Language Shock....

Mr. Hollywood says on Oct 20, 2005, 13:04:

Passive constructions As you know, in English almost every action has an actor. In Spanish so many things just do themselves, it's hard for a gringo to wrap his mind around. That and the direct/indirect object constructions.

0 funny, 0 helpful.

Colombiche says on Oct 20, 2005, 13:06:

Oh and the Y and the J We get those mixed up. Like we eat Yello that is colored Jellow.

No me den trago extranjero, que es caro y no sabe a bueno.... (Rafael Godoy)

0 funny, 0 helpful.

adrimm says on Oct 20, 2005, 13:07:

Accented English The one my mother has the most trouble with the the "v" "b" destinction. While vocab and grammer are pretty good, my mother "have never master dee axen"

Other words that I still hear:

Esaandweechay = sandwich
Woks Paper = Wax paper
Deliverisus = Deliver Us
Kaijack = Kayak
Chopping = Shopping

0 funny, 0 helpful.

Colombiche says on Oct 20, 2005, 13:13:

Any word that beings with W.. Like what, why, well... becomes gua, guay, guell. Hi jaguar Joo?

No me den trago extranjero, que es caro y no sabe a bueno.... (Rafael Godoy)

0 funny, 0 helpful.

Colombiche says on Oct 20, 2005, 13:26:

Tinto Maybe it is the Arab influence. So many years of Moor occupation left us with words like "ojala" (God willing).

No me den trago extranjero, que es caro y no sabe a bueno.... (Rafael Godoy)

0 funny, 0 helpful.

Eclipse says on Oct 20, 2005, 13:39:

rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr As an asiantico gringo learning spanish, the hardest sound for me is the rolling R. Ferrocarril turns into "Fellocallil".

One of the things I'm learning is that what I would normally say in English, can't be a direct translation into spanish, so I'd have to think of another way to say it. I was chatting to an amiga and I wrote "I'm afraid not" in spanish. She replied, "Why are you afraid". Little things like that.

So what does "She sells seashells by the seashore" sound like?? :)

0 funny, 0 helpful.

mrgizmo says on Oct 20, 2005, 13:49:

I'm sooooo confused.... Ojos is ICE, ICE is HIELO and HIELO is amarillo

Behind every successful man, there's a nagging woman

0 funny, 0 helpful.

kernow62 says on Oct 20, 2005, 14:58:

Eclipse that reminds me of an old Benny Hill character, he was playing a Chinese fellow being interviewed for British TV.

Benny Hill: "She was breast with two lovely nipples."

Interviewer (slightly shocked): "Breast with two nipples?"

Benny Hill: "No you idiot, breast with two lovely little nipples."

Interviewer: "Oh, she was blessed with two lovely little nippers."

Benny Hill: "Oy vey!"

****Note: For all you Yanks who don't know the English language, nippers = kids.

0 funny, 0 helpful.

Crazy4Cali says on Oct 20, 2005, 15:02:

Guano I saw a t-shirt on someone (I think it was actually on the Univision channel) that said:

"Estar Guars"

In the "perspective" font

I about died!

(now I need to find one!)

0 funny, 0 helpful.

Colombiche says on Oct 20, 2005, 15:07:

LOL I have a cousin who lives in NY who used to be married to a gringo gentleman. He understood a little bit of Spanish, if you spoke really slowly, but when you went up to him and spoke really fast just to get on his nerves, he would just answer:

"La tuya, la tuya!!"

No me den trago extranjero, que es caro y no sabe a bueno.... (Rafael Godoy)

0 funny, 0 helpful.

Colombiche says on Oct 20, 2005, 15:14:

Colombian Saying.. some spanish expressions would bomb if you translated them literally.

Hacer el oso (embarrass yourself)-- Make the bear
Un pelagatos (a nobody) -- Cat skinner?
Voltearepas (two face) -- A guy who turn the arepas?
Mamar gallo (be a bugger) -- To suck the rooster???? or even worse, try using the alternative word for rooster....


