Languages With Lea

Current teacher of Spanish. Soon: English (for spanish speakers) and italian (for spanish and english speakers)

[lalinguistique-blog-deactivated]

dutch word of the day

hartendief- literally “heart thief”- the person who has stolen your heart 💘

[languageswithlea]

The differences between ser and estar (to be)

For foreigners, learning the difference between these two verbs is very difficult, but I can tell you it is very easy. Let’s start by the etymology of each word.

Both of them come from their respective Latin antecesors: esse and stare. In latin, esse meant existence (to be) and stare meant to be stood up. These verbs also come from the indoeuropean copulative verb: which is the common antecessor of all of the indoeuropean copulative verbs (to be, ser, estar, essere, être...). The problem of the irregularity of every copulative verb may come from the fact that indoeuropean had many verbs which are the equivalent of our to be’s now a days.

The root h*es- would mean “to be”, and we can find it in most Romance languages and German.

The root b*uh would mean “to grow” or “to become” and we can find it in Russian, Lithuanian and English.

The root h*wes would mean “to live” and we can find it in English and German.

The root *steh would mean “to stand up” and we can find it on Latin, Spanish and Italian.

The verb ser.

This verb would be the first one you learn in Spanish. I think this is more important than estar, because in Latin you would use esse for everything. This verb means basically attributes of yourself that last long in time. You can use this verb for:

Saying what’s your name (literal translation: who you are). Yo soy Lea (I am Lea).

Saying attributes of your body or personality. Yo soy alta y delgada (I am tall and skinny), Yo soy tímida y callada (I am shy and quiet).

Saying your nationality. Yo soy francesa (I am French).

Saying the date: Hoy es lunes (Today is Monday)

The verb estar.

This verb is probably the second most important of Spanish. This verb basically explains a state of something. You can use this verb for:

Saying where are you: Estoy en la Plaza Mayor (I am in the main square).

Showing emotions: Estoy feliz (I am happy)

Some difficult phrases.

There are some phrases that may have the same estructure but they change the verb. Here are some of the most common:

Ser malo/estar malo: Ser malo means to be a bad person, and estar malo menas to be ill. 

Ser frío/estar frío: Ser frío means to be a cold person and estar frío means to have cold by the low temperatures.

Ser [adjetive]/ estar [adjetive]: there are some adjetives that changes meaning with each verb. For example: if we say ser aburrido that means to be a boring person, but if we say estar aburrido means to be bored. This works with a lot of adjetives and is very easy to look at the transation in English.

[gammalearnslanguages]

Present Subjunctive in Spanish

Took me several days to write this up, including the time it took to constantly check and make sure everything was 100% accurate. I may not have gotten rid of all the mistakes, so any corrections are appreciated. Under a cut because it had gotten pretty lengthy.

I will make more posts about subjunctive uses and tenses in the future. Keep in mind that the present subjunctive is most likely the only one that you will see or use on a regular basis, and other subjunctive tenses are more used in literature than anything else.

Seguir leyendo

[spanishskulduggery]

I suck at reflexive verbs, please help

Reflexive verbs are perhaps better understood as “pronomial verbs”… that is, verbs that use the reflexive pronouns (but not all of them are truly reflexive)

Pronomial verbal expressions show up in:

Reflexive verbs

Reciprocal reflexive verbs

Superfluous dative / Ethical dative [which uses se + indirect object + verb]

The use of impersonal se 

The use of passive se 

The last 3 are their own kinds of grammatical issues. All you need to know is that linguistically they aren’t simple reflexive expressions, but they do use se. 

The term “reflexive” means “when the subject and object are the same”, meaning it’s something that someone does to themselves.

The reflexive pronouns are

me [yo]

te [tú]

se [3ra persona singular + usted/ustedes]

nos [nosotros]

os [vosotros]

In non-reflexive settings, a subject does something to an object, or “subject verbs an object”. In most situations, doing something to something or someone else is represented with direct objects, or indirect objects [which is to whom or for whom something is done].

When a subject does something to themselves, that’s considered reflexive.

In other words…

lavar el piso = to wash the floor

lavarse = to wash oneself

In the first example, lavar as a verb is “to wash (something)” and the thing being washed [the direct object] is “the floor”.

If you say “to wash oneself” that becomes reflexive.

Similarly pintar la pared “to paint the wall” but pintarse would be “to put on makeup” or more literally “to paint oneself”, and despertar (a alguien) is “to wake someone up” versus despertarse “to wake up (on one’s own)”

Lavo el piso. = I wash the floor.

Lavas el piso. = You wash the floor.

Lava el piso. = He/She washes the floor.

