Little but annoying questions
Here comes the little but annoying questions that have lied in my head for two years, and which nobody has answered.
Venir and ir the same?
Moverse becomes mover avd vice versa?!
This word, se. It annoys me! This is what my spanishteacher tells me when i ask: its too early. Chill out. You will know eventually (like in a thousand years?). Search it up. We will learn that in the ninth grade bla bla bla.
Me te le se nos les. Same here, my spanisht replies like this: ts too early. Chill out. You will know eventually (like in a thousand years?). Search it up. We will learn that in the ninth grade bla bla bla.
How can secar become secarlos?! Secarlos los platos for example.
Ayudarme a. How can ayudar end with me!? Does ayudar conjugate after who someone helps too?
Are there other kinds of verbs than ar er and ir?
Why la mano, el mano suits better!
La tarta nupcial de la boda. Couldn't you remove de la boda and the meaning would still be the same? I mean, nupcial already describes which kind of cake it is! Its like the birthdaycake of the birthday.
4 Answers
Hello, Prinskorv. Welcome to the forum and thanks for letting us know a little about you. From my experience, one will learn Spanish very slowly in a standard classroom. The questions you have posted can be annoying, and are actually pretty simple to answer once you have a better handle on Spanish.
However, you may want to look into learning on your own to supplement your class. There are good audio courses, and this site even has one for free.
I am by no means fluent, but I'm doing fairly well and enjoying it. As for your questions, I can answer a few.
Venir = to come, ir = to go
"Me te le se nos les" - These are indirect objects. Verbs act to, on, or for them. So, "ayudarme" = to help me. Example: Pude ayudarme? = Can you (are you able to) help me? The "ayudar" and "me" are, or were probably originally two separate words, but probably for reasons of looking and sounding better, they were combined.
Similarly, "los" is a direct object. The action is taken on them directly, so you hit the ball as opposed to you look at the ball. Lo = it, los = them. Sacar = to dry, so if you're talking about towels, for instance, you would "dry them" (the towels) (direct action) - "secar los" or "secarlos."
I hope this helps you a little. Stick with it!! You'll do well.
The word venir means to come in English. Ven acá Come here.
The word ir means to go in English. Va a la panería para comprar pancitas. Go to the bakery to buy some rolls.
As for mover and moverse, the first is to move something, therefore a transitive verb with a direct object. The second one does not take a direct object because se gives the sense of moving oneself as in "moving forward", or know "how to move yourself" when you dance.
The pronoun se is used to substitute for any 3rd person singular & plural subject or object (which would include the formal you - usted and ustedes). You find it as part of a pronominal or reflexive verb. But it is also used to substitute for the same persons when used with a direct object pronoun. Se los dio He gave them them. (He gave them [los] to them [se]). The same sentence as it stands can be translated: He (she / you) gave them to him / her / them / you / you all.
I'll let someone else take it from here. I hope this helps a little.
I like 'se' but share your frustration. I remember when learning French at school I felt similar frustration, particularly with the pronouns 'en' and 'y'. They seemed to crop up all the place in the most unlikely places. For example, 'there can be only one' translates as 'il ne peut y en avoir qu'un seul', which used to make me hopping mad ('it no can there of it have only one single': eh ?). However, in time I did become accustomed to this kind of structure. Doubtless my French experience has made Spanish more palatable ('se' is used in French too in a largely analogous fashion), & I think I would have to say Spanish grammar is simpler insofar as it relates to pronouns (but not verbs, grrr ¡!)...
Do make sure you learn the basics. Verbs - in Spanish they are ar/er/ir - ones that follow a set pattern are regular verbs, some where the stem changes for some parts - pensar is probably one you know are stem changing then there are some like ser/estar/ir which end in the ar/er/ir mode but are irregular. There are surprisingly few irregular verbs in Spanish. La mano - this maybe going back to latin in languages where nouns have a gender eg French/Spanish Italian traditionally hand/mano is femenine. You will come across some words ending in a which are masculine!