Okay, can't even keep going, this is too horrible a scenario.

No me den trago extranjero, que es caro y no sabe a bueno.... (Rafael Godoy)

0 funny, 0 helpful.

adrimm says on Oct 20, 2005, 18:36:

My mom has one That loses all potency

"Si no le gusta, que le amara un trapito donde mejor le paresca"

Literally
If they don't like it then let them tie rag wherever they think a rag should go.

0 funny, 0 helpful.

Colombiche says on Oct 20, 2005, 18:40:

Adri My mother has another saying that is just a slight variation of the one your mother uses: "Si no le gusta, que se ponga un parche donde mas le duela". (If they don't like it, let them put a bandaid wherever it hurts the most).

No me den trago extranjero, que es caro y no sabe a bueno.... (Rafael Godoy)

0 funny, 0 helpful.

Caballista says on Oct 20, 2005, 21:27:

?????? What? I friend of mine was very upset because he went to buy beer and he got cheese!!!
Why? well he said: shees poks please, meaning six packs please.

And a lady that was working as a nanny, her boss asked her to bring the jacket to Mr.....because he was leaving, and she thought that they where introducing him to her, and then she said: Hi Mr. Jacket. I hope you can understand my English, jajajaja I still learning to. (too)

I'm always careful when I have to pronounce 2 words: BEACH and SHEETS because with my accent it sounds COMPLETELY DIFFERENT ;) you know.

0 funny, 0 helpful.

Rubiazo says on Oct 20, 2005, 21:34:

the V-B in the Cyrillic alphabet, it actually goes A-B-V-G-D. Those last four letters have very similar sounds and are formed in a similar fashion by the mouth.
The Greeks didn't have a V per se but had hard and soft B's back in the day.
The Romans didn't have the V sound in Latin at all. The Roman "V" and "U" were the same thing. When it was used as a consonant we would write "W" now.
The "B" and "P" are a consonantal pair. They both use the lips, but the 'P' is unvoiced and the 'B' is voiced.
"V" is exactly like "B" but it uses the velar region. In the different dialects of Vulgar Latin, people pronounced the "B" differently depending on where it was in the word (between vowels, at the end etc.)
Many Latin American Spanish speakers still pronounce the two letters identically, and confuse them when they spell, as they confuse s, c, and z, which are pronounced identically throughout Latin America.
Properly pronounced, the D and G algo change in Spanish, depending on where they stand in a sentence. In between vowels, the mouth assumes what is called a 'fricative' position, which means that one sort of half-forms the vowel. The "V" in Spanish has this same relation to the "B", it is neither completely labial nor completely velar.

0 funny, 0 helpful.

Rubiazo says on Oct 20, 2005, 21:35:

CORRECTION WHat i meant to say was:

The "V" is completely velar. The B after a consonant etc is completely labial. the "B" in between vowels is a fricative, somewhere in between "B" and "V" in English.

0 funny, 0 helpful.

Caballista says on Oct 20, 2005, 21:39:

rubiazo: toooo much information it was very funny without explicaciones.
Lets keep the cool part and not the sabelotodo part. Thanks.

0 funny, 0 helpful.

platano says on Oct 20, 2005, 21:44:

Here's one I still don't understand... can someone explain it? In Spanish you use the present tense of the verb when refering to something that happened yesterday... something that happened in the past. Here is an example...

Ayer casi me caigo. (Yesterday I almost fell.)

Ayer (yesterday, in the past) casi me caigo. (verb is in the present tense)

Why?

Plátano X
Oxigeno Verde ¡Libertad por Ingrid y los demás!

plátano

0 funny, 0 helpful.

Caballista says on Oct 20, 2005, 21:48:

GringoDeLousiana and Colombiche the word its pa-ran-gari-cuti-rimí-cuaro parangaricutirimícuaro.
parangarí and it is a part of a song (bailable) and it's also the name of a mexican town.

