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Never found a Spanish one. But there's a French one.

The Avion my Uncle Flew (Puffin Newbery Library) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0140364870/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_VzedCbDKHGX6E

I remember being super impressed I could read an entire chapter in French at the end. And now, I remember zero of it. Rue means street... Avion is plane... Ferra is brother... Yeah that's it.

Personally, I've always had a good experience with WordReference - it's what all my profs used so I guess it just stuck with me as a good resource. Also, if you use Firefox, you can create url shortcuts for WR with your browser to easily access language dictionaries and conjugation charts. For example, I type in "spen sombrilla" and it'll translate the Spanish into English. I also do one for English ("ensp apple") and for conjugations I have "conjsp andar" set up.

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Edit: For those curious how to do this!

This is the passive se, it is used when the agent is omitted, or is not a person. In this case, it is not clear, or important who exactly speaks Spanish.

You can find the definition in Wordreference's English-Spanish dictionary, too:

http://www.wordreference.com/es/en/translation.asp?spen=tela

> tela nf ES, coloquial (asunto, trabajo) (a difficult matter) hard work n; chore n

Google doesn't really work as a dictionary.

If we were to translate it literally, it would mean "you want to conquer me". In Spanish, that's a normal expression meaning "to seduce", "to win over". The second entry of word reference explains it pretty well here: http://www.wordreference.com/es/en/translation.asp?spen=conquistar. We use it commonly (at least in Spain): "estoy intentando conquistar a esa chica" - "I'm trying to seduce that girl", for example, although for some people might sound kind of corny.

So basically she's trying to let you know that she's aware of your flirting and your intentions. Depending on the tone, could be playful (which seems to be the case here if you two have been flirting) or could be more of a neutral statement.

"Sí se puede" is more like, "Yes, it can be done" vs "Sí, podemos" -"We (you and me specifically), can do it."

And in this case, it's not reflexive. It's impersonal.

"Poderse" is not a verb. It's poder + the impersonal pronoun "se." It's like when we say "Can you put foil in the microwave?" "Yeah, you can." Yeah who can? Anyone. Some non-specific subject. ¿Se puede poner papel de aluminio en el microondas?

Reflexive means that the action is going back to the subject. Levanto la mesa -I lift the table vs Me levanto-I lift me (kinda).

Natives, butt in if I'm wrong.

Also, don't put foil in the microwave.

On this topic I recommend a book called <em>Spanish Word Histories and Mysteries: English words that come from Spanish,</em> by the editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries. That's where I learned that the word mariachi does not come from French mariage. The book is delightful to read; it devotes over a page to each of the 150 words it discusses. It happens to be, in its own way, a terrific introduction to the history of Spanish.

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/22065/22065-h/22065-h.htm#BUENA_GANGA

I found if you google "free spanish readers" you can find a lot of reading material. It was really hard to find stories written in spanish online for some reason. The one i linked has a vocab list (glossary) at the end as well as poems and anecdotes towards the end.

Hacer falta is an interesting phrase and probably one of my favourites. And yes Hacía is the imperfect tense of hacer :)

For regular verbs, the affirmative familiar (tú) imperatives are the same as the third-person singular conjugation of that verb. For example, cantar means "to sing" and "canta" means "sing" (the command).

But there are quite a few irregular tú commands:

• ser: sé
• hacer: haz
• tener: ten
• ~~dar: dé~~ (dar isn't irregular in tú commands so it should be da, see below)
• venir: ven
• ir: ve
• irse: vete
• salir: sal

...and probably a few others. Unlike the present indicative tense, object pronouns are attached to the end of affirmative commands (both formal / usted commands and information / tú commands). You can see this above in the example of the infinitive irse (to leave) becomes the command, vete (get out/leave/go -- ve + te).

Negative tú commands are the same as the second person singular conjugation of the present subjunctive. Pronouns are no longer attached to the end of negative commands:

• hacer: no hagas (don't make/do)
• ir: no vayas (don't go)
• irse: no te vayas (don't leave)
• venir: no vengas (don't come)
• cantar: no cantes (don't sing)
• pedir: no pidas (don't ask for)

...etc.

If you're ever in doubt, you can search for a verb conjugation here.

Aliviar is ok, "aliviar" as giving birth depends heavily on context.

So if you say "¿Qué alivió tu dolor?" there's really no mistake to be made because there's no way someone thinks you just asked them about giving birth since you are mentioning the "Dolor" in the same sentence.

If you still don't feel comfortable using "Aliviar" you can use "Aminorar"

"white people" is not mutually exclusive with "Latin American" so in this case I guess that I would call you "an idiot". Seriously, you're going to piss off the entire country of Argentina. :-)

Gringo by itself isn't an insult in Puerto Rico although it can be used as one if given the right intonation or context. It's no different from calling someone "negro", or "chino", or "colorao", or "cano". No, "negro" isn't an insult either. It's just the word for black. Many of us Puerto Ricans don't call "Americans" "americanos" or "estadounidenses" because we are "Americans" too so for a lack of a better word we often default to "gringo". If you're ever in the islands and you see a sign that says &quot;gringo nights&quot; don't panic. It's not a lynch mob but a promotion trying to attract the "American expats" of the area.

In English, it's possible for one noun to modify (or restrict the meaning of) another noun. This is not possible in Spanish, with the exception of noun/noun appositives (where one noun renames and, in doing so, provides more information about the other -- e.g., el río Ebro, el niño dios, el Rey Carlos II, etc.).

