Spanish Tidbits

Just a few blunders that I have noticed that seem to be regular errors in Spanish. Maybe some are not aware but just thought I would point them out.

1) Por m? and para m? have different meanings.

Examples:

El regalo es para m?= The gift is for me (meaning someone gave it to you)

Hazlo por m?= Do it for me (on my behalf (a favor/request)).

2) Gracias para does not exist in Spanish. It should always be GRACIAS POR xxxx

3) There are only two contractions in Spanish:

a + el= AL

de + el = DEL

(the only exception is if EL is part of a title then there is no contraction).

Examples:

a) 'Voy al supermercado' and not 'Voy a el supermercado'.

b) 'Me gusta el nombre del beb?' and not 'Me gusta el nombre de el beb?'.

4) When you say 'cu?date' that refers to one person only. ('take care' as in (you- singular) take care )

When you are referring to more than one person it s/b 'cu?dense' ('take care' as in (you- plural) more than one person 'take care')

5) Nationality, the days of the week, the seasons and the months are not capitalized in Spanish unless they are at the beginning of a sentence.

These forms are incorrect.

Examples:

Soy Americano= s/b Soy americano
Soy Peruano= s/b Soy peruano
Soy Dominicano= s/b Soy dominicano

Hoy es Viernes= s/b Hoy es viernes
Hoy es Martes= s/b Hoy es martes

6) La hache [h] is a silent letter phonetically but it must be written in words that have [h]. As well be careful with and [v]. They are phonetically identical but orthographically distinct.

Examples:

Hola (hello) and not 'ola' (wave)
Harag?n and not 'arag?n'
Hermano and not 'ermano'
He pensado and not 'e pensado' (agrammatical not a correct verb form)
Iba and not 'iva' (agrammatical not a correct verb form)

7. There are several words that are masculine in Spanish but end in [a]. They are masculine because they are of Greek origin and in Greek they are masculine therefore the gender is retained in Spanish as borrowed words.

Examples:

el programa/ el sistema/ el clima/ el mapa/ el esquema (there are many more)

PD. Agua is not masculine. It is feminine in gender but because of the stressed [a] (on the first syllable) for phonetic reasons 'la' becomes 'el'. However, in the plural the original form is retained.

'el agua' but 'las aguas'

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LDG.

Mofi,

This tense is called 'el presente perfecto' and its usage is exclusive because in Spanish 'el pret?rito' in general is used instead of this tense especially in Latin America as opposed to Spain. It is also defined as the recent past tense because it is used to describe past actions or events that are still continuing in the present.

He pensado/ He tratado/ He hablado etc. translates as 'I have thought', 'I have tried', 'I have spoken'.

El presente perfecto is equivalent to the pass? compos? in French (the verb forms) but not used in the same context.


LDG.

mofi said:

Lesley-
He pensado- when you use this form it's like say i have taken the time to/i have, or am i completely off on this?

Click to expand...

RE: Spanish Tidbits- con't

For those of you are conscious about grammar here are some more tidbits. These examples are taken from DR1 posts that are examples of errors. Most of them are grammatical due to lack of knowledge and understanding of the fundamentals, some are sociolinguistic based and others are due to phonetics and not understanding orthographic rules in Spanish.


1/ Haya vs. Halla- these are two words that are phonetically identical however, the meaning of each is completely different.

haya- is the 1st /3rd person present subjunctive form of the verb "haber". Ejemplo-
Espero que haya pasado un buen rato.

2/ halla- is the 3rd person singular present tense form of the verb hallar (to find)- Ejemplo- El se?or quiere hallar una soluci?n.

3/ Haiga- In specialized grammar text books and socioloingusitics this verb form is always critiqued strongly. It's considered a "vulgarismo" in linguistic terms. Haiga is also classified as a ruralismo and definitely incorrect although you will hear this form used in the DR and other areas in Latin America. Haiga= Haya. In some countries it is completely incorrect.

4/ Deber- I often see "deve" instead of "debe". and [v] in general terms are identical phonetically however, not interchangeable orthographically.

5/ Conocer- often spelt incorrectly in the infinitive form and when conjugated. Forms such as "conoser" and "conose" do not exist. There is a phonetic change in a few verb forms for example "conozco", "conozca", "conozcas" etc. A review of verb tenses for all forms would be helpful.

6/ Tambi?n- I saw this word written incorrectly on DR1 recently. It was written as "tanbi?n". This is a phonetic and sociolinguistic error involving the letters [m] and [n] before the letter and as a result pronounced and written incorrectly by some speakers. "Tanbi?n" does not exist in Spanish.

7/ Empezar- this verb has spelling changes when conjugated in the present and the past tense. Examples- empiezo (present tense) empec? (preterit tense) and NOT empez? which I often see. There is an orthographic rule in Spanish to avoid this error. "Z" never precedes "e".

8/ Hola Todos= I see this often on DR1. This is incorrect. The correct form is "Hola a todos" (the "a" called the personal "a" in grammar is obligatory). As well in other phrases where the "a" is required and it is often omitted.

9/ PH= the English phonetic sound [ph] = [f] in Spanish. For example la foto and not la photo, tel?fono and not tel?phono etc.

10/ Cuando -as an adverb of time when referring to a future action it must be followed by the subjunctive. There is a difference in meaning between cuando voy vs. cuando vaya, cuando puedo vs. cuando pueda, cuando regreso vs cuando regrese etc.