0 funny, 0 helpful.

utopiacowboy says on Oct 20, 2005, 22:04:

Two huge stumbling blocks for an English-speaker (or even a French speaker) learning Spanish are the use of the subjunctive tense in Spanish and the overabundance of reflexive verbs. One thing I notice is that different people use reflexives more than others. I notice some speakers put "me" in front of almost every first person singular verb they use whether they need it or not. OTOH, my wife keeps their use to a minimum.

Disclaimer: any comment I make is inane and is not to be taken seriously, and is so patently ridiculous that no one should take it seriously, even as an insult.

0 funny, 0 helpful.

Rubiazo says on Oct 21, 2005, 00:01:

Somehow I dont think that's a SPANISH word at least, not in the classical sense :P

Platano and UC, those are two examples of not-so-good Spanish! The Spanish subjunctive is abused and misused (or ignored) a lot by many native Spanish speakers. In textbook Spanish, the subjunctive is very close to the (textbook) French subjunctive. Likewise, many of those reflexives are not supposed to be there!

And that sentence should read 'Ayer casi me caí.' The way you put it sounds just as silly as 'Yesterday I almost fall.'

Caballista, it looked to me like Tinto asked a serious question, so I answered him. Sorry if i ruined your 'fun'!

0 funny, 0 helpful.

Rubiazo says on Oct 21, 2005, 00:08:

Colombiche The hardest thing about learning Spanish for me was getting the right rhythm. In Spanish, unlike other European languages, you don't pause on stressed syllables, you just stress the VOLUME of them. That took me a long time to get right. (Brazilian Portuguese is also like this, and Argentinian and Chilean Spanish are not).

It was also hard at first to understand people because when you are listening for the stresses on the syllables and expecting a pause and don't get one, it all comes out just sounding like a machine gun!

I think Spanish speakers have a much harder time learning English than viceversa. The general lack of structure makes it very difficult for them, and even worse are the short vowels, which don't exist in Spanish.

0 funny, 0 helpful.

Miguel says on Oct 21, 2005, 00:21:

Indeed a challenge, but personally, one I love. You have to resist applying the grammatical rules and pronunciations of your native language to the one you are learning, and you need to master the real first step...the alphabet of your new language. Pimsleur and Michel Thomas audio lessons helped me with the basics, and frequent travel to Colombia and The Dominican Republic gave me the opportunity to put Spanish to practical use. Currently I study with a private tutor who does not speak English, but being a former radio journalist in Santo Domingo, her Spanish is so clear, that I have no difficulty understanding anything she says. I am learning "las reglas" of grammar in Spanish, the vosotros form, and am rapidly losing my gringo accent. I highly recommend taking lessons from a native speaker. UC, you got the best of both worlds.

0 funny, 0 helpful.

Miguel says on Oct 21, 2005, 00:28:

Rubiazo... "and even worse are the short vowels, which don't exist in Spanish."

Please explain, if you don't mind.

0 funny, 0 helpful.

Rubiazo says on Oct 21, 2005, 00:36:

Short vowels 'i' as in 'bit'
'e' as in 'tempo'
'a' as in 'bat'
'aw' as in 'saw'
'oo' as in 'book'

0 funny, 0 helpful.

kernow62 says on Oct 21, 2005, 04:24:

'oo' as in book, where I come from that is a long sound, I guess it is what English you learn just as it depends on which Spanish etc.

0 funny, 0 helpful.

emero says on Oct 21, 2005, 04:47:

paranganocutirimicuaro What are you trying to do to me!

Ship chip chopping shopping cheap sheep, my boyfriend took a while to hear the difference

I'm not going to try to say that word fast... or slow
the ll sounds get me I have to think about it, I love the double rr's as I'm scottish and can roll my rr's well
some things come in handy

What I have problem with is where the emphasis is in a word, with or without accents, that just takes practice and being able to listen.




hugs Diane x

hugs Diane x

0 funny, 0 helpful.

