Learning Spanish

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musicman1982
Posts:27
Joined:2016-07-16, 10:46
Real Name:Matthew
Gender:male
Country:GBUnited Kingdom (United Kingdom)
Learning Spanish

Postby musicman1982 » 2017-06-02, 11:49

Hello, my name is Matthew, I am English, I live in London and I am interested in learning your language. I have come across a couple of things that I wanted to ask, if anyone is able to answer these questions, it will be appreciated.

1. Does your language have articles in or not, if so what type of articles are used?

2. When it comes to sentence structure with statements, questions, etc. How is grammar used in your language? I have come across a list by Tim Ferris, who has written twelve sentences with different types of grammar structure, I will list them below:



The apple is red

It is john’s apple

I give john the apple

we give him the apple

He give it to john

She gives it to him

is the apple red

The apples are red

I must give it to him

I want to give it to her

I’m going to know tomorrow.

I can’t eat the apple.

I know what I am asking is very specific, but if anyone can answer this question, this will be greatly appreciated. If anyone can, you can say, e.g “Sentence one, will be a statement”, “Sentence six would be a question,” etc.

3. Are there any words in English that are not used in your language?

Again, I know I am asking a lot of these questions. I am not looking for a lot of information. Just something to start off with and work on. I am learning Latvian at the moment, so I am fully aware what the commitment is to learning a language. If you can spare the time, i will gladly take on board anything you say, thank you for your time and patience.

Kind regards,

Matthew.

Linguaphile
Posts:5355
Joined:2016-09-17, 5:06

Re: Learning Spanish

Postby Linguaphile » 2017-06-02, 17:25

musicman1982 wrote:1. Does your language have articles in or not, if so what type of articles are used?

Yes, indefinite articles: un (masculine singular), una (feminine singular), unos (masculine plural), unas (feminine plural); definite articles: el (masculine singular), la (feminine singular), los (masculine plural), las (feminine plural).

musicman1982 wrote:The apple is red

La manzana es roja. "Manzana" (apple) is a feminine noun, so the feminine form of "rojo" (red) is used.

musicman1982 wrote:It is john’s apple

Es la manzana de John. Literally: "is the apple of John."

musicman1982 wrote:I give john the apple

Le doy a John la manzana. / Le doy la manzana a John. Lit. "to-him give-1s to John the apple"/"to-him give-1s the apple to John". Note: "1s" indicates the first person singular form.

musicman1982 wrote:we give him the apple

Le damos la manzana. Lit. "to-him give-1p the apple"

musicman1982 wrote:He gives it to john

Se lo da a John Lit. "to-him it give-3s to John"

musicman1982 wrote:She gives it to him

Se lo da a John Lit. "to-him it give-3s to John" (same as above, since no gender is indicated here for the giver)

musicman1982 wrote:is the apple red

¿Es roja la manzana? Lit: "is red the apple?" Inverted question mark (¿) at the beginning is mandatory for questions in Spanish.

musicman1982 wrote:The apples are red

Las manzanas son rojas. Lit: the apples are red.

musicman1982 wrote:I must give it to him

Debo dársela a él. "should-1s give-inf it to him". Note that the word "dársela" is actually made of three words: dar (to give), se (to him), la (it).

musicman1982 wrote:I want to give it to her

Quiero dársela a ella. "want-1s give-inf it to her."

musicman1982 wrote:I’m going to know tomorrow.

Lo voy a saber mañana / Lo sabré mañana "It go-1s to know tomorrow" / "it know-1s-fut tomorrow"

musicman1982 wrote:I can’t eat the apple.

No puedo comer la manzana. "No can-1s eat-inf the apple"

musicman1982 wrote:3. Are there any words in English that are not used in your language?

