Spanish Summertime!

In Lingua-Franca, we are more than proud to announce that our Summer Courses are getting ready now. We offer different types of courses according to your needs, you tell us when and for how long.

We are teaching you Spanish in the mornings or evenings, right before or after ejoying the beach!

Verb Tenses. Pretérito Perfecto Compuesto de Indicativo

Do you struggle with verb tenses?

Pretérito Perfecto Compuesto de Indicativo



This is one of the most common tenses used in Spanish. It is a typical European tense, and as a curiosity, both American English and American Spanish avoid it. In America people prefer simple tenses, but here in the old Europe, we still use compound tenses to express ourselves.

The Pretérito Compuesto uses the verb HABER as an auxiliary verb. The auxiliary will be conjugated in Presente de Indicativo, while the main verb will be in the Past Participle form.

Presente de Ind. HABER + Participio = Pretérito Perf. Compuesto Ind.

HABER                  PARTICIPIO

He                     Cantar: Cantado

Has

Ha                     Beber: Bebido

Hemos                  Vivir: Vivido

Habéis

Han

Participle refers to the completed action of the verb. The endings are related to each group

(-AR: -ado; -ER: -ido; -IR: -ido)

However, Spanish is full of irregular participles, here are some examples:

Hacer: Hecho; Ver: Visto; Decir: Dicho...

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Compound tenses are very easily formed as they tend to change less than other tenses.

Pretérito Perfecto Compuesto de Indicativo is half way between the Past and the Present. We use this tense to refer to past actions with a present result.

Present result according to the action:

He limpiado mis zapatos

(I have cleaned my shoes)

I did the action in the past, and I can only say it if the shoes are still clean now (a present result)

Hemos cocinado un pastel de chocolate

(We’ve cooked a chocolate cake)

We can only say it if we still have some more cake left to offer (a present result, but not when somebody has eaten it all!

Present result according to the time:

He visto la televisión hoy.

(I’ve watched telly today)

The time expressed, today, is not finished yet, and that’s make it to the present.

Este año hemos visitado a los abuelos.

(We’ve visited our grandparents this year)

This year is still going on so we can only use Pretérito Perfecto Compuesto de Indicativo.

He escalado en Everest.

(I have climbed the Everest)

Achievements in life are always expressed in this tense as if you’re speaking, your lifetime hasn’t finished yet.

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In many other situations, the action or the time are finished. That means somebody has already eaten the cake or that the time is finished (yesterday). In those situations we’d use the Pretérito Perfecto Simple de Indicativo (also known as Pretérito Indefinido) and we will study that tense in our next article about tenses.

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This is a Lingua–Franca article

www.lingua-franca.es

http://wanna-learn-spanish.blogspot.com/



Verb Tenses. Presente de Indicativo

DO YOU STRUGGLE WITH VERB TENSES?

PRESENTE DE INDICATIVO

Verb tenses represent one of the weakest points for all Spanish learner. No need to say they are extemely important for speaking and understanding, if you don’t get them because they are too many and probably too weird... this is the right moment to understand them.

We are making an analysis of all tenses with valuable examples and a bit of humour, so you don’t get that bored with them.

Most of my students succeed in tenses once they understand this. In order to reduce space verb forms are not included in this article, if you need them this website may help you.

Spanish verbs are divided into three groups according to their ending in infinitive. The groups are –AR, -ER, -IR. To conjugate other verbs you can remember –or check on the link above- any verb with the same ending.

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Regular Forms

Cantar   Beber    Vivir

Yo            canto    bebo     vivo

Tú            cantas   bebes    vives

Él            canta    bebe     vive

Nosotros      cantamos bebemos  vivimos

Vosotros      cantáis  bebéis   vivís

Ellos         cantan   beben    viven

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Presente de Indicativo

The present is NOT what we are doing now, but what we NORMALLY do or what it ALWAYS happen. It’s used to talk about routines and to describe things, and it refers to things that do not change.

España es bonita

(Spain is beautiful)

You don’t really expect something beautiful to change, do you? Any descriptions are made in present

Nosotros bebemos cerveza.