Lavan el piso. = They wash the floor.

Lavamos el piso. = We wash the floor.

But as reflexives, you include the reflexive pronouns:

Me lavo. = I wash myself.

Te lavas. = You wash yourself.

Se lava. = He/She/It washes themselves.

Se lavan. = They wash themselves.

Nos lavamos. = We wash ourselves.

For reflexive constructions, the verb conjugation and the pronoun match up. If I want to say “I wash myself” it’s me lavo. When they don’t match up, it reads as a direct object construction, like me lavas “you wash me”.

(For body parts they aren’t written with the possessives because you’re saying “I wash myself” anyway, so it’s obvious whose body parts they are; that’s why you get me lavo la cara “I wash my face” or me lavo las manos “I wash my hands” though literally it’s “I wash myself the face” or “I wash myself the hands”)

Reciprocal reflexives operate under the same general principal, but only in plural. It’s “two or more subjects do something to each other”.

They only show up in 3rd person plural or nosotros (or vosotros in Spain) but many expressions that would translate as “each other” are reciprocal reflexive.

Things like conocerse “to meet (one another)”, besarse “to kiss (one another)”, amarse “to love (one another)”, abrazarse “to hug (one another)”, lucharse “to fight (one another)”, discutirse “they argue (with each other)”, or things like that can be read reciprocally.

If you say me abrazan “they hug me” it’s read as “they hugged me (and I didn’t hug back)” rather than nos abrazamos “we hugged (each other)”.

For example:

Conozco a él. = I know him.Conozco a ella. = I know her.

Lo conocí. = I met him.Lo conocía. = I used to know him.

La conocí. = I met her.La conocía. = I used to know her.

Nos conocemos. = We know each other.Nos conocimos. = We met each other.Nos conocíamos. = We used to know each other. / We used to know one another.

The most common example of this is nos vemos which is “see you later” but more literally “we will see each other”.

There are times when some verbs are read differently depending on context, and that helps you decide whether it should be read as a pure reflexive or reciprocal.

You might have a verb like enamorarse (de alguien) “to fall in love with someone”:

Mi amigo se enamora de alguien. = My friend falls in love with someone.Mi amigo se enamoró de alguien. = My friend fell in love with someone.

Mis amigos se enamoran de alguien. = My friends fall in love with someone.Mis amigos se enamoraron de alguien. = My friends fell in love with someone.

Mis amigos se enamoran. = My friends fall in love. / My friends fall in love with each other.Mis amigos se enamoraron. = My friends fell in love. / My friends fell in love with each other.

Saying se enamoraron could easily be read as “they fell in love (with each other)” depending on the context, or it might be something like “they fell in love (separately)” ; se enamoraron de alguien might be “they fell in love with the same person, separately” rather than “with each other”

To be even more clear you might say se enamoraron el uno del otro “they fell in love with each other”.

But that’s the very basics of reflexive verbs

[studyingsenseless]

Want to maintain or improve your writing skills in your target language this summer? Try this 30-day writing challenge for June: Every day, answer the following prompts in your target language (in a personal journal or in a tumblr post). Good luck!

Write a short letter to someone you haven’t talked to in a while.

What are your future career goals?

What’s your favorite childhood movie? Why?

If you could learn to cook anything this summer, what would it be and why?

List 5 (or more) things that make you happy.

What is your morning routine?

What is your night routine?

Who is one influential person in your life? Why?

Write a poem about someone (or something) you love :)

List 5 of your pet peeves.

What’s something about yourself that you want to improve?

What’s one place you’ve always wanted to visit? Why?

What’s one thing you’re looking forward to this summer?

What’s one of your favorite things about yourself? Why?

Write a haiku about summertime.

Describe a memorable dream you’ve had.

Who’s your celebrity crush? What do you like about them (besides how cute I’m sure they are lol)?

What’s your favorite summer memory?

Translate 3 of your favorite quotes into your target language.

Write 3 things that scare you and why.

Write about a challenge you’ve overcome!

Who is someone, dead or alive, you would love to meet? Why?

Who is your best friend and why do you love them?

What is your favorite item in your room?

What’s one book you had to read in school that you DIDN’T like? Rant about it.

What’s one good memory from school?

List an insecurity, then refute it by reminding yourself how great you are :)

How do you think someone would describe you?

How do you relax after a stressful or difficult day?

What was your favorite part of this month?

If you participate in this challenge and post your prompt answers, make sure to tag me with #studyingsenseless or #writingchallengejune ! I’ll be doing it too :)

[languageswithlea]

C, Z, K and Q phonetics in Spanish

In the last post I told you that these letters are the most difficult to pronounce in Spanish because they have multiple sounds, but Spanish phonetics are very simple so it won’t be hard. Let’s get started!