Colombiche says on Oct 21, 2005, 07:58:

Caballista "I'm always careful when I have to pronounce 2 words: BEACH and SHEETS because with my accent it sounds COMPLETELY DIFFERENT ;) you know."

So when you go to Cartagena, how do feel about the sun of a beach?? ;) ;) ;)

No me den trago extranjero, que es caro y no sabe a bueno.... (Rafael Godoy)

0 funny, 0 helpful.

utopiacowboy says on Oct 21, 2005, 08:30:

Reminds me of my oldest stepson who at first whenever he would try to say SOB it would come out sounding like "sun of a beach". Of course now he can throw out English palobrotas like a sailor. I had to sign his paper this morning giving him permission to enter the high school's gifted program.

Disclaimer: any comment I make is inane and is not to be taken seriously, and is so patently ridiculous that no one should take it seriously, even as an insult.

0 funny, 0 helpful.

utopiacowboy says on Oct 21, 2005, 09:06:

Rubiazo, this is a whole new side of you, dude! I bet Franko didn't know you were a linguist!

Disclaimer: any comment I make is inane and is not to be taken seriously, and is so patently ridiculous that no one should take it seriously, even as an insult.

0 funny, 0 helpful.

Rubiazo says on Oct 21, 2005, 10:14:

I'm known as a 'cunning linguist'. (although nobody who posts here can attest to that.)

Kernow AFAIK Spanish vowels don't really change much from region to region. Sometimes they get more nasal or adenoidal etc. but they are still long vowels. English is a different story! I think we all pronounce 'book' the same though.

0 funny, 0 helpful.

oldbongo says on Oct 21, 2005, 10:17:

at the dairy queen.. la commandante makes ice cream "sheet cakes"

guess how that sounds...

0 funny, 0 helpful.

oldbongo says on Oct 21, 2005, 10:18:

anyways... spanish has ruined the oldgringos' formerly impeccable english

0 funny, 0 helpful.

Desideria (Moderator) says on Oct 21, 2005, 10:23:

see tinto, the myth of the lisping Spanish king has been shown to be untrue. What a relief, I've been hearing that bs story from gringos for something that feels forever. Is that something they teach at school in Gringolandia?

Cheers,
Desi
(also admiring rubiazo's knowledge of linguistics:)

"When shall we three meet again? In thunder, lightning, or in rain?"(First Witch in Macbeth)

0 funny, 0 helpful.

Rubiazo says on Oct 21, 2005, 10:24:

Part of the problem of learning foreign languages Is that if you don't have a solid grasp of English grammar, you are in deep shit from the get-go.
I learned French hanging around Quebec strippers when I was in my late teens-early 20s. Before that, my education in Canada had been full of holes.
When I seriously started learning Italian and later Spanish and Portuguese, I found that I kept getting stuck on terms and explanations. I solved it by taking out a whole bunch of Princeton review books on English grammar, verbs etc. from the library and poring over them for a few months. It took me until I was 23 to fully understand what a preposition is!
Not to judge anybody, but just as some constructive criticism-- I can tell from the way a lot of people post on here that they may benefit from the same actions. I had no idea how weak my grasp of English grammar was until I started seriously learning other languages!

0 funny, 0 helpful.

Desideria (Moderator) says on Oct 21, 2005, 10:38:

tinto, you are referring to the peninsular pronunciation of the "z", "ci" and "ce" phonemes. As far as I know (and I've asked around) the theory of a lisping king has not been approved. I dare to say it's a myth.

Why is the English "th" pronounced with a lisp? Who was the great British king who ordered al his subjects to imitate him in order to not fall of grace?

Cheers,
Desi

"When shall we three meet again? In thunder, lightning, or in rain?"(First Witch in Macbeth)

0 funny, 0 helpful.