• Chinese restaurant = [adjective] + [noun]

• Apartment building = [noun] + [noun]

Chinese is an adjective, so an exact, literal translation is possible. But apartment is a noun, so in cases like this, you either need to use a prepositional phrase (usually starting with de or para) or an adjective form of the noun (if one exists) in order to keep things grammatical in Spanish (e.g., gold coin could be moneda de oro or moneda dorada).

The closest adjective for apartamento is probably residencial, so you could say edificio residencial. Otherwise, you'd need to go with "edificio de apartamentos" (note that apartamentos is plural) or similar.

Es diferente y depende del contexto.

Para un cuento, película, historia, etc. lo correcto es tratar de.

Para una explicación, lo correcto es tratarse de: No entiendo por qué haces esto. ¿De qué se trata?

Depende. No todo puede englobarse en alguna de las dos formas.

edit: pongo una referencia al diccionario de WordReference.

> tratarse de v prnl + prep (expresa el asunto o tema de algo) be about v expr

> Note: Construcción impersonal: siempre en tercera persona del singular.

> ¿De qué se trata? Se trata de un joven matrimonio que huye de su país.

> tratar, tratar de, tratar sobre vi + prep (hablar, versar) be about, deal with vi + prep

> Este libro trata de la guerra civil. Sus artículos tratan sobre calentamiento climático.
> The book is about (or: deals with) the civil war.

This one? The transcription is full of typographic errors and even reading the full paragraph with context I cannot tell what is this about.

Es un sitio web muy útil para los aspirantes. En este momento, hay muchos Venezolanos ofreciendo lecciones por un precio baratísimo debido a su situación económica, tanto que me siento un poco mal pagar tan poco. Tambien hay filtros de precio, de país, y de disponabilidad.

Mira aquí.

OMG, don’t use Hola! Here’s a quote from redditor Asyx that pretty much describes the whole situation:

“DO NOT use free services like Hola. Either pay for their premium package or find an actual VPN. There is no such thing as a free VPN or Proxy. You are the product if you don't pay for it. In this case, that means that you're an endnote for users that want an IP from your country. Depending on your country, you're therefore also legally responsible for that traffic (That is the case in Germany, for example).“

Get a decent VPN. It doesn’t need to be expensive either. NordVPN costs a little over $3 a month if paid for two years. Or you can also try my VPN, Wannaflix.

Either way, you’ll do yourself a favor by not using free VPNs.

Take all the verbs you use a lot in English and get really competent with those Use them to tell stories the happened in the past to get good with conjugations. Memorize some scripts.

Take that knowledge and parlay it into longer sentences.

That will get you not-useless traveling abroad. The rest is from study and exposure to the language.

Ver, Decir, tener, poner, ir, ser, estar, mirar, llevar.

Add in pronouns, direct and indirect objects.

Makes sure you know all of these (some of the translations are off, te being used is not tea, lol)

https://www.duolingo.com/comment/22519633/List-of-2000-Most-Common-Spanish-Words

There's no cheat code. Watch a lot of media to get more and move conversational, but the best thing is to immerse yourself.

My own recollection matches your experience, though it's possible that the mists of time have colored my memory. The use of the subjunctive has always struck me as much more straightforward than pretérito vs. imperfecto. And the conjugations (i.e. verb forms) are straightforward, for the most part, and also a good incentive to review the present-tense and pretérito irregulars. (My darker thoughts on this topic.)

esta es la diferencia

Conocer:

To express knowledge (or lack of knowledge) about something or someone means that we have some experience with the thing (or person). You can know, or be acquainted with, a book, a movie, a place, or a person.

Saber:

Saber is used to talk about learned skills. You can know how to swim, draw, speak a language, etc. It is also used to ask about knowing a bit of information about something, or knowing something by memory. To express the knowledge of how “to do” something, use saber plus an infinitive.

http://www.spanishdict.com/topics/show/78

1- It should be "cómo" with accent mark in the original sentence, so the only translation there is "how".

2- "Depends on" is, as a whole, translated as "Depende de" (I think they call this a "collocation", because "on" always goes after "depend", just like "de" goes after "depender"). When learning English, at first we have the same problem just the other way around, we tend to write "Depends of" but obviously that's wrong.

3- "En" can mean all of this, go figure: http://www.wordreference.com/es/en/translation.asp?spen=en

I'm reading "Nueva historia general de México," by , Erik Velásquez García (Colegio de México). It's a fairly current history of Mexico from prehistory up to 2010. It's written in Mexico by top Mexican writers.

I'd suggest skipping the first three chapters. They're a great account of pre-Hispanic Mexico, but they're much less interesting than the rest of the book because there are almost no named individuals; those three chapters are mostly an analysis of the archeology. If I were going to reread them, I'd do it in the Kindle App on a PC with two screens so I could keep a map of Mexico handy, as well as a spreadsheet to let me cross-reference the different groups they talk about.

Instead, start with the fourth chapter, "Los años de la conquista," since it's rich with the actions of individuals, and it talks about events that are familiar to most students of American history. It plus the next chapter, "Los años de la expansión," gave me a whole different view of why the conquest worked so well and why Mexico differed so much from the English colonies that came after it.

Yes, in Spain we say pijo or pija (funnily enough pija also is slang for penis in the south of Spain) and according to wordreference in Colombia they use the word gomelo, in Mexico fresa and in Argentina cheto

Yes, but it depends on your meaning. You could write either of these sentences either way, it just changes the nuance.

