Problems learning English \ Spanish

Question

I have a real problem trying to determine which preposition I should use in my Spanish sentences. Also, there seems to be so many words that have multiple meanings in Spanish, I often recognise a word but have to resort to the dictionary to check its meaning in the context of the sentence.

It really helps me to try and turn the situation around and think about Spanish speaking people trying to learn English. That way, I hope to be more able to 'think' in Spanish and not constantly translate English\Spanish in my head.

I will be the first to admit that (although a native) my grammatical English is not the best. But as English is 'hard-wired' into me (for want of a better phrase) I just take for granted perhaps some of the more complex English concepts that learners of English may struggle with.

Both learners of English and learners of Spanish, what sort of things do you struggle with? Is there any correlation or any trends here, I wonder.

Answer 1

Prepositions and the fact that words have lots of meanings is difficult for everyone no matter what language they're learning. At least there seem to be fewer prepositions to choose from in Spanish, I like that a lot! Prepositions always seem to be mastered last, unless your coming from a language that doesn't have articles, in which case that takes forever to learn as well.

Another thing is changing the way you think about something when the number is different in your own language "gente es" not "gente son" and "children" not "childs" It's okay when you're writing but when you're talking you say the wrong thing without even noticing.

I find the direct / indirect object thing harder than anything. But reading more has helped me get the hang of that a lot. I found it difficult to remember the rules but now stuff just kind of comes out of me and I don't question it and hope that it's right! I'll re-learn the rules again after a while and hopefully that together with the reading will help me get it.

Another thing that is hard is pronunciation, because the amount of it you can practise on your own is limited, compared with a lot of other problems you might have.

I know knowing when to use the subjunctive is difficult, but I'll get that, and compared with DO/IO it's not important because it doesn't usually interfere with your understanding or your ability to be understood. If I say "que te tienes suerte" everyone will cringe but everyone will know what I mean.

gracias conejita :-) Now correct use of the subjunctive.......... that isnt even on my radar yet lol - billygoat, Sep 10, 2011

Answer 2

Billygoat, the problems you mentioned above about learning Spanish, are more or less the ones that someone faces when learning English.

English learners have the advantage of hearing and reading English everywhere, on TV, computers or even signs. Generally, English grammar is relatively easier comparing to other languages. The difficulties that a learner could face are the irregular verbs in past and perfect tense, which you must learn by heart. Another difficulty that English learners face is phrasal verbs. These are the worst by far!!! And the most important thing for a learner is to start thinking like a native English speaker and not to try to translate to English from his mother tongue.

I forgot the most important! I need oral practice in English.

For the time being, my problems in Spanish are prepositions and the imperative when having personal pronouns.

thank you for this Ianta. I guess I'm just getting impatient lol - billygoat, Sep 10, 2011

Answer 3

I particularly struggle over and over with phrasal verbs. I'm starting to take in them in when you use it them, but I find it very difficult to use them myself. I feel I have my mind full of phrasals, but I never find the choice chance to use them, and often have doubts about the preposition's place. I always wonder: Should I say take my shoes off or take off my shoes??

Both are correct and both are commonly used.

There is a short explanation of seperable phrasal verbs here that gives tips on how to use them rather than a long list of examples.

The rule about pronouns, ie. you must use the seperable form verb pronoun preposition, is part of a more general rule about pronouns in English: pronouns cannot be seperated from the verb or preposition that they are an object of. This is important when you have verbs with both a direct and indirect object. Here's a simple example:

I gave the ball to Bob.
The ball is the direct object of the verb "gave" and Bob is the object of the preposition "to". Since both are right next to the word they are the object of, either or both of them can be replaced with pronouns:
I gave it to Bob.
I gave the ball to him.
I gave it to him.

The sentence can be written in a slightly different form with the verb having both a direct and indirect object (the indirect object comes first):

I gave Bob the ball.
Bob is the indirect object of the verb "gave" and the ball is the direct object. Since only the indirect object "Bob" is next to the verb, only the direct object can be replaced by a pronoun:
I gave him the ball.

Since this is a post about English prepositions, you may have noticed that I used both "replaced by" and "replaced with". Both are correct and have the same meaning in this case.

Answer 4

Prepositions are one of the most difficult things to grasp for me. For some mysterious reason, there are some expressions that I find easy to remember, such as depend on, dream of, arrive at, on Monday... but the rest, especially the group on/in/at, I get it right in the 33,33 per cent of the cases.

I particularly struggle over and over with phrasal verbs. I'm starting to take in them when you use them, but I find it very difficult to use them myself. I feel I have my mind full of phrases, but I never find a way of using them, and often doubt where to place a preposition. I always wonder: Should I say take my shoes off or take off my shoes??

I don't dare to use them too much, because when I try and I'm wrong (80% of the cases), my sentence turns into a complete mess and I get a fair "Sorry?" as answer.

Thank you, Billy, for your corrections!

right, next week = prepositions :-) - billygoat, Sep 10, 2011

Both versions of "take off my shoes" are correct :) - Felixlynx, Sep 10, 2011

Outside of exams you'll never really need to use phrasal verbs yourself. Understanding them is fine! But you'll never sound completely 100% like a native without them. Still sometimes it's better not to! - rabbitwho, Sep 10, 2011

If a phrasal verb is seperable you generally should seperate it beacuse sometimes you have to. You could never say "Turn off it!" instead of "Turn it off" You can always say "remove my shoes" instead! - rabbitwho, Sep 10, 2011