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Old March 14, 2017, 02:16 PM
lordhelmit lordhelmit is offline
Opal
 
Join Date: Dec 2016
Location: Raleigh, NC
Posts: 21
Native Language: American English
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Marylander View Post
*desde (since)

*frustrado (but i think in the context it'd be 'pero consigue frustrado) and you can cut out the 'estoy'

just keep at it and be brave; you can do it

ask for more specific advice if you choose. I will probably be on here a lot more in the near future.

- B.A. in Spanish without a ton of immersion -

in the final sentence of your Spanish paragraph...you should be saying 'tengo problemas con escuchar y hablar' not 'escuchando....hablando...'

i believe it's what called a 'false cognate' o 'cognato falso' when we directly translate from English without accounting for the rules of Spanish language. You will find this is the case in many situations and therefore is a very important lesson to focus on.

Again, let me know if these replies are being read.
Marylander:

Thank you! I looked up false cognate in spanish, and it appears that those are words in spanish that sound like words in english, but don't have the same meaning (aplicar, actual, billón, etc). However, I am very interested in any advice you may have when it comes to NOT directly translating word for word. They are different languages with different rules of course, but I don't know how to go about thinking in a spanish way. Or maybe I'm getting better at it - were those the only errors in my spanish paragraph?

I do have questions regarding these secret "que" and "de"s that seem to pop up without reason in sentences.

For example, to say "Now there is nothing to do"
"Ahora no hay nada que hacer"

I am trying to learn but it is very difficult to speak
Estoy tratando de aprender pero es muy difícil hablarlo

Where did the que and de come from in those sentences? I know word for word translation isn't accurate, but if I were to translate, those words seem extra. Is there some rule about when to place those?
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