Your version of "ella puede hacer un buen taco" means that you like her tacos. It's your opinion.

If you say "ella puede hacer un taco bueno," it means that it's not your opinion. The tacos fit an objective definition of what it means to be "good" for a taco. This version is rarer, because usually when talking about food, you're not praising the objective qualities that make a taco, but rather giving your opinion.

"Ése es un buen taco" would again be complimenting the taco based on your tastes. This sentence is far more common.

"Ése es un taco bueno" is again just saying that objectively it is a well-made taco. Really, it is kind of a weird thing to say. "Taco Bueno" (that fast-food store in parts of the US) sounds weird to most Spanish speakers (I think-- it does to me at least) because it's just kind of a weird way to praise your tacos this way.

"Ése no es un buen taco." - means you don't like it.

"Ése no es un taco bueno" -- is almost like it doesn't fit the traditional definition of a taco. It is objectively poorly constructed.

With "bueno" you're almost always giving an opinion. So you'll see it in front a lot more than wth others. Things like "colors" will always go after.

But really it's more complex than that (here are some examples). Some adjectives change their meaning entirely depending on their placement, and some must always come before, or must always come after.

Just to be clear up potential confusion with these responses: hacer falta has multiple meanings. Depending on context, it can mean both "to miss [somebody/something]" and "to need [somebody/something]". Thus it can be a synonym for both extrañar and necesitar; that link provides a good sample sentence for each meaning.

To me, the main difference is that me hace falta implies that you need something, but you're currently without it; it's lacking. With necesito, there isn't necessarily that distinction.

If you say "me hace falta un coche para mi trabajo" ("I need a car for my job"), you're implying that you don't have a car at this point in time, even though you need one for your job. You need to get a car! It probably wouldn't make sense to say this if you already have a car.

On the other hand, "necesito un coche para mi trabajo" is a bit more ambiguous. Perhaps you already have a car and you're justifying the importance of it. Or perhaps, as with "me hace falta un coche", you don't have a car and need to get one. Whether you have a car or not, it's just a fact that you need one for your job.

Siempre me han gustado los cuentos cortos de Horacio Quiroga (“thrillers”, no tanto de terror). No sé cual sea tu nivel de comprensión en español pero me imagino que te gustarían sus obras:

• La gallina degollada
• Insolación
• El Hijo
• El almohadón de plumas
• La gama ciega

...entre otras

Para lecturas más fáciles, de joven me encantaba la serie de “Goosebumps” (“Escalofríos”). Si lo buscas en Amazon bajo el título de “Escalofríos” puedes encontrar varios títulos traducidos al español.

I added it to Google Docs for you and anyone else having trouble with Scribd! One note - I tested it by opening it in IE, Firefox, and in Chrome, and was able to see and download it in IE and Firefox but not in Chrome. Could be my computer, but if you're on Chrome and can't see it, try it in another browser. Should be downloadable though.

Here it is!

It helps to remember: "'U' and 'I' are weak". Diphthongs will always be comprised of one of these vowels plus another "strong" vowel (a, e, or o). And when they are combined, they are pronounced as one syllable.

Unless... the "u" or "i" has an accent, so it can no longer be a weak vowel, which is how we get /u/ekray's Hacia/Hacía example. Another (weirder, in my opinion) example of "u" or "i" with accents is the various conjugations of the verb &quot;continuar&quot;. Have fun with that one!

I don't think any one rule can fully encompass all the variants of por and para- there are general rules, but there are some unique cases that must me memorized.

The general rule I think is most helpful is to think of "para" as the destination/goal and "por" as the motion/journey.

Estoy corriendo por la calle - I'm running through the street [The street is not the destination, I'm just passing through]

Estoy corriendo para la calle - I'm running for the street [Some maniac with a knife is chasing me and I need to get to the street, it's my goal!]

More on that here.

Another example I just memorized is this case, which I find more logical in Spanish than English because in English there's no way to know which you mean without context:

Trabajo por usted = I work for you (I will do this work so you don't have to do it, like if I'm taking your shift at work)

Trabajo para usted = I work for you (You're my boss, I work for you)

I make a webapp for reading in a foreign language: http://readlang.com

It lets you:

• upload entire novels, or use on any webpage
• translate words and phrases quickly as you read by clicking or dragging across them
• everything you've translated is remembered, along with the context sentence, for you to memorise with flashcards

I made it originally myself to avoid the hassle of looking up words and keeping vocab lists. Please give it a try and let me know if it works for you, I'm always keen to get feedback!

"Ahora" is a simple word, it means "now", "right now", "at the present moment". As the English word "now", you can use it to describe what you are doing RIGHT now, but you can also use it more broadly.

• Voy a salir por esa puerta ahora = I'm going to walk out that door now
• Ahora vivo sólo = Now I live on my own
• La gente moría de gripe, pero ahora tenemos antibióticos = People used to die from the flu, but we have antibiotics now

"Ya" means "already". It also means "now", but more in the sense of "right now" or "by now".

• Voy a terminar ya = I'm going to finish now ~ "I'm about to finish"
• Ya deberías saberlo = You should know it by now

"Ya" is tricky word that is used in many idiomatic expressions, and you can often translate a Spanish sentence that includes "ya" without translating the word "ya" (ya veo = I see)

Usar can in fact mean 'to wear'. This is its fourth meaning listed in the Real Academia dictionary and its second in Word Reference. I was skeptical when I first saw this in a textbook but have since run across it in various novels -- unfortunately, I don't remember which ones and therefore which countries.

