Things to not skimp on when first learning español

Question

What are some of the key things to NOT miss out on when setting out on the road to learning español ? what would some of you advise, for more functional and well built understanding of the language, and what things do you wish you had known earlier ? etc.

• Terrific question! Wonderful answers!! - ajaks Jan 8, 2012

Answer 1

I wish I had taken the bull by the horns and tackled the verbs.The Spanish verb "nightmare" as everyone assumes it to be is not at all scary.virtually all of the verb books I had to try and read could be printed on a pamphlet! Take some time to listen to spanish television or radio and home in on those verbs. As you become more proficient, you will begin to see all of the patterns and you will be able to predict the correct conjugation of most verbs. I spent far too long banging my head against the wall with phrases etc, I wish I had begun with the verbs - Which are actually quite easy after all!

• This is actually quite encouraging - thanks! - ajaks Jan 8, 2012
• wow thanks. I will 100% take on that awesome advice! gracias - Quespañol Jan 9, 2012

Answer 2

Things not to skimp on:

1 Learning how to conjugate verbs properly (Especilally: the future and subjunctive) and learning the personal pronouns by heart with their respective verb forms (shown below!) This is because Spanish speaking natives do not usually use these personal pronouns in daily conversation or writing so you need to know to which person they are referring.eg:

(Yo) soy = I am

(tú) eres = you are (familiar form)

él/ella/ud es he/she is//you are

(nosotros) somos = we are

(vosotros) sois = You are (only used in Spain)

(ellos) son = they are/you are (group)

2 Learning the masculine and feminine articles with their respective nouns at the same time! eg la casa, el libro, el salón, el baño etc..and including the exceptions:

eg el problema, el día, el agua, el aguila, la mano etc.....

If you try to learn them separately from their nouns you will only have to re-learn them laterand will not know if the noun is masculine or feminine!

3 Learning the numbers : eg how to count to 100 the cardinal numbers eg uno dos tres etc....

4 Learning to use the numbers to tell the time. You may wish you had learnt them if you ever have to ask someone the time and don't know how to ask or understand the reply.

5 One key principle is to listen to what people are saying and to avoid translating what is being said/spoken word for word (either in your head or out loud)

This takes considerable practice. In English the key points of what someone is saying can usually be understood before the phreas is completed.

However, in Spanish because sentence construction is considerably different, vital information can be lost if you do not listen to all the information because you are so busy rrying to focus on certain words to understand them or trying to translate word for word. This appraoch seldom works!

I will add more examples as and when I can think of them!

I hope this helps

• No. 2 above has caused me some real heart-burn and the contrast between ser and estar, especially in later tenses! - patc Jan 8, 2012
• Ser v estar can be very tricky at times :) just as knowing when to use the preterite v the imperfect and the subjunctive can continue to trip people up eeven when they have reached an intermediate level - FELIZ77 Jan 8, 2012
• I've been very diligent Re: #1 through 4 (whew!); but I'd never actually considered #5 in that light. Great advice Feliz! I'm taking notes. - ajaks Jan 8, 2012
• very comprehensive, thanks ! notes taken ! - Quespañol Jan 9, 2012

Answer 3

Don't be afraid of the subjunctive; it's not the bogeyman.

• Yes it is/ - gringojrf Jan 8, 2012
• Lol!!! - Naomi_Callas Jan 8, 2012
• Lol! It's pretty squeery! =:o - ajaks Jan 8, 2012
• lol, I'll remember that once I get to it. I'll keep your words in mind. - Quespañol Jan 9, 2012

Answer 4

Pronouns, pronouns and pronouns. As stated above the verbs are hard but you can start off with just a couple of tenses and add more as you get more proficient. But if you can't get the pronouns you can't understand who is doing what to whom. Plus the are very vqgue because the same pronoun can apply to more than one person (el=him/it; ella=her; ellos=them/it; ellas=them, su, sus, suyo, suya, suyos, suyas) and then there is "se:".

All of this makes the language "vague". So I vote for pronouns.

• I agree with you. Understanding pronoun use is critical. - Goyo Jan 8, 2012
• ¡A mi también! - ajaks Jan 8, 2012
• thanks! - Quespañol Jan 9, 2012

Answer 5

Ditto everyone else's answers, especially about the subject pronouns and how they work with verbs. If you can get that down, (first the subject pronouns, backwards and forwards, then some regular verbs in the present tense, then some "must-know" irregulars, then some stem-changers... later, the preterit and imperfect...) you'll have a solid foundation and everything will fall into place. (Including possessive adjectives, reflexive pronouns, direct and indirect object pronouns, etc.) It all makes sense if you "get" the subject pronouns.

