Effeminate-Spanish-Greek-WORDS, :S AHHHH!!!!

¡Hola, pequeñajos!
I've seen you commiting this mistake that is sooo normal and so cute ;) And it happens that English speaking people have already a real problem with the gendre of words! ...

...So I am sure you'll love this LITTLE SURPRISE: Some words in Spanish, although finishing with -MA, are masculine!!! ¡¡¡FIESTAAA!!!

LET'S SEE HOW I SAY THIS WITHOUT SOUNDING AWFULLY BORING AND ARROGANT, hahaha! (although it is obvious I have googled it ;) :P 

... To simplify, this happens because these words originally come from a neuter word from ancient Greek, but during the asimilation of the words into Spanish, through Latin of course, they became masculine, as we don't have the neuter gendre. I don't know-don't ask why masculine and not femenine :P!!! We could do a research, it seems very interesting ;)

Don't worry, I won't give you a long list, so don't be scared ;). Also you have these same words in many occidental languages, even in English, so you won't find them odd at all:

EL PROBLEMA
EL TEMA
EL POEMA / EL POETA
EL ESQUEMA
EL PANORAMA
EL DRAMA
EL ENIGMA
EL DILEMA
...

I really hope you have the opportunity to use them! 
Hoping you find this interesting enough to read... I must say goodbye and until the next post!

¡Un besote!

Inma.

"MISMO", that strange man...

¿Qué crees que significa"mismo"? (What do you think 'mismo' means?)

"Mismo" is an adjective that means "the same thing" or "exactly like something, identical".
As you will see, "mismo" can be accompanied by the pronoun "LO" and the articles "EL", "LA", "LOS" or "LAS".









EXAMPLES: 

The same kind of women 
El mismo tipo de mujeres         

The same tastes              
Los mismos gustos  

The same people                 
La misma gente          
                                                                                                            
The same options
Las mismas opciones

We can remove the noun we are talking about so we don't have to repeat it the following times: 
A: -¿Estás en el mismo piso? (Are you in the same flat?)
B: - Sí, en el mismo. (Yes, in the same one)               
We just need to remove the noun and you'll have it!

But what about "LO MISMO"?
When we are not talking about a concrete thing, like above, but about situations, problems, meanings, abstract things, generic things, a group of varied things, etc. we use: 
LO MISMO (Lo = pronoun that replaces a "thing" --> la misma COSA)

- Quiero una hamburguesa con patatas fritas 
- Yo quiero lo mismo, por favor.                        

- No me gusta Juan, es demasiado arrogante.

- Sí, yo pienso exactamente lo mismo.

- Inma, ¿qué significan "empezar" y "comenzar"?
- Los dos significan lo mismo: to start.

SO...

The same one = EL/LA/LOS/LAS  MISMO/A/OS/AS

 vs.

The same thing/ the same = LO MISMO

P.S. "Mismo" can be used next to a personal pronoun and some adverbs to make its meaning stronger, to emphasize: Ej/ I will do it myself = Lo haré yo MISMA. 
                                         Ej/ In that very moment = En ese MISMO momento.
P.S.2 Remind me of talking about "IGUAL" at some point. This adverb can have some common uses with "mismo".


I hope I made that clear! if any doubts appear... 
contact me and I'll do my best!
¡Un beso y feliz día!


Inma.

A VERB FOR TODAY!

Let's start with............ PREFERIR!
You must be happy because it is really similar to English: to PREFER!!! 
So you have no excuse ;)


Subject + PREFERIR + NOUN (with people, as usual: a + person* /name of a person)
Subject + PREFERIR + VERB in INFINITIVE

Ej. Prefiero la falda blanca / Prefiero a los chicos rubios /Prefiero a Carmen / Te prefiero (a ti) .
Ej. Prefiero ir al cine / Prefiero comer lentejas.

But PAY ATTENTION! Have you noticed that in quite many verbs a vowel changes into a diptong in the present tense, to make it even more difficult?? =P   

Like that "e" in: QUERER --> Yo quiero / EMPEZAR --> Yo empiezo (*except with NOSOTROS and VOSOTROS, that are regular).

So then we have:

Yo PREFIERO
Tú PREFIERES
Él/Ella PREFIERE
Nosotros PREFERIMOS
Vosotros PREFERÍS
Ellos PREFIEREN

I hope you liked it and that you are able to use it from now on.

¡¡Un besazo!! ;)

x

Inma.

CRAZY PAST PARTICIPLES (participios locos)

COMER --> comido
HABLAR --> hablado
COMPRAR --> comprado
SABER --> sabido
HACER --> hacido?? NOOO: hecho
PONER --> puesto???? NOOO: puesto
VER --> veído??????????? NOOO: visto

You must think: What the hell????