More importantly, you are falling into the English trap of translating the gerund (the -ing verb) literally. Spanish uses it a lot less than English. So whether you use llevar or usar, just use the normal present-tense form, lleva or usa.

You should probably first learn what verb conjugation is: verbs change depending on the person doing the action.

The non-conjugated form is called infinitive, and it's the form you'll find when looking for a verb in a dictionary, the equivalent in English has a to attached before the verb, but in Spanish, the infinitive is only a single word, and it always ends with -ar, -er or -ir:

Once you understand that verbs need to be changed depending on person, check also what a pronominal verb is. Se is a pronoun that is added to a verb for many reasons, the subject is a little complex to fully explain it in a post here, especially if you're just starting. But, as for your example, you should probably just know that some verbs simply change their meaning when used as pronominal verbs. A pronominal verb has the pronoun se added at the end of the infinitive, but, when conjugated, the pronoun goes before the verb, and changes accordingly to the person doing the action:

Comparing the normal bajar with the pronominal bajarse:

Look for some online resources so you can look things up for yourself:

http://www.wordreference.com/English_Spanish_Dictionary.asp

http://studyspanish.com/

EDIT: format

from this page: http://www.spanishdict.com/answers/182658/what-does-way-or-whey-mean-mexicans-use-it-after-most-things-they-say.-

>The most important thing is that in all cases it is impolite. There is no proper use of the word that is pronounced "way." If a gringo said "hay, wey" or "que onda, wey" to Mexican friends they would laugh, especially if those friends did not consider themselves too upper class to be spoken to in that fashion. That said, it must only be said to friends. It would be quite disrespectful to use that word to someone like a parent, boss, or official. If a gringo approached an unfamiliar Mexican and said "que tal, wey?" that probably would not be well recieved.

I think in number 3 you are conflating passive se and impersonal se. Spanishdict provides a good disambiguation.

Really nice, otherwise, and illustrates one of the hardest bits of Spanish for me - being able to rapidly determine which of 5 or so options are in use.

Did I ever tell you...? = ¿Alguna vez te dije...?

Didn't I ever tell you...? = ¿Nunca te dije...?

Did I never tell you...? = ¿Nunca te dije...?

I will ever tell you... = Siempre te diré...

I won't ever tell you... = Nunca / Jamás te diré...

I will never tell you... = Nunca / Jamás te diré...

http://www.wordreference.com/es/translation.asp?tranword=ever

For a quick fix, check out wordreference's spanish thesaurus.

For a more long-term approach, try some active reading. Check out a book in Spanish, fiction or non-fiction, it doesn't matter, and write down every word you don't know the exact meaning of. Write in Spanish what you think it means based on context, then look up the definition in Spanish to see how close you were and correct your guess if necessary.

Kinda takes the fun out of reading, but definitely worth it because you'll remember the words way better than you would if you just looked up the word in English.

For crime you can't do better than Jordi Sierra i Fabra's <em>Cuatro días de enero</em>, the first in his series of Inspector Mascarell novels about a Barcelona detective in the Franco era. The first book takes place over the four last days before Franco's army marches into Barcelona.

I love these books -- just finished #11. He works in a lot of information about the centuries-long hostilities between Catalonia and the Spanish crown/government.

It's aúllo:

http://www.wordreference.com/conj/EsVerbs.aspx?v=aullar

Áullo with an accent wouldn't work. Aullo with no accent would be a palabra llana.

You are right to say the h doesn't affect the vowels around it (hiatos in alcohol, albahaca, diptongo in desahucio, etc) but ll does, regardless of how you pronounce it. These are spelling conventions, and have nothing to do with whether you are sheist, yeist, or whatever.

Those word are both femenine, thats why they are preceded with "La", if the word was masculine it'd be "El culebra" which is sounds more of a bad nickname given to a chav. Wordreference has it right if you wanna check.

Gramatical gender have nothing to do with "genitalia gender" or anything like that, the word is femenine, doesn't mean it refers to something that has a vagina or that only women can use. Doen't mean either that there aren't male culebras, which of course there are, and they are called "la culebra" too.

Its just different 'species'. Snake is a catch all term in english that works for all species in a colloquial way. In Spanish that term would be "serpientes", "culebras" are snakes of smaller sizes. This "smaller sizes" not being a very accurate scientifical measure means you can call huge snakes culebras too, but that'd be weird.

I read Spanish books, or watch TV series, and then add words or phrases to Anki. I then get Anki to feed me one extra word per day. That way, I actually learn the words, rather than not coming across the same word for a while and forgetting it.

I've really enjoyed watching cuéntame, as you can get copy and pastable subtitles on the right hand side of the screen, which are reasonably accurate for the most part. So I get some vocabulary from this. In addition, you get to learn about stuff in recent Spanish history, from the end of the 1950s onwards. It has all bits of film footage interwoven into it. I'm still on series one!!! There are loads of episodes to watch.

Check out this website. You can change the language and search for Spanish songs, then select the difficulty (percentage of missing words) and then you have to fill them in as the song plays. There's 3 songs on there I really like, Me Enamoré by Shakira, La Vida (Respira El Momento) by Calle 13 and Mi Gente by J Balvin and Willy William. There's plenty to choose from and im sure you can find something you enjoy, while also directly interacting with the music.