Eclipse says on Oct 21, 2005, 10:55:

kernow62 Wow...Benny Hill. Is he still alive?? LOL

If it was a REAL chinese person, he would have said,
"She was breast with two Rovery nipples." LOL Don't forget the R's in 'lovely'. :P

The one phrase I remember that totally threw me for a loop was, "me haces mucha falta". I was like....?!?!? huh?? "you do me a lot of lack"??? :)

0 funny, 0 helpful.

kernow62 says on Oct 21, 2005, 12:40:

Yes, I think he did say rovery nipples. ja ja

Benny Hill is no longer alive unfortunately.

0 funny, 0 helpful.

kernow62 says on Oct 21, 2005, 12:44:

Rubi, you have obviously never been to the North of England if you think "book" is pronounced the same. Get on yer bike and ride to Liverpool or Manchester or environs, Lancashire, Cheshire, Yorkshire etc. Perhaps you could dig out an old Beatles album or any number of artists from that area and listen specifically for words such as "book" or "look" anything with the double "oo" sound.

I will go along with the Spanish vowels, but I wasn't talking specifically of vowel sounds but of all the sounds of the language.

0 funny, 0 helpful.

Desideria (Moderator) says on Oct 21, 2005, 12:55:

tinto, I haven't noticed much difference in pronouncing the "t" phoneme, except that the Spanish /t/ is never aspirated (a bit of puff of air at the beginning of the word) and sounds just a little bit softer.
A sure give-away of a non-native Spanish speaker would be, however, the /d/ phoneme. It's alveolar in English (pronounced with the tip of the tongue touching the alveolar area just behind your upper front teeth) but it's dental in Spanish ( the tip of the tongue touches the back part of the front teeth). Say "dedo" and I can tell if you're a native speaker of Spanish. Very few non-native speakers ever master this phoneme and the great majority doesn't even hear the difference!

Cheers,
Desi

"When shall we three meet again? In thunder, lightning, or in rain?"(First Witch in Macbeth)

0 funny, 0 helpful.

Desideria (Moderator) says on Oct 21, 2005, 14:04:

back to the original post for us Scandinavians the hardest sounds would be the "hard" ch which we'd tend to pronounce softly like in French. Also the short vowel sounds, b and v, the double l, the y and the j. The trilled r is also an unfamiliar sound to most Scandinavians.

A distinction should be made for the Finns. The Finnish language is actualy phonetically closer to Spanish than the Germanic Scandinavian languages (Swedish, Danish, Norwegian etc). We also speak a language that has the same phonemes for each letter in every situation (a phonetic language) just like Spanish which makes it easy for us to sound "right" from the beginning. We have to watch out for our "voiceless" and "voiced" consonants (b/p, d/t, v/f), also for the accents and intonation.

For me personally, Spanish was my third language and yet it took a couple of years before I learned it well enough of not be ashamed of myself. I guess I'm not a fast learner:(

Cheers,
Desi

"When shall we three meet again? In thunder, lightning, or in rain?"(First Witch in Macbeth)

0 funny, 0 helpful.

Colombiche says on Oct 21, 2005, 14:07:

Yes Desi The d's, the t's, the r's. Those are the biggies for a latino learning English.

We also have trouble pronouncing words like PHONE we pronounce it like FUN, coke we would literally say "COCK", broke is "BROCK".
What an odyssey.

Nothing beats my dad's paisa English. He puts the word "puessss" after each sentence. "I am going overthere puesss".

No me den trago extranjero, que es caro y no sabe a bueno.... (Rafael Godoy)

0 funny, 0 helpful.

Colombiche says on Oct 21, 2005, 14:09:

Desi You are not a fast learner? LOL. Don't you speak like 5 languages? Then people like me who only speak 2 and "chapuceamos" another 3, we must be duh!