(We drink beer)

Humans tend to choose a drink in their adulthood and hold on to it for ages. That is a perfect example of the use of the Present.

No me gustan los gatos, pero me gusta tu gato.

(I don’t like cats, but I like your cat)

The verb “gustar” works differently as what you like is the subject of the sentence, so that means you conjugate the verb accordingly to that, and not to the speaker.

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This is a Lingua–Franca article

www.lingua-franca.es

http://wanna-learn-spanish.blogspot.com/

Vocabulary

THE NUMBER OF WORDS YOU CAN REMEMBER IS NOT YOUR LEVEL IN A CERTAIN LANGUAGE

It is thought that the more vocabulary you know, the better you'll know a language. That's not completely untrue, however, vocabulary is overstimated for second language students.

To get to know the importance of vocabulary, we must think of our mother tongues. Can you express a word you don't know in your own language? In many occassions we face objects or procedures we do not understand at all, but we can explain them. We would be amazed of the number of words we do not know in our own language. Does it make any bigger difference in your life? The answer is that it doesn't.

What we do in those cases is using descriptions, definitions, or even gestures to explain ourselves.

The problem comes when we are studying a new language and we think we must know all vocabulary given. Sometimes we are so busy translating we completely forget about our class or about understanding anything we are listening to. Why don't we use the same strategies as in mother tongue instead?

HOW WE LEARN NEW WORDS

The proccess of learning a new word is a complex system inside our brains. The word is firstly received in the shape of a sound or in a written form. If the word is unknown and we understand the meaning in the context or the word is explained to us (I said explained, no necesarily translated) we have been introduced to a brand new word.

The word will come into your short period memory first, and it will stay there for no longer than a few minutes. After that time, if the word has proven to be important or has capted your attention, it will be passed to the medium period memory store room.

There, it will be remembered for a longer period. However, after a few days or weeks (time depends on each individual and the importance given to the concept, if your life depended on it you would probably remember it better) the word will be forgotten. The only way to remember that word is to keep the input with it, listening, speaking, reading, writing or whatever.

The word will finally come to the long period memory. Thoughts there can stay as long as you can live, as long as you use them. As this store room has a limited space, concepts that aren't used commonly will be forgotten (they are not actually forgotten but taken into the subconscious parts of your brain, if you want to take them back ask a psichologist). The only way to remember is using that word.

ACTIVE AND PASSIVE VOCABULARY

The vocabulary we know, after the whole proccess above, is then dividen in two groups. Passive vocabulary is that you can remember and understand, but not use. There are many words your doctor tells you that you understand but you wouldn't use them unless reading a medical text.

Active vocabulary is that you can use speaking or writing. This is the position in which you want all the rest of vocabulary in any language to be. The system is very simple to take things in here.

HOW TO MAKE ALL MY VOCABULARY ACTIVE

If active vocabulary is that one you can use speaking, force yourselft to use new words in your speech for at least three weeks after you first hear them. You don't need to repeat them all the time, but using them a couple of times per week in natural contexts is a great idea. If the word lasts for nearly a month it will be added to your own mental dictionary.

And now you know that all the hours spent memorizing vocabulary were futile, but you've got a much more powerful tool now!

Think in a second language!!!!!!!!!

During the first eigth years in a human being’s life, the main reason to exist is just to manage the correct use of a language. It’s our survival tip.

For children, this is an automatic task, however, it is a bit more complicated for adults. Our brain needs some understandable information, what we call “formal operations”. This basically means that we need to know the reason why the things work in a certain way, and therefore here comes the grear importance of grammar. However, once we start the process we tend to translate anything arround us.

Translation will delay our learning, translating is a very difficult task for which not everyone is still ready. We must only try to understand it, as simply as that. It seems more difficult at the beginning as it really is, but it is much better in long term basis. To have a thinking mind in the second language there are several steps we can follow. Here are the best three of them:

1.- PLANIFY YOUR LIFE IN L2

       We all have plenty of things to do daily, and we normally travel by bus or leave home thinking of buying something from the supermarket, going to the bank or visiting a friend. Well, all those small actions are easily expressed in a second language, think in Spanish day by day.

