Highlighting words, and translating them?

[wafflestomp]

Originally Posted by Esperar

My Spanish stinks. I was watching some Spanish videos on youtube, and my head exploded.

You put "te" in your sentence so it translates to, "I don't understand you," right? Also, although I think I know why you used traducir, I'm not quite sure why, can you explain? My grammar is poor. Sorry.

[edit] I forgot that tu means "your," and tú is informal "you." Could I have used tú instead?

Yup, that's right.

I used traducir, because when you use the word "puedo"-- a conjugation of poder, it literally means "I am able to" not "I can" like in English, although it's the closest translation to "I can".

So, to say "I am able to I translate" which is what you had originally, would be wrong.

To use poder, you have to have a full verb infinitive after it. Just like ir a + infinitive, acabar de + infinitive, etc.
Poder Examples:
Yo puedo andar -- Literally "I am able to walk" Naturally "I can walk"

Tú no puedes conducir -- Literally "You are not able to drive" Naturally "You can't drive"

El gato no puede leer -- Literally "The cat is not able to read" Naturally "The cat can't read"

Vosotros no podéis tocar el piano -- Literally "You all are not able to play the piano" Naturally "You all can't play the piano"

Nosotros podemos ir al bosque la semana que viene -- Literally "We are all able to go to the forest next week" Naturally "We can go to the forest next week.

Ellos pueden nadar -- Literally "They are able to swim" Naturally "They can swim"


And "te" is the reflexive and indirect object pronoun for the informal tense. I suggest you read up further on it on study spanish. The way my teachers always taught me about using words like that is to read it backwards. ie:
Me duele la mano
Would literally translate word for word as "My hurt the hand" but you can understand it better as "The hand it hurts me"
"Te estoy mandando un texto" -- I am sending you a text

And you cannot use tú either cases where I corrected you (FYI: tu without the accent means "your", a possessive). The tú with the accent is a singular second person informal SUBJECT pronoun.. so you can say "Tú eres mi amigo" or "Tú estas en la cocina". The word "ti" is an OBJECT pronoun, not a subject pronoun.

We do the same thing in English (although it's the same word exactly) Here are some examples in English and then to Spanish:

"You've gone to the cinema yesterday, is that true??... Tú has ido al cine ayer, es verdad?
"They always remember you"... siempre se acuerdan de tí.

Some quick hints I found online for you:

If it's the subject of the sentence, use tú (note the accent mark) or skip the subject altogether since the verb ending indicates it.

If it's showing possession (as in your bag, your idea), use tu (note there's no accent).

If it comes after a preposition in Spanish (a, de, para, etc.), use ti.

[LibraryLady]

Ese poste tiene grandes explicaciones. gracias

[Esperar]

Yep, his post explains a lot. Thanks Waffle. I think I understand what you mean, but I will need to reread what you posted several times.

[Rusty]

Which pronoun to use is a very important, and difficult, thing to master.
Subject pronouns were mentioned above. These replace subjects.
The word ti is a prepositional pronoun (the object of a prepositional phrase).
Indirect object pronouns and direct object pronouns stand in for objects that indirectly or directly receive the action of the verb.
There are many more: reflexive pronouns, demonstrative pronouns, possessive pronouns, and relative pronouns, to name a few

There are web sites, including this one, that can help you learn them all.

[Esperar]

Rusty, what is your opinion on www.studyspanish.com? I'm thinking of joining it.

[wafflestomp]

It's an excellent site, in my opinion, it taught me most of the Spanish grammar I know. I never paid for it though. You don't really have to pay the 150 dollar few or whatever it is to get the most out of their site.

[Esperar]

You have had lessons too, right? I am self taught on books, and with 2 months of Rosetta Stone use. I do like the look of studyspanish though.

[wafflestomp]

I've studied it in School, and I've done a lot of Rosetta Stone. Their course is very similar to Rosetta Stone. It's a software course that you buy and it is sent to your house. It's really not something I would invest in. They have a ton of free material, and the free material they have is the actual lessons that teach you. The stuff you pay extra for is just more tests and quizzes.

[Esperar]

I signed up for a free account. Do they have like a study plan for you? I'm not sure what to study next.

[wafflestomp]

Not sure if they do. I posted some links for you in the topic you made about your trouble with the pronouns... here it is: http://forums.tomisimo.org/showthrea...4766#post84766

Check out those links, I'd say those should be your next step right now. Then look into all the different verb tenses. Past, imperfect, future, conditional, and then once you master those, move onto the perfect tenses, and when you finish those, start studying the present subjunctive. I would study the imperfect subjunctive with the conditional tense because they both complement each other greatly.

[Rusty]

I go to studyspanish for some information, but I've never used any online course. I can't recommend any, for that reason.

[CrOtALiTo]

Also I have studied a online course but in English, I can recommending you if you want to study Spanish, then you buy the online course of Spanish from youtube.

[Esperar]

Originally Posted by Rusty

I go to studyspanish for some information, but I've never used any online course. I can't recommend any, for that reason.

I don't want to keep bothering you too much, as you have already helped me a lot, but I have a Spanish book, and it has a glossary of grammar terms in it. Which are the most important ones to learn, or should I learn them all equally?

[wafflestomp]

What type of grammar terms? Do you mean like verb tenses?

[Esperar]

Yes, also, things like infinitives, and so on. I've been studying some of the terms in my book today, but it would be quicker if I learnt the ones I need most first.

Yo tengo estudio mi libro de español hoy, y yo espero soy mejor bien.

Is this right? I'm not sure. If not, I'll have to get back to my books, and studyspanish.com.

[wafflestomp]

If you want to say I have studied, that's with different verb tenses, that's the present perfect, which is pretty high level. I suggest learning all the basic tenses (present,imperfect,past,future,conditional) first, though. It doesn't use the verb tener at all in the perfect tenses.

You got pretty close.. to say it the way you wanted, you would say:

Hoy, he estudiado mi libro de español, y yo espero que soy mejor ahora.

but to put it in simpler terms since you haven't learned the perfect tenses yet, I would just use simple past.

Hoy, estudié mi libro de español, y yo espero que soy mejor ahora.

When you say "espero" you have to put "que"( no accent ) after it. It then means "I hope that I am better now.

[Esperar]

Translated literally as this?

Today, I studied my book of Spanish, and I hope that I am better now.

[CrOtALiTo]

[QUOTE=Esperar;84895]Yes, also, things like infinitives, and so on. I've been studying some of the terms in my book today, but it would be quicker if I learnt the ones I need most first.

Yo tengo estudio mi libro de español hoy, y yo espero soy mejor bien.

Is this right? I'm not sure. If not, I'll have to get back to my books, and studyspanish.com.[/QUOTE

I will correct you some words in your last phrase, I hope that the corrections don't bothering you.

Yo tengo un libro de Español y espero mejorar cada dia.

This is my suggests above.

[Esperar]

Thanks, but that's not what I meant. What that says is, "I have a Spanish book, and I hope to improve per/each day."

Almost what I wanted to say, but not quite.

[chileno]

Originally Posted by Esperar

Thanks, but that's not what I meant. What that says is, "I have a Spanish book, and I hope to improve per/each day."

Almost what I wanted to say, but not quite.

Correct. That's why you have to do it in reverse...