Spanish language forum

He sends me to sleep!!!!

Irene

You know, I absolutely knew someone would come back with that quip!

Seriously though, don't you find his voice terribly boring?

We collected the 8cd's that the Mail gave away last year and they are much more lively and interesting.

Irene

 Sorry it was as you say an oh so predictable response !

Yes his voice is a bit deadly  but I kind of let it wash over me. I have some others too and the "Rocket Spanish" lessons available on line are much more lively.The first 6 or so lessons are free but they send loads more free stuff too.Its South American Spanish which is why I decided to switch over to Michel Thomas but its a really good starter..

Some vague recollection of Latin conjugation  going like this: amo, amas, amat......yes, if you learnt some Latin, or even French, in school, it's bound to help. English is essentially a Germanic language, and as such the grammar is quite different.

The easiest way I find to express the future (although not necessarily always strictly the correct way!) is by simply using the verb to go, followed by to, "a" and the infinitive: I go to eat; do you go to eat? "voy a comer; ¿vas a comer?" Although the English sounds odd, this is how a Spaniard would say "I am going to eat; are you going to eat?"

So, you only need to conjugate the verb to go (confusingly, Ir):

I go = voy; you go = vas; he/she goes = va; we go = vamos; they go = van

.....and then learn as many infinitives as possible! Hey presto, future tense!

From this you'll see where that very popular phrase comes from, vamos a ver. Literally means "we go to see", but of course in context almost always means "yeah, well, we'll see!" or "mmmm, let's see now......"

If this is helpful, I'll tell how I blag my way through the past tense next!

Cor blimey Roberto!

You are a Fuente de conocimientos!

Ok, ok, I did a Google translate........................................

Seriously though, thank goodness for your posts here on EOS, you are "Mantener vivo"

Salut,

THANKS FOR THAT ROBERTO YOUR SO HELPFULL BUT COULD YOU TELL ME DO ALL THE WORDS STATING WITH  ( V )  GET PRONOUNCED WITH A ( B ) . SRP.

Quote Lifeoverseas: "It´s actually in any situation, V is always pronounced as a B."

What about vamos a ver then? Don't know why, but the v in ver seems to me to be always pronounced as a v, albeit a rather soft sounding v. Maybe there's a special rule for the verb ver as well? Maria? ¡Ayudame, por favor! (help me,please!)

Talking of rules, another problem that I (and I'm sure many others) have, is knowing (or remembering!) the gender of nouns. masculine = el; Feminine = la. Usually, a noun ending with the letter A is feminine: la cinta, la cucuracha etc.

Pero, aquí es  el problema: la palabra "problema" no sigue esta regla.

But, here's the problem: the word "problem" doesn't follow this rule!

And for that matter, neither does el idioma (language). ¡Madre mia, es muy dificil! (Holy moly, it's difficult! - or words to that effect)

The GOOD news is, Spaniards are VERY sympathetic and forgiving, and you can make a right mess of your genders and grammar and they not only don't mind, they usually can still understand what you 're trying to say. Furthermore, although they're probably dying to wet themselves laughing at your efforts, they're usually far too polite to let it show! Right, Maria?

I understand that the reason some words ending in A are masculine are that they come from the Greek rather than Latin - certainly the case with problema and idioma but I don't know about día and could easily be wrong as I don't speak Greek!  Then there is the complication of those words starting with a vowel which are feminine but which use the masculine 'el' for the definite article,  the one we used most often probably being el agua.

The good news, as Roberto says, is that you really don't need to worry too much about it as the Spanish are generally enchanted when they meet foreigners who are really trying to communicate in their language and are always ready to help.

Unlike some other nationalities, right?

"The people of those foreign countries are very, very ignorant…..In Paris they just simply opened their eyes and stared when we spoke to them in French! We never did succeed in making those idiots understand their own language." (Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad) 

Is there either a teacher or language school in Sabinillas that anyone can recommend please?

I have also heard that whilst the local schools close in August they provide spansih lessons in 3 categories basically being idiots ok and good!

tia

shaun