I just remembered I wrote something in Spanish more than a year ago. (Upon checking it says July 14, 2021.) Before December 2022 I had almost zero knowledge of this foreign language aside from sprinkles of it (a variety of words) in the Filipino language.
Oh wait I also remember I downloaded some Spanish audiobooks a decade or so ago. Unfortunately I never finished the lessons. Tsk tsk. (I absolutely forgot about it so I didn't mention this in my previous post haha.)
Yes I know there are online translation tools available but I still tried to make my own sentences for once. 😂 Why? Well I was new to a "microblog" writing site in 2021 and someone kept replying to me in Spanish that I always had to translate what he said. It forced me to reply in his language too using a translation system. Ugh. I hated it. 😆
Well guess what I did next? I wrote a few sentences in Spanish just to see if any other Spanish speaking people would reply and converse with me. This is what I wrote:
Seeing it now that I've been studying the language for 2 weeks, I'm kinda cringing haha. No Hispanic person responded to me even if I posted this in the Spanish group. 😆
It definitely shows I had no idea how to construct a proper Spanish sentence. 😂 I was mixing up verb forms and such. 🤭
I still am no expert at grammar but I have already seen some of my mistakes. If you also don't understand what I wrote, here's the translation from Google Translate:
You might think it's the tool's fault that it looks like that but nooo. If I changed some of the verb tenses it would become grammatically correct. 😆 Yes folks, Spanish verbs are not that easy to self study. 😅
As mentioned in my previous post, I have been studying it for a bit of time now. I think I'm taking it too seriously because I am getting overwhelmed and frustrated. 😂 I think I might quit soon if I don't stop studying for a day or two.
Self-studying can be no fun at all! Also I can't find good free sentence construction quizzes and such online. Dang it.
Oh and don't get me started on listening comprehension and speaking. 😂 I'm still feeling stupid most of the time. It is not as easy as I thought, having zero knowledge to begin with. Who knew there were different kinds of verb forms and conjugation?! I had no idea! 😆😭
Okay enough of my griping due to learning difficulties. 😅 Let's correct my Español sentences above shall we? Oh wait, let me tell you via Spanish lessons I learned so far! Are you excited? 😆 Don't worry, I'll keep this as simple as possible. Let's start!
1. Exclamation and question mark usage.
In Spanish, one must use a pair of marks in order to make some sentences correct. For example:
I put "Ola!" instead of "¡Hola!," meaning "Hi / Hello!"
If it's a question it will be like this: "¿Hola?"
See the difference? That's already two mistakes in just one word! 😱
The inverted exclamation or question marks are a must in Español exclamatory or interrogatory sentences.
2. The h in Spanish words are silent.
Yup, that's why there's two incorrect things above. Most of the time the letter h is not pronounced especially if it is in the beginning of a word.
Other examples are:
hermana = sister; hermano = brother
historia = history
higado = liver
ahora = now
3. Words to use to respond to introductions
Okay so if you noticed in the first image, I put encantado in my next sentence after saying hello. That's quite the shortcut because nobody is responding back to me while writing it. Haha. Anyway it's a word that means you're happy to meet someone. Or it's a shortcut way to say, "I'm delighted to meet you."
That's one Spanish word that's stuck in my head, thanks to the audiobooks I mentioned. 😅 Maybe I should finally finish those real soon huh?
But of course recently I learned something new. We can also use mucho gusto to respond to someone during introductions. For example:
You: "¡Hola! Soy Juan, ¿y tú?" (Hello! I'm Juan, and you?)
Me: "Me llamo Lucy. Mucho gusto." (My name is Lucy. Nice to meet you.)
4. Feminine and Masculine words
Before I reveal the corrections to my previous Spanish sentences, here's one more thing you should know. There are feminine and masculine forms of words. Yes it's true!
For examplem, the response I wrote about above:
Feminine form: encantada (if a woman is the one saying it to someone).
Masculine form: encantado (if a man says this to someone).
More examples: maestro, maestra ; hermano, hermana; etc.
Even adjectives can be for men or women! You have to make words match the gender of the noun or pronoun so everything makes sense. Oh my, this is another reason why I am getting "nosebleeds and headaches" from learning this foreign language. 😂
Anyway this post would be too long if I wrote everything I know now so I'll cut it short. With a little more grammar knowledge + translation tools I have updated what I wanted to say. See how different it is now:
¡Hola! Encantada. ¡Entiendo muy poco español! Estudié un poco pero no hablo/escribo español. Jaja. Estoy practicando para puedo entender en la futura.
Alguien está hablando conmigo en español aquí en Noise. No entiendo pero me interesa estudiarlo. Perdon, estoy usar un poco google translate y mis propias palabras. Jajaja.
Disclaimer: Oh for sure I still have some wrong word usage here. 😂 Yes, I need to completely study Spanish verb tense usage, conjugation, direct/indirect pronouns (!), sentence structure and more! 🤦😭
But wait, here's something that's been helpful to me! I found a better translation tool online. Check this out! I tried swapping my newly translated sentences above from English to Spanish and I guess this one is more correct than what I did.
Okay this is not a sponsored post but SpanishDict.com is one of the sites I'm using to learn the language. Thank God for free content eh? ♥️
Anyway, what do you think of my improved sentences and today's lessons? Would you like me to write more? 😆 Hope you learned something by reading this! 😄
XOXO,
@LucyStephanie
* * *
Related article:
Not a member of read.cash yet? Click here to join us in earning BCH! Or let's microblog/blabber on Noise app!
It is tough learning a new language let alone by yourself. I know this because I did it learning to speak Mandarin. I found it helped finding someone else who spoke it who could help. They even directed me to YouTube to practice with some shorter videos. It's best to go slow and learn a sentence a day. Let your mind hear it several times and speak as many times. I don't know if this helps or not but hopefully it does. Take care and adios :)