General guidance

Question

I'm trying to write a letter to a friend for practice but have fairly limited spanish (working on improving). this is what i have so far and i would appreciate any pointers...

Hola Adam! Queria escribir a usted en espanol. Estoy practicando mucho pero hago muchos errors! Tambien aprendiendo lenguaje por señas. Es confuse! Necesito hacer muchas actividades porque mi trabajo es aburrido. Bristol tiene muchas cosas que hacer.

Como es tu curso? Reading es agradable?

Answer 1

Welcome to the forum, Laura!

What a wonderful job you have done. Everything in your letter was comprehensible ("lenguaje por señas" was perfect for "sign language"). If you implement the suggestions given by other posters here, you will have a flawless letter.

We really hope that you come back often to Spanishdict!

Answer 2

Hello Goyo -- or anyone

is normal Spanish syntax. IMO

What is "IMO"?

In My Opinion? - Mokay, Mar 28, 2010

Answer 3

I am not much of a grammarin but I read your letter as this: Hello Adam, I want to write to you in Spanish.I am practicing a lot because I make many errors.I am also learning langage by signs.It is confusing.I need to have a lot of activities because my work is boring.Bristol has many things to do.

How is your course? Is Reading nice?

Answer 4

Is Bristol a city or town?, maybe she means that there are a lot of things to do in Bristol (to have a good time).

If that is the case, I would say "Hay muchas cosas para hacer en Bristol".

Oh, excellent!!!! I thought Bristol was a person. - Goyo, Mar 27, 2010

Answer 5

Thank you so much everybody! Using "hay" for there are many thing to do in bristol makes perfect sense thank you!! I really struggled with the first bit though - i thought i would write to you in spanish - not sue if this is 100% conveyed correctly?

Answer 6

Hi Laura,

I have a few things:

1. Quería needs the tilde
2. Español needs an ñ rather than an n.
3. I think practico beats estoy practicando
4. Es confuso
5. If Adam is your friend, don't you want to use the tú form rather than usted?
6. I'm not sure "tiene muchas cosas que hacer" is normal Spanish syntax. IMO "tiene que hacer muchas cosas" is better. (someone please correct me if I am wrong.)

Good job though. You're only going to get better.

Answer 7

I'm even less a grammarian than Nihzon but I'll put in my 2 pesos worth. Don't forget the ¿ before your questions; ¿Como es tu curso? ¿Lectura es agradable? Also, on this site you can check your translations word by word simply by clicking on them. Oh! and I almost forgot, ¡bienvenido al foro!