Practice sentences needed, please

[Dustin]

Hello everyone. First time poster here.

I am not in a Spanish class, so no worries about me trying to get my homework done for me

I am learning Spanish through a variety of means (books, flashcards, internet, etc...), but need some practice. I am very much a beginner. I know about 50 verbs or so, and how to conjugate them into the present tense. I am working on preterite and irregular tenses now. I also have started to deal with pronouns, but haven't had much luck.

I am hoping someone would post some practice sentences for me (in English). I will translate them in a post, and ask for corrections.

It might be weird-sounding for me to ask someone to post English sentences, but whenever I try to create some for practice, they tend to be too easy (I think I am writing them specifically for my level, therefore I already know the answers).

Anyway, thank you in advance for your help!

Dustin

[Rusty]

Where is your sister?
I'm eating bread and butter.
When are you leaving?
I'm writing you some practice sentences.
Do you know when the party is?
Where does she live?
I don't know.
Do you listen to classical music?
I like chocolate.
Are these sentences what you expect?

(You can translate these in this thread and wait for corrections. Welcome to the forums, Dustin!)

[laepelba]

How about these:
- I live in Atlanta.
- You work on Wednesdays.
- She calls me every week. (Some pronoun action in that one!)
- We read Spanish news online.
- They eat apples.

[Dustin]

Wow! That was quick! You guys ROCK! These are exactly what I am looking for.

Ok, I am going to give it a shot. Remember, I am a beginner so expect a good butchering of this task! Thanks SO MUCH for your help!

Originally Posted by Rusty

Where is your sister? ¿Donde estas tu hermana?
I'm eating bread and butter. Estoy comiendo pan y [don't know butter].
When are you leaving? Cuando eres [don't know leave].
I'm writing you some practice sentences. Estoy escriben tu [I am stuck here, but don't want to "Google" it!]
Do you know when the party is? ¿Tu sales cuando es la fiesta?
Where does she live? ¿Donde esta ella vive?
I don't know. No sé. [I just know this phrase, but don't know WHY it is the way it is]
Do you listen to classical music? ¿Tu escuches musica classica?
I like chocolate. Me gusta chocolata.
Are these sentences what you expect?

(You can translate these in this thread and wait for corrections. Welcome to the forums, Dustin!)

Originally Posted by laepelba

How about these:
- I live in Atlanta. Yo vivo en Atlanta.
- You work on Wednesdays. Tu trabajas en mericoles.
- She calls me every week. (Some pronoun action in that one!) Ella llama me simpre semana.
- We read Spanish news online. Nosotros lemos [news] espanol [online].
- They eat apples. Ellos comen las manzanas.

[Rusty]

I'll correct the sentences I gave you, and will try to teach you a few things about the corrections I give.

