Shortcuts to Learning español

cccmedia wrote:

3.  Many Gringos know that mañana means 'tomorrow'. 
In español, what do you call the day after tomorrow?

pasado mañana

Don't forget ayer for "yesterday", and
anteayer for "day before yesterday"

And then what at first seemed to me to be just bad arithmetic:
cada dos días for "every other day", and
cada ocho días  for "weekly", and
cada quince días for "every two weeks".
Actualmente como solo cada dos días para adelgazarme.  Now I eat only every other day to slim down.
Hay que cambiar los tendidos cada ocho días.  It's necessary to change the bedding weekly.
Me pagan muy poco cada quince días, en efectivo.  They pay me very little every two weeks, in cash.

And several that you may not hear too often, but will impress your native Spanish listener:
matutino/a of the morning, as in la hora matutina, "early morning hour", and
vespertino/a  of the late afternoon, as in la hora vespertina, the time around sunset

They can both be used just to indicate morning and evening:
Cada sesión escolar es de dos horas y media, con la disponibilidad de sesiones matutinas y vespertinas.   Each school session is two-and-one half hours, with morning and afternoon sessions available.

Matutino and vespertino come originally from matins and vespers, the time of morning and evening prayers in the Catholic tradition.

CORRECT USE
Adjective, bastante (plural bastantes)
    enough; sufficient
        Necesitas beber bastante agua. You need to drink enough water.
    quite some; quite a bit (of)
        Toma bastante tiempo. It takes quite some time.

Adverb, bastante
    quite
        Es bastante claro. It is quite clear.
    Enough; sufficiently
        He trabajado bastante. I have worked enough.
    quite a bit; to a considerable degree; quite a lot
        Lo conozco bastante. I know him quite well.
        Ha llovido bastante la última semana. It has rained (quite) a lot in the last week.

So, if someone asks you "¿Cuánto quiere/desea?" or "¿Le sirvo más?" and you answer "Bastante". They assume you are saying that as a short form of "Quiero bastante". In that case, bastante means "quite a bit/to a considerable degree/quite a lot". In Ecuador, at least, that is the meaning people have in mind.

If someone wants to say "It is enough", you must express it as "Es suficiente" 'o, simplemente "Suficiente".

One “false friend” word I was warned about when I was an exchange student in Spain was “embarazada” which looks a lot like embarrassed but actually means “pregnant”. I hammered the phrase “tengo vergüenza” (I’m embarrassed) i to my head before going. Lol

Since I learned Spanish in the US (Mexican accent and verbiage) and honed it in Spain (c and z pronounced like “th”), I wondered if there were Ecuadorian specifics as far as accent or verbiage. Like my Puerto Rican friend drops syllables (Vamo en cow phonetically vs vamos en carro - I would have used the word coche for car). Also, in Spain they use Vosotros for plural familiar of Tu. Is that not used in Ecuador? And I was also told that among friends and even acquaintances, it was weird to use Ud. in Spain - is it rude to use Tu in Ecuador?

Finally, has anyone who didn’t speak Spanish at all used the Duo Lingo app to learn? My husband doesn’t speak a lick of Spanish and I want to find an easy, enjoyable way for him to learn.

You may find these videos on YouTube entertaining and educational, about the different Spanish accents in various countries.  Just do a search for

youtube acentos de los paises

As you noted, in many Caribbean countries they leave off the last syllable or s sound, as in se come la cola de la palabra which they say the same singular or plural, whereas the plural is actually "se comen las colas de las palabras"  (they eat the tails of the words).

Widespread in many countries is leaving off or skipping over a consonant like "d" as in ¡Que pecao! instead of ¡Que pecado!

As far as Ecuador goes, its Spanish at least among the educated is considered to be quite pure and close to Spain castellano, with good pronunciation of all vowels and consonants (but they don't use the th pronunciations) - but of course like most Spanish countries there are regional dialects as well as indigenous languages spoken.

This is a good video that breaks down some of the Ecuadorian accents by region and number of people speaking that way:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cs4TiAp3FM

Here is a video of an española learning many new (to her) Ecuadorian words:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RZeToRce8w

For your husband, just watching some Spanish teaching videos could go a long way, especially if you sit with him and explain things.  Just do a search for

youtube learn spanish

Thank you so much! I will check out those resources!

just ordered the Michel Thomas Spanish. looking forward to diving into this!

JJ

Here's a guy who's laid it out nicely.  Uses the cognates tricks with just enough vocabulary and grammar to get you composing useful sentences fast.  Nicely paced, and free!
https://qroo.us/spanish-lessons-for-beginners/

That's a solid recommendation, SD James.

Let's build on your mention of cognates, which -- for our purposes -- are words that are the same in English and Spanish.

