Hello

[jerrymack]

Gee, it's hard to break the code of six fuzzy things (letters and digits, they say) De todas formas, hola de Portland Oregon EU. Pronunciation is the hard part for me, por ejemplo tener. Como se dice? Tened?

[Rusty]

Welcome to the forums!

The Spanish 'r' isn't pronounced like a 'd', if that's what you're asking.
It has two pronunciations, depending on where it appears. Neither pronunciation is like the American English 'r'. One is a clipped 'r', the other is a trilled 'r'. When the 'r' is at the end of a word, it is trilled. (teh nehrrrr)

You can search the forums to see what others have already said about the Spanish 'r'.

There's an 'Accents' drop-down menu above where you type so that you can insert the special characters needed when typing in Spanish, like:
¿Cómo se dice?

[jerrymack]

Hi Rusty,

I was listening to the opening video at the lo másTV website and the woman talking did not roll the r at the end of tener. I listened to it several times and I could not tell for sure how she was pronouncing this basic word.

[Liquinn3]

Welcome to the forums.

[Rusty]

I couldn't find the exact video you were watching, but I watched two of the videos on the site (that I could see without joining). The lady I listened to was rolling the final 'r' on all the infinitives she used, so if you were listening to the same lady, I'm sure you were hearing a rolled 'r'. The amount of tongue flaps in a rolled 'r' can vary, from a single flap of the tongue to several. It very much depends on the person articulating the sentences how much trill is used.

The lady I listened to was from Argentina and she slipped up on one imperative, using the voseo form instead of the familiar form (el tuteo). The subtitles followed suit, so you were exposed to this form without even knowing it. El voseo is heavily used in Argentina, and several other countries in Latin America, but it is not used everywhere. So, if you choose to use that site as your primary learning tool, you should plan on learning to recognize the difference between el voseo and el tuteo.

EDIT: I should also add that colloquial (even incorrect) Spanish was used on more than one occasion. She used 'vamos' for "let's go," but this usage occurs in many other countries. But you should know that it isn't correct. The thing that surprised me the most was her usage of "tras mío." One shouldn't use a possessive pronoun immediately after a preposition. She should have said 'detrás de mí', instead.

[Premium]

About the "r" thingy. I occasionally watch some telenovelas and I must admit that they don't always roll the "r". Best example: "por favor" - I can't tell how many times I couldn't hear the "r" explicitly.

[Julvenzor]

Originally Posted by Rusty

EDIT: I should also add that colloquial (even incorrect) Spanish was used on more than one occasion. She used 'vamos' for "let's go," but this usage occurs in many other countries. But you should know that it isn't correct.

Hola, Rusty:

Lamento disentir; pero "vamos" sí es correcto como imperativo "nosotros" del verbo "ir". Ocurre que en el español antiguo "vamos" era la conjugación para el presente de subjuntivo, no de indicativo. A causa de esto y a pesar del cambio de paradigma, ha mantenido ciertos rasgos especiales, entre ellos, que puede funcionar como imperativo, sobre todo, cuando existe una finalidad exhortativa.

Aquí pongo una cita proveniente del DPD:

La forma vamos es hoy la primera persona del plural del presente de indicativo: «Laureano y yo nos vamos al jardín»; pero en el español medieval y clásico era, alternando con vayamos, forma de primera persona del plural del presente de subjuntivo: «Si vos queréys que vamos juntos, pongámoslo, luego, por obra». Como resto de su antiguo valor de subjuntivo, la forma vamos se emplea, con más frecuencia que vayamos, con finalidad exhortativa: «Vamos, Johnny, vamos a casa que es tarde»; la forma de subjuntivo vayamos, con este sentido, ha quedado casi relegada a la lengua literaria: «Vayámonos de aquí». Lo que no debe hacerse en ningún caso es emplear hoy la forma vamos, en lugar de vayamos, en contextos que exigen subjuntivo y sin que exista, en el enunciado, intención exhortativa: «Tenemos una excelente relación [...]. Pero no es que vamos juntos para el cine»; debió decirse no es que vayamos.

Un saludo a todos y feliz navidad.

[Rusty]

Está muy bien que disientes conmigo. Decir que es incorrecto el uso de 'vamos' como imperativo no concuerda con el uso antiguo y cotidiano. Sé que así se usa muy a menudo. Pero los sitios web y los libros nos enseñan a los estudiantes del idioma que debemos usar 'vayamos'.
De vez en cuando me topo con alguien que me dice lo que me recordaste. Por cierto yo lo uso tal y como no he recomendado.