By the way, a lot of the corrections are just adding an accent. There's an 'Accents' drop-down menu above the text box while you're typing. In it you'll find all the special characters you need to type Spanish.

~~~

Where is your sister?
¿Dónde estás tu hermana?

I'm eating bread and butter.
Estoy comiendo pan y [don't know butter]. Good job. You've used the present progressive tense here. That's OK. You can also say "Como pan y ..." The present tense in Spanish is used for three English tenses. The simple present, the present progressive, and the near future.
There's a dictionary here in the forums. Look in the upper left-hand corner of the page and type in butter. You'll learn a new word.

When are you leaving?
¿Cuándo eres [don't know leave]. The verb used in this sentence (are leaving) is a bit tricky. It looks like a present progressive tense (a conjugated form of 'to be', followed by a present participle (a verbal ending in -ing), but it's actually expressing the near future. Like I mentioned above, Spanish uses the present tense to express the near future. So, what you really need to know is the verb for 'to leave' (you don't translate the 'are' (and you wouldn't use 'ser')). There are two ways to say 'to leave' - salir or irse. The latter is more common, but it's a pronominal verb. I don't know if you've made their acquaintance yet.
Here is the translation. Ask questions about it if you don't understand.
¿Cuándo te vas?

I'm writing you some practice sentences.
Estoy escribiendo = I am writing (present progressive tense)
escribo = I am writing, I write, I'll write (near future)
tu tú (with an accent) is a subject pronoun. What you need is the indirect object pronoun te. The IOP precedes a conjugated verb. So:
te escribo = I'm writing you
te estoy escribiendo = I'm writing you
The rest of the sentence is unas frases de práctica. Ask questions about it if you don't understand.

Do you know when the party is?
¿(Tú) sabes cuándo es la fiesta? The subject pronoun isn't required in Spanish when the conjugated verb ending is not ambiguous (-es can only mean 2nd person singular (tú)). You chose the correct verb (ser) and conjugated it correctly. Many learners choose the verb estar, because it is used to give location. But ser is used for events. The location and the event are two separate ideas.

Where does she live?
¿Dónde esta ella vive? When we ask a question in English, the verb is split into two parts - an auxiliary verb and a main verb - and the subject is sandwiched in between. That isn't so in Spanish. The only difference between a statement and a question is the upside-down question mark (oversimplication, but I'm just trying to make a point). So, all you need to translate is the verb vivir. You chose the correct conjugation. The subject pronoun ella is commonly placed behind the verb in a question. If the subject pronoun were tú, it wouldn't need to be said at all (because the verb ending -es is only used for that person). So the correct translation is:
¿Dónde vive ella?

I don't know. No sé. [I just know this phrase, but don't know WHY it is the way it is] The infinitive 'to know' is saber. The first person is irregular (it isn't conjugated in the usual way). The other persons are conjugated in the normal way, so saber is known as an 'irregular 1st person' verb.
Also, you need to add the direct object pronoun lo. So the correct translation is:
No lo sé.

Do you listen to classical music?
¿(Tú) escuchas la música clássica? Almost! The verb ending needs to be -as because the infinitive ends in -ar.

I like chocolate.
Me gusta el chocolate. Close! The subject of the sentence (chocolate) needs to have an article. The Spanish sentence structure is NOT the same as in English for this verb. Ask questions if you don't understand.

[wafflestomp]

Not a bad try at all. It's great when you actually try and learn from the mistakes. Here are the corrections: I made the errors blue but just kept the correct stuff red.

Where is your sister? ¿Dónde está tu hermana?

I'm eating bread and butter. Estoy comiendo pan y mantequilla.

When are you leaving? There are a lot of options for this sentence, but from what I know you'd want to just use the simple future, since the present progressive (esoty comiendo) cannot be used to talk about the future. Also, remember "eres" is from the verb ser, which is only for describing permanent conditions, such as "Tú eres alto" -- You are tall. To say "When are you leaving" the best way to say it without getting into the reflexive verbs is just to say "Cuándo saldrás" -- When will you leave? There are other ways but that is probably the most simple.

I'm writing you some practice sentences. Te estoy escribiendo algunás oraciones.

Do you know when the party is? Sales means "you leave" which is where I got the conjugation "saldrás" from. It comes from the verb salir, meaning to leave or to go out as in like go out with friends. The answer is "Sabes cúando es la fiesta".. 'sabes' comes from the verb saber, meaning to know (a fact, not a person).
Also, you need to use ser rather than estar because it is talking about an event, not a location. If it said "Do you know where the party is" you'd need to use the estar.

Where does she live? ¿Dónde vive ella?

I don't know. No lo sé. [I just know this phrase, but don't know WHY it is the way it is] You can think of the lo as meaning "I don't know IT" you need it there, it's just a requirement.

Do you listen to classical music? ¿Escuchas la música clásica?

I like chocolate. Me gusta el chocolate (very close haha)

I just saw Rusty answered before me, we came up with most of the same stuff.. you had a good try. You seem to be very motivated in the language

[laepelba]

- I live in Atlanta. Yo vivo en Atlanta.
- You work on Wednesdays. Tu trabajas los mericoles.
- She calls me every week. (Some pronoun action in that one!) Ella me llama me siempre cada semana.
- We read Spanish news online. Nosotros lemos (spelling) [news] espanol [online].