Hmm. There are quite a few words in Spanish which have been borrowed from English, such as muffin, yuppie, touchdown, wifi. Many have become true Spanish words (jonrón = homerun, esmog = smog, güisqui = whiskey). But these words are used by Spanish-speakers, so this is probably not exactly what you are looking for.
Sono di continuo a caccia di parole. Descriverei il processo così: Ogni giorno entro in un bosco con un cestino in mano. Trovo le parole tutt'attorno: sugli alberi, nei cespugli, per terra (in realtà: per la strada, durante la conversazioni, mentre leggo). Ne raccolgo quante più possibile. -Jhumpa Lahiri

musicman1982
Posts:27
Joined:2016-07-16, 10:46
Real Name:Matthew
Gender:male
Country:GBUnited Kingdom (United Kingdom)

Re: Learning Spanish

Postby musicman1982 » 2017-06-02, 18:50

Thank you Lingaphile, I wanted to ask are the te abu word order changes, such as "Subject-verb-objecg?"

Linguaphile
Posts:5355
Joined:2016-09-17, 5:06

Re: Learning Spanish

Postby Linguaphile » 2017-06-02, 19:21

musicman1982 wrote:Thank you Lingaphile, I wanted to ask are the te abu word order changes, such as "Subject-verb-objecg?"


Yes, it is usually subject-verb-object. There are a few factors that make it a bit more complicated, though.
For example, let's take this sentence:
Le doy a John la manzana. "I give John the apple." The subject is actually implied by the conjugation of the verb (doy) so it isn't actually stated, but it's also possible to state the subject, and when you do it would normally come at the beginning:
Yo le doy a John la manzana.
So this is subject (yo) - verb (doy) - object (la manzana). The indirect object "John" is actually split here, because it's indicated by both "le" and "a John".
Word order is more flexible in Spanish, though, so it's possible to change from SVO to VSO (Le doy yo la manzana a John, and so on) without changing the meaning. Usually that is done in order to emphasis a particular part of the sentence, with the part of greatest emphasis at the beginning.
As mentioned above, it's also possible and very common to omit the subject entirely when the subject is obvious, and often the conjugation of the verb does make it obvious.
Sono di continuo a caccia di parole. Descriverei il processo così: Ogni giorno entro in un bosco con un cestino in mano. Trovo le parole tutt'attorno: sugli alberi, nei cespugli, per terra (in realtà: per la strada, durante la conversazioni, mentre leggo). Ne raccolgo quante più possibile. -Jhumpa Lahiri

musicman1982
Posts:27
Joined:2016-07-16, 10:46
Real Name:Matthew
Gender:male
Country:GBUnited Kingdom (United Kingdom)

Re: Learning Spanish

Postby musicman1982 » 2017-06-02, 21:17

Thank you for the valuable information lingaphile the reason why i am asking very specifix question is i am dyslexic and i am trying to get am overall understanding, so i can have something to build on.

langmon
Posts:608
Joined:2018-10-23, 17:51
Gender:male

Re: Learning Spanish

Postby langmon » 2018-11-27, 16:57

musicman1982 wrote:[...] the reason why i am asking very specifix question is i am dyslexic and i am trying to get am overall understanding, so i can have something to build on.


Hi there musicman1982, sorry for not having replied to your PM earlier.
I already wrote a message more than one week ago. But it stayed in the outbox, didn't move to sent objects.

While I am not Spanish, I do have a long-time history with this language. Especially with the written part. (And with its mother, Latin, too, learned it as a teenager).

Can you describe your current Spanish dyslexia situation a bit?
Because if there would be more details, a more useful answer can be made.

And because of a certain reason known to you [*], I'd also like to mention this link:
https://forum.unilang.org/viewtopic.php?f=119&t=56093&p=1126259#p1126259

[*] In case you wouldn't remember right now, you could refer to the PM you sent to me :). Not quoting anything of course.

However, it goes without saying that you do not have to post any reply in that other thread. In fact, I even would prefer myself answering about your dyslexia situation first, not the other way around.
this is a reboot

musicman1982
Posts:27
Joined:2016-07-16, 10:46
Real Name:Matthew
Gender:male
Country:GBUnited Kingdom (United Kingdom)

Re: Learning Spanish

Postby musicman1982 » 2020-03-01, 19:06

Thank you Langmon,

My situation with is context, sometimes I swap words round and thoughts sometimes. This is why I have asked for grammar tables, as I am also learning Latvian as well. As I am born and raised English but my father is original Latvian.I hope this helps.

-Matthew.


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