent. i've only heard it a few times, but it's pretty cool. i don't normally like castellano (it's the lisp that gets me), but i like argentina's

Yeah, technically we don't speak "castellano", but that's what we call. It's basically spanish, but we pronounce the "y" & the "ll" like the j in french & some of our verb conjugations are different, like "querés" instead of "quieres" & "hablás" instead of "hablas".

& we use "vos" instead of "tú". But I've been finding out that other countries like Nicaragua & El Salvador also use the voceo...& Uruguay too, of course.

[dmoney101]

Originally Posted by DeBaires

Yeah, technically we don't speak "castellano", but that's what we call. It's basically spanish, but we pronounce the "y" & the "ll" like the j in french & some of our verb conjugations are different, like "querés" instead of "quieres" & "hablás" instead of "hablas".

& we use "vos" instead of "tú". But I've been finding out that other countries like Nicaragua & El Salvador also use the voceo...& Uruguay too, of course.

yea, i knew all that. to me, it sounds kind of italian. i like it. the only accent i can think of that i like more is the dominican one because it sounds jamaican which is one of my favorite english accents

[DeBaires]

haha, yeah. A lot of our slang are actually italian words & of course we use "chau" for goodbye.

[dmoney101]

Originally Posted by DeBaires

haha, yeah. A lot of our slang are actually italian words & of course we use "chau" for goodbye.

really? that's bad ***. once i learn spanish, i think i'm gonna start on italian. there's just too much slang though. every country has different stuff and different accents to get used to. it's worse than in the USA jaja

[DeBaires]

Haha, yeah, that's true.

I'm trying to learn all 5 romance languages. So far, romanian's the hardest.

[dmoney101]

Originally Posted by DeBaires

Haha, yeah, that's true.

I'm trying to learn all 5 romance languages. So far, romanian's the hardest.

i only wanna learn what i like to call the "p***y gettin languages" that Spanish, Portuguese (for the Brazilians), and Italian jaja

[DeBaires]

Haha, sounds like a plan, but you might wanna throw French in there too, they go crazy for it

[dmoney101]

Originally Posted by DeBaires

Haha, sounds like a plan, but you might wanna throw French in there too, they go crazy for it

i hate french, france, and everything about the country. the only country i hate in this entire planet is france. too bad they made french fries, because they're so damn good jaja

[Sochko]

Originally Posted by dmoney101

too bad they made french fries, because they're so damn good jaja

Haha, idk why, but this made me laugh. =D

----

A similar thing happens to me, not with French, but with Italian. One can say that Spanish and Italian sound nearly the same (and it's a fact that they have various features in common, since they are both romance languages, of course), but I find Italian quite repulsive. I simply can't listen to the language. I cannot say this about castellano, because I love the sound of it. Argentinian accent too. Love these two "versions" of Spanish.
What I like most about Spanish spoken in Argentina is the second person singular form of the verbs. (querés instead of quieres). And what I adore about castellano is the incredibly melodic touch the language has, and the ceceo.

Since I've already been studying Spanish for ages, I was thinking of taking up another language. (I also love the Germanic languages, as well as Turkish, so I thought of German, Swedish or Turkish maybe), but I realised that, since I already know Spanish, it'd be much easier for me to start learning French, knowing that these two languages are similar to a great extent. To be honest, French would serve me far more than Swedish, let's say, since French is a worldly recognised language. Now I still don't know what to do. dmoney is changing my mind regarding French language... (just kidding ;D). I reckon I'll take German instead. =)

[dmoney101]

Originally Posted by Sochko

Haha, idk why, but this made me laugh. =D

----

A similar thing happens to me, not with French, but with Italian. One can say that Spanish and Italian sound nearly the same (and it's a fact that they have various features in common, since they are both romance languages, of course), but I find Italian quite repulsive. I simply can't listen to the language. I cannot say this about castellano, because I love the sound of it. Argentinian accent too. Love these two "versions" of Spanish.
What I like most about Spanish spoken in Argentina is the second person singular form of the verbs. (querés instead of quieres). And what I adore about castellano is the incredibly melodic touch the language has, and the ceceo.

Since I've already been studying Spanish for ages, I was thinking of taking up another language. (I also love the Germanic languages, as well as Turkish, so I thought of German, Swedish or Turkish maybe), but I realised that, since I already know Spanish, it'd be much easier for me to start learning French, knowing that these two languages are similar to a great extent. To be honest, French would serve me far more than Swedish, let's say, since French is a worldly recognised language. Now I still don't know what to do. dmoney is changing my mind regarding French language... (just kidding ;D). I reckon I'll take German instead. =)

what language you should learn really depends on your location-what's most useful for you? i live in the USA, so obviously Spanish is waaaay more useful than anything else. there's also a bunch of Laos people, but i'll never bother with an asian language (other than Japanese).

