One of the hardest part of any language to learn are those frequently used expressions that people say in passing. Many times, these expressions are not easy to find outside of normal and casual conversation in which the language is spoken. Sometimes, and the word SOMETIMES must be emphasized, you can find them in an unabridged dictionary. SOMETIMES, a good dictionary of idiomatic or slang expressions will contain them. Many times, however, these words, phrase, expressions, idioms and proverbs remain outside the non-native speaker realm of understanding which, to put it mildly, is unfortunate. The istudycards Damn, So That's How You Say That were created to help you to refine the Spanish which you already speak. (285+ istudycards) Included is the supplement: Spanish Homographs
Also, videos on more general discussions on pronunciation, metaphoric English, idiomatic expressions, grammar, collegiate vocabulary, prefixes, roots, suffixes and more, go to carralaficklin.com. At Carralaficklin.com you can also find video on Spanish, Spanish expressions, Spanish grammar, Spanish relationship with English and English relationship with Spanish and the other Latin-based languages. There even is a discussion on verbs and the subjunctive mood in English versus Spanish.
Every language has its own peculiar structure, words, phrases and expressions, Spanish is no exception. These aspects of Spanish do not make sense outside their cultural context. In Spanish, for example, what does it mean to: ‘to be like a cat on a hot tin roof,’ to cut a record, to make one’s bed and sleep in it, to back down, or ‘to be water under the bridge’? These expressions, used everywhere in the language, are one of the main reasons why it is so difficult to understand a language which is not one’s own. For an English-speaker, the difference between when a verb is reflexive and not can be pivotal in meaning. The meaning of Acostar and acostarse are related but they are not synonyms. That se makes a tremendous difference. Ir and Irse also are related but can not be used interchangeably. A preposition can also radically change the meaning of a word. Deshacer means to undo where deshacerse de is translated as to get rid of. Sometimes the only differene between two words which are almost identical except one ends in o and the other ends in a is a matter of gender: muchacho vs. muchacha or blanco vs. blanca. However, that is not always the case: caso vs. casa, punta vs. punto, pato vs. pata. The reflexive pronoun and preposition are not the only two grammatical structures which can change the meaning of a word. An article can also play a pivotal part in meaning. La cura and el cura, la parte and el parte and la policia and el policia do not mean the same thing. The istudycards Damn, So That's How You Say That were created to help you to refine the Spanish which you already speak. (See the video on these cards at Wylcomenetwork.com)
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