Quote:
Originally Posted by NiCACHiCA
I have been looking over a little of each this week; preterite, imperfect, subjunctive, commands, etc.  No wonder I can't sleep at night! All I see are different Spanish words floating around in my head, trying to figure out if it's the right ending!!  ...I guess I just want to learn and speak better so badly, that I was trying to rush things along! I think I will just study the past tense for a while. That's a big task in itself for me, knowing (and being comfortable with) when to use each tense. |
I'm actually going to disagree with almost everyone else, and tell you that what you've been doing for the last week was what worked for me. The different conjugations will fall into place, slowly but surely. Attack the verb endings like a hungry lion, and go for their throats! Don't get discouraged when you don't remember, just go over the tenses a few times more, and try to notice the patterns.
Also try to read a little Spanish, say a short story, and notice the verbs. You'll sit there and think: "Hmmm.. they said 'hablaron'.. -aron, that's the 3rd person plural ending for the preterite.. right, right.. so why didn't they use 'hablaban'.. ah, they're just telling what happended, plain and simple, and they're done with it.. cool, I'm getting the hang of this, let's read on.
Quote:
Originally Posted by NiCACHiCA
Does anyone have specific websites they use to learn? Maybe one certain website that is better for learning past tense, or subjunctive mood, or adverbs, etc...or maybe one website that is great at teaching it all?
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I used different websites, but look for one that doesn't go into too much detail in the beginning. The point is to get up to speed, and handle the details later. Studyspanish.com was one that I used, and can recommend. The free lessons were the ones I used, never bothered to pay for the rest.
Also get a very basic grammar book, for when you're not online. The one I used was called "Spansk lommegrammatikk" (Spanish pocket grammar), and even though it was only 150 pages and written in a large font, it covered enough grammar to understand the basic usage. I didn't just read it once, of course, I tried to internalize every grammar point. At the same time, I was completely aware that this wasn't everything, and that more complete and detailed books would be necessary soon.
Good luck
