Spanish language forum

Buenos Dias. Como estas? Gracias - the Spanish word of the day looks good. I do have some tapes so I must remember to take them with me next time we are in Spain, along with some headphones. Eileen

I have a couple of c.d's loaded onto my ipod. Sounds quite easy when listenng to it but as soon as I switch the Ipod off I forget a lot of what I thought I had learned.

I will keep trying and gradually things will fall into place.

MArkfish: Hola, media hora de Internet, por favor.

Hi Maria. I have been told that there is a regional dialect in parts of Andalucia. Could that be why I wrote what I did? I am sure that is what the lady in the shop told me to ask for .

We have the pigeon Spanish booklet which is pretty good at helping to get the pronunciation right. At £3, the price isn't too bad either! We also use Before you Know it which is free software, although there doesn't seem to be much structure to it.

Mark

Mark, I don't think they would say "demi hora" anywhere in Spain!  It's just not right.  Probably explains the funny looks you get though

Justin

Must be having a grey moment .

Yes, I agree! This will be really useful. Especially since I hope to book half an hours internet next time I visit! Honestly!

Is there anyway of viewing the threads so that you see the most recent first? Otherwise it will be a pain to scroll down every time? (With only half an hour - time is limited!!)

Muchas gracias

Mooma, go into your forum profile and you will see a "message display order" where you can select which way to view.

Just to keep to thread - donde estan los servicios de senoras?  (???)  -  where are the ladies toilets?





This message was last edited by Pitby on 3/25/2008.

I think what Mooma is looking for is the type of thing that you get on PhPBB forums where clicking on the view new posts link will take you to the thread directly after the one you last loked at. The problem with this forum is that if 5 or 6 people have posted, the "new posts" button only takes you to the last posted response, you still have to scroll through to get to the first response.

Mark

Why not just click on the "reverse order of thread" button above the first (last?) message?

 Quote: "Roberto, you are obviously a Spanish speaker, will we ever get to grips with the grammar? Eileen"

Eileen, I ain't so good at English grammar, so I is not the best person to ask! I find learning the different tenses very difficult, because we never learnt English the way I think Spaniards learn their own language. So for example, if you ask me what the pretorite is, I haven't got a clue. I just know there are a lot of different tenses which we use daily without realising it - I go, I went, I have gone, I am going, I will go, I would have gone, etc. etc. The good news is, I generally find you can get away with the simplest forms of the present (presente), past, (pasado) and future (futuro).

Seems a bit obvious, but I suggest trying to get to grips with the present tense first. It seems to be used more in Spanish than in English anyway. For example, if you want to ask someone "where are you going?", in Spanish you would just say "¿Donde vas?" (you don't have to pronounce the upside down question mark, but the v is pronounced as a b) which literally means "where do you go" (present tense). The English form actually uses the gerund (...ing), which is pretty easy to form in Spanish as well, but just not used the way it is in English. So, just stick to the present tense! You could answer with a simple "voy á Malaga" - I go to Malaga. Sounds wrong in English, but it's correct in Spanish.

Blimey (ay caramba!) I never thought I'd be passing on Spanish language tips, but if this helps anyone, I'll continue with (my version, at least) of the past and future!

And Maria, please please please correct me if I'm wrong at all! 

This message was last edited by Roberto on 3/25/2008.

Mi vocalubaria espanol muy limitado. ( I think that means " My spanish vocabulary is very limited")

Please correct me if I am wrong as I need it to get better.

Roberto, for the first time, just now posting in another thread, I noticed that reverse order button!!  But why reverse all the time when you can just set it in your profile???

Acapulco, maybe it's "mi vocabulario es muy limitado" .

I like this - it sort of makes us learn the lingo!!

Didn't know you could set it in your profile - and I just edited my last post while you were posting, so you'll have to scroll up (or down?) to read what I just wrote anyway  

HOLA  CHICO/CHICA I'M LOVING THIS THREAD, I GO TO SPANISH LESSONS EVERY MONDAY AND I'M 62 SO COME ON ALL YOU YOUNG ONES LETS HELP ONE ANOTHER, WITH THE HELP OF MARIA AND ROBERTO WE SOULD BE ABLE TO HAVE A LAUGH AND LEARN AT THE SAME TIME .P.S. I'M NOT VERY GOOD AT COLLAGE LITTLE BITS ARE GOING IN SLOWLY BUT I DON'T THINK I WILL BE ABLE TO HAVE A CONVERSATION WITH A SPANISH PERSON JUST YET. LOVE TO ALL AND KEEP THIS FORUM GOING PLEASE.........SRP

Gracias Pitby, that sounds better.

\welcome to the thread SRP my young amigo

Thanks Pitby

I will be able to stop jumping up and down with my legs crossed now I know what to say

Following up on Rob's b and v thing, here's a little silly story...

Nice one, Justin! Couple of questions - a)why is this guy talking to us from his car? And b) why doesn't he get a life?!  What a nerd! However, it did make me think of something else to point out, namely that if you get yourself some language CDs or online Spanish instruction such as this one, remember that a lot of the stuff out there is produced for the American market and if so will teach you South American pronunciations, which vary somewhat from Spaniard's pronunciation.

(But there are still loads of dogs called Ben in Spain!)

 

These are my most important Spanish phrases....

Tengo hambre - I'm hungry.

Tengo mucha hambre - I'm really hungry

I really am hungry now though.  Now, where did I put those biscuits.

Justin

Buenos días,

Creo que escuchar cds en el coche es una idea muy buena para aprender español...I think that listening to cds in the car is a really good idea for learning Spanish.

That´s how I improved before coming here, every day in the car on the way to uni I listened to cds by Michel Tomas, he´s really good, I would highly recommend his cds. Also, he practices with English students and tends to provide both options hen different words exist in Latin American Spanish, although he does pronounce the z as s, which Spaniards don´t do but would understand.

Saludos

Hi there,

I also use Michel Thomas and play them in the car etc. I have found his idea of just letting the language kind of sink in rather than swotting (as if ) and working too hard at it,really helpful. It seems to me the key thing is to do it each day if you can. I find when I have a longish break from listening that it takes a while to come back.That could just be getting old though.

Best wishes