I happened to post this is another thread just yesterday, but here it is again: How to get over 1000 free podcasts to rapidly improve your spanish

I'm pretty sure that saying "esta bien feo" instead of "es bien feo" is a central american idiom. I'm a native speaker and where I'm from they are most certainly not the same.

https://hinative.com/en-US/questions/3192961 is the link I could find supporting this. I will keep googling. But, again, at least in south america the distinction exist. I know that central america and in particular mexico has an idiom with the "estar" thing.

Going by the definition and translated examples for rencoroso and rencor, I think it might be too strong of a word for petty. 'Rancour' has more undertones of resentment and bitterness that is long-lasting, whilst 'petty' usually describes being spiteful/mean over something that is small or insignificant. There's some more examples for the noun form here - http://www.spanishdict.com/translate/pettiness

my understanding is estaba (estar in the imperfect tense) describes a progressive action you were doing in the past for example:

Yo estaba comiendo cuando viniste

I was eating when you came

Yo estaba limpiando mientras dormías

I was cleaning while you were sleeping

"Agradable" isn't an action, it's an adjective.

I think "estaba agradable" could be translated to was (being) nice, which has a subtle difference than just "was nice".

Disclaimer: i'm not native nor a teacher. I'm quite out of practice, but I figured I'd share what I know. Obviously, if I'm wrong, please someone correct me as I am a fellow learner! I'll find some linke to support my point in a few minutes... here's a good source:

http://www.spanishdict.com/guide/preterite-vs-imperfect-in-spanish

I would use 'estar sano' o 'tener buena salud' for the first use, and 'saludable' for the second (although 'sano' would also work, I guess).

There's also other uses of 'healthy', e.g. 'a healthy economy' which don't have anything to do with health per se; see http://www.spanishdict.com/translate/healthy for ways to translate those.

No problem. I remember before I ever struggled with choosing between the two I struggled separating/remembering the conjugations.

Yes, there are many sites where you can look up conjugation charts.. SpanishDict is the one I used as a beginner, it has a pretty interface and there are some other useful tools on the site, but there are plenty of others.

Soy, eres, es, somos, son. Estoy, estás, está, estamos, están.

> In the third sentence, why do I need que,

I know "that" you are my teacher, but I love you!

--

> al in the last

play <a rel="nofollow" href="in:">something</a> --&gt; <em>jugar a</em>

In your example, "al" = "a + el".

I second wordreference, there's a free app for both android & iphone, and it's a website. One of my favorite things about it is that at the end of dictionary entries there's a list of forum topics related to the search term. It's especially useful if you want to know slang terms, what's more common in a specific region, etc.

For example: the wordreference entry for &quot;poner.&quot;

Wordreference.com also has a Spanish-Spanish dictionary -- this option is labeled "Spanish: definition". Its definitions are based on the Espasa-Calpe dictionary, plus it gives you the option of clicking through to a word's RAE entry.

No Memrise yet? Memrise is way better than Duo in my opinion. At least for expanding vocabulary. Plus there's about a thousand courses in just Spanish. https://www.memrise.com/

Busuu is another really great resource, but I think it's greatness is in the ability to get your writing critiqued by native speakers. The actual learning course isn't anything special, it's very similar to Duo but requires a pro account (paid) to get the good lessons.

Well, when I restarted learning Spanish after several years of a break, I worked my way through Duolingo. I now consider that a warm-up before the real language learning begins.

I'd also recommend you explore Language Transfer, I found it immensely useful.

You use "va de culo" for something that's going wrong:

"Esta temporada, el Oviedo va de culo" (The team is having a bad season)

"Tienes que cambiar el ordenador, ultimamente va de culo" (The computer isn't working right)

"ir de culo" is very colloquial.

http://www.wordreference.com/es/en/translation.asp?spen=ir%20de%20cabeza

I've found this about "ir de cabeza", but I didn't know about it myself

Just as a note to OP regarding this:

Wordreference can accomplish this, but if you're looking for somewhat longer phrases and expressions, use Linguee.

Happy language-learning! :)

so

> so (adv) (énfasis de un insulto) (before descriptor) = you (pron)

> * "¡So bestia! Si no bajas la velocidad vas a atropellar a un peatón."

> * "You lunatic! If you don't slow down, you're going to run someone over."

so

> 1. adv. Usado para potenciar el significado del adjetivo o del sustantivo al que antecede, generalmente con sentido despectivo.

http://www.wordreference.com/es/en/translation.asp?spen=puro

third definition is the one you're looking for, also check the Collins tab (pure, only, truely, sheer, just):

>puro adj (solamente, nada más) pure adj > > Esta fiesta es puro capricho suyo.

> (LAm) (=uno solo) only, just > > me queda una pura porción. I have just one portion left

There are some general guidelines, like:

• many (but not all) nouns that end in 'o' are masculine (el libro, el cielo)
• many (but not all) nouns that end in 'a' are feminine (la casa, la mesa)

But there are many exceptions (la man*o, el mapa, etc), and there are also *many words that don't end in 'o' or 'a' (el lápiz, el sol, la muerte, la verdad, etc). So, you need to put an effort into memorizing the gender along with the noun.