10b/ Cualquier- in statements in which what is being referred to is "hypothetical" or "indefinite" the subjunctive must be used. A classic example is:

"cualquier pregunta que tenga" is correct and NOT "cualquier pregunta que tiene or tendr?a".

-this usage actually coincides with English because what is really being said is "Any question you (may) have" ( "may" conveys the idea that it's "hypothetical")

11/ The subjunctive- a grammar topic that traditionally poses problems for those who are learning or for those who consider themselves fluent but still have not mastered the subjunctive. However, it's a very important aspect of Spanish from a grammatical standpoint. When not used when it should it stands out incredibly and breaks the flow of a proper grammatical phrase. There are several examples in many posts. Other than understanding the grammatical aspect, you can't think in English and then translate. Point #10 is an example.

12/ Entender- on DR1 I often see "yo intiendo" which does not exist since the infinitive of the verb is "entender" thus "entiendo".


* This is just to continue with observations. Grammar topics have been discussed in other threads in the past. Please do a search if you have any questions or consult a good grammar textbook. Thanks.



-LDG.

RE: Post 5, 6 & 7-

Regarding the subjunctive your best resource is always a grammar book. Relying on links for language learning is never complete in my opinion. They should just be used to compliment if anything.

Intermediate and advanced grammar textbooks explain subjunctive grammar concepts thoroughly. You will see various grammar concepts which explain the usage of the subjunctive including examples of informal colloquial speech where the indicative mood is used over the subjunctive by some speakers which is not encouraged but it's to make you aware of what you may hear.

There are many good text books on the market if you are willing to spend a few dollars. My suggestion is to go to your local university bookstore and look at the textbooks used for Spanish grammar. I always recommend the university selections for grammar which are normally very good.

Cualquier vs cualquiera- the apocopated form (short form) is used before for all nouns. However, the full form is used if it follows the noun. There are other adjectives that follow this rule in Spanish.

ej. -cualquier persona, cualquier mujer, cualquier libro.

If you have heard "cualquiera pregunta" in colloquial speech, I know why and I will leave that for you to research but from a grammatical perspective it's incorrect.


Juancarlos- Gracias. Thanks for the support.


-Once again everyone if you have any questions please consult a grammar reference.


-LDG.

RE: Post -9,10 & 11

Trina- Merci beaucoup. I am glad to know that the "tidbits" of info help.

2LeftFeet- I will be glad to help via PM. I post no personal info. I have my reasons. I will respond to your question(s). Thanks.

Nikke- I am sure it's not only you and you have to keep in mind that the subjunctive in English does not always have different verbs forms for the most part. Most present tense forms are the same as the indicative mood and some forms are no longer used. Only a small percentage of speakers use the subjunctive in English at all times. For example what bothers me in English is when people say "I wish I was rich" and it should be "I wish I were rich" because it's a contrary to fact statement. "Were" is the subjunctive form in English to express desire however, "I wish I was" xxx is so commonly used that it's an accepted form of speech although it will never make sense to me or be an acceptable form of speech.

In Spanish the subjunctive mood is alive and widely used. Proper speech depends on it and as I said when it's not used when it should be it stands out incredibly. In Spanish an incorrect form would be "espero que me das" xxx. It s/b "espero que me des" xxx. "Quiero que vengas" is correct and NOT "quiero que vienes" etc. My suggestion is to study the subjunctive mood like a course on it's own and all its facets once you have a good command of grammar in the indicative mood.

As I keep saying a good grammar book will do wonders and all your questions can be answered if you truly dedicate time to studying Spanish grammar.

All for now.

-LDG.

RE: Spelling in Spanish-

Don Juan-

IMHO it's easy to spell in Spanish as compared to the two other languages I write in which are English and French. Spanish is an extremely phonetic based language therefore it always puzzles me when people can't spell properly in Spanish. French on the other hand is extremely archaic phonetically speaking such that it's hard to guess how a word is written if you have not seen or learned the orthographic spelling previously. In terms of the accents anyone can miss one here or there in Spanish but once you know the rules of accentuation you will never go wrong in Spanish. In Spanish the accents are syllabic meaning to indicate where the stress is on a word. The only accent that actually changes the phonetic sound is la di?resis in a word like ling??stico vs guiar. Compare the sound of g?? vs gui.

Believe it or not a thorough review of the Spanish alphabet would be a starting point for you to understand the phonetic sound of each letter. La hache [h] is mute however, it always must be written. Words like hacer, haber, hallar, etc must have the written [h]. Countless times on DR1 and on the Internet I see erroneous spelling in Spanish of basic words which clearly tells me something about the lack of understanding of spelling in Spanish. People don't know the orthographic rules, some are using English phonetics to spell in Spanish and it's also clear to me people don't read. This holds true for any language. In a general sense if you don't read in English, French or Spanish etc your spelling will deteriorate.

If you really want to get a command of your spelling in Spanish again I will say this as I have been saying in this thread and in the forum in general invest in a proper grammar book and/or a book that focuses on Spanish orthography. Even good dictionaries have a section on spelling which reiterates its importance.


-LDG.


PD- I will simply read now unless it's necessary to respond. Much of what I have said has been said before. Merci beaucoup.

Trina-

There is ambiguity in the Spanish phrase. Your verb forms are okay but my doubt is the way you expressed "los d?as vengan f?cil" y "los momentos pasen lento". There are two ways to interpret this and the way you wrote it lacks concordance because as I mentioned in my previous PMs are f?cil and lento intended to be adjectives or adverbs that's what needs to be clarified.

Let's take it off-line. I will clarify this via PM.

Thanks

-LDG.