Verbs II

From Level 1, Unit 2, lesson 2 through Level 1, Unit 4 Lesson 5




Sostener - to hold??
esta señalando - to point
tocar - to play (an instrument)
tocar - to touch. tocarse was used in touching body parts on oneself. Se está sounded like 'cesta'
gire - to turn??  (a la izquierda or derecha, or 'en U' )
estacione??  to park?
usar? - to use (telephone, no proposition needed)
Llevarse - can be used with touching to translate as puts. ex. el niño se lleva el vaso a la boca - means the boy puts the glass to his mouth.  Note, when it's something that is very explicitly yours, sometimes can use el or la rather than su, mi, etc....
llevar - to carry (on web, not rosetta stone. So lleva can be wear a hat or carries/has  hat
peinar - to comb (for someone else's hair can say 'a la whoever' after, or just 'el pelo de whoever' with no a.
cepillar? - to brush - also used with se está cepillando on oneself.
haber - to have, used in present perfect tense
cortar - to cut
jalar - to tow/pull?  used for towing a boat and a car (object x jala object Y)
manejar - to drive? used with driving a car
estacionar - to park (like a car)
aparcar - to park (like a bicycle)
ponerse - to put on (like clothes)
poner - to put. Like, to put a bicycle on top of a van

doblar - to turn (a car, dobla a la derecha)

circular - to circulate, but can also mean to 'drive along'

pasar + a + object - to pass  (a car)

tener - to have (an accident, like a car accident)

tener - to have (hair that is long, short, color X)

tener +...
...hambre - hungry
...sed - thirsty
...frío/a - cold
...calor - hot
...dolor - hurt/in pain
...miedo - frightened

jugar - to play

escribir - to write

señalar - to point

girar - to turn (a jumprope)

saltar (a) - to jump with a jumprope (salta a la soga)

trepar  - to climb ( a tiger climbing)

coger - to grasp? (to put money into a bank, está cogiendo dinero en un banco)

cocinar - to cook

Hay - there are/ are there (depends on if ?)

cubrir - to cover ( like cover your eyes with your hands)

puede ser (idiom) - perhaps so

hablar - talking/speaking

hablar (con) - to talk (with someone)

hablar (por) - to talk on something (a phone, a walkie talkie)

poder + verb - to be able to verb. ex. puede hablar is he/she/it can talk.

jugar (a) - to play a game (like chess)

venir - to come

Tener - past tense

tuvo for él, ella, Ud.

tuvieron for ellos, ellas, Uds.

adjectives, tener and estar

1-3-7 (and some 1-3-8) (and some 1-4-2)

Three ways shown to indicate what would be adjectives only in english

tener +...
...hambre - hungry
...sed - thirsty
...frío/a - cold
...calor - hot
...dolor - hurt/in pain
...miedo - frightened


estar +...
...lleno/a - full
...cansado/a - tired
...enfermo/a - sick
...sano - well
...contento/a - happy
...triste - sad
...avergonzado - embarrassed
...orgulloso (de) - proud (of something)
...abierto/a - open
...cerrado/a - closed
...juntos/as - close/ together
...separados/as - separated, apart
...estirado/a - straight (like straight knees or arms)
...doblado/a - bent (like bent knees or arms)

Uses ser:
fuerte - strong
débil - weak
hermoso/a - pretty or attractive
feo/a - ugly
rico - rich
gordo - fat
delgado - thin

Verbs I

Verbs up through Level 1 Unit 2 lesson 1
Order of conjugation: yo, tú, [él, ella, Ud.], nosotros, [ellos, ellas, Uds.]

Notes on verbs:
1. -ar verbs, drop the -ar and add -o, -as, -a, -amos, or -an to the stem (part with the -ar).
2. -er verbs, drop the -er and add -o, -es, -e, -emos, or -en to the stem.
3. -ir verbs, drop the -ir, and add -o, -es, -e, -imos, or -en to the stem.
4.  Some verbs are irregular and don't conjugate like the rest. You will learn these as you go and just have to memorize them.