I have this complex that I speak russian.. that is why I am going to the barsosky to have myself a couple of aguardentosky's and talk to a bunch of guevinzkys about la rumbosky.

No me den trago extranjero, que es caro y no sabe a bueno.... (Rafael Godoy)

0 funny, 0 helpful.

Desideria (Moderator) says on Oct 21, 2005, 14:28:

LOL, Colombiche Your Russian is far better than mine:)
Yes, the diphtongs or vowel glides are hard for the Spanish speakers:) Be glad you don't have to deal with the umlaut (Ä,Ö). I've yet to meet a Spanish-speaker who can produce the Swedish ä, ö or y.
(I can just hear your Dad with his paisa accent...puessss)

Cheers,
Desi

"When shall we three meet again? In thunder, lightning, or in rain?"(First Witch in Macbeth)

0 funny, 0 helpful.

Rubiazo says on Oct 21, 2005, 20:36:

Desi in many Spanish accents, only the intervocalic D is like that (they call it the 'soft' D). For example 'donde', both D's would be pronounced as in English or other European languages.

0 funny, 0 helpful.

mzzmerized says on Oct 21, 2005, 20:56:

todo or toro? HaHa...In the beginning I was always told that my "todo" sounded like "toro"...I had to really discipline myself to make a more "th" with "todo".

By the way, I communicate with spanish-speaking friends all the time...and they always put a "b" where I would put a "v"...example "chevere" (that's the way I would spell it)...they often spell it "chebere"...and I don't think that's right!!! But who am I to say???

We communicate mostly by msn and I am surprised by their spelling mistakes! (I am not talking about general instant messaging abreviations.)

0 funny, 0 helpful.

Mr. Hollywood says on Oct 22, 2005, 08:41:

Gringlandia education Desi wrote, "the myth of the lisping Spanish king has been shown to be untrue. What a relief, I've been hearing that bs story from gringos for something that feels forever. Is that something they teach at school in Gringolandia?"

No, Desi, we're too busy being taught creationism and how to picket Planned Parenthood centers to waste any time being taught about Spanish kinds, whether real or apocryphal.

0 funny, 0 helpful.

platano says on Oct 22, 2005, 08:50:

Now, Mr. H., you are more right than you know... Except now they have stopped calling it creationism and call it Intelligent Design, instead of Planned Parenthood centers its the Liberal Press (which can only be as liberal as its conservative owners permit). LOL!

Plátano X
Oxigeno Verde ¡Libertad por Ingrid y los demás!

plátano

0 funny, 0 helpful.

CaryGrant says on Oct 22, 2005, 11:02:

I think languages come more easily to some than others, in the same way that some people are better at math, some are physically adept (Wayne Gretzky and Lance Armstrong being extreme examples), and so on.

Also, not sure about the US, but in Canada we are not really taught the rules of grammar in school. Foreigners are often surprised to find that a Canadian who speaks or writes well doesn't know what a preposition is. I still don't, yet I make my living as a writer. You don't need to *consciously* know the rules of grammar to speak or write well. In fact, over-emphasis on 'correctness' and rule-following makes for dead writing. I do NOT regard this as a failing of the Cdn educational system, as, for most people, learning these rules is a waste of their time.

Things I find difficult about learning Spanish:
* Spanish almost always uses articles (the, a, etc.), where English often does not
* When to use para/por, estar/ser, and some others I've forgotten already...
* Occasional long, frustrating silences when my wife and I are talking on the phone, and we run out of words...

Things I like:
* I get to roll my r's, which now I overdo...
* All vowels are pronounced
* The musical sound of the language

0 funny, 0 helpful.

Desideria (Moderator) says on Oct 22, 2005, 15:38:

hey mzz that "toro" instead of todo is a classic. The intervocalic dental d is a tough nut to crack for most foreigners. I have trouble pronouncing "rodrigo" with just the right amount of trill and the d in that position.

