..Tengo 30 anos. I have 30 years.

Question

Hi. I often am confused when trying to speak spanish because of the different way the two languages put there words together. Such as...

spanish
Tengo 30 anos.
I have 30 years.

Pero en ingles
I am 30 years old

another example

spanish
de donde eres?
from where are you?

en ingles
where are you from?

Is there a name to this? Is there somewhere I can research, on this site... how to speak proper spanish? I think I would have a lot easier time if i could learn how to speak correctly before trying to translate the words.
ANyone know what I'm talking about?

Ayudame por favor ---|---|-- Y gracias

Answer 1

Tengo 30 anos = I have 30 anuses

ano = anus
año = year

This is THE word you don't want to misspell in Spanish.

Answer 2

HI angela, look at the change of title, please use a meaningful title for your threads.

The given sentences must be learnt by heart, angela, there is no other way. They are usually the first sentences taught to students of English too, as they are very different from the English original.

I think Paralee deals with these "starting off" sentences in her first lesson.

Answer 3

Hi. I often am confused when trying to speak spanish because of the different way the two languages put there words together. Such as...

spanish

Tengo 30 años.

I have 30 years.

Pero en inglés

I am 30 years old

another example

spanish

de dónde eres?

from where are you?

en inglés

where are you from?

Is there a name to this? Is there somewhere I can research, on this site... how to speak proper spanish? I think I would have a lot easier time if i could learn how to speak correctly before trying to translate the words.

ANyone know what I'm talking about?

Ayúdame por favor ---|---|-- Y gracias

Hi angela
Lazarus is quite correct. You must learn where the accents go in Spanish as this is where the word is normally stressed. If you put the stress of the word in the wrong place it will be unintelligible. I believe I have correctly entered them for you in your post.

Answer 4

Many people don't care, but:

ingles = groins
inglés = English

Answer 5

Many people don't care, but:

ingles = groins

inglés = English

I think it's because they don't realise the difference it makes. When I explain to an English speaker and get them to say the word "necklace" with the stress on the "lace" instead of the "neck" or "apple" with the stress on the "pple" instead of the "a", they then understand. Difficult to explain in writing but I hope you can see what I mean.

Answer 6

Hi. I often am confused when trying to speak spanish because of the different way the two languages put there words together. Such as...

spanish

Tengo 30 anos.

I have 30 anuses.

Pero en inglés:

I am 30 years old.

another example

spanish

De donde eres?

From where are you?

en inglés:

Where are you from?

s

Please don't leave the tilde off of the "n". Its the worst mistake you could make. Other than that, if you are confused when you are speaking Spanish where the English translation is not literal, you need to except the meaning in the difference between what is natural to say in English and Spanish. I don't know the best term to call this. If you have to learn the meaning of these sentences by translating them into English, learn the sentences by their literal translation. The sentence structure will stick into your head by doing that. You must adjust to the sentence structure and meanings in Spanish to really understand it.

Answer 7

Hi. I often am confused when trying to speak spanish because of the different way the two languages put there words together. Such as...

spanish

Tengo 30 anos.

I have 30 years.

Pero en ingles

I am 30 years old

another example

spanish

de donde eres?

from where are you?

en ingles

where are you from?

Is there a name to this? Is there somewhere I can research, on this site... how to speak proper spanish? I think I would have a lot easier time if i could learn how to speak correctly before trying to translate the words.

ANyone know what I'm talking about?

Ayudame por favor ---|---|-- Y gracias

Just stick with it... You will find out as you prgress, most of the time, you cannot translate a piece of text in its literal context because it won't sound correct to the English ear... Spanish idioms are the worst but if you want to be understood by native speakers, you have to learn how natives speak......

Some more examples.......

Esp: Yo(me)tengo dolor la cabeza (literally: I have pain the head)
Eng: My head hurts

Esp: ¿A qué hora, estamos? (literally: To what hour, we have')
Eng: What time(hour) is it?

Note: ¿Qué hora/tiempo es? is acceptable but tiempo also means weather in Spanish. Personally, when I refer to time, I use "hora"(the hour) and tiempo(o clima) for weather.

Answer 8

I agree with PStevenson although I am not sure if those sentences are considered idioms. Here are a couple of notable examples:

---|---|-
Spanish:
¿Qué tiempo hace?
Hace calor.

English:
What's the weather like? CORRECT
It's hot. CORRECT

Literal translation:
What time does? INCORRECT
What does the time do? UNNATURAL
(It) does heat. UNNATURAL
---|---|-
Spanish:
Me gusta jugar al fútbol.

English:
I like to play soccer. CORRECT

Literal translation:
Me pleases to play to the football. MAKES NO SENSE
To play to the football pleases me. UNNATURAL