Su and sus

Unit 2, ...

ENGLISH LESSON FIRST: Possessive adjectives vs. possessive pronouns.
Adjectives are used to modify nouns, whereas pronouns are used to replace nouns.
Possessive adjectives and possessive pronouns can be easily confused at first because of the similarity in words, so you have to look at how they are being used.

Possessive adjective:
my
your
her
his
its
their
our

Ex.
my dog, your cat, his canary, their car

All of these are modifying a noun, changing what we know about it, further describing it.

Possessive pronouns:
mine
yours
his
hers
theirs
ours

ex.
That is Sally`s.
That is hers.

That is Brina's.
That is his.

These would be used to replace possessive nouns. Without pronouns, mine and yours would simply be the names of the people involved, rather than the pronouns we usually use.

SPANISH LESSON, POSSESSIVE ADJECTIVES AND POSSESSIVE PRONOUNS:

Possessive adjectives:
1. Must match the nouns they modify in number and gender
ex. la pelota amarilla - the yellow ball
las pelotas amarillas - the yellow balls

el papel amarillo - the yellow paper
los papeles amarillos - the yellow papers

2. Spanish has two forms of possessive adjectives, a short form before nouns and a long form after nouns. The short form is more common, and the long form can have a more formal, literary feel. The long is more often used when translating -of ours, yours, etc...

Short form of possessive adjectives, before a noun, sometimes known as possessive determiners - 
mí, mís - my
tu, tus - your (single, familiar) - notice the lack of accent on 'tu.' Tú means 'you'
su, sus - your (single or plural formal), its, his, her, their
nuestro, nuestra, nuestros, nuestras - our (same in long and short forms)

ex. Quiero comprar tu coche - I want to buy your car.
Quiero comprar sus coches - I want to buy her cars. (whether it's her, his, and such is determined by context)

Long form of possessive adjectives, after a noun - 
mío, mía, míos, mías - my, - of mine
tuyo, tuya, tuyos, tuyas - your (singular, familiar), of yours
suyo, suya, suyos, suyas - its, his, her, your (formal, singular or plural), of its, of his, of hers, of yours (sing, formal), their, of theirs
nuestro, nuestra, nuestros, nuestras - our, of ours
There is one more form which is not used in Latin America, for you, plural, familiar.

ex. Prefiera la casa tuya.  I prefer your house. I prefer the house of yours.
Es un coche nuestro. It is our car. It is a car of ours.


DIFFERENCES IN USE:
1. For body parts, clothing, and items intimately associated with an individual,  Spanish uses el, la, los, or las - the equivalent for the.' However, it is still translated as a possessive adjective.
ex. Sam arregla el pelo. Sam brushes his hair

2. Repetition of possessive adjectives
In Spanish, a single possessive adjective refers to one noun only, unless multiple nouns refer to the same person or object.
Son mis amigos y hermanos - They are my friends and siblings. However, a better translation might be 'They are both my friends and siblings.'

Son mis amigos y mis hermanos. This is to say 'They are my friends and siblings' and mean that some of them are your friends and others of them are your siblings.

So 'my cats and dogs' would be 'mis gatos y mis perros.'


Possessive pronouns: EXACTLY THE SAME AS THE LONG FORM POSS. ADJ.

1. They match the noun that would be 'modified' by them as if they were poss. adjectives. 

Example: Tu madre y la mía no pueden cantar. Your mother and mine can't sing. We use 'la mía' because it matches 'mother,' and mine represents: my mother. 

Mis calcetines son rojos. Los suyos son verdes. My socks are red. Yours/his/hers/yours pl/theirs are green. Suyos is plural and masculine to match the word socks, but doesn't give us any idea whether this is his, hers, yours, etc....