1001 Words in Spanish You Already Know is an article at realfastspanish.com

Check out the list .. and be amazed at how much Spanish you've already got under your belt from the start....

Google search...
         realfastspanish 1001 words in spanish you already know

After seeing the list, what you need to do is work on pronunciation. 

cccmedia

Spanish cognates.

A to Z, or in this case A to I (eye), hundreds of Spanish words are spelled identically to their English counterparts.

How many of these words do you recognize as having the same spelling in both languages?

agenda

canal

club

crisis

durable

enigma

grave

horror

invisible

irregular


Here are the pronunciations of four words on the
list above that deviate the most in Spanish from the
same-spelled English words in how you say them....

agenda ... ah-HEN-dah

club ... kloob

grave ... GRAH-bay

horror ... oh-RAWR (supposed to roll the double-R
                                   in the middle of the word)

Spanish cognates, J to V.

Cognates, or almost-cognates, may be spelled
with identical letters, except that, in Spanish,
a mark is added to indicate which syllable to
accentuate.

Some of the words below have this accent mark
in español though they are otherwise spelled
the same as in English....

judicial

maestro

menú

múltiple

ópera

original

patrón

región

triple

versión


Again, here are the pronunciations for Spanish words
on the above list that vary most from English, often
in the accented syllable....

menú ... meh-NOO

judicial ... hoo-dee-SYAHL

triple ... TREEP-lay

versión ... behr-SYOHN

Eight Spanish-language words and phrases every Expat should know....

Excuse me.

Perdóname.  pehr-DOH-nah-may

---

I would like to (verb)...

Quisiera...  kee-see-AIR-ah

---

Many thanks.

Muchas gracias.

---

Wait a minute.

Espere un minuto.

---

You are correct, bro.

Tu eres correcto, 'mano.

---

I forgot it at home.

Lo olvidé en casa.

---

Show me that thing.

Muéstreme esa cosa.

---

I'll be right back.

Ya vuelvo.

cccmedia wrote:

Spanish-language words and phrases every Expat should know....

Excuse me.

Perdóname.  pehr-DOH-nah-may

You can also say disculpe:  Disculpe, señor, ¿Que hora son?
---

Many thanks.

Muchas gracias.

Sometimes you might say mil gracias, a thousand thanks.  But don't be overly effusive.
---

You are correct, bro.

Tu eres correcto, 'mano.
Or you can also say, Tienes razón.
---

I'll be right back.

Ya vuelvo.
You can also say, Ya vengo.

Spanish-language phrases an Expat should know.

It's an emergency.

Es una emergencia.   ay-mehr-HEN-see-yah


It's very important.

Es muy importante.


Your work is excellent.

Su trabajo es excelente.


I've been waiting for over an hour.

He estado esperando por más que una hora.


What a shame.

Que pena.


How good is that...

Que buena.


Let's fix it on Thursday.

Que lo arreglamos el jueves.


Wow, it's a miracle!

Guau, es un milagro!

What about disculpame for excuse me? Is this used in Ecuador?

OsageArcher wrote:

cccmedia wrote:

Spanish-language words and phrases every Expat should know....

Excuse me.

Perdóname.  pehr-DOH-nah-may

(Osage Archer wrote:)

You can also say disculpe:  Disculpe, señor, ¿Qué hora es?
---

I believe the above post by  Brother Archer, who lived in Ecuador as a boy,
answer's SL's question about disculpe or discúlpame.

I slightly changed the 'hora' question he offered to conform with
my understanding about how to ask for the time en español.

cccmedia

Completely missed that...... thanks.

I left out the é for the interrogative qué in my written example.  You're asking a question so when it's written you should include the accent.

And also you can say ¿Qué horas son? (plural horas but when you say it fast it sounds like hora singular) as well as ¿Qué hora es? (the correct, preferred form), do a search for
que hora es vs que hora son
...or just read here, for one example:
https://www.proz.com/kudoz/spanish/educ … s-son.html
and here
https://forum.wordreference.com/threads … s.1832944/

And let's not forget disculpe (imperative usted form) may be used just as well as discúlpeme (imperative usted form) or discúlpame (imperative tu form).

And don't forget other ways and words you might use on the street, here explained in Spanish (I have put in the accents which were left out of this on-line discussion for some unknown reason):

El uso de estas palabras depende de su contexto.
"Disculpe/permiso" para pasar entre la gente o entrar a un lugar.
"Discúlpame" = tú
"Discúlpeme" = usted
Discúlpame/discúlpeme = para retirarse de un lugar (también puedes decir "con su permiso" o "con permiso" o solo "permiso"; ante un error o confusión; para pedir perdón
Perdóname/perdóneme (usted) = el sentido es más restringido. Sólo para pedir perdón, no para pedir permiso.

