What's The Most Difficult Thing In The Spanish Language?

[ajoknoblauch]

pitipur for you to say that (the subjunctive is a whole new concept that doesn't really exist in english (with the exception of cases like "if i were you") shows you don't know that you youself may be using subjunctive in English even if the verb form doesn't change or changes slightly. It may just be that the typical subjunctive signs in Spanish (espero/quiero que) do NOT signal subj. as in English. I'm not an English teacher so I wish you able to find a professional better skilled in this area than I.

The subjunctive has almost disappeared in English.

 

[AdrianB1983]

Nouns ending in L-O-N-E-R-S = masc

Nouns ending in D-ION-Z-A = fem (thinks loners and diosas ;D )

Irregulars:
LA tarde, LA noche, LA suerte (remember Lady Luck...), LA gente, LA muerte (difficult since I think most envision Death as masc...)

More fem irregs: LA mano, LA crisis, LA tesis...

Masc irreg: Un camion (I screw this one up ALL the time -- and is camioneta fem or masc?), EL mapa, EL dia, EL lapiz, EL avion.

Letters of the alphabet are all feminine (la letra E etc)

If a word begins with a stressed A then it takes a masc ie el aguila, el hambre, or you would say un ama de casa because the A - A would run into each other. But then if you're talking about the best housewife you would say la mejor ama de casa (I think... since it's referring to a female)

Then it gets weird because that eagle that was masc in the singular, when it's suddenly a whole bunch of eagles it becomes fem! El aguila... LAS aguilas.

Then those -MA words -- apparently you need to know your Greek to be able to speak Spanish... yikes! If they're greek they are MASC. So LA cama because it's not greek but EL telegrama because it is. Where I get tripped up is words like TRAMA -- sounds greek to me, but apparently no it's not, so it's a la. Same with BROMA and ASMA to me sounds like, hmm maybe greek, I don't know? But no, they aren't so they are both FEM

Then there's the lovely case of AZUCAR. Not content to be either FEM or MASC azucar is both. El azucar... but if you're describing the sugar to be brown or white it's suddenly feminine accordance ie azucar morena, azucar blanca. If anyone has a nice clean explanation that would be great.

Speaking of which, can someone explain EL bolso vs LA bolsa -- and I'm not talking about the stock market. El bolso = bag. La bolsa = bag -- is la bolsa really just more referring to a woman's handbag or what? I never know if I'm supposed to say el or la, and don't know if it makes any difference whether I'm using a plastic bag, a paper bag, a handbag (which I get around by saying cartera, jaja), reusable bag etc. Would love to know....

wow, you know some spanish! Very nice lesson! You only got wrong asma. It's el asma (it must be because the stressed A like you said).

 

[Rich One]

wow, you know some spanish! Very nice lesson! You only got wrong asma. It's el asma (it must be because the stressed A like you said).

Two A's can't go together La_Asma NO

 

[syngirl]

The two As isn`t always the case -- in the case of azucar it is an "ambiguo" which means people will put either gender -- and yes, you can say la azucar morena -- the A of la gets alliterated/swallowed up but it's still there -- se puede decir hasta la autentica azucar morena... I remember because long ago I was trying to figure out what to call brown sugar and came upon some web page talking about this!

Here's some more on ambiguos:

http://www.profesore...tivoambiguo.htm

http://www.wikilengu...o_y_significado

I'm going to go study them now :S


EDIT: The case of the la + A -- it depends on if it is a hard or soft A -- if it is a soft a then the "la" runs into the word ie la azucar becomes lazucar. In the case of águila it has a hard (stressed) A (note the accent) -- so it becomes EL águila. Now, I'm just getting into this myself so can't tell you a tonne of examples, but I've been studying up on my spanish in the past few weeks as I'm starting a course (today!) in simultaneous translation so I've been coming across a bunch of rules and regulations that in 8 years maybe some of them have been instinctive but some the lightbulb only turned on just now!

 

[Rich One]

The two As isn`t always the case -- in the case of azucar it is an "ambiguo" which means people will put either gender -- and yes, you can say la azucar morena -- the A of la gets alliterated/swallowed up but it's still there -- se puede decir hasta la autentica azucar morena... I remember because long ago I was trying to figure out what to call brown sugar and came upon some web page talking about this!

Here's some more on ambiguos:

http://www.profesore...tivoambiguo.htm

http://www.wikilengu...o_y_significado

I'm going to go study them now :S


EDIT: The case of the la + A -- it depends on if it is a hard or soft A -- if it is a soft a then the "la" runs into the word ie la azucar becomes lazucar. In the case of águila it has a hard (stressed) A (note the accent) -- so it becomes EL águila. Now, I'm just getting into this myself so can't tell you a tonne of examples, but I've been studying up on my spanish in the past few weeks as I'm starting a course (today!) in simultaneous translation so I've been coming across a bunch of rules and regulations that in 8 years maybe some of them have been instinctive but some the lightbulb only turned on just now!

Very good contribution , is ONLY for the Advanced students?
Note the use of La or El varies from country to country and the education levels, La Calor is very common in the countryside.
Is like in English "you's people " is used in the farms.

 

[Rich One]

Forget about the words related to the Auto mechanics which are peculiar to Argentina. El Burro/ Starter engine, El Gato/ Jack.

 

[Ceviche]

por y para

 

[AdrianB1983]

Two A's can't go together La_Asma NO

I used to think that but then this words came up: la alcantarilla, la alacena, la alarma, la ampolla... to me it seems the rules are like singirl said (notice how none of those words are stressed in the first a). If spanish was not my first language I know I would struggle with this.

 

[pitipur]

yes,

por y para

i'd like to second this.

also, while i think ive got ser vs estar down in the present tense, the past tense provides a whole new challenge. 4 different ways to say "was" and i have no clue when to use any of them. i need to just make a list of sentences in english with the word was, and have people explain to me which is used for each.

 

[Rich One]

por y para

A good review of Para and Por :

Take the Test

http://www.bowdoin.e...ewgr/ats/43.htm