The pronouns:

mío, mía, míos, mías - mine

tuyo, tuya, tuyos, tuyas - yours (singular, familiar)

suyo, suya, suyos, suyas - its, his, hers, yours (formal, singular or plural), theirs

nuestro, nuestra, nuestros, nuestras - ours

Some linguists consider them possessive adjectives, still. These are NOT used the same way we use poss. pronouns in English.


DIFFERENCES IN USE:
1. Possessive pronouns are usually preceded by the article el, la, los, or las.  The exception is when the poss. pronouns follows the verb 'ser,' like in es or son. It is usually not used then, although it can be kept for emphasis.

2. Suyo - This is obviously pretty ambiguous. If the context doesn't reveal what suyo should mean, it can be left out and replaced with things like 'de él,' 'de ella,' 'de ellos/ellas.' To mean of his, of hers, of theirs.
Ex. No es mi coche. Es de ella. It isn't my car. It's hers.

3. The singluar masculine form can also be treated as neuter and preceded by 'lo.' Even though it is singular, the pronoun can stand for multiple objects. The neuter is used when no specific object is being referred to.
Ex. No toques lo mìo. Don't touch what's mine. Don't touch my things.
Lo mío es importante. What's mine is important. My things are important.

Sources for this information:
http://www.wisegeek.org/what-is-the-difference-between-a-possessive-pronoun-and-a-possessive-adjective.htm#did-you-know
spanish info long form - http://spanish.about.com/od/adjectives/a/long_form_possessive_adjectives.htm
Spanish info short form - http://spanish.about.com/od/adjectives/a/possessive_adjectives.htm
Spanish info poss. pronoun - http://spanish.about.com/od/pronouns/a/possessive_pronouns.htm

Ships and boats

Rosetta Stone
Level 1, Unit 2, Lesson 3
Words for boats

un barco - a ship, boat, or barge. Usually larger.

una barca - a small boat, dinghy

un bote - a small boat, like a rowboat or dinghy. Often used for something smaller than 'una barca.'

un buque - a ship but with a particular role, like un buque de guerra (warship) or un buque de carga (cargo ship)

'un baque' is totally unrelated but I thought you'd like to know it. It means 'the blow which a body gives when falling.' Or a bang or thump, in other words.

Tools

Rosetta Stone
Level 1, Unit 2, lesson 3
Tools

el herramienta - tool

More tools:

sierra(f) - saw (usually a hand saw)

martillo(m) - hammer

clavo(m) - nail, as in 'to hammer.' Uña is a nail as in a fingernail (uña del dedo)  or toenail (uña del pie).

llave(f) - wrench (only for the tool)

la pala(f) - shovel

el rastrillo (m) - rake

Plural and singular noun rules

Rosetta Stone
1-2-3
umbrellas and other strange nouns

Paraguas - umbrella

Paraguas is a special kind of noun in spanish, called a compound noun, which is made by forming two words into one (I'm not sure which two words are involved for paraguas). What is special about this is that when you have compound nouns like this, the singular and plural are the exact same word, only the article changes.

el paraguas - an umbrella

los paraguas - the umbrellas

Another compound noun is 'abrelatas' - abre + latas = open + cans

el abrelatas - a can opener

los abrelatas - the can openers

The general rules for singular and plural nouns are:

1. If a noun ends in a vowel (a,e,i.o,u), simply add an -s at the end to make it plural.

ex. el gato + s = los gatos

el perro + s = los perros

2. With a few exceptions, if a noun ends in a consonant, add -es.

ex. la universidad + es = las universidades (universities)

la ciudad + es = las ciudades (cities)

3. If a noun ends in -c, change the -c to -z and then add the -es.

ex. el lapiz becomes lapic + es = los lapices (pencils)

la voz becomes voc + es = las voces (voices)

4. If a noun ends in -ión, drop the accent before adding -es.

ex. el avión becomes avion + es = los aviones 

la televisión becomes television + es = las televisiones (televisions)

5. A plural masculine noun is also masculine. A plural feminine noun is always feminine. But if a plural noun refers to a mixed group that includes both masculine and feminine, the plural is always masucline. 

ex. 1 gato (male cate) + 1 gata (female cat) = dos gatos

Information from here: http://www.studyspanish.com/lessons/plnoun.htm

Fish and other meats

Rosetta Stone notes
1-2-3
Animals and meats

un pez - a fish, such as one swimming in the water. Un pez está nadando. A fish is swimming.

un pescado - fish, as in food that you eat. Un pescado en tu plato. (A fish on your plate) Although I'm still checking to make sure that 'un pescado' is correct. Seems to be.