Here, a link with more details on the subject:

http://www.spanishdict.com/guide/masculine-and-feminine-nouns

edit: typo

Here's another try. The English sentence is ambiguous because the scope of "didn't" can be either the entire rest of the sentence, i.e. the motive for his leaving:

• "He didn't [leave because he was angry]"

or just the leaving itself:

• "He didn't [leave] because he was angry"

In the second version, because he actually was angry, Spanish requires the indicative estaba. In the first version, where he wasn't actually angry (or at least, his anger didn't motivate his leaving), the subjunctive indicates the non-reality (or at least ineffectiveness) of his anger. It's not that different from

• No creo que sea guapo 'I don't think he's good-looking'

where you need the subjunctive sea because he isn't actually good looking -- at least, in your opinion. This is the D (for 'doubt/denial') part of the common WEIRDO mnemonic for the uses of the subjunctive.

I think I'm right in saying the Present Perfect isn't widely used in Latin America, but it is very common in Spain, so might be worth brushing up on that.

(a few useful links in case you are unfamiliar with it) http://www.spanishdict.com/topics/show/35 http://spanish.about.com/od/verbtenses/a/present_perfect.htm

> When a feminine and singular noun begins with a stressed á or ha, the masculine definite article is used instead to aide in pronunciation. When the same noun is plural, the regular feminine article is used.

>Singular - Plural

>el águila - las águilas

> el alma - las almas

>el agua - las aguas

Source

It was explained to me by native speakers as something inherent or not.

An inherent characteristic that is used for emphasis goes in front: (very poetic) «el azul cielo»…«la blanca nieve» I am not referencing the blue sky rather than the pink one. I am just talking about this really blue sky.

A non-inherent characteristic goes behind: «el carro rojo», «un edificio grande», «una niña bonita» In these cases, a green car or small building or ugly girl could exist and it is more of a differentiation than something inherent in the concept.

As others have pointed out, some words change meaning.

«Un viejo amigo» is an old friend, regardless of age. «Un amigo viejo» would be an old (elderly) friend.

«Un gran edificio» is a great, grand, large building. It sounds impressive or beautiful. «Un edificio grande» is a large-in-size building.

Here is a link I found with more explanation and examples:

http://www.spanishdict.com/topics/show/20

Edited: damn formatting (there's another example! A curse word [Dónde está mi pinche teléfono...] will go in front.)

Asi asi is commonly used in Spain.

Here it is compared to so- so but its also pointed out by the commenters that its common in Spain

Subtitles I would say. However, if you are watching an English netflix show, for example, then you should use a second-hand resource to make sure the show is actually translating its subtitles well.

I am currently in the process of trying to absorb as much Spanish vocabulary as I can (beyond what I learned in like 7 years of classes)... so I use this site to make sure that the subtitled phrases are accurately translated to Spanish.

https://context.reverso.net/translation/spanish-english/cuidado+con+la+cabeza

espero has two meanings (see: wordreference)

With just "espero que", all meanings are possible.

When you include the "a" you're forcing the "wait" meaning. So that can be useful for clarity.

That's a literal translation of "aún" and "así", but "aún así" doesn't work that way.

WordReference ways it means "even so", "even then" or "still". It also means "anyway".

First of all, you need to learn to identify your problem. You need to know what those "things" and those "slightly changed letters" are. This is a matter of reading up a little on terminology (we're not in the "what does all that mean?" part yet). It's important to know the correct terms because they will help you to get more help.

I will tell you the answer about what all that stuff means, because this subreddit is for that: the "things" you're having trouble with are verbs, and those "slightly changed letter" are verb conjugations.

In English you have the verb "to drink" and when you conjugate it with a third person, let's say "she", then you say "she drinks". Notice the "-s" at the end of the verb and the missing "to"? The verb changed.

Well, in Spanish you have beber, and when you conjugate it with also a third person, ella, then you say ella bebe. The verb also changed.

If you do the same but with "I" and yo, then you have "I drink" and yo bebo. This is in the present tense but we have future and past as well: "I will drink" - yo beberé; "she drank" - ella bebió, and some other tenses and moods.

These are the "changes" that bring different meanings.

Does gender affect verb conjugation? No, gender isn't something relevant to it. Personal pronouns are the only ones that matter (yo, tú, él, ella, nosotros, vosotros, ustedes, ellos, etc.). It doesn't matter if yo is masculine or feminine, the conjugation will be the same all the time.

So, all you have to do is to learn how to conjugate verbs. There's a good conjugator on WordReference.com for all your conjugation needs.

I think that one formal usted in a group makes the group formal (ustedes), just like one male in a group makes the group masculine. Sort of like cooties.

Sois has no accent -- but honestly (and at the risk of seeming snarky), after taking two Spanish classes, you should know how to look this up yourself! Did you know that wordreference.com has a conjugation feature?

FYI Spanish words with just one syllable (like sois or seis) only use the accent mark to distinguish between pairs like sí and si.

No.

Es una palabra grave que termina en n.

Por faltar is wrong btw, although it gets the point across. You can say omitir or no escribir.

We also use the exact same expression! So "La calma que precede la tormenta" works fine, although I think the default is "La calma antes de la tormenta".

( https://www.linguee.com/spanish-english/translation/la+calma+antes+de+la+tormenta.html here with examples)

Hi! My name's Mike. I'm the creator of Clozemaster. Clozemaster is gamified language learning through mass exposure, a great complement to apps like Duolingo and Memrise.

