Querida Anna,
Hi, In my spanish book I am to compose a letter to a friend talking about why it is hard to study at my house. Here is what I have. How did I do? The English translation is below it.
Thank you for your input.
En español:
Querida Anna,
No es facíl estudiar en mi casa. Quiero estudiar el español por que quiero hablar a mi amigos español. Solo mi hijo hablan muchos o miran la televisión. No quiero mirar la televisión. Necesito estudiar el español todos los días.
In English:
Dear Anna,
It is not easy to study in my house. I want to study Spanish because I want to talk to my Spanish friends. But my sons talk a lot or they watch TV. I don't want to watch TV. I need to study Spanish everyday.
7 Answers
Gracias!
Thanks for the help. I see that some of my errors were typos when I entered it here. Must be more careful next time.
I found "solo" also mean "but", when would I use "solo"?
I used the verb "mirar" because that is the one used in this lesson in the book. Is "ver" better for certain situations?
And I am still unclear of when or when not to use the article in sentences. I am continuing ahead with my lessons anyway, hoping that it will just eventually "click."
HI tonya, as you can see, this was not "corrected" by Lazarus. However, I did correct it. But we might use this only in Spain.
mirar la tele= see or look at the tv
ver la tele= watch tv
But this use is probably only in Spain.
Solo mi hijo hablan muchos o miran la televisión.
Here you can actually use solo with que
solo que mis hijos hablan...it's only that my children....
I would leave pero or solo que, which Lazarus deleted.
Anyway, as you can see it is a good thing to ask a question on a forum, many or some mistakes are overlooked by only one friend. 
Lazarus is our grammar specialist, you can trust his judgement. 
It is not entirely incorrect to use "el" with "español", but the article is used -ideally- when you want to specify what type of Spanish you are referring to, or you are considering in its totality:
Estudio español (simply Spanish).
Prefiero el español de Colombia (I am referring to one particular type of Spanish).
The same applies for other articles:
Soy profesor de español (simply a teacher).
Soy un profesor de español muy poco ortodoxo (a particular type of teacher).
You use the article also -and this is a general rule- when it is the grammatical subject of a sentence:
El español es muy interesante.
Me gusta el español.
Oh, ok, entiendo, Grax por su ayuda!
Gracias!
Thanks for the help. I see that some of my errors were typos when I entered it here. Must be more careful next time.
I found "solo" also mean "but", when would I use "solo"?
I used the verb "mirar" because that is the one used in this lesson in the book. Is "ver" better for certain situations?
And I am still unclear of when or when not to use the article in sentences. I am continuing ahead with my lessons anyway, hoping that it will just eventually "click." 
Further corrections:
Querida Anna**: (use colon, not comma)**
No es fácil estudiar en mi casa. Quiero estudiar [del]el[/del] español porque quiero hablar a mis amigos en español. Mis hijos solo hablan mucho o miran la televisión. No quiero mirar la televisión. Necesito estudiar [del]el[/del] español todos los días.
It is not entirely incorrect to use "el" with "español", but the article is used -ideally- when you want to specify what type of Spanish you are referring to, or you are considering in its totality:
Estudio español (simply Spanish).
Prefiero el español de Colombia (I am referring to one particular type of Spanish).
The same applies for other articles:
Soy profesor de español (simply a teacher).
Soy un profesor de español muy poco ortodoxo (a particular type of teacher).
You use the article also -and this is a general rule- when it is the grammatical subject of a sentence:
El español es muy interesante.
Me gusta el español.
Pregunta!?
I was always taught that you leave the el with espanol when discussing something like this in a sentence, i personally would leave it as el espanol.
Can you explain why you would take it out?
Grax,
Ani
Querida Anna,
No es facíl estudiar en mi casa. Quiero estudiar el español por que quiero hablar a mis amigos en español. Pero mis hijos hablan mucho[del]s[/del] o ven la televisión. No quiero ver la televisión. Necesito estudiar el español todos los días.
Buen trabajo