We will divide this post by sounds, not by letters:

/K/ sound

This sound sounds like the c on cat. This sound is found in three of letters above. This is the only sound of the letters K and Q.

C sounds like /k/ when it is followed by these vocals: a,o,u

K sounds like /k/ always. There aren’t many words with these letter and most of them are stolen from another languages.

Q sounds like /k/ always, but we only write Q before these vowels: e,i. Between these vowels and Q we must put an U. For example: queso (cheese), /keso/.

/θ/ sound

This sound, written by the Greek letter theeta, sounds like the th in the word theory. This sound is found on two of the letters above.

C sounds like /θ/ when it is followed by these vocals: e,i. For example, this word: ciudad (city) /θiudad/

Z sounds like /θ/ always, but it is only written before these vowels: a,o,u. For example, zorro (fox) /θorro/

In Latin America and some parts of Spain:

The sound /θ/ doesn’t exist in some dialects of Spanish and it’s replaced by the /s/ sound. This is called seseo. But the reverse can also happen: the /s/ sound can be replace entirely by the /θ/ sound in the south of Spain. This is called ceceo. I’m teaching you standard Spanish: from the north of Spain. But also be aware these phenomena can also happen, depending on the part of the world you’re in.

How can I know when do I have to write c or z in a word? Or c,k or q?

Unfortunately, there is no rule for knowing which one do we have to write each time. You have to learn every word by heart, like we, spanish speakers, did when we were little. But don’t give up! It is easier than you think.

[marinaintherosettastone]

You guys I just found something that’s pretty cool if you’re interested in practicing listening in your target language (and learning something new altogether at the same time!)

Khan Academy has a bunch of videos in foreign languages and apparently it’s called Khan Academy International (here’s a link to their tumblr).

They have content in quite a few languages, and while some of them have mostly math and science stuff, there are a lot of channels that delve into a lot of the other content that Khan Academy English does, like art history, world history, etc.

So far I’ve found their Youtube channels in these languages (I’m sure there are more though, and if you find any feel free to add them to this post!):

Russian: https://www.youtube.com/user/KhanAcademyRussian

French: https://www.youtube.com/user/KhanAcademyFrancais/

Spanish: https://www.youtube.com/user/KhanAcademyEspanol/

Danish: https://www.youtube.com/user/KhanAcademyDansk/

Norwegian: https://www.youtube.com/user/KhanAcademyNorsk/

Turkish: https://www.youtube.com/user/KhanAcademyTurkce

Polish: https://www.youtube.com/user/KhanAcademyPolski

Italian: https://www.youtube.com/user/KhanAcademyItaliano

German: https://www.youtube.com/user/KhanAcademyDeutsch

Mandarin: https://www.youtube.com/user/KhanAcademyMandarin

Japanese: https://www.youtube.com/user/KhanAcademyJapanese

Hindi: https://www.youtube.com/user/KhanAcademyHindi

Bulgarian: https://www.youtube.com/user/KhanAcademyBulgarian

Portuguese: https://www.youtube.com/user/KhanAcademyPortugues

Korean: https://www.youtube.com/user/KhanAcademyKorean

Serbian: https://www.youtube.com/user/KhanAcademySerbian

Mongolian: https://www.youtube.com/user/KhanAcademyMongolian

Thai: https://www.youtube.com/user/KhanAcademyThai

[softiesuggestion]

reblog if you want more interaction w your lovely followers

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[seagramsgingerale]

Me after using duolingo for a month

[sleepbby]

reblog and tag the languages you speak/understand in order of proficiency!!

[languageswithlea]

Spanish, English, Italian, French, Latin

[languageswithlea]

Spanish fonetics

Spanish fonetics are very easy: there are 5 vocalic sounds (one for each vowel) and 18 consonant sounds. It makes a total of 23 sounds.

The alphabet: it is the same as in English, but with only one more letter: the famous ñ. Sometimes, it is considered that ch, ll and rr are part of the alphbet too, but they are combinations of letters.

The vowels: There are 5 vowels (y isn’t considered a vowel even though sometimes it makes an /i/ sound). All the sounds are open.