2.- SUBTITLES

       Cinema and television are very effective learning methods. When we watch a film in second language, we are more than usually helped on subtitles. MOTHER TONGUE SUBTITLES ARE USELESS. If our brain is expossed to both languages, as it cannot proccess two languages at the same time, it is going to centre in that one that seems easier for it. That is exactly the one you’re not studying.

       Subtitles are good for learning as long as they represent an accurate transcription of what you are listening at the same time. Remember to change subtitles on second language as a rule.

3.- REPEAT WHAT YOU GET. Use the same expressions people use.

       Learning to speak is basically an imitation proccess. Since we are kids, we imitate all sounds produced by our parents and we try to give a sense and a meaning to them. That is why it is extremely neccessary that we listen to everyone carefully, read as much as we can and try to use all those structures in our speech. When we talk to people, we read advertising of a clothes shop or listening the tape recording of the supermarket offers we are constantly receiving language input. Listen to it, understand it and then USE IT. Human brain cannot remember any word that hasn’t been verbally used, so we only have to use it in a conversation!

Piensa en la segunda lengua!!!!!!

Durante los ocho primeros años de la vida de un ser humano, la razón principal de la existencia pasa por aprender a utilizar correctamente el lenguaje.

Para los niños aprender un idioma es una tarea automática, sin embargo, para los adultos es algo más complicado. Nuestros cerebros necesitan una información que puedan procesar desde un punto de vista al que llamamos de "las operaciones formales". Eso significa que necesitamos aprender el por qué de las cosas, y de ahí la gran importancia de la gramática. Sin embargo, una vez iniciamos el proceso cometemos el error de intentar traducir todo cuanto tenemos a nuestro alrededor.

Ese fallo no hace más que ralentizar nuestro aprendizaje pues, traducir es una tarea muy difícil y para la que no todo el mundo está preparado. Tenemos que intentar comprender, simplemente. Parece mucho más difícil al principio pero da mejores resultados a largo plazo. Para poder conseguir una mente pensante en nuestra segunda lengua hay muchos trucos que podemos aplicar. Aquí van los tres mejores trucos:

1.- PLANIFICA TU VIDA EN L2
   Todos tenemos mucho que hacer diariamente, y normalmente viajamos en autobús y salimos de casa pensando en comprar algo de super, ir al banco o visitar a un amigo. Bien, todas esas pequeñas acciones son muy fáciles de decir en español, piensa en español en tu día a día.

2.- SUBTÍTULOS
   La televisión y el cine son métodos de aprendizaje muy efectivos. Cuando vemos una película en la segunda lengua, en muchas ocasiones nos ayudamos de subtítulos para entender. LOS SUBTÍTULOS EN LENGUA MATERNA NO VALEN. Si nuestro cerebro es expuesto a ambas lenguas a la vez, como no puede procesar dos lenguas distintas al mismo tiempo, va a centrarse en la que le sea más fácil. Es decir, la que no estás estudiando. Los subtítulos son muy buenos para aprender siempre que sean una transcripción fiel de lo que estás oyendo al mismo tiempo. Así que recuerda, pon subtítulos en segunda lengua siempre.

3.- REPITE LO QUE ESCUCHAS Y LEES
   Aprender a hablar es básicamente un proceso de imitación. Ya desde niños, imitamos los sonidos emitidos por nuestros padres e intentamos darle un sentido. Por esto es muy necesario escuchar con mucha atención a todo el mundo, leer todo cuanto se pueda e intentar usar esas estructuras en nuestro discurso. Al hablar con la gente, al leer la publicidad de una tienda de ropa o al escuchar la grabación de la chica del supermercado estamos siendo bombardeados por idioma. Escúchalo, compréndelo y luego UTILÍZALO. El cerebro humano no puede recordar ninguna palabra que no haya usado verbalmente, así que ¡sólo tienes que repetir!