Learning Spanish tips.

Question

Hola mi compañeros ! I am looking for tips on how to work my way through Spanish. I've been hanging around on Spanish Dict for around a month now and can speak the present tense well but am getting mind wracked with the videos of Subjunctive , preterit , Imperfect subjunctive y mucho más ! I can speak the Future also , but don't know past as the stems get broken a lot ( future is simpler as stems remain ) . Should i work my way and perfect my past present and future and then move onto Subjunctives or preterit ?( I'm confused when to use preterit , as i don't know grammar theory in english as I've been speaking it for 17 years now and just learnt through experience and it is my first language ) . I've watched from 2.1 video to 3.10 and i'm getting the hang of it but am wondering whether I should slow down . I'm also looking for a translation to say these lines " How can i Face a day tomorrow , When i got nothing else to lose " I would translate it as " Como vera una Dia el mañana , cuando tengo nada más perder " Gracias por Ayudarme

Answer 1

I'm having some dificulties with the past tenses as well.

Maybe a piece of advice: Altough this is a great site to learn spanish, you should do more then just follow the great lessons of Paralee. I read these books and it was a great tool to improve my spanish.

-Easy Spanish Reader: A Three-part Text for Beginning Students .

http://tinyurl.com/346qstg

-Las Puertas Retorcidas/The Twisted Doors: The Scariest Way in the World to Learn Spanish! .

http://tinyurl.com/35l22pm

And now I ordered Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal from Amazon.

another advice: Take part in this forum. I'm Belgian (dutchspeaking) and I improved my english significantly by taking part in (english) forum discussion on the internet a couple of years ago. And: Dare to make mistakes!

The Three-part Text is a really good tool for beginners. It's good that you recommended it. - Delores--Lindsey, May 5, 2010

Muchas Gracias !! Soy de India !! - SELWICH425, May 5, 2010

Answer 2

¿Cómo puedo enfrentar mañana cuando no tengo nada más que perder.

poder - to be able to (can)

enfrentar - to face

no tengo nada - have nothing

In Spanish, double negatives are used

You might try repeating some of the lessons before going on. Practice in one tense until you are comfortable with that, then move on. Actually, everyone has to find a system of learning that works for them. Keep practicing and asking questions. Most certainly as Petirrojo said, don't be afraid to make mistakes.

It's good that you tried your own translation before asking.