Part of the problem is that there are many sentences in Spanish that we can translate exactly word-for-word.Įnglish: I can finish the project tomorrow.Įspañol: Yo puedo terminar el proyecto mañana. And, students will universally accept the idea that English and Spanish won’t have identical vocabulary, grammar and sentence structure.īut, they’ll still be frustrated by a lack of consistency, logic or simple rules we can apply in several situations. To respond to these questions, I often start by saying that English and Spanish are different languages. Student question: why do we say ‘conoces’ which is present tense in Spanish when ‘have you met’ is the past tense in English? And why do we need the ‘a’?įor me, part of what makes learning Spanish so fun is the different ways English and Spanish address similar ideas.
Student question: why do we say ‘que’ since the Spanish word ‘a’ is ‘to’ in English?
#I think in spanish how to#
How to think about the problemĪlmost every day, I receive a question from a Spanish student asking why there isn’t an exact translation for a given English sentence in Spanish. In this article, you’ll learn how to start developing your thinking in Spanish, how to view the problem, and how to reduce the need to translate word-for-word. And, how to avoid translating each and every word in your head from English to Spanish. If you want to produce Spanish confidently, quickly and accurately, you need to learn how to start thinking in Spanish. The best way to learn Spanish online is with a native speaker, as they possess a deep knowledge of their language and how to use it in real life.How can I start to think in Spanish and stop translating word-for-word in my head? – Real Fast Spanish Subscriber
#I think in spanish tv#
This is the language that we hear in the streets, in social interactions, on TV shows, etc. When learning a language, it is important to learn not just the formal register, but to be able to understand informal speech. To be born with a silver spoon in your mouth To make something more complicated than it is To do something to the foot of the letter Not to matter a cucumber / radish / pepper No importar un pepino / un rábano / un pimiento Spanish idioms with food and drinks Idiom To be mad as a hornet, to be crazy as a bat To be good for nothing, to be the unsuccessful one Study Spanish abroad at one of these 10 beautiful locations Spanish idioms with animals Idiom We have classified them in four different groups with a literal translation, their meaning and an equivalent in English. Here we have 40 Spanish idioms typical from Spain (although some of them are used internationally). For a language as widely spoken as Spanish, that means the number of idioms is huge! The sayings and idioms used by Spanish speakers from Spain are different to those used by the population in Mexico, Argentina, Colombia or Venezuela. Most idioms are very typical to the country or region they are from. However, in many cases it’s impossible to understand them if we haven’t heard them before, even if you speak Spanish at a high level. In some cases, we could guess the meaning of these Spanish expressions when we hear them in context. Some of them have a direct equivalent in other languages, whilst some of them are almost impossible to translate. Since languages undergo a constant evolution, that number is growing every day.ġ0 Spanish words with multiple meanings Why you have to learn Spanish Idioms
You use them every day but you’re probably thinking, what is an idiom? Idioms are phrases or fixed expressions that are used with a figurative meaning, rather than the literal meaning. It is estimated that the English language has more than 25,000 idiomatic expressions. Don’t worry, it’s not that you didn’t hear it right, It’s probably just a Spanish idiom. Maybe you think they don’t seem to make sense in the context of the conversation. It’s possible that they don’t make sense if you translate them literally into your own language. If you are learning Spanish, it’s quite likely that you have already heard some confusing expressions.