Other meats:
vaca(f), toro(m) - cow, bull
carne de res, carne de vaca - beef
hamburguesa(f) - hamburger

gallina(f), gallo(m)(more in the USA) - chicken, rooster
pollo(m) - chicken meat, chicken that you are eating

cerdo (m) - pig
carne(m) de cerdo or chancho(m) -pork
chuleta - porkchop

cordero (m) - lamb
chuleta(f) de cordero - lambchop

guajolote or jolote (m) (used in Mexico), pavo (m) - turkey, turkey (used more in Spain)
pavo (m) - turkey meat

salchicha (f) - sausage
Chorizo (m) - cured sausage

Spanish - personal a

Personal 'a'
This is a concept that doesn't exist in English, so it can be a bit tricky to figure out.

Basically, why you would say:
Está tirando la pelota.

but then say:
Está tirando al niño.
Note: "al" is a word that is what is used when you have a + el together. a + el = al

It's all because of the concept of a personal 'a' in spanish.


Personal 'a'
If a person is a direct object of a verb, unless it's the verbs  'tener' or 'hay,' the spanish language adds an 'a' before the person. There is nothing like this in english. 

What is treated as 'a person?'
Actual people: 
A person can be Marta, girl, boy, my mother, your son. It can be used for objects that are unspecific or indefinite people, like doctor or carpenter, but it is usually only used in these cases if you KNOW the people.

Like, for 'I know two doctors' you would use an 'a' before 'mèdicos.'

ex.  Conozco a dos mèdicos.

'I need two doctors' - no 'a,' because you have no personal feeling toward these mèdicos.

ex. Necesito dos mèdicos. 

Pets:
You also use a personal 'a' before an animal if there is close feelings toward it, like a pet. You would not do this with a random animal, like a wild bird or random animal.
ex. Veo a mi gato, Batman. I see my cat, Batman.

Some pronouns are also treated like a person:
Alguien (somebody), nadie (nobody), quién (whom) require a personal 'a'. So do alguno (some) and ninguno (none) if they refer to people.
Ex. ¿A quién pertenece esta silla? Whose chair is this?
¿Médicos? No vi a ningunos. Doctors? I don't see any.
¿Carros? No vi ningunos. Cars? I don't see any.

Countries and objects:
A country or object can be personified, although it implies a personal relationship, such as great emotion. Like a country that an expatriate misses, or a favorite doll or toy.
ex. Yo extraño a los Estados Unidos. I miss the United States. (implies greater relationship or feeling)

Basically, personal 'a' denotes a personal aspect toward the object in question, is my impression.

Exceptions:
There is a personal 'a' used after tener if it is used to mean holding someone or having someone somewhere.
ex. Tengo a mi hermano en los brazos. I have my brother in my arms.
Tengo a mi hija en el pesebre. I have my daughter in the crib.

It can also be used when tener is used to indicate an exceptionally close relationship. Like, if one were talking about how you often feel alone and sad, but then you have your friends to help, you could say tener a mis amigos. But just saying I have friends would be, 'tengo amigos.'



My information came from these two sources:

The basics on this are here, although they miss a few things - http://www.studyspanish.com/lessons/persa.htm

More details, examples, and exceptions shown here - http://spanish.about.com/cs/grammar/a/personal_a.htm

Finding Joy

I have a friend who has had a lot of bad things happen to him in his life. The type of things that so often lead to sorrow, bitterness, addiction, and worse.