- They eat apples. Ellos comen las manzanas.

Sounding great!

A couple of adjustments - noted above.

You don't often need the subject pronoun. For example, the first two sentences sound better like this:
- Vivo en Atlanta. (It's obvious when you say "vivo" that you mean "yo vivo".)
- Trabajas los miercoles. (Again, "trabajas" makes it obvious that you mean "tu trabajas".)

Now, some follow-up:
- In the third sentence, the "me" (object pronoun) precedes the verb.
- I would like to ask you to rework the fourth sentence. You can find conjugations of verbs here on Tomisimo or on other websites. "Leer" is a common verb, and you will easily find the spelling of the 1st person plural conjugation. I would also like for you to look up the words for "news" and "online".

[Dustin]

Thank you all for the help. I will go back and rework all of these sentences again, applying what you have said here. I will gladly look up the unknown words. I didn't do it before because I wanted to really attempt the sentences at face-value, and present what I really knew (holes and all).

Not to be overly enthusiastic, but this place is great! It is exactly what I have been looking for.

Regards,
Dustin

[laepelba]

Glad you're so enthusiastic about your learning. I am also teaching myself (since about October of 2008), and have been using Tomisimo since Dec, 2008 (obviously). The learning that I've received as a direct result of this website has been invaluable!

[Esperar]

Originally Posted by Dustin

Thank you all for the help. I will go back and rework all of these sentences again, applying what you have said here. I will gladly look up the unknown words. I didn't do it before because I wanted to really attempt the sentences at face-value, and present what I really knew (holes and all).

Not to be overly enthusiastic, but this place is great! It is exactly what I have been looking for.

Regards,
Dustin

Dustin, you seem to be at around the same level at speaking Spanish as me. How long have you been learning?

Originally Posted by laepelba

Glad you're so enthusiastic about your learning. I am also teaching myself (since about October of 2008), and have been using Tomisimo since Dec, 2008 (obviously). The learning that I've received as a direct result of this website has been invaluable!

How was your Spanish before joining? I have already found this site to be very helpful too! I'm still going to study from my Spanish books though.

[laepelba]

Originally Posted by Esperar

How was your Spanish before joining? I have already found this site to be very helpful too! I'm still going to study from my Spanish books though.

I had had Spanish in college over 20 years ago. I had forgotten almost everything. I don't ONLY use Tomisimo. I started with Rosetta Stone, and use other websites, workbooks, and other tools. I am also going to take two classes this summer in Argentina....

[Rusty]

Dustin,
I have one correction to my own correction. Although it's not technically wrong to include the definite article (la) after escuchar, that is usually only done when you are trying to distinguish the direct object (música clásica) from another object. So, if you meant to say 'Do you listen to classical music as opposed to rock music', you would use the definite article to make the distinction. If you are just asking in general (with no special consideration), you can omit the article.

Also, check the spelling of Wednesday (in Spanish) while you're looking things up.

[laepelba]

Oops - missed that one. Thanks, Rusty. Are the rest of my corrections okay? (I'm learning, too!)

[Rusty]

Mostly great, Lou Ann.
On the fourth sentence you didn't correct a misspelled word that Dustin wrote.

[laepelba]

I know that "espanol" should be "español", but I wasn't sure if it should be "españolas". I figured I'd wait until he found the word for news.....

[Rusty]

Correct. Yeah, I was hoping you'd wait to see what Dustin comes back with. That way he'll be able to learn that adjectives must agree in number and gender with nouns.

[laepelba]

Then go ahead and delete our last two posts, just in case he doesn't see them.

[Dustin]

Originally Posted by Esperar

Dustin, you seem to be at around the same level at speaking Spanish as me. How long have you been learning?



How was your Spanish before joining? I have already found this site to be very helpful too! I'm still going to study from my Spanish books though.

I have been learning for about 7 weeks. I started with Rosetta Stone, but found that was creating more questions than answers for me. Since then I have been trying many outlets and combining them. studyspanish dot com has been a GREAT resource.

Originally Posted by laepelba

Then go ahead and delete our last two posts, just in case he doesn't see them.

Too late!

[Esperar]

Originally Posted by laepelba

I had had Spanish in college over 20 years ago. I had forgotten almost everything. I don't ONLY use Tomisimo. I started with Rosetta Stone, and use other websites, workbooks, and other tools. I am also going to take two classes this summer in Argentina....

I had Rosetta Stone and thought it was terrible. While it taught me a little, it was very bad at explaining why sentences were formed as they were. I sent it back within a few months and got a refund.

Now what I do is try to change my favourite websites in to Spanish when possible, read Spanish learning books, and come to these forums.

I should probably be progressing faster, as I've been learning for 8 months, and can't have a real conversation as of yet.

[laepelba]

I found that RS was a good starting point - helping me to learn not to mentally translate, but to try to think the Spanish words first and last without attempting to tie everything to English vocabulary. But after finishing the first level of RS, I knew that the other two levels wouldn't be helpful.

Dustin - are you checking on those conjugations & words for us? And do you know what Rusty & I were talking about there?