Perhaps one of the most common questions for Spanish teachers from their students is how to determine when to use Ser and when to use Estar. Because both verbs mean "to be", it can be a very difficult concept to fully understand. I've created the graphic below to help you understand the difference between ser and estar and when to use each verb. I dive into this topic in more detail in my Beginner Spanish course. Let me know what you think of this graphic. I've started using more visuals like this to teach Spanish and have been getting very good feedback. Like me, many of you enjoy traveling abroad. Of course, I'm partial to Spanish speaking countries, of which there about 26 in the world. Yes, we Spanish speakers are lucky to have such a variety of travel options available. And sometimes it helps to get a bit of education on the locales that you'll be visiting prior to your departure. If you don't know about Hulu (a website that allows you to watch popular movies and TV programs online), go there now and start discovering all the great content it offers. One program I discovered recently on Hulu is Rick Steve's Europe series. Rick is well-known around the world for his informative and entertaining television programs that show him visiting various interesting destinations all over the world, giving viewers a glimpse into the lives, culture, architecture, scenery, and cuisine of distant locations. He has a number of programs where he visits Europe and a few of these highlight Rick's visits to Spain, one of my favorite Spanish speaking countries. The content is absolutely free to watch. Here are some of my favorites: Rick Steve's The Magic of Madrid Rick Steve's Basque Country Northern Spain and the Camino de Santiago Rick Steve's Europe Andalucia Granada, Cordoba, and Costa del Sol Andalucia, Gibraltar, and Tangier Rick Steve's Sevilla Pamplona and Running of the Bulls Toledo and Salamanca Rick Steve's Europe series is packed full of great content and the handfull of episodes I've pointed out above would serve as a valuable preview for anyone planning to travel to Spain. It's time well spent, in other words. ¡Suerte! One of the first letters you should learn to pronounce properly is the Spanish "B". The Spanish B has two different pronunciations. When it is at the beginning of a word, it is pronounced similar to the English "B", like in the word "Beach".
Spanish: Bella, Bien, Bueno, Baloncesto. All these are pronounced with the English "B" as in "Beach". However, when "B" appears in the middle of a word, the pronunciation is a quite a bit softer, almost like an English "V". Spanish: Abejorro, libro, ibérico. All these are pronounced with a sound that is a bit closer to the English "V", and not such a hard "B". Note that in these cases the Spanish "B" is not identical to to the English "V", just a little big closer to it than the hard English "B". Hablar is a common Spanish verb that means "to speak" or "to talk". It's a very simple -AR verb and likely one of the very first verbs you would learn in any beginner level Spanish class. Here is how to conjugate the verb hablar:
Yo hablo - I speak Tú hablas - You speak (informal) Él habla - He speaks Ella habla - She speaks Usted habla - You speak (formal) Nosotros hablamos - We speak Vosotros habláis - You guys speak/ You all speak (informal) Ellos hablan - They speak (group of males or group of mixed gender) Ellas hablan - They speak (group of females) Ustedes hablan - You all speak / You speak (formal) A few examples using hablar, translated from Spanish into English: Ellas hablan con los chicos. - They speak with the boys. Yo hablo por teléfono con mi madre. - I talk on the telephone with my mother. Ustedes hablan todos los días. - You talk every day. Another common Spanish verb is "Abrir", which means "to open". Pretty basic as a verb, but very common. Here's how it works.
Yo abro = I open Tú abres = You open Ella abre = She opens Él abre = He opens Usted abre = You open (formal) Nosotros abrimos = We open Vosotros abrís = You guys open Ellas abren = They open (group of females) Ellos abren = They open (group of males or mixed) Ustedes abren = You all open (formal) Here is how it works in real life: Nosotros abrimos la puerta. = We open the door. Él abre el libro. = He opens the book. Yo abro mi corazón. = I open my heart. Ellas abren sus bolsas. = They open their bags. It's been a busy start to 2013, so before we get too far into it I'd like to issue a public thank you to the many people who have helped us build eSpanishTeacher into what it is today. Lots of work goes into sustaining a website, developing curriculum, marketing, sales, supplies, order fulfillment, etc, and all of these folks need to know that our success would not be where it is today without all of you.
Finally, a GRANDE GRACIAS to those customers/students out there who are using eSpanishTeacher's Beginner Spanish course. You are the ones who make all of this possible and you deserve the most credit for playing THE MOST crucial part in our mission of teaching folks to speak Spanish effectively and affordably. It's wonderful to hear back from so many of you. Please keep the feedback coming as we are constantly working to improve Beginner Spanish. The Huffington Post has published a list of 17 reasons why everyone should learn Spanish. It's very similar to our list that we began publishing in July of 2011. Take a look and then come back to eSpanishTeacher.com for more great tips on how to speak Spanish like a pro. One verb that should become part of your vocabulary very quickly is poder. Poder is the Spanish verb that means to be able to. This might not sound like the typical Spanish verb to you and you'd be right. It's not easy to image poder like is to run, to eat, to write. Some verbs are very visual and can be imagined easily. Poder is not one of these. It actually falls into the category with other vague verbs such as to have, to be, to know, etc. Another way to look at is is that poder is the verb that means to can, such as I can, she can, you can.