Rubi, yes the intervocalic d is the one I meant. I'm pretty sure that in Cali people use the same kind of d also at the beginning of the words, and in some combinations with consonant. "Donde" is not such a good example because the following /n/ phoneme makes it alveolar.

Cheers,
Desi

"When shall we three meet again? In thunder, lightning, or in rain?"(First Witch in Macbeth)

0 funny, 0 helpful.

Rubiazo says on Oct 22, 2005, 16:31:

I pronounce 'donde' with two hard D's, but I have heard is started with a soft D. I'm not too too familiar with the Cauca accent. Most of the Colombians I know are Rolos or Paisas, although I'm starting to make the aquaintance of a few corronchos :))

0 funny, 0 helpful.

Colombiche says on Oct 22, 2005, 17:56:

When learning English as a kid I would have had a hard time with the sentence: "The windchill is hitting my windshield". I would have said "The gween-cheel is hitting my gween-cheel". What a piss, ha ha ha.

Still, nothing beats a Gringo trying to say the "ñ" sound. How about saying "la ñaña y el ñoño" really fast?

GringoinLouisiana -- I can't tell you what paranganocutirimicuaro means, because I don't know, I have heard it, but don't know what it means. Caballista says it is the name of a town in Mexico. I take her word for it!

No me den trago extranjero, que es caro y no sabe a bueno.... (Rafael Godoy)

0 funny, 0 helpful.

COLDK says on Oct 23, 2005, 10:01:

Desi, Im here having LOTS of problems with the 21 vocalic sounds in Danish. Not the same ordering a "killing sandwich" instead of "kylling sandwich", and still need to have a paper with the add, cause i cant pronouce the name of the street when taking a taxi.

0 funny, 0 helpful.

Desideria (Moderator) says on Oct 23, 2005, 10:46:

COLDK From 5 to 21 it's a lot of new sounds to master. As I said before, I haven't met the first native Spanish-speaker who can master the Swedish vowel sounds yet. One of the major problems is that the vocals can have a long sound or a short sound which are two totally different phonemes (making a semantic difference). I am finally getting the hang of it in Swedish but what I hear Danish is even harder.

"Rödspätta" (a fish) comes out like respeta, "krog" (restaurant, bar) comes out like grogg (a drink),the initial s in the words comes out es/as/os etc...it's tough but don't think it's only you Spanish speakers that have trouble with the vowel sounds, the English speakers have the same problem and we Finns struggle with the voiced consonants (borrmaskin=power drill comes out as porrmaskin=porno machine).

I have almost no Finnish accent in Swedish. I have a slight accent, but people can never place it, it's only after I tell them my name they start thinking that I have a Finnish accent.

Cheers,
Desi

"When shall we three meet again? In thunder, lightning, or in rain?"(First Witch in Macbeth)

0 funny, 0 helpful.

Colombiche says on Oct 23, 2005, 11:44:

Desi... The same thing happens to me, some people won't even notice I have an accent, when they see the name "Lopez" they think I crossed the border on foot yesterday.

No me den trago extranjero, que es caro y no sabe a bueno.... (Rafael Godoy)

0 funny, 0 helpful.

utopiacowboy says on Oct 23, 2005, 13:53:

You ought to be in San Antonio, Colombiche. Seven pages of Lopez in the phone book.

Disclaimer: any comment I make is inane and is not to be taken seriously, and is so patently ridiculous that no one should take it seriously, even as an insult.

0 funny, 0 helpful.

Monpirri says on Oct 23, 2005, 19:46:

Phonetics is the study of the sounds of language The consonant “B” and “V” are two different sounds but the best method, in addition to constant practice, is to take a course in English Phonetics. You will able to see the position or articulation of lips, tongue, teeth and larynx as you utter the sound.
For example, the letter “B” is a voiced bilabial plosive which means it is articulated with both lips. Voiced means the vocal cords are vibrating during the articulation and plosive or stop means it is produced by impeding airflow in the vocal tract.

