I really like the idea of learning the literal English translations - i.e., “I have heat.” It makes it a lot easier to learn to speak like a native. I wish there was a book in English that told the story in a literal translation way, so I could learn how Spanish speakers form sentences.
I find that having the literal English stored "in parallel" with the Spanish phrases really helps me remember them, and also make better guesses at related or similar phrases. And there's no danger of confusing myself as to what the correct English is... I hope!
I hate how in my audio programs they won't just say the literal translation of what they want me to say . Why won't the program just say ...... "how do you say 'No is romantic" ? Instead .... No .... the program says ..... how do you say "it's not romantic" "No est romantico ....." See.... the instructor set me up! They asked me to say "est no romantico" .... then Said I was wrong because I translated literally what they asked.
This clicked perfectly in my head! Instead of memorizing countless conjugations. Memorizing phrases indirectly teaches you how to conjugate, while increasing your conversation at the same time! Thank you!!
I am a beginner working my way through your videos. You're a fantastic teacher!! I'd love more on verb phrases and in some kind of order to really nail a full understanding of the most common verbs and how they are used and not used. Very difficult to gather comprehensive information. It's all piecemeal and will for sure leave many holes in my learning. I'd buy a program if you offered one!!
I have a very hard time understanding Spanish. I also tried Duolingo Spanish and honestly, I understand the spoken samples in Duolingo Spanish less well than I understand spoken samples in Duolingo Turkish (despite being able to passively read Spanish so much better). İspanyolca çok zor, ama Türkçe çok kolay :)
Thanks, Paul! I'm really glad I found your channel. Your videos are super helpful, especially since I just started learning Spanish last week. Appreciate you sharing all this useful content!
Hello mate. Could you PLEASE please please make a complete guide video to ‘was’ in Spanish? Fue vs Era vs Estaba vs Estuvo… I’ve been trying to get this concept down now for a little while but I can’t seem to find someone who explains it as concisely as you explain things in your videos, and I’m sure a video from you on the topic would really help!
Definitely ignored echar (the only one I knew was "echar de menos") & definitely need to learn those. Great tips! Tiene sentido aprender así nuevos vocabularios.🙌
Yeah I’ve been running into these a lot since I’ve been studying the B level. I never really thought about it but we do it too. Like “Take a walk” for example, the verb changes its original meaning.
Thanks Paul. Please keep teaching more lessons like these. H-o-w they say things in Mexican Spanish is almost as important as the subjunctive! (bet that got your attention) I heard someone say 'le pone........' and they were talking about the words on a sign!? We say 'it says', they say "it puts'. No way a native English speaker would come up with that intuitively.
Imagine yourself pausing the video at 0:35 and coming up with your own translated responses to these statements. You then pause again at 1:06 to cope with the fact that your responses were all wrong.. 😂 Well done sir.... you have earned your subscription... I must learn the correct way...
I am going to say something possibly controversial but please hear me out. With this guy I just realized what I should have known years ago. If you are a native English speaker, this guy is a better teacher than many Native Spanish speakers. Why? Because a basic native Spanish teacher teaches what he instinctively knows and an advanced Spanish speaker teaches the theory that he has mastered but neither one of them KNOW the weak points and stumbling blocks of a native English speaking student. It's almost as if I had a PhD in human biology, teaching a class about childbirth. I know the subject well but only a woman knows FIRSTHAND the practical issues associated with it. I am embarrassed to admit that I have learned so much from this guy even though I am already multilingual and learning languages is nothing knew to me. I am humbled and at the same time invigorated. Thanks to this channel I will be able to polish up my Spanish to a miiror shine. Thank you, deputy, for your contribution to the mankind.
Excellent question. How an English speaker goes about learning can be very useful. In my language learning it has changed over time. The key for me is repetition using Anki for example. Saving notes is good but having a method to review I think is key. For example I set up a set of cards in Anki called Qroo Paul. I save items and then review regularly. I add additional examples as well. Just one method I use. Also you can find examples in Reverso and others to add.
You’re so right! These are called “collocations” and one should always learn a language in this way. It isn’t enough to learn the word, you also need to become aware of the usual combinations for that verb/adjective/noun and so on. I tend to provide students with the most versatile ones first. Not too many, as it can be overwhelming. I like that you also show some They can use almost straight away. Amongst these, Tener is probably the top Mega verb because it if how much we use it in Spanish. It’s almost as versatile as “get” or “make” are in English. 😊
Dime, por favor. As you know (your being an English speaker originally), our learning to use gustar (not to mention the MANY verbs like gustar) is very difficult for English speakers. Did your wife (or others you know who learned ESL) similarly struggle with the English construction of “I like…..” in place of “Me gusta…”? Muchisimas gracias!
With Verbs of Consumption [comer, beber, tomar] do you hear in Mexico them used with me te se nos? If so, why is it used? I have heard that some use it for emphasis.