This man has been there. He's suffered through abandonment and pain and he was an alcoholic and pulled himself out of it by his bootstraps. He's also one of the most uplifting and positive people to talk to that I've ever met. 

There's something he told me once that I try to hold onto: enjoy at least one thing every day. Just one thing, even if it's just a good cup of coffee. Really notice that one good thing and let yourself take a few seconds or a few minutes to enjoy everything about it. 

I get the impression that this is part of how this man made it through some really dark times: one good thing at a time. When you feel like you can't go on, that there's nothing good happening the next day or the day after that, keeping to that 'one good thing' philosophy' is something I can see helping us hang on. Because there will ALWAYS be at least one good thing to look forward to the next day, no matter how small.

So, for my daughter: remember to find your one good thing today, honey. And enjoy the heck out of it. If you can't think of anything, try this:

Mcshep - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2xCjdAWxdw

Question words

Rosetta Stone
1-1-10
Question words

¿Quíen? - Who? When asking a question ex. ¿Quíen está bebiendo?
¿Qué? - What? When asking a question
¿Qué llevan las mujeres? - What are the women wearing? The verb comes after the question word, then the noun.

¿Qué es este? - What is this? (close to speaker) estos = these. esta and estas are feminine
¿Qué es eso? - What is that? (far from speaker) esos = those. esa and esas are feminine
¿Qué es aquel? - What is that over there? (far away from both speaker and listener) aquellos = those. Aquella and aquellas = fem.

Also a neuter form for the demonstratives is used for discussing abstracts or an unknown objects
esto - this ¿Qué es esto? would be used when you have no idea what it is.
eso - that
aquello - that over there
Good site discussing this: http://www.studyspanish.com/lessons/demonstratives.htm


¿Dónde? - Where? When asking a question
¿Dónde está...? Where is...? (singular) example ¿Dónde está el gato?
¿Dónde están...? Where is...? (plural) example ¿Dónde están los gatos?

¿De qué color...? - What color ...? ¿De qué color es este carro?

¿Cuál de...? - Which of ...? Like, which of these cars is blue? ¿Cuál de los carros es azul? Notice that the verb and adjective stay singular, even though 'carros' is plural.

¿Qué está haciendo ...'noun?' - What is 'noun' doing? ¿Qué está haciendo el niño? El niño está nadando.
Notice again, to ask a question: Question word (Qué) verb (está haciendo) and lastly, noun (el niño). Where in English, we say: What is the boy doing? So, it's question word (What) part of verb (is) noun (the boy) last part of verb (doing?).

sobre vs. encima de vs. en

Rosetta
1-1-10
prepositions that came up during question words


sobre - a preposition.  In this context, it means above or over. More vague

encima de - encima de is used as an adverb, means more like 'on top of.'

en - on

An example of how this can change meaning.

La mujer está sobre la mesa.
The woman is above the table. She could be on it, jumping over it, above it somehow else, like on a ladder or stepstool. Can be touching it or not.

La mujer está encima de la mesa.
The woman is on top of the table. Can be touching it...it seems less likely used if there is no physical contact, but I'm not certain.

La mujer está en la mesa.
The woman is on the table, but this can also mean 'in the table,' so this could need context to make sure the meaning was clear, it sounds like.

A great list of common prepositions and common meanings: http://spanish.about.com/od/prepositions/a/prepositions.htm

They are: a, antes de, bajo, cerca de, con, contra, de, delante de, dentro de, desde, después de, detrás de, durante, en, encima de, enfrente de, entre, fuera de, hacia, hasta, para, por, según, sin, sobre, and tras.

Spanish - clothing, camisa vs. camiseta and abrigo vs. chaqueta

Rosetta Stone
1-1-9
Clothing continued, with added material

Camiseta vs. camisa vs. blusa:

camiseta (f) - shirt, t-shirt, pullover shirt. This is for more casual shirts, typically without buttons, and can refer to clothing worn by a man or woman.

camisa (f) - shirt, dress shirt, button up shirt. This will often have buttons, more formal, often referring to clothing worn by a man.

blusa (f) - shirt, often with buttons, more formal or dressy, potentially. This is always referring to clothing worn by women.

