Hitting a brick wall with pronouns

[chileno]

Originally Posted by Esperar

I will also not be speaking anymore Spanish on this forum until I am confident I have got it right.

That is not a good idea.

You have no way to know if you have (got) it right/got it right.

[Esperar]

Do you think I should speak a little, but try to correct the mistakes I have when I have them pointed out?

[Vikingo]

Hombre, no pasa nada. Todos cometemos errores, y sería bueno que nos los corregieran, ¿no es así?

I even had to think about the use of the pronouns in the sentences above, and I'm still not 100% sure that I got it right. See my point? If it's wrong, I can find a grammatical explanation, and if it's right, my understanding is reinforced (or reenforced? Hmm, some dictionaries say it's the same thing). The worst would be if my understanding never got tested in a real world scenario, right?

And btw, here you should of course listen to chileno too

[Esperar]

I understood what you wrote in Spanish, but I can't say if it's totally right or not. I will continue to try, anyway.

[chileno]

Originally Posted by Esperar

Do you think I should speak a little, but try to correct the mistakes I have when I have them pointed out?

Right.

That's what I have been saying all this time.

Get a novel in Spanish, something that you really like to read about, but a novel. Ideally one which you have already read in English and you know it is in Spanish. Thing is, you have to like the theme.

Get a couple of bilingual dictionaries, online is free.

Start by transcribing phrase by phrase from Spanish, then translate from Spanish to English, see the result and accommodate it to what you think it means in correct English. Notate the Spanish pronunciation and pronounce it (read out loud) the best you can according to your understanding. And so on and so forth.

If you were to translate "¿Cómo te llamas?"

Como = How

te = tea, you

llamas = flames, to call

Keep in mind that you have to be patient, especially looking for definitions.

According to your understanding of English and the words given (found by you) what could this question mean in English?

It takes a bit of time, at first (like everything else), but then you start to roll and there is no stopping later. Depends on you.

[pjt33]

Originally Posted by chileno

llamas = flames, to call, llamas

¿Cómo has podido olvidar esa acepción?

[Esperar]

I've been studying a lot today, and have learnt quite a bit.

Chileno, thanks for your advice. What I do right now is turn everything I use in to Spanish when I can. Youtube, Facebook, my video games, I change all of the options in to Spanish. I find this helps.

I will continue to study over and over until I get it!

[wafflestomp]

Originally Posted by Esperar

I will also not be speaking anymore Spanish on this forum until I am confident I have got it right.

I think that's a bad idea. That's how you learn, by trial and error. you should keep trying to learn it. I'll bet that half of what you learned here you wouldn't have learned because it was corrected in a sentence you wrote.

[Brandon]

Originally Posted by Esperar

I've been studying a lot today, and have learnt quite a bit.

Chileno, thanks for your advice. What I do right now is turn everything I use in to Spanish when I can. Youtube, Facebook, my video games, I change all of the options in to Spanish. I find this helps.

I will continue to study over and over until I get it!

I set my facebook etc. into Spanish and I find that it helps a lot just because you are constantly reading them because they are all so addicting. Make sure you look up what they translate too...

Por ejemplo:

Facebook:

Logout ---> Salir ---> To Leave
Poke Back ---> Devolver el toque ---> Return the touch

Little things like understanding this will help you be more successful in communication.

[Esperar]

Originally Posted by Brandon

I set my facebook etc. into Spanish and I find that it helps a lot just because you are constantly reading them because they are all so addicting. Make sure you look up what they translate too...

Por ejemplo:

Facebook:

Logout ---> Salir ---> To Leave
Poke Back ---> Devolver el toque ---> Return the touch

Little things like understanding this will help you be more successful in communication.

You can do this on this forum you know, there is a drop down to change the language at the bottom of the screen.