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Introduction
When you learn a foreign language, in these case Spanish, you must look
at each word in three ways.
1. The meaning of the word
- each word must be connected to a Spanish word that has an
equivalent meaning.
Words with equivalent meaning are learned by memorizing vocabulary. Some
times two words are the same or very similar in both English and
Spanish. These words are the same or very similar in both English and
Spanish. These words are called cognate and are easy to learn.
Spanish Espaņol
Inteligente Intelligent
Problema problem
Visitar visit
Occasionally knowing one Spanish word will help to learn another.
Knowing that niņo means boy should help you learn that niņa is girl; or
knowing that hermano is brother should help you remember that hermana is
sister.
Usually, however, there is little similarity between words and knowing
one Spanish word will not help to learn another. As a general rule, you
must memorize each vocabulary item separately.
Knowing that man is hombre will not help you to learn that woman is
mujer.
In addition, there are times when words in combination take another
special meaning.
The Spanish word hacer means to make; cola means tail. However, hacer
cola means to line up, to stand in line.
An expression whose meaning as a whole (hacer cola) is different from
the meaning of the individual words (hacer and Cola) is called an idiom.
You will need to pay special attention to idiomatic expression in order
to recognize them and use them correctly.
2. The classification of a
word-English and Spanish word classified in eight categories
called part of speech. Here is a list of speech used in Spanish.
a. Noun
b. Verb
c. Pronoun
d. Adjective
e. Article
f. Adverb
g. Preposition
h. Conjunction
Each part of speech has its own rules for spelling, pronunciation and
use. You must learn to recognize what part of speech a word is in order
to choose the correct Spanish equivalent an know rules to apply. Look at
the word that the following sentences.
i. That girl is my sister
j. There is the car that I bought
k. We did not talk about that.
The English word is the same in all three sentences. But in Spanish
three different words will be used because each part belongs to
different part of speech.
3. The use of the word. A
word must also be identified according to the role that it plays in the
sentence. Each word, whether English or Spanish plays a specific role.
Determining the role or function will help you to choose the correct
Spanish equivalent and know which rules to apply. Here is the list of
functions.
Subject
Direct Object
Indirect object
Object of a preposition
Let us examine the function of the word him in the following sentences.
a. They don't see him
b. I wrote him a letter
c. Are you going with him?
The word him is equal in all the sentences, but in Spanish three
different words will be used because each him has a different function.
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