Abrigo vs. chaqueta:

abrigo (m) - long, overcoat (abrigar - to keep warm)

chaqueta (f) - shorter jacket

chaqueta de lluvia (f) - rain jacket

Various other clothing:

el sombrero - hat

traje de baño - bathing suit

anteojos - glasses

el zapato - shoe

los calcetines - socks

el vestido - dress



Some references used:
A forum post about chaqueta and abrigo, mostly in spanish: http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=1768336

Pants, Pantalón vs. Pantalones

Rosetta Stone
1-1-9
Clothing with added material

Pantalón vs. pantalones

The girl wears pants is: La niña lleva pantalón. La niña lleva pantalones.

The girls wear pants is  Las niñas llevan pantalón. Las niñas llevan pantalones.

Both pantalón and pantalones seem to be correct and can be used interchangeably, according to some sources. However, more sources say that pantalones is more often used.

Although it looks like this may be one of those grammar issues for native spanish speakers too, considering there are spanish articles on this:

http://blog.lengua-e.com/2008/pantalon-o-pantalones/

I am marking the above site here until I can translate it all and figure out what the right answer is. :-)

Also of note:

Whether it's a singular or plural set of people wearing pants, both the singular and plural of pants seems to be okay to use.  Ex: Las mujeres llevan pantalón.

I have also seen 'pantalón' and 'pantalones' both with and without an article (el, los, un, or unos), following llevar. I am unsure if this is preference or if there is a rule I do not yet know.

Other bottoms:
calzones - shorts (Latin America and Mexico)
pantalones cortos (m) - shorts, a pair of shorts
calzoncillos  - underpants
vaqueros(m) - denim trousers/jeans
jeans (m) - jeans (Mexican slang). This seems to be used with a plural article for a singular pair of jeans.
jeans ceñidos or vaquero ajustado - skinny jeans
falda (f) - skirt

Spanish - colors

Rosetta Stone
1-1-3
Colors with added material

Colors:
colors are adjectives, so match in gender and number and come after the nouns in spanish
*oscuro - dark (can also use with colors, like azul oscuro = dark blue)
*claro - light (can also use with colors, like azul claro = light blue)
*NOTE: some sources from Mexico are using different terms for light and dark WITH THE COLOR BLUE:
azul marino - navy blue
azul cielo - I think 'sky blue' is the best translation of this, perhaps

rosado(a) - pink
rojo(a) - red
blanco(a) - white
negro(a) - black
marrón - brown (also castaño, moreno, or pardo, depending on the shade)
gris - gray
morado(a) - purple (or púpura)
verde - green
amarillo(a) - yellow
anaranjado(a) - orange
azul - blue
plateado(a) - silver
dorado(a) - gold(en)

Nouns can also be used as colors, like we use the term coffee. However, if they are, frequently they will still be treated as a noun and not change number or gender, although the longer they have been used in this capacity, the more they seem to shift to changing in number and gender like a normal adj. Different speakers may use them differently, as a result.

An example:
a coffee-colored shirt is una camisa de color café.

Also, with nouns used as color, the de color or color de may be left out, so you'd just have 'una camisa café.' This information, plus more on this, can be found at this site: http://spanish.about.com/od/adjectives/a/colors.htm

Some spanish nouns that are also used as colors:
beige, beis - beige (according to some, the 'beige' is pronounced close to 'beish.'
cereza - cherry colored
chocolate - chocolat colored
esmerelda - emerald
grana - dark red
humo- smoky
lila - lilac
malva - mauve
mostaza - mustard colored
naranja - orange
oro - gold
paja- straw colored
rosa - pink
turquesa - turqoise colored
violeta - violet