I can't recall ever hearing it used with beber, but I have heard tomarse used occasionally when taking pills and comerse when referring to finishing something off: me comí el pastel (no hay más).
A great resource is wordreference. Whenever you look up a word you will see a lot of other usages. Take a look at their page for dar: www.wordreference.com/es/en/translation.asp?spen=dar
As a Mexican, I’ve never heard anyone say “echar de menos” when saying they missed someone. This is the first time I’m seeing this phrase lol people just use “extrañar”
I agree with all of your incorrect mistranslations except "tomar pasos." While it does sound a bit like heavily English-influenced Spanish, it doesn't sound incorrect to me. Would be interested to hear the input of native speakers.
You might find this interesting. The Real Academia Española (RAE) talks about the use of tomar pasos here: www.fundeu.es/recomendacion/tomar-medidas-dar-pasos-mejor-que-tomar-pasos-117/
One of my favorite things about Spanish is learning verb phrases because it also makes you criticize your own language and how it doesnt make sense either. In spanish "el sol se pone" the sun puts?? but in english "The sun sets". Which still makes no sense. Language is funny
When I first moved to Spain I would always say 'Puedo hacer una cita' in the barbers or the dentist, until I was told that it sounds weird to them and it sounds like I'm asking them out on a date. 😅 A natural way to ask here is 'me puedes dar una cita. Another good one is 'me pones' when asking for something in a cafe. 'Can you PUT me a coffee', for example. It's a great 'in the middle' way of asking for things because it's not as formal as quisiera/me gustaria, nor is it as informal as dame. I think a lot of these things you can really only learn by living in a Spanish speaking country. And so much of it will change between regions and countries. The more Spanish I learn, the more I realise that you can never learn it naturally unless you stop thinking in English.
Wow, I'm blown away by your approach to Spanish, and absolutely love it. You've referred to your word lists, and since you seem like a very organized guy, I'm wondering if you can share very concrete ways of how you organize word lists and notes. I've accumulated a mountain of notes, very disorganized, and therefore not easy to access. Thanks for any info you can share.
For DAR I have two favorite. "Me DA igual", I don't care, and "No DA igual", it doesn't matter. But I am finding not used in all areas of Mexico. But I like them, even if I am still only a rookie Spanish speaker after all these years. Super valuable video.
Hola. Puedes usar era o fue (interchangeably) para describir algo que ya ocurrió en el pasado. Por ejemplo ella fue /era una buena amiga. Ten cuidado porque fue también es del verbo ir (ella fue al supermercado ayer .She went to the super market yesterday). La palabra "estaba" por su parte, la puedes usar para describir una situación de un momento puntual del pasado (ella estaba muy triste esa noche). "Estuvo" en cambio,se refiere más a algo que pasó during a period of time.Por ejemplo:Ella estuvo triste por muchos días y lloró mucho. I hope it helps mate . Regards from Chile.
I have noticed something odd to me as a Spaniard. The use of words like "afuera"/"adentro". Let me explain: I don't know how do they work in American Spanish but in European Spanish I think we use the words combined with the preposition "a" when there is movement and their counterparts without "a" for situations whith no movement. Thus, I would say: "He dejado la comida fuera" = "I've left the food outside" as it is the place where the food happens to be (without movement). However, I would say "He sacado la comida afuera" = "I've taken the food outside" (the food has been moved up until that position). The same would apply to other pairs of words: Fuera/afuera Dentro/adentro Delante/alante Detrás/atrás Debajo/abajo Encima/arriba
I really appreciate your unique approach to learning Spanish. Very helpful and useful to adult English speaker trying to learn to speak sentences, not just know vocabulary. Please keep it up! Also, would love to see those word phrases with the MEGA verbs. Much thanks! Cheers!!
May I suggest that when you put the English translation on screen, you also put the literal translation there? You're saying it, but I think there's something about reading "to take a decision" or "to have heat" that would help internalize it. I'm experiencing a bit of a disconnect reading just the English way while knowing and hearing that that's not what they're using in Spanish.
I've been studying Spanish for 2 years (counting in massive breaks i took) but this channel gave me so much new information and so many 'shortcuts'. I am so surprised no one out of all the people that I watch talked about this
:D Wow. Finally I have an advantage with my first language. Echar un vistazo is practically to throw a look (at sth)? We have that expression in german, too =)
All you say is quite true and important. The same happens conversely. It is convenient to learn the English verbs at their use in sentences, like the decisions: in English, they are made. At 6:25, in Spain we say "quitar la mesa". As "levantar" is an opposite to "poner", "quitar" is also an opposite. "Echar" has many many uses. I will comment a few more: "¡échale ganas!" (make more effort!), or "echar a alguien" = to kick out someone. You will probably know this already, and this is a very common fault among the spanish speakers, but "para ti" carries no tilde (3:56). Monosyllabic words don't carry it unless it's diacritical. We have "mi" (my) and "mí" (me), so we use it to distinguish them, but there are not two "ti"; the possesive one is "tu". Thank you for your video.
