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Old March 14, 2017, 04:09 PM
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AngelicaDeAlquezar AngelicaDeAlquezar is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Mexico City
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Native Language: Mexican Spanish
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I know a correction has been offered, but let me add some comments:

Quote:
Originally Posted by lordhelmit View Post
Buenos días. Voy a PR ésta agosto (Check gender agreement. Months are masculine.) con mi novia así que puedo conocer (This translation word for word works in context, but the idea is slightly different in Spanish: I think you're saying that you are travelling to meet your girlfriend's family, but in Spanish this says that you're travelling and will take this opportunity to meet her family, as a secondary objective of your trip. Try using "para" + infinitive, without "así que") a (Every time you have persons as a direct object, you must use "a". Check the uses of "personal a" here) su familia. Ya conocí a sus hermanos, pero es (el) tiempo conocer a su padre y su familia de su (This is a style note: we're picky about repetition; if we already know it's her family, we already know it's her church; choose to use only one "su" and change the other for an article) iglesia. He tratado *** (Preposition missing. Unless you have a compound tense, you need a linking word between two verbs. That's one of the reasons why we use "que", "de", "a" or other words between verbs. ) aprender más (since?) (Marylander's translation is good.) mi previo mensajes (Although Spanish is flexible and you may use the adjective before the noun, it's regularly preferred the other way round, unless it makes sense to use some emphasis on the adjective; this is not the case. Also check number agreement; "mensajes" is plural), pero estoy conseguiendo (frustrated?) (The correction Marylander gave about using "frustrado" is fine, however, the verb should be changed; "conseguir" is used for nouns, not adjectives. Try using just the verb "frustrarse" in the present continuous). Creo que puedo leer y escribir buen (I think this is a typo), pero todavía tengo problemas con escuchando y hablando (Check Marylander suggestion. Normally, verbs ending with -ing, when they work as nouns in English, they become infinitives in Spanish. Yet, let me suggest to change "con" to "al", because the problem is "when" you listen and speak; the contraction [a + el] conveys that idea. We prefer using "tener problemas con" when it's a person or something we can actually fight).
Quote:
Originally Posted by lordhelmit View Post
I am very interested in any advice you may have when it comes to NOT directly translating word for word.
The first thing to avoid translating word for word is to know words and expressions, which is something very hard to do in the beginning.
What works best for me is to learn words and expressions in context, then use them in different sentences. If you're not taking a language course, one way to do this is reading, watching videos and listening to audio, take notes of the things that caught your attention and use the new words and expressions in similarly built sentences, so you master their use and meaning. One at a time.
When we don't have enough vocabulary to build all the sentences we want to make, the dictionaries are our best friends, of course, but with a trick: try using the bilingual dictionary first to find the translation, but check every entry on the Spanish dictionary. You will start noticing the difference between one word and the other, so you'll be able to discriminate which translation is best for what you want to say. Yes, it's long; yes, it's slightly annoying, but you are going to learn a lot of vocabulary almost without noticing and you will be able to convey what you mean.
If you are in the mood for a rougher process, try to avoid using the bilingual dictionary to make sense of the Spanish definition, and look every word you don't understand in the same Spanish dictionary. Sometimes it's taken me literally hours to make one simple sentence in a foreign language, but it has been worth every minute.
I'm sorry I don't know any method to learn faster; for me it all depends on the amount of time and dedication we can assign to learning. Yet, venturing to speak and asking for repetition when you don't understand is alright. Never be afraid to speak and never be afraid to ask. We're all learning and we all make mistakes; so, as long as you enjoy learning, you'll find what works best for you.
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