A makes an /a/ sound, such as cat

E makes an /e/ sound, such as ten

I makes an /i/ sound, such as feet

O makes an /o/ sound, such as dog

U makes an /u/ sound, such as zoo

The consonants: this is when things gets a little bit complicated. Let’s start by sounds with one letter:

/d/ in the letter d, such as dog

/f/ in the letter f, such as fantasy

/l/ in the letter l, such as long

/m/ in the letter m, such as mom

/n/ in the letter n, such as nun

/p/ in the letter p, such as possible

/s/ in the letter s, such as snake

/t/ in the letter t, such as in tea

/ks/in the letter x, such as in Max

/ɲ/ in the letter ñ. The letter ñ sounds like you are saying “ny” very quickly. For example, the word ñoñerías would be /nyonyerias/ but said very quickly so that sounds becomes only 1 (/ɲoɲerias/).

Now, let’s see the specific cases. Let’s start by b and v.

In English, b and v have separate sounds and that’s difficult to a Spanish speaker who is learning English. Well, in Spanish they have the same sound /b/, such the b in English. That would mean that barco is pronounced /barco/ and uvas is pronounced /ubas/ as well.

What happens with h? And with W and Y?

H is a deaf letter. That’s means that h has no sound, unlike English. When we are saying helado it’s /elado/.

Y has two sounds: a vocalic and a consonant. When the y is placed at the end of a word or it is on its own ( the conjuction “y”) it sounds like /I/. For example: rey /rei/. When it is at the beggining of a word it is most likely to have a consonant sound (/y/), for example: yate /yate/. This sound may also be confusing becuse of the double letters “ll” that have a similar sound. We will see it on another post.

W is pronounced as in English because all the words with w in Spanish are mostly English words we stole.

G and J. Love-hate relationship.

Ok so, these letters are difficult. Why would we have two letters with the same sound? (Such as b and v). This letters not only have the same sound /x/ but the letter g has another sound /g/. Normally, this j letter has the /x/ sound: /xugar/. But when the g is followed by -e or -I it has a /x/ sound as well: /xeranio/. The letter g in all the other cases sounds like /g/: /gato, gota/. When the g is followed by -ue and -ui has a /g/ sound but the u is not pronounced: /gitarra/. What a mess!

The last and most complicated! C, k, q and z. Let’s save this from another post!

I know explaining fonetics in a written mode it’s difficult. Would you be interested in a video explaining ALL the fonetics in Spanish?

[knowledgestudies]

Reblog if you’re a langblr!!

[languageswithlea]

Introduction to Spanish

In this post I won’t teach you how to say hello or goodbye, but I’m going to give you a logical explanation and introduction of this language. Where did it come from? What makes Spanish special?

Let’s begin by the origin. It was around 200 BC when Romans arrived to the Iberian peninsula, razing everything. Even though there were villages like Numantia that standed a long siege, all the peninsula was eventually romanizated.

So, in the totallity of the peninsula, latin was spoken. But there was two varieties of latin: classic latin (spoken by patricians, politicians etc.) and vulgar latin (spoken by normal people).

When the Roman Empire was divided in two (around 450a.D), the Eastern Roman Empire was renamed Byzantine Empire, meanwhile the Western Roman empire collapsed by the continious attacks of the barbarian tribes. In all the regions of the Western Roman Empire, Vulgar Latin evolved into what we today know as Romance languages.

In these romance languages we include French, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish, but also there are Romanian, Catalan and Sardinian, just to mention a few. That’s why these languages share similarities in grammar and vocabulary. Currently, in Spain there are 4 spoken languages: Spanish, Catalan, Galician and Euskera, which three of them are from a romance origin.

As the Spanish empire was spending its colonies around 1500 a.D, so was the language. Now a days, Spanish is the third most spoken language just behind Chinese and Hindi.

Some of this language peculiarities are the flexibility of variable words: Even though it has got rid of the latin case system, a noun is diferenciated by gender and number. Also, the scase sounds (and vowel sounds) are what make it one of the easiest and more complex languages. Spanish has only 5 vocalic sounds (one for each vowel) and 18 consonant sounds (a total of 23). Despite of this, it is one of the richest languages when talking about lexicon: it has a great variety of synonims even though a native speaker hasn’t heard most of them.

I recommend learning Spanish because, like I said before, it is one of the most spoken languages of the world. Not only it will give you the ability to communicate with a large amount of people, but it will give you a lot of advantages when applying for a job, or just understanding references on your favorite TV show. Also, learning Spanish when you already know another Romance language will be much more easy to you! You will be able to spot the similarities and reconstruct the Vulgar Latin we were talking about before.

How you will be able to learn each capacity of Spanish:

Vocabulary: lists of vocabulary, etymology explained, games and flashcards

Grammar: explanations with examples, fill the gaps exercises

Listening and reading: From YouTube videos and songs to full movies, from small paragraphs to full books

Speaking: sing along songs, read out loud a pharagraph from a book