It uses the awesome dataset of sentences from Tatoeba http://tatoeba.org/eng/ and removes a word from each sentence. The challenge is then to fill in the blank from context or based on the provided translations. The word removed is also the least common word in the sentence ranked by a frequency list of the 10,000 most common words in Spanish, so you're practicing the words you're most likely see day-to-day.

There's currently more than 150,000 sentences for English speakers learning Spanish. There's also 5 other base languages (learning Spanish from Dutch, Portuguese, French, Swedish, and Hungarian) and I can work on adding more if you have any requests.

If the multiple choice is too easy you can switch to text input. The text to speech works best on Chrome and Safari for desktop. It's unfortunately still browser and operating system dependent, but I'm hoping to use money raised through Clozemaster Pro to fund better TTS support among other features including sentences grouped by difficulty and mobile apps.

Aside from the advanced features offered through Clozemaster Pro, Clozemaster is free to play and always will be.

I hope you find it useful and I'm more than happy to answer any questions you might have!

tldr; Clozemaster is a game to learn and practice Spanish in context!

I always refer serious students to "A Reference Grammar of Modern Spanish," by Butt and Benjamin. It's probably the best you can get that's written in English. That's probably a bit much for someone who're still learning the basics, but it's great once you're trying to read works in Spanish.

A good bit less heavy-weight is "Schaum's Outline of Spanish Grammar." That's probably more practical for someone who's still learning.

Not OP but searched through Google Image as I was also interested. App is called Endless Spanish. iOS ; Android

Call me old school, but honestly we were assigned this book in 9th grade Spanish. I took the initiative and blew threw the entire book. Just the repetition of writing everything down over and over again really cemented the conjugations in my mind. Lo recomiendo mucho!

&#x200B;

https://www.amazon.com/Practice-Perfect-Spanish-Tenses-Second/dp/0071639306

For a great murder mystery, try Jordi Sierra i Fabra's <em>Cuatro días de enero</em>, set in Barcelona just before Franco's troops march in at the end of the Spanish Civil War. I'm currently reading the eleventh book in this series: hence an avid fan.

My German 201 class in college made us buy &quot;English Grammar for Students of German&quot; and it was life changing. Took my grammar game in both languages to new level.

As soon as I started learning Spanish, you better believe I bought &quot;English Grammar for Students of Spanish&quot;

I don't know you definition of easy nor whether "easy" refers to the concepts of philosophy or the level of spanish but in either case this is your best bet

https://www.deepl.com/translator#es/en/te%20habla%20C%C3%A9sar =>

• this is César
• this is César speaking

I've never heard this in a conversation etc. It's as if he's referring to himself in the 3rd person, same as it is in English I suppose. Interesting! Saludos, jz

Try to listen to as many native Spanish speakers as possible. One great source is spanish youtubers (uno de mis favoritos: La Ruta de la Garnacha https://www.youtube.com/user/vpedoardo), another is Tune In Radio (https://tunein.com/radio/home/) which has tons of genuine Spanish radio stations for free. Also, Netflix is great for Spanish learning: Go into the language settings and switch over to Spanish, basically all Netflix original programs as well as many others are available in Spanish. Also, if you can find any way to speak face to face with native speakers, that kind of experience is invaluable and the kind that you will learn the most from, so look for any language "intercambios" or clubs, that kind of thing. Buena suerte!

I'm not a native English speaker, so I may be off with the examples in English. I found this (link) website to check the word pronunciation. The "thin" example does sound more accurate than "that". Thanks

Well that's interesting. I can't seem to find one that states it has a negative connotation.

http://dle.rae.es/?id=JY0Q3cz

http://www.wordreference.com/definicion/gringo

It's interesting how we, the gringos, think it's a pejorative term when it actually isn't

To mime "careful", Spanish speakers (IDK if all) point with an index finger below the eye. This comes from the expression <em>¡Ojo!</em> (3rd meaning on that page).

Use a dictionary.

Kit is a widely-accepted word in Spanish, though considered an anglicism.

If you want to stick to strict Spanish:

• Paquete for varied stuff: paquete escolar; paquete de útiles escolares.
• Juego for stuff of the same kind: juego de lápices; juego de cuadernos.

No worries! For future reference, if you ever have trouble translating phrases, linguee.es will usually have the answer.

Second option imo would be wordreference discussion forums.

Then there's always here :)

From your questions it sounds like you need to take a little time to familiarize yourself with wordreference.com or another good online dictionary. By "good" I mean that it gives you a range of meanings/translations/uses, and gives the part of speech (noun, verb, etc.) for each one. For example, this is what you find when you look up 'place'. The little "n" and "v" indications mean "noun" and "verb". (You will also find abbreviations for "adjective", "adverb", and some other parts of speech.)

A good dictionary is your best friend!

Buena suerte.

My English isn't very good, but I think "former slave" (female) can be translated as "ex esclava" or "antigua esclava" (she was a slave, but now she isn't).

Edit:

http://www.wordreference.com/es/translation.asp?tranword=former

"Me pregunto si..." is possible, but often sounds quite forced and unnatural (IMO, anyway). A couple alternatives would be to rephrase the sentence as follows:

• [Quisiera ~ Me gustaría] saber si los gatos sueñan. (I'd like to know if cats have dreams)

• ¿[Será ~ Podría ser] que los gatos sueñan? (Could it be that cats have dreams?)