One more thing I highly recommend is to work on your spoken accent. This will mean putting yourself wherever native Spanish is spoken. (Could be a local grocery store or restaurant where you live, or you might have to find cd's or recorded radio or television programs.) Deliberately working on your accent and modeling it after native speakers of the language is the only way to do justice to all of your hard work.

Also, don't be afraid to practice with other speakers of Spanish. Every effort will be appreciated, even if what you say isn't technically perfect, or if the one thing you say is just about all you can say. Breaking that language barrier, or even just bending it a bit, is such a "connecting" experience, and it will motivate you to learn more and more.

Good luck!

• Excellent advice Tejana. Thanks! Any timeline on exactly when "everything will fall into place?" I'm still waiting & hoping..... - ajaks Jan 8, 2012

Answer 6

Here are a couple of things that would have saved me a lot of confusion if I hadn't been taught the "simplified way" first (and was led to believe that they were the "rules" and not a simplified version). Simplified ways are easy to understand, but are essentially wrong or not widely applicable and drove me nuts trying to apply them to examples that didn't fit. These might not make much sense now if you're just starting out but you'll come across the topic eventually, so maybe they'll be helpful for you once you get there:

(1) ser vs. estar: Forget that it's about permanent vs. non permanent characteristics/states/conditions. Lazarus's guide on this site is a good post on why that's not a very good way to look at it. I personally like how some guides make the distinction between the two by separating usage by what parts of speech follows ser/estar. For example, except in the cases of very few idiomatic uses, estar is hardly ever directly followed by a noun, pronoun, infinitive, or clause. So if I want to say something is something, and that second something is a noun/pronoun/infinitive/clause, I know to go with ser without worrying about what kind of characteristic it is. Similarly adverbs, and adjectives used as adverbs are in the domain of estar (the only exception being ser + adverbial phrases telling where an event takes place). Adjectives are where it gets more tricky.

(2) pronomial verbs (getting confused as "reflexive verbs"): All those verbs that get a "se" attached to them (lavarse;caerse;etc.) often are introduced in lessons as "reflexive verbs." Get away from the idea that verbs are "reflexive," they make you translate them weird and confuse you when you run into ones that aren't really reflexive. Whenever you see a verb listed in the dictionary with a "se" attached to the end don't think of them automatically as "reflexive verbs," think of them as pronomial verbs which just mean that when you want to use them for that particular meaning, they need a reflexive pronoun (me/te/se/nos/os) and that these reflexive pronouns always must correspond to the subject of the verb (i.e. whoever/whatever you conjugate the verb to match). When you use verbs with these reflexive pronouns, there are a lot of different types of meanings that can get conveyed depending on what verbs are used and what the rest of the sentence is about. One of these meanings can be reflexive, in other words with certain verbs, when you use them with a reflexive pronoun they indicate that the subject does the action to or for himself/herself (hence "reflexive", action goes back on the doer), but that's not the only way pronomial verbs are used.

(3) Ditto on the pronouns For me the most confusing were reflexive pronouns, indirect object pronouns, and direct object pronouns because they are all the same except in the third person. These pronouns have a literal match in English, however they are used in Spanish in ways that wouldn't be translated to their literal match in English, and translators won't help you here because a lot of them translate literally.

So when you see these pronouns, remember that they don't always mean their literal equivalent ( e.g. himself/herself (se), "to him" "to her" (le), etc.) for example sometimes they are used to indicate possession or that the person is affected by the action of the verb (but they aren't really direct/indirect objects either). Get a good guide and take the time to learn the different ways these pronouns are used.

Last but not least for a well built understanding of a language, I personally think it is super helpful, maybe even necessary, to learn the parts of speech well if you haven't already. Knowing if words are adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, adjectives that are used as adverbs, etc. helps one to know how to use them correctly and knowing the terms will also help you to understand the more in-depth guides that are written about Spanish grammar.

Edited: fixed a typo and added a missing exception in the ser/estar section

• Really terrific advice, Jellybean! I'm beginning to get a handle on ser vs estar, thanks to Lazarus, and your tips are going to help a lot. But so far the pronouns & pronomial verbs have completely eluded my comprehension! Arrrgh!! - ajaks Jan 8, 2012
• I definitely know what you mean. I highly recommend reading a comprehensive grammar guide that will list with examples all the different ways these pronouns are used. That helped me a lot. - Jellybean199 Jan 9, 2012
• That would help, JB, but I also need a workbook with lots of practice. Looks like these will have to be pounded into my brain. "Ow...." - ajaks Jan 9, 2012