Spanish - alimento vs. comida

alimento vs. comida

alimento  - masculine noun
1. (n) nourishment, or 'edible objects.' Seems to be used more in a technical sense, like a word that a professional like a Dietician or scientist might use when discussing something that people or animals eat, or when discussing food in terms of nutrition.
2. (n) encouragement or incentive
3. (n, plural) allowance given by an heir to relatives; a pension, an alimony

Some example uses:
de mucho alimento - nourishing
alimentos integrales - whole foods
alimentos naturales - health foods
de poco alimento - of little nutritional value
alimentos grasos - fatty foods
alimentos rico en fibra - fiber-rich foods
alimentos rico en proteínas - protein-rich foods
alimentos fortificados - fortified foods


comida - feminine noun
1. (n)eating, food, cooked food - Seems to be used more in everyday language, like we're eating fast food tonight, I have some junk food, that sort of thing
2. (n)meal, dinner, or lunch (in Mexcian spanish)
3. (n) Possibly 'board,' as in room and board, but that may be specifically Spain and not Mexico and South America

Some example uses:
comida chatarra - junk food (Latin American spanish)
comida casera - home cooking
comida para perros - dog food
comida rápida - fast food
comida de Navidad - Christmas dinner
comida de trabajo - business lunch
bendecir la comida - to say grace



Related words to know:
grupo alimenticio - food group
The food groups in spanish: vegetales, frutas, granos (grains), proteína (protein), lácteos (dairy).
Bajas en azúcar - low in sugar


Much of the above examples and definitions came from www.spanishdict.com

Spanish Resources I

These are just the first ones I've found that have been recommended or pop up a lot. A reminder: Spain's spanish and South America and Mexico's spanish are not the same, just like England's English and American English are not the same. You can understand one if you know the other, but there are going to be some differences.

For a philosophy in learning languages plus resources: http://www.fluentin3months.com/

For spanish speaking practice partners - check out http://community.skype.com/
Then ask for people interested in practices spanish so you can learn, if you practice your first language.

For Spanish lessons - http://www.studyspanish.com/

For more Spanish lesson, and those of other languages, check with the library. Many libraries, including mine, have a deal with Mango so that if I have a library account, I can use the Mango learning program for free.

For Spanish vocabulary help - http://wordreference.com/

For spanish learning and practice with live partners - http://livemocha.com/

For Spanish vocabulary on a spanish site - http://www.rae.es/rae.html

For youtube spanish lessons -  http://www.youtube.com/user/languagenow

For finding spanish speaking partners - http://www.easylanguageexchange.com

For asking questions about Spanish at a Spanish forum - http://forums.tomisimo.org/

For more help at a different Spanish forum - http://www.thespanishforum.com/

This site is for Japanese learning, but it also addresses the concept of how to learn a language in a general sense and is very useful for that, too. Different ideas than from fluentin3months, so may be of use: http://japaneselevelup.com/

Spanish - prepositions, sitting, and tables

So, first on the list here is becoming fluent in spanish by, uh, July 15th or so. I'm not starting from scratch, as I took three years of spanish before in school, but it's been a while since I tried to really speak it, and low blood flow to the brain plus over a decade has knocked most of it into the shadowiest corners of my mind.

But I have the internet, I have Rosetta stone (which actually helps me, personally, as long as I have supplemental materials), and I have the motivation to get better at this so I can be of more use to my kids as THEY are learning spanish.

So, here's what I start tracking down as I'm going through Rosetta stone, to supplement what I'm learning/re-learning on it.


Two phrases that are very similar:

El niño está sentado en la mesa. Means: the boy is sitting on the table. 

and

El niño está sentado a la mesa. Means: the boy is sitting at the table.

Important distinction. :-)

Reboot

This started as a help for my kids as they worked on Spanish using Rosetta stone, but ended up as a help for me with my spanish Rosetta stone, and Japanese is going to be added later. Hope that it might help others, as well, some day. :-)