Learning Spanish

[Huacho]

One phrase you will need to get used to in Spanish is: I have vs. I am (in English).

Here are just a few examples.

Spanish: Tengo 68 anos. (Literal: I have 68 years). English: I am 68 years old.

No, that means you have 68 anuses, which I kind of doubt. That's why you need the tilde.

Ano = anus.

Año = year.

There is an episode of The Simpsons that involves this when Marge is a substitute Spanish teacher.

[Mojo Bandit]

I can tell you right off the bat that the autocorrecting software, while fabulous of course and immune to criticism, will be a serious impediment to discussing how to learn Spanish on this thread. Just to give a famous example, ano versus ao. I have no idea what the extremely fabulous software will do with this.

I am not sure if it will work but I have had some luck getting around the software by not letting it publish by first draft. That is to say that when I make a post I immediately then click on "edit post" and then the changes are more likely to be kept and not autocorrected.

[Villainy]

One phrase you will need to get used to in Spanish is: I have vs. I am (in English).

Here are just a few examples.

Spanish: Tengo 68 anos. (Literal: I have 68 years). English: I am 68 years old.

Spanish: Tengo hambre. (Literal: I have hunger). English: I am hungry.

Spanish: Tienes sed? (Literal: Do you have thirst?) English: Are you thirsty?

Spanish: Tiene miedo? (Literal: Does he have fear? English: Is he (she) afraid?

Spanish: Tengo sueno. (Literal: I have (a need for) sleep. English: I am sleepy.

[Huacho]

I can tell you right off the bat that the autocorrecting software, while fabulous of course and immune to criticism, will be a serious impediment to discussing how to learn Spanish on this thread. Just to give a famous example, ano versus año. I have no idea what the extremely fabulous software will do with this.

[Zeos1]

In Spanish the Conjugation is endless -- seemingly.

This is the verb "run" or "to run".

Indicative.

Present Preterite Imperfect Conditional Future.

Yo corro corr corra correra correr.

T corres corriste corras correras corrers.

l / ella / Ud. Corre corri corra correra correr.

Nosotros corremos corrimos corramos correramos correremos.

Vosotros corris corristeis corrais correrais correris.

Ellos / ellas / Uds. Corren corrieron corran correran correrand.

And that is just the Indicitative, then there are tables of equal amounts of forms of the word for Subjunctive, Imperative, Progressive, Perfect (Perfect is the simplest becuase the word remains the same but somthign similar to an adverb is used).

As someone who is still slowly learning I offer this one tip to beginers. You quickly learn that Spanish as the informal and formal, where formal is used to talk to stangers. I just keep in mind as you can see in this chart that more times than not the conjugation of the verbs fore the formal version of "you" which is "usted" is the same as the third person conjugation for "he" or "she" - "el" or "ella".

Verb conjugation is about communicating what you are meaning to say. About some action or happening. Or state of being. And English has almost all of the ways of saying thing. And for people learning English it is no easier. It all seems natural when you grow up with it, but that is true of any language that is your native language.

Spanish is a lot more predictable than English. Once you learn the normal patterns for AR, er, and Ir verbs, and the patterns for 1st person, 2nd person, 3rd person you don't have to memorize any more as you can predict what it is, for regular verbs. Anyway, not saying it is easy, but a lot less random than English.

By the way, the "perfect" tenses are the same as in English where we use the verb "have" as a compound verb. And surprise of surprises, Spanish uses the verb haber in exactly the same way. And with fewer words than in English.

[Mojo Bandit]

JjBee62 :

I am; you / we / they are; he / she / it is.

I / he / she / it was; you / they / we were.

I / you / he / she / they / it / we will be.

Etcetera.

Not only does English have conjugations, but the rules aren't consistent. Except for the irregular verbs, conjugation in Spanish is consistent. ".

In Spanish the Conjugation is endless -- seemingly.

This is the verb "run" or "to run".

Indicative.

Present Preterite Imperfect Conditional Future.

Yo corro corrí corría correría correré.

Tú corres corriste corrías correrías correrás.

él / ella / Ud. Corre corrió corría correría correrá.