You may have heard the phrase Si, se puede, which comes from the verb poder. Essentially this phrase means Yes, you can or You can do it! It's common in Spanish to have someone say this as a form of encouragement. Here is a breakdown of how the verb is conjugated and it's translations into English: Yo puedo - I can Tú puedes - You can (informal) Él puede - He can Ella puede - She can Usted puede - You can (formal) Nosotros podemos - We can Vosotros podéis - You guys can (informal) Ellos pueden - They can (group of men or mixed) Ellas pueden - They can (group of women) Ustedes pueden - You all can (formal) When the verb poder is used, it is typically followed by another verb. This is because we normally say You can [verb], like in You can run, You can eat, You can write. So in Spanish, you'll want to follow the conjugated form of poder with an unconjugated verb. To see what I'm saying, here are some examples of sentences using the verb poder: Usted puede hablar. = You can speak. Nosotros podemos tocar la música. = We can play music. Yo puedo cantar. = I can sing. Vosotros podeís estudiar. = You guys can study. Spanish verb conjugation is perhaps the most crucial concept for beginner students. So much of what new students learn centers on understanding how to conjugate Spanish verbs. This is because verbs and subjects are the foundational elements of sentence structure and therefore are the foundation of virtually everything you say in Spanish. It’s no different for English—by the way—we just don’t often realize it.
Subject Pronouns or Subjects In Spanish, conjugating verbs is simple, but it does require some explanation as well as a good deal of verbal practice before you’ll understand it completely. Conjugating verbs always begins with the subject of the sentence because we need to know who is acting out the verb. You may hear your Spanish professor refer to subjects as 'subject pronouns', but I think that term confuses people. In my simple mind, they are subjects and it doesn't need to be any more complicated than that. So the subject is the noun (person, place, or thing) that is doing the verb (action word). Common subject are I, you, he, she, it, we, they, etc. Spanish Verbs Verbs are the action word of a sentence, such as run, eat, play, speak, etc. Usually verbs are simple to imagine in your mind. For example, it’s easy to imagine someone running, eating, playing, and speaking. These would all be examples of verbs in their infinitive (pure) form: to run, to eat, to play, to speak. Spanish Verb Conjugation Conjugating verbs requires that you match a subject with a verb. And the most important thing to remember is that the subject determines how the verb is conjugated. When you conjugate a verb, you remove the to and replace it with a subject. In other words, you actually change the verb from its infinitive form (to eat) to a conjugated form when matching it up with a subject. You also sometime change the ending of the verb slightly, such that He + to eat becomes He eats. Or She + to run becomes She runs. This is the essence of verb conjugation, which is the foundation of the Spanish language. It may seem simple in English, but conjugating in Spanish actually presents a couple more challenges because 1) it’s not your native language and 2) the conjugations are much more complex than simply adding an “s” to the end of each verb. This is a quick blog post meant to help you understand the basics of conjugating verbs in Spanish. For a more in-depth look at this topic, as well as a more personalized explaination, verbal exercises, and instant feedback, check out my Beginner Spanish course.In Spanish, a simple example would look like this: Subject: Ella = she Verb: Comer = to eat Ella + Comer = Ella come = She eats To accomplish the example conjugation above, these are the steps we take: 1) Identify the subject 2) Drop the “-er” ending from the verb Comer. 3) While adding the subject, conjugate the verb Comer according to the subject. You can use this subject chart to identify which ending corresponds to which subject. Also, I've included a chart on conjugating verbs in the present tense for reference. Is it hard to learn Spanish?
As a Spanish teacher I get asked this question very often. How difficult is it to learn Spanish? The answer may surprise you. In short, it depends on a number of factors, but usually isn’t too difficult. Let me explain. The first question you need to answer is why are you learning Spanish and how proficient would you like to become. This is important because if you are learning Spanish for a job in a professional environment, then it’s likely that you’ll need to be nearly fluent in order to excel at that job. However, if you want to learn Spanish so you can speak to your neighbors and your goal is not to be completely fluent, then conversational Spanish proficiency is all you’ll need. Do I need to be fluent in Spanish? Speaking Spanish fluently means that you could go into a doctor’s office and describe most of your body parts in Spanish. It means that you could attend an institution of higher learning, comprehend perfectly the materials that your professors would teach, and write pages on specialized topics in Spanish. But most of us don’t wish to become that skilled in the Spanish language. And despite the claims of many Spanish language products and courses, becoming fluent in Spanish would likely take years of living in a Spanish speaking country and rarely speaking English. More on conversational Spanish Conversational Spanish is not difficult to master. Even the poorest classroom students are able to learn to speak in casual conversations with native Spanish speakers. In fact, many who don’t perform well in traditional classroom settings do extremely well learning languages. This is because learning a second language is similar to memorizing the words to your favorite song. Think about the last time a great song came on the radio. You hear it a few times and before you know it you could sing the lyrics from memory without any help from the band. You may have noticed that each day we hear, see, and use Spanish words, phrases, and popular catch phrases. Chances are you already know a good amount of Spanish. Here are some of the popular phrases used in today’s culture: Adiós = Goodbye Pronto = Hurry up Por favor = Please Grácias = Thank you Si, se puede = Yes we can/Yes you can De nada = Don’t mention it Mi casa es su casa = Please feel at home ¿Cómo estás? = How are you? Buenos días = Good day Hasta la vista = See you next time Mano a mano = Man to man Se habla español = We speak Spanish Learning to speak Spanish is not difficult and becoming conversant in the Spanish language is something that the average person can accomplish. The key is to have a few great resources that can explain the rules of the language, such as grammar books, a Spanish-to-English dictionary, and a friend who speaks Spanish. This way you’ll be able to overcome some of the confusing concepts that surface from time to time. Lastly, make sure you get a good amount of verbal Spanish practice, perhaps through watching the Spanish channel on TV and repeating what you hear, listening to Spanish radio, watching movies in Spanish, or having actual conversations with people who know how to speak Spanish. |
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