¡Auxilio Dios! (Help me God, he said, rolling his eyes in exasperation). Also you may hear in response to the permiso/perdón/disculpe something like "bien pueda" or "siga, caballero" (for a male) to indicate permission/assent to proceed.

E-s words.

Various words that begin with 's' in English are similar in Spanish;  an 'e' is added before the 's'.

Translating words on the left, below, to Spanish...


special                    especial

scandal                  escándalo

standard                estándar

establish                establecer

scale                       escalar
(climb)

Our new member Greg from Canada wrote in his introduction that he is desperately learning Spanish so he can have a more pleasurable time when he moves to Medellín.  He asked for advice for his Spanish learning...

1.  Have a more pleasurable approach now instead of desperation.

2.  Learn español the easier way .. by recording your favorite TV shows and films with English or Spanish subtitles.  Play them back with liberal use of the pause button.  Have a dictionary or wordreference.com handy to look up words or phrases that might stump you.

3.  Read this Spanish-language thread of Expat.com ...

4.  Read our other thread .. español for Gringos .. on the Ecuador forum of Expat.com ...

5.  Talk Spanish to anyone you know or meet
who you suspect may understand it .. or
would not be offended by it.

-- cccmedia

FluentU has free tips for how to speed up your learning
of the Spanish language...

google... six useful tips learn spanish faster

Google free sites on the web for learning spanish
or pay the bucks for babbel.com .. pimsleur.com .. fluentu.com
or another paid service.

cccmedia

Duolingo is a good site and it's free as well.

Expats will commonly come across this situation even if they have studied español and have intermediate language skills....

In a conversation with a local, the local will speak too rapidly or use words/phrases not understood by the Expat.

Here are some phrases to assist an Expat in such an eventuality...

Favor de repetir eso.
Please repeat that.

No entiendo.  Puede hablar menos rápidamente?
I don't understand.  Can you speak less rapidly.

Más despacio, por favor.
Slower please.

Es difícil a entenderle en tan much ruido.
Háblame como soy un niño de cinco años.  (pronouncer... OB-lah-may)
It's difficult to understand in so much noise.
Talk to me as if I am a five-year-old boy.

Sunrise, sunset.

The Spanish word for sunrise is amanecer.
(ah-mah-neh-SEHR)

Sunset is atardecer.
(ah-tahr-deh-SEHR)
Note the inclusion of the word 'tarde' which means late.

The overnight hours are known as la madrugada.

Madrugar is a verb meaning 'to get up early'
     or 'to arrive early'.

Noon and midnight are below.


Noon is mediodía.

Midnight is medianoche.

Middle of the day, middle of the night.

Directions.

How many of these directions do you know in español?  Focus on words listed on the left and then discover your level of knowledge by going right....


to the left                            a la izquierda

to the right                         a la derecha

go straight ahead             siga recto

up                                       arriba

down                                  abajo

in the back                        al fondo

to the North                     al norte

to the South                     al sur

the the East                      al este

to the West                      al oeste   WES-tay

to the back                      por detrás

to the side                       al lado

over it                              sobre ello, por encima de ello

beyond                            más allá (de)

across from                    frente

El laboratorio está frente la pizzería Los Tíos.
The lab is across from the pizza place Los Tíos.


Notes... the double-L sound is like the Y in English for Ecuadorian speakers.
The double-L sound is like the J in English for Colombian speakers.
In Ecuador .. calle .. pronounced KAH-yay
In Colombia .. Medellín .. pronounced medda-JEEN

Note that in Spanish, the words for North, South, etc. are initial-capitalized
when they are part of a named place or area, i.e. Norte América.

al fondo can mean 'in the back';  it can also mean 'at the bottom'.

Ways to say 'thank you'.

Gracias.

Muy amable.  Very nice.  (or.. Very polite.)

Muy bondadoso.   Very kind.

Lo aprecio.  I appreciate it.

Muchas gracias.   Many thanks.

Tu eres lo mejor.  You're the best.


The most common response to being thanked is De nada.
Literally translated, it means 'of nothing'.  Culturally, it is
equivalent to the English phrase 'It was nothing'.

cccmedia wrote:

The most common response to being thanked is De nada.

You can also say, no hay de que, roughly "there's no need (to thank me for it)", or think nothing of it, don't mention it

Other ones you may hear, especially from shopkeepers etc. are
a la orden at your order, you're welcome, don't mention it
para servirle to serve you, at your service

Let's get cookin'.

If you know that hervir, ehr-BEER, is the Spanish word for 'to boil', you may be able to follow instructions and cook up some fusilli, or squiggly pasta.

The following instructions in Spanish and English appear on the outside of a package of El Dorado brand gluten-free fusilli made not from Durham wheat but from chia, corn and rice...