También ponemos la tele (televisión), ponemos una película, ponemos música, ponemos la radio, quitamos la tele, quitamos la música, quitamos la radio. El sol se pone. La puesta de sol (the sunset).
Oh My Gosh another excellent video with great tips on organizing my verb lists. I’m off to work on those lists! I am definitely sharing with my Spanish Homework group. Thank you Paul!
Thanks for mentioning that hens lay eggs! I suppose I probably need to find something more important to be irritated about, lol, but it always bugs me when I hear people say roosters and chickens, as if the roosters are the males and the chickens are the females.
so I've gotten fluent in Russian learning it since i was 15 and going to russia 9 times. now I decided to learn spanish and have been getting confused on some things. (learning on my own). this video helped a lot so just wanted to express my appreciation. I'll be checking out your channel now for sure as this is the first video I've seen from you. muchas gracias!
Something that’s really helped me along the way was to always keep in mind that Spanish (or any other language) isn’t just English coded word for word. It has its own syntax, set phrases, rules, patterns etc. The faster you accept this the better.
That's a good way to look at it. I often compare languages to musical instruments. They all share similarities but you cant expect a piano to fit in a violin case.
These videos are really helpful. I speak Spanish as a second language quite fluently I think, but going back and reviewing this stuff is very helpful because I still slip up.
Spanish has the most complicated verb system of any language I've studied; on the rare occasion that I'm writing something in Spanish, I generally have to look up the verb conjugation (instead of just instinctively knowing how to conjugate a verb). Even Turkish is easier. So in Turkish: "gelmek" ("to come"), "gelirim" ("I come"), "gelirsin" ("you come"), "geldim" ("I came"), "geldin" ("you came"), "geleceğim" ("I will come"), "geleceksin" ("you will come"), etc. Of course, in Turkish, there's really no way to say "to have"; instead of saying "I have something", the Turkish construct is "My something exists" ("Bir şeyim var"). There's also no equivalent to "to be"; the closest is "olmak" ("to become").
Great info! More please! It seems to me that learning verb PHRASES is more efficient and reduces the frustration of hearing native speakers who don't (of course) use English syntax/constructions. Any more on your list will be greatly appreciated.
Re ser and estar. It took me a few years living here to get even the simplest use right. Because I spoke a smattering of Spanish locals would ask me where I was from, assuming I couldnt possibly be English ! My head would say 'soy inglesa' but my mouth would say 'estoy inglesa' So annoying. 🤨
Good tip; to learn verb phrases or in fact verb associations. I notice in films, echar can have opposite meanings depending how its used. Also, poner is used to put on clothing?
Muy disfruta Muchas Gracias. I did it twice today. You’ll see two partial watches. I put it on landscape and I got to watch your wonderful video without further interruption🙂
As a linguist, that knows five languages and a language, teacher, myself, I find your approach really refreshing and practical and super helpful with Spanish, which, after several other Romance languages, fills my head with language soup, but I am persevering, and now working at an Apple store in New York with many Spanish-speaking customers. My next hurdle? Possibly Brazilian Portuguese! Wish me luck!
Do you think that I could learn French by practicing 30 minutes everyday by writing down the translation of songs for 10 minutes and trying to sing along, read a children’s book and translate it for 10, and review past translations for another 10 ?. I already know how to speak Spanish, and I have some basic knowledge of French
If one looks in a Spanish dictionary one will find lists of examples like this for most of the major verbs. The Spanish/English dictionary doesn't have this. In a standard English dictionary you will find examples of usage in a similar manner. It's important to look words up in one the official dictionaries for that language. I have one for kids as well. The internet has access to these dictionaries but there often is a paywall. For me the hardcover version is best. Same for any other language. People who speak that language didn't learn it in translation.
What dictionaries in book form or website are you using for Mexican Spanish with Spanish only? I ask because as Paul points out these phrases are what is heard in Mexico and will differ from other countries. I recently purchased "Diccionario de Mexicanismos. Propios y compartidos". It’s useful but I think it would be really tough for anyone at a A1 or A2 level. I’m not referring to phrase books but they can help. Thanks.
Se te da muy bien enseñar. There is a 'dar' phrase that is quite different that the english was of thinking. "Teaching, It gives itself to you well" something like that literally.
Do you know where I can find these verbs tho. I can’t afford any fancy Spanish courses I just want a website to find a list of all the common verb phrases
There's no one place but you can find all the info for free in different places. I show you how to find them free: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-YYUwOWGictk.html
Please, please do a video with dar! I mess that one up all the time and while I see frequent articles and videos about how to use tener and poner differently... I don't see those same articles with dar.