[Sochko]

Originally Posted by dmoney101

what language you should learn really depends on your location-what's most useful for you? i live in the USA, so obviously Spanish is waaaay more useful than anything else. there's also a bunch of Laos people, but i'll never bother with an asian language (other than Japanese).

Yup, definitely true. I was kidding a little bit in my previous post, but I surely agree that it's not wise enough for me to take classes in... Danish, for example, when I know I'd never have the chance to exchange a single word in Danish with somebody.
The best option would be either a worldwide-spoken language (as Spanish or French, we can say) or a language from the ethnic minorities in the country (if such).

[DeBaires]

I think German & French would be good because both are spoken quite widely. Plus German (so they say) is similar to English, so, I'm sure that's not too bad.

As for Turkish, my friend's husband is from Turkey & I bought a book on it. It is SO hard; their sentences are literally flipped, like "The dog want I" instead of "I want the dog", so crazy.

[Zahra2008]

Originally Posted by xiurell

Bienvenida al foro

muchas gracias...

im 100% mexican.. and i speak english... and im trying to learn arabic... and just a few words in turkish...

Obviously, to learn english is the best thing for me, coz i live near of USA, i use to travel a lot there, but learn arabic is my dream, coz i want to travel to Egypt ONE DAY... and im getting ready to that DAY...

and turkish... well.. i have a new friend from Ankara.. and i want to be polite, and learn some words for him

[xiurell]

RULES FOR THE USE OF
THE WRITTEN ACCENT IN SPANISH

Words fall into three categories according to the way they are pronounced: agudas, llanas, esdrújulas.

1. Words that are stressed on the last syllable are called agudas.
If an aguda ends in a consonant other than n or s it is written without an accent mark. If an aguda ends in a vowel, or n or s it carries a written accent mark.

e.g. reloj, amor, color, ciudad, calamar, flor, arroz
e.g. avión, sofá, café, canción, ciempiés, estrés, zulú

2. Words that are stressed on the next to the last syllable are called graves (or llanas in some countries). If a grave ends in a vowel or n or s it does not carry a written accent. If a grave ends in a consonant other than n or s it carries a written accent mark. The most of the spanish words are graves.
e.g. pueblo, lengua, mesa, libros, España, goma, orden,
e.g. lápiz, débil, césped, Cádiz

3. Words that are stressed on the third to the last syllable are called esdrújulas. All esdrújula words carry a written accent.
e.g. esdrújula, pájaro, artículo, magnífico, rápido, católico


Diphthongs and Breaking a Diphthong

A second use of the accent is to break a diphthong. Diphthongs are formed by combining a strong vowel (a, e, o) with a weak vowel (i, u) or two weak vowels in a single syllable.

e.g viuda, ruido, aire , fauna, ambulancia, guante, peine, euro, viernes, fuego

If a strong and weak vowel appear together but do not form a syllable, the weak vowel carries a written accent to break the diphthong. In other words when –i or –u are pronunced stressed must be accented

e.g. maíz, día, había, Raúl, río, tío

Accents to show meaning

Some words which are spelt the same have an accent to show their meaning or different grammatical function

e.g.

mi (adjective my) -- mí (pronoun me)
tu (adjective your) -- tú (pronoun you)
el (adjective the) -- él (pronoun he)
si (if) -- sí (yes)
solo (alone) -- sólo (only)
te (you as an object) -- té (tea)

Accents also are used in Spanish to distinguish demonstrative pronouns, which are usually accented, from demonstrative adjectives, which are not.

"Me gusta este libro", I like this book. "Me gusta éste", "I like this" or "I like this one."

[dmoney101]

can somebody help me understand the difference between cada dia and todo los dias (that sounds weird spelled properly since usually i'd just say to lo dia :P). i know cada dia is each day and todo los dias is every day, but when i think about it in english, they pretty much mean the same thing

[xiurell]

Originally Posted by dmoney101

can somebody help me understand the difference between cada dia and todo los dias (that sounds weird spelled properly since usually i'd just say to lo dia :P). i know cada dia is each day and todo los dias is every day, but when i think about it in english, they pretty much mean the same thing

I would answer your question with another question: are "Each day" and "Every day" interchangeable? Because it's the same thing in spanish

to me "cada día" and "todos los días" are the same, have no different meaning

"Cada día" treats the days one by one; "todos los días" collectively. In informal contexts, they probably can be used interchangeably