1.  Hervir agua y sal.

Boil water and salt.

2.  Agregar pasta.

Add pasta.

3.  Cocinar 8-9 minutos.

Cook 8-9 minutes.

4.  Escurrir.

Drain.

----

Buen provecho.

Small changes in how words are spelled.

Expat learners may get tripped up by minor spelling differences in words that have the same meaning in English and Spanish.

In the list below, you will come upon an English word first.  See if you can spell its Spanish-language equivalent word, then scroll down to verify the spelling change....

responsible


responsable   (the 'I' changes to 'a')


vegetables


vegetales  (the 'b' has disappeared)


different


diferente  (one 'f' is not there;  'e' added at the end)


appropriate


apropiado  (several changes, including one fewer 'p' and 'r')


medicine


medicina  (an 'e' changes to an 'a')

Learn Spanish via YouTube.

For intermediate learners, a good resource is Qroo Paul's Spanish at YouTube.com ... (Pronouncer:  Kyoo-roo).  Qroo refers to Quintana Roo, a state on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula where Paul and his wife lived for many years.

The typical lesson is a 4- to 7-minute animated video on a particular sub-topic such as a common phrase/idiom/verb/sentence structure.

Paul is adept at making easily digestible various topics and points of learning that may normally confuse or elude Expat learners.

First person, future tense, without

learning fancy conjugations.

If you know the root form of a verb,

you can easily create the first person

future tense (I will speak, I will eat, etc.)

by simply adding é.

I will speak.

Yo hablaré.

I will be familiar with it.   

Yo lo conoceré.

I will attempt it.

Yo lo intentaré.

---

In informal settings, the word for "I"

is typically dropped when speaking

the above sentences.  This is possible

because "I" or Yo can be assumed

based on the verb ending.

I will speak.

Hablaré.

I will attempt it.

Lo intentaré.

----

Another way to state future action

is to use the word 'voy', (from the

irregular verb ir (to go).

Voy a hablar.

I am going to speak.

Voy a intentarlo.

I am going to attempt it.

Managing 'verbos'.

In the verbal Thai language there is

no future tense employed, no past tense

either.  Thais add a word that sounds like

'jah' in front of a verb for future action and

they add 'lao' in back of a verb for past

action.  The root verb does not change.

In Spanish, the irregular verb 'ir' is

often employed before verbs to

denote future action.

Voy a visitar a mi abuela.

I am going to visit my grandmother.

Vamos a conseguir el dinero en tres semanas.

We are going to get the money in three weeks.

Voy y vamos are present-tense forms

of the irregular verb 'ir' (to go).

Want more hacks to manage 'verbos'?

Use (yo)quisiera -- meaning 'I would like...'

and then the root verb.  kee-see-AIR-ah

Quisiera correr en el parque hoy por la tarde.

I would like to run in the park this afternoon.

---

Use favor de (meaning 'please do' something).

Favor de traerme una segunda porción de camarones.

Please bring me a second helping of shrimp.

---

Tener que  is used to indicate what someone

should do.

Tienes que votar para la presidenta.

You should vote for the president.

@cccmedia Thank you for putting together this post with similarities between Spanish and English.  If I am aware that words in English have a Latin base word, I'll "guess" if the word in Spanish is either similar to or the same as the English.  My Ecuadorian, sister-in-law, a great teacher, will let me know if my "guess" at a Spanish word is correct.  Many times it is, and I'm so proud of myself for my "guesses" being correct! 

When I first started my attempts at Spanish-speaking in the community, I was very hesitant and concerned that I'd be making mistakes.  Yet, little-by-little, I started getting braver and braver, and I am now much more courageous in making my needs known in speaking Spanish.  I encourage others who might be hesitant to speak Spanish, speak Spanish anyway!  I promise:  It gets easier the more you speak the primary language of the Ecuadorian people, Spanish. . . .

Fruit news.

A fruit shop in Bucaramanga, Colombia, has employed

a bilingual play on words in choosing a name

for the shop.

As background, the Spanish-language word disfrutar

is a verb meaning to enjoy.

The fruit shop employed the potential double meaning

by naming itself... Disfrutas.

cccmedia in Bucaramanga

Well this thread is a great resource. I've only taken the time to skim the first page but I can see it would be fruitful to spend some time in here.  Thank you to all the contributors.

It's been over 40 years since I've been to a Spanish speaking country and I've been flipping through my late Father's copy of Divry's Spanish-English dictionary (with print that is far too small!) and was feeling a little intimidated by it all, but I now think that even I will be able to command at least a rudimentary ability to communicate

Thanks again folks.   

@cccmedia

Thank You for sharing this is very helpful as I am a beginner and need all the shortcuts I can get !!