www.CostaRicaTicas.com

English-speaking students make these mistakes when dealing with a gendered languages, and verb conjugations. These do not become fluent until speaking the language becomes second-nature. As long as you have to 'think' to speak, you will mess up the gender / conjugation options.

I'm still hung up on the whole "lo / le / la / ya" thing when referring to the English word "it". Who's idea was that shit!??

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bypassin' kinky, and usin' the whole chicken!!!

As I struggle with the irregular spanish verbs and gender etc. i just have to sit back and think of all the poor people who try to learn english.
Many words cannot be pronounced as written and even words with the same spelling are pronounced differently depending on the context.
Example Minute, is it like one minute or is it like small, minute ?

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Softbob

There is nothing either good or bad
but thinking makes it so.
HAMLET

Yeah, but if you want to be good at anything you gotta learn as much as you can. Its like a spanish person who pronounces Yellow as "Jello". Pretty annoying.

Along with the different vowel pronunciations. B and V sounds are a pretty essential and basic concept.

true, but if you think of all the 18 verb forms in Spanish ... just how many words is that?

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bypassin' kinky, and usin' the whole chicken!!!

New Question to you guys that have learned Spanish:

"Ya te quiero ver!" = "I want to see you now!". What the hell is the 'ya' doing as a stand-in for 'ahora'? Ya is an indirect-object pronoun, referring to 'it' ... 'ahora' is a freakin' ADVERB, modifying 'querer'.

I would have expected "Te quiero a ver, ahora!". But she didn't use the 'personal a', even though the subject is 'te' (you - a person).

This is 101 shit, and I am lost. I suspect the issue is me thinking in terms of English Grammer, but I need to grasp how 'ya' can stand in for 'ahora'. If this sentence had been spoken to me, I would never have understood it.

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bypassin' kinky, and usin' the whole chicken!!!

Not sure where you got it that "ya" is an indirect object pronoun! May be (somewhere) but I have never seen nor heard it used that way! "Ya" translates to "already" or "now", "no longer", "ya no" is "not only"! "Ya que" is "since"! I do not think "a" is ever use before "te"; "ti"-yes it is used!

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Old and retired but still bang, and bang, and bang!!!

ahh ... ok. I believe 'ya' was described to me by a native speaker, so that is where I may have it wrong. That, and google translate converted it to 'it', which sent me to the native for clarification.

I just found a terrific blog of a woman that lists out all of the free online tools she used for Spanish study.

http://www.tobefluent.com/2014/07/30/how-i-learned-spanish-from-scratch-a-self-study-guide/

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bypassin' kinky, and usin' the whole chicken!!!

Literally, it's "I want to see you already." She's trying to convey that it's been too long since she's seen you (what's it been 2 whole weeks?... she must be low on funds ) and she misses you so very much that her heart is aching for your love. Yep, Spanish is a powerful language, all that from one sentence.

BTW- she could have written it "ya quiero verte". The "te" can be added to the end of the infinitive form of the verb or in front of the conjugated verb related to the subject. I have noticed that most prefer to put it in front of the verb instead of attaching it to the end of the infinitive.

it carries a different connotation if placed before or after. Another native was explaining it to me, but her accent made it hard to understand her explanation.

I think it is similar to how the adjective of the noun changes the context of the preposition depending upon whether it proceeds or follows its noun. "mi viejo amigo" versus "mi amigo viejo".

These are the subtleties that I enjoy learning, but without the more basic skills I can't yet use in speaking.

Thanks for the clarification, you two. Much appreciated.

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bypassin' kinky, and usin' the whole chicken!!!

I'm going to check it out.

I have been playing on http://www.Quizlet.com as well. I paid the $15 to have an ads-free account, and I have joined a couple of High School Spanish classes to access the card-sets.

This site is a flash-cards site that makes it easy to memorize basic words. I have about 600 basic verbs down now, and I run through the sets every morning to test my spelling. (Those damned accent marks!!).

If anyone wants to know the classes I use, send me a PM and I'll email you the links. To start with, just go to the site and search for "spanish verbs".

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bypassin' kinky, and usin' the whole chicken!!!

"Ya te quiero ver!" = "I want to see you now!". What the hell is the 'ya' doing as a stand-in for 'ahora'? Ya is an indirect-object pronoun, referring to 'it' ... 'ahora' is a freakin' ADVERB, modifying 'querer'.

Bash when the YA is said with a more forceful tone think of it as NOW or IMMEDIATELY. The way they are using it is a local dicho and not part of normal Spanish throughout the rest of the world. I frequently hear parents telling their K*ds "Venga Ya!" Come here NOW! If you want a laugh when you are munching on your girl say "Leche Ya" Jajaja

Not sure there is any difference in this case....quiero verte ...or quiero te ver. But a heads up....if you are using Google translate put the te in front of the verb....otherwise it garbles the translation. My friend almost always puts the te, me, nos, at the end and Google never recognizes it properly....so far.