Nosotros corremos corrimos corríamos correríamos correremos.

Vosotros corréis corristeis corríais correríais correréis.

Ellos / ellas / Uds. Corren corrieron corrían correrían correráand.

And that is just the Indicitative, then there are tables of equal amounts of forms of the word for Subjunctive, Imperative, Progressive, Perfect (Perfect is the simplest becuase the word remains the same but somthign similar to an adverb is used).

As someone who is still slowly learning I offer this one tip to beginers. You quickly learn that Spanish as the informal and formal, where formal is used to talk to stangers. I just keep in mind as you can see in this chart that more times than not the conjugation of the verbs fore the formal version of "you" which is "usted" is the same as the third person conjugation for "he" or "she" - "el" or "ella".

[Mojo Bandit]

JjBee62.

Senior Member.

Posts: 3865.

Quote Originally Posted by Huacho.

"I think with Spanish there is some frustration with for example having to learn all the conjugations because it is just counterintuitive for an English speaker to find out they have to learn so many different forms of what is one word in English. ".

'All verbs in English must also be conjugated. To me, the problem is that because the US educational system sucks, native speakers of English don't know what a perfect tense is, for example, and when confronted with "conjugating verbs," they don't realize they have been doing it in English since they were three years old. Example verb, to fuck. Obviously I fuck, you fuck, we fuck, they fuck. Simple indicative. English grammar is no longer being taught in Yew Ess schools because it's been so long since they taught it, the teachers don't know it. I have fucked a hooker. Past perfect. I fucked a hooker. Simple past tense. I fucked one or more hookers a lot over some period of time. Imperfect. Or in general if I say I fucked a lot of but hookers. How I feel about that and where I am going with that will determine preterite vs imperfecto. If I think of my past fucking as being over and done with, 'Cog con muchas putas. ' Pretrito because over and done with. But if I view my current situation as being more open ended and it's possible I might screw more hookers, I might go with 'Cog a con muchas putas,' meaning I fuck a lot of working girls in general, no real time frame.

JjBee62 :

I am; you / we / they are; he / she / it is.

I / he / she / it was; you / they / we were.

I / you / he / she / they / it / we will be.

Etcetera.

Not only does English have conjugations, but the rules aren't consistent. Except for the irregular verbs, conjugation in Spanish is consistent. ".

[Mojo Bandit]

"I think with Spanish there is some frustration with for example having to learn all the conjugations because it is just counterintuitive for an English speaker to find out they have to learn so many different forms of what is one word in English."
To me, the problem is that because the US educational system sucks, native speakers of English don't know what a perfect tense is, for example, and when confronted with "conjugating verbs," they don't realize they have been doing it in English since they were three years old.

When I was in school we learned all of that by the time we were in the 5th grade (about 11 years old) then in Middle School we moved on to syntax and diagraming sentences. Then the focus in High School was literature and composition. APA vs MLA and by the time I was out of High School I forgot all that stuff I learned in primary school.

[Mojo Bandit]

I agree with JjBee 62 that there is conjugation in English but the conjugation of verbs in Spanish just seems so much more intense that English conjugation.

[Mojo Bandit]

ChuchoLoco ChuchoLoco is offline.

Senior Member.

Posts: 198.

More confusion in English.

Quote Originally Posted by JjBee62.

I am; you / we / they are; he / she / it is.

I / he / she / it was; you / they / we were.

I / you / he / she / they / it / we will be.

Etcetera.

Not only does English have conjugations, but the rules aren't consistent. Except for the irregular verbs, conjugation in Spanish is consistent.

For, four, fore.

Here, hear.

There, their, they're.

Hair, hare.

Etc.

All languages are difficult to learn. The hardest one is the one that you are trying to learn. When you speak your own language you don't stop to think what tense etc you just know what to say and you should do the same for Spanish. Just learn dialogue and how to say something in a particular situation. If you are over 45 or so, it will be difficult so make up cheat sheets of what you want to say and keep it simple. A good canslator can help but better to look up phrases.

[Mojo Bandit]

For the purposes of talking about speaking Spanish and keeping the discussion out of the "Reports" threads.