Where did they come from? the specialists must know, that is not the problem right know, though it seems really interesting (wow! I just read about it: irregular participles have that different shape because they come from Latin! ...sexy Latin... ;). The issue is that there are some funny irregular participles that you have to learn as they are really useful! and you have no way to avoid them, wahahaaaa!! So let's see just some of them:

HACER (to do) --> he HECHO (I have done)
DECIR (to say)--> he DICHO 

PONER (to put) --> he PUESTO
MORIR (to die) --> he MUERTO
VOLVER (to return) --> he VUELTO

VER (to see) --> he VISTO

¡¡TÚ, VOSOTROS vs. USTED, USTEDES!!

   You all must know the personal pronoun "TÚ" and "VOSOTROS", but... WHAT ABOUT THEIR FORMAL VERSIONS??? I am sure you can remember them  ;)

The only difficult part of these classy pronouns (and old-fashion for some people it seems!) is that, even if their meaning is "you",  they don't conjugate the verb with the 2nd person (TÚ and VOSOTROS), but with the 3rd person (ÉL or ELLOS)! 
But DON'T PANIC, it is as easy as breathing!!!:

An example with the verb SER:

Yo  soy
Tú eres
Él/ella/usted es
Nosotros somos
Vosotros sois
Ellos/ellas/ustedes son

This pronoun is neuter in gendre and it is usually omitted, we realise it's there when the verb is in the third person when it should be in the second person.

Let's practise with it a bit:

- Buenas tardes, Señorita Núñez, ¿cómo está? / 
Good evening, Mrs Núñez, how are you?
- Muy bien, gracias ¿y usted? / 
Very well, thank you, and you?

- Hola, ¿puede decirnos dónde hay un hospital? /
Hello, could you tell me where there is a hospital?
- ¡Claro!, deben ir todo recto y luego a la izquierda. /
Of course, you must go straight down and then left.

So, to sum up...

 USTED + VERB (3rd person of the singular = él)

USTEDES + VERB (3rd person of the plural = ellos)

So if you find a lovely Spanish grandma or someone in a formal context or you have a politeness attack you will be ready to say: "BUENOS DÍAS, ¿CÓMO ESTÁ?", and you will be more polite than most of the Spaniards ;)

Un besito y.... I hope that's useful for the future!

Inma.

Do you know Mrs R.A.E. and Mr D.R.A.E. ??

Hi, Spanish lovers! 

... "LA REAL ACADEMIA ESPAÑOLA (de la lengua)", do you know what that is? you should have heard of it by now ;)

The "RAE", as we often refer to it, is the highest institution about Spanish language in Spain and runs and updates the reference dictionary in this country (DRAE) which, OBVIOUSLY, has a website!!! http://www.rae.es/drae/.

I invite you to use it when your level of Spanish is a bit higher. I like to check the different meanings of the words there, although I also compare them with other dictionaries, and I also love (as you know) to check the origin of the words, which is abreviated at the begining of the definition of every word.

Try to use it with any word you already know and see if you can understand something! 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_Academia_Espa%C3%B1ola

¡Hola, amantes del español!

..."LA REAL ACADEMIA ESPAÑOLA (de la Lengua)", ¿sabéis lo que es? A estas alturas ya deberías haber oído ya hablar de ella ;)

La "RAE", como nos referimos a ella a menudo, es la más alta institución de la lengua española en España y posee y actualiza el diccionario de referencia en este país (DRAE) que, OBVIAMENTE, tiene página web!!!  http://www.rae.es/drae/.

Te invito a usarlo cuando tu nivel de español sea un poco más alto. A mí me gusta comprobar los diferentes significados de las palabras ahí, aunque también los comparo con otros diccionarios, y también me encanta (como ya sabes) mirar el origen de las palabras, que está abreviado al inicio de la definición de cada palabra.

Intenta usarlo con cualquier palabra que ya sepas ¡y a ver si entiendes algo!

Un beso enorme,

Inma.

HERE WE GOOO!! (¡Allá vamoooos!)

Hi everyone!!

I've decided to start this little blog for helping a very little person to learn and improve his Spanish (once and for all! =P), as for any person that is interested in this crazy language. I hope he finds it useful and less boring than a sheet of paper that looks like horrible school homework. I'll try my best for you to enjoy, just tell me what you need and to stop if I'm becoming too annoying with my compulsive Spanish teacher attacks. I couldn't have a better pupil than you, the motivations are big (yea, like chatting to your beloved mother-in-law =P hahaha!).

Lots of love and... good luck to both of us with this.

xxx

¡¡Hola a todosss!!

He decidido comenzar este pequeño blog para ayudar a una personita a aprender y mejorar su español (¡de una santa vez! =P), así como a cualquier persona que le interese este idioma de locos . ¡Espero que lo encuentre útil y menos aburrido que un folio que se parece a los horribles deberes del cole! Lo haré lo mejor que pueda para que disfrutes, sólo dime lo que necesites y que pare cuando ya sea demasiado pesada con mis ataques de profe de español compulsiva. No podría tener un mejor alumno que tú, las motivaciones son grandes! (sí, como charlar con tu querida suegra! =P ¡jajajaja!).

Con mucho cariño y... buena suerte para los dos.

¡Muchísimos besos!

Inma.