The letter “V” on the other hand, it is a voiced labiodental fricative. Labiodental is when we use the lower lips and the upper teeth, and fricative is the way or articulation which it is produced by impeding air flow through a narrow passage at the place of vocalization, causing disharmony.
When I was enrolled in ESL class in the states, I was not able to see the difference in pronunciation between some English consonants, and not to mention the English vowels, which are about ten different sounds vs. five simple vowels in the Spanish language. The “Th” sound is the one I remember it gave me the most hard time while learning the new language. The phonetic symbol for “th” is [θ] An example of dental fricative are: thing, thy, thigh, loath. Another one that gave me a hard time was the glottal sounds. I am content that I was able to discover Phonetics post high school.

If I had a hard time learning all the different English sounds: bilabial, labiodental, interdental, dental, alveolar, alveopalatal, palatal, velar, uvular, pharyngeal and glottal, I can understand why some people who are not native to Spanish language cannot pronounce or articulate the letter the “ny” sound Ñ in "mañana" which it is a very nasal sound or the “ll” sound as in “llama” and other Spanish sounds.

Annette Taddeo for US Congress 2008

0 funny, 0 helpful.

platano says on Oct 24, 2005, 10:59:

I got the explanation from a Spanish teacher on... Use of the present tense with something that happened yesterday, for example, "Ayer casi me caigo" Turns out it is correct usage: in Spanish and in English! Here is the explanation:

Está bien cuando uno está narrando algo que pasó. Es común usar verbos en el presente cuando se está narrando algo del pasado para darle más "vida" a la narración. En inglés también se usa de esta manera. Por ejemplo, "Yesterday I was crossing the street and I see this car coming at me and the driver almost runs me over..."

Plátano X
Oxigeno Verde ¡Libertad por Ingrid y los demás!

plátano

0 funny, 0 helpful.

Rubiazo says on Oct 24, 2005, 12:30:

I beg to differ with your teacher. What you are referring to is the 'historical present' and it should not be used for yesterday! At least, not in formal English or Spanish.

0 funny, 0 helpful.

platano says on Oct 24, 2005, 13:19:

"...para darle más "vida" a la narración." So, is the definitive proof that formal English and formal Spanish are less lively? LOL!

Plátano X
Oxigeno Verde ¡Libertad por Ingrid y los demás!

plátano

0 funny, 0 helpful.

vladimiro says on Oct 24, 2005, 13:33:

Colombian Sayings My wife uses a lot of sayings when she talks, I hear several a day that I don't understand.

For instance:

1) El que menos corre huela (the one who runs the least smells?)

2) se falta el pollo (its missing the chicken?)

0 funny, 0 helpful.

kat1 (Moderator) says on Oct 24, 2005, 15:13:

Vladimiro is not huela is Vuela
el que menos corre vuela it means "the the one that less runs flies"

I dunno the second one :(

0 funny, 0 helpful.

platano says on Oct 24, 2005, 18:34:

Historical present appears to be proper in English... "When telling stories about past events, people often switch into present tense, as in I was walking home from work one day. All of a sudden this man comes up to me and says…. This phenomenon, called the historical present, has a long history in English and is found in numerous other languages, both ancient and modern. Linguists have sometimes suggested that historical present makes stories more vivid primarily by bringing past actions into the immediate present." --American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000)

plátano

0 funny, 0 helpful.

platano says on Oct 24, 2005, 18:54:

Historical present appears to be proper in Spanish... "Hemos de decir, para empezar, que si bien lo habitual es hallar las referencias al presente histórico acompañadas de ejemplificación en indicativo (forma verbal canto), como es el caso del conocidísimo ejemplo de Gili Gaya (1943)

Colón descubre América en el año 1492

SOURCE: Alexandre Veiga
Universidad de Santiago de Compostela (España)

Seems like formal academic Spanish to me!

plátano

0 funny, 0 helpful.