• Me interesa saber si los gatos sueñan. (I'm interested to know if cats have dreams)

Also, note that "tener sueños (de algo)" means "to have dreams (of something)" in the sense of desires or wishes. If you mean it in the sense of "to experience dreams while sleeping", you should use "soñar [con algo]" (to dream [about something]) instead.

You can also scan through the many threads here for other options.

https://librivox.org/las-cien-mejores-poesias-de-la-lengua-castellana-by-marcelino-menendez-y-pelayo/

Also possibly of interest to a larger audience: The 100 greatest poems of the Spanish Language, all read by native speakers (at least, as many as I've listened to so far) and with acoompanying text.

Great way to build vocab and listening skill, but you'll probably end up with some archaic words.

Actually all of librivox is 100% amazing.

Kindle has both english and spanish versions of books that you can switch between. I'm reading 'The Martian' and 'El Marciano' on kindle now.

https://www.gutenberg.org/ has many free downloads in english, not sure about spanish.

Check out lyricstraining.com. It's pretty good at exposing you to popular artists. I don't know how popular they are, but Calle 13 has some very interesting songs (that have won awards), and I like Café Tacvba.

On most regions of Spain that difference in pronunciation is lost, that's called yeísmo, and means that LL and Y are pronunced the same, as a Y in English.

This is how I pronounce LL, but that's basically because in catalan the difference is very clear and there are very few words with a Y.

http://www.aegisub.org/

This is a great tool for synchronizing subtitles and video. It also helps if you find accurate subtitles that may have some formatting errors; it's really quick to correct them.

I know about a podcast that I listen, all members of the podcast are from Bogotá or live here, however, the main topic is about a soccer team that I like so it may be a little boring for you if you don't know what the're talking about.

https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/losmillonariosradio

http://www.forvo.com/word/llamar/#es

http://www.forvo.com/word/llorar/#es

Here, you can see the varying regional pronunciations of "ll." In many places it sounds like an English "y," but it also sometimes sounds closer to the English "sh" or the English "j."

Faltar has many meanings, all related to something missing.

When you're still some time from reaching a certain point, you're missing part of the journey. So, we say faltan tres horas (three hours "missing", or maybe more naturally, three more hours until we arrive).

So, when asking how long until we land, in Spanish, we rather ask something closer to "how much (time) missing until we land?" > "¿cuánto (tiempo) falta para el aterrizaje?".

• faltan dos horas para el amanecer > two hours until dawn
• faltan dos estudiantes en el grupo > two students are missing in the group
• todavía faltan dos kilómetros para mi casa > still two kilometers away from my home

I'm not sure what level your spanish it as but if you're going to do TV shows or movies I recommend get Netflix and watching shows or movies you have already seen before. Put the voices and subtitles in spanish and just pause and look up anything you want or dont understand using this dictionay. Its great because it gives you lots of different examples and meaning for the words.

It helps a lot if you watch something you know well because you will be able to follow the plot and know whats happening even if you dont know exactly what they are saying. You can also watch shows that are intended for younger audiences because they usually talk slower and have easier more repetitive vocabulary.

trata de can definitely be used to say a book or movie is about. At least definitely in Spainhttp://www.spanishdict.com/translate/de&amp;#37;20que&amp;#37;20trata

Adding my opinion to the post of u/Kids_Jelly

Duolingo is great to get basic vocabulary and get a feel for the language. Both are important. However, after a while it will not be enough and you'll need more elaborate sources for higher level grammar. For grammar summaries and dictionary I use SpanishDict for free (there is an app too).

Rosetta Stone did not work for me at all and personally I think that it's an overpriced waste of time but everybody is different so if you can really afford it, give it a try.

I also liked Memrise (free version for me), because it taught a different vocab from Duolingo and sometimes it specifically goes for things that are easy to confuse so you can be really sure of your knowledge. Be aware that Duolingo teaches Mexican Spanish while on Memrise I studied European Spanish (but there can be LatAm course too, take a look around).

The sooner you start to converse, the better. Check out mobile apps (like Tandem) for finding native speakers or try to find them online. I'm sure that there are plenty of Spanish natives who want to learn English and you can help each other through texting or even Skype calls and conversing.

Language course is great if you can afford the time and money, especially with your first foreign language because you learn how to learn languages and you can meet people there to practice with. You can also get personal help from a teacher. However, after you are conversational I wouldn't bother anymore (finish your course though, you paid for it); you can decide for yourself it is still worth it for you.

Immersion also helps a lot. Listen to Spanish-speaking music, watch movies (with Spanish subtitles), try to converse with Spanish-speakers if you meet them in a shop or restaurant. You can also watch news, read articles or later even books in Spanish.

Buena suerte!

http://www.elearnspanishlanguage.com/grammar/verb/tobecome.html

http://www.spanishdict.com/answers/179367/expressing-to-become-in-spanish

If what you're getting at is how to express the verb 'to become' in Spanish, then these links may help (I literally just googled 'spanish 'to become'').

Basically the verbs you've mentioned can be used to express BECOMING something, but which one is used depends on the context (this is touched upon on the links above). For example, 'hacerse' is generally used to talk about becoming/achieving something due to conscious effort, while 'volverse' has more negative connotations.

No, I think that's the wrong way to think about it, it's referring back to the direct object and it should be le or la depending on the object's gender. Lo/le/la/, Los/les/las for plurals. Check out Mr-solis' reply on this forum http://www.spanishdict.com/answers/3598/te-tu-su-se-lo-la-le