dialects

**Pravit** · December 1st, 2004, 02:10 AM

Waxwing, friend, I wish to come to China soon. Are you enjoying the food there?

**Линдзи** · December 1st, 2004, 04:24 AM

Originally Posted by waxwing

In English this is the "past perfect". We also used to use the term pluperfect, but it seems to have fallen out of usage.

I'd like to bring it back. I like the term "pluperfect son of a bitch."

December 1st, 2004, 03:18 PM

The thing is that in spanish we have two types of past where english have just one, and they correspond (roughly) with the perfect and imperfect forms of russian verbs. So instead of using a different verb if the action is finished or not, we use one verb but with different endings. For this reason it is usually not difficult to choose the right aspect in russian (in the past), if you can speak spanish...

Also, english people find it quite tricky to chose the right tense in spanish...

but, of course, the trickiest thing is the subjunctive

I think that i never knew a non-native speaker who could use it correctly, except, maybe, french people.

December 1st, 2004, 03:19 PM

The thing is that in spanish we have two types of past where english have just one, and they correspond (roughly) with the perfect and imperfect forms of russian verbs. So instead of using a different verb if the action is finished or not, we use one verb but with different endings. For this reason it is usually not difficult to choose the right aspect in russian (in the past), if you can speak spanish...

Also, english people find it quite tricky to chose the right tense in spanish...

but, of course, the trickiest thing is the subjunctive

I think that i never knew a non-native speaker who can use it correctly, except, maybe, french people.

**waxwing** · December 1st, 2004, 04:50 PM

Originally Posted by Pravit

Waxwing, friend, I wish to come to China soon. Are you enjoying the food there?

I'm lukewarm about it ... especially the lukewarm fare in the Uni canteen

No doubt there is some great cuisine here, but I had to learn bu2 la4 pretty fast, even up here in the north (I think it's even hotter down south from what I've heard).
Hotpot restaurants are very popular, and very good for a cold winter. Although I feel the idea of going into a restaurant and cooking the food yourself somewhat of a rip off

.

Winter is starting to set in big time here so I'm looking forward to a quick trip south for the spring festival in Feb!

Originally Posted by линдзи

I'd like to bring it back. I like the term "pluperfect son of a bitch."

Yeah, I agree ... errr .. OK I'll stop trying to be clever and say I really didn't understand that joke.

**Линдзи** · December 2nd, 2004, 04:18 AM

It's not a joke. It's just an insult. I have no idea what it actually even means about the insultee, but one of my relatives regularly uses it, and it cracks me up. Perhaps it means someone was once a son of a bitch, but has completed that action?

**Линдзи** · December 2nd, 2004, 04:20 AM

Originally Posted by Anonymous

Originally Posted by Линдзи

Not all words have accent marks in Spanish. Also, one syllable words sometimes have accent marks.

I'm spanish...i know that, believe me

Yeah, I wasn't saying you didn't know that. What I was saying was that the accent marks don't really help me much with my Spanish pronunciation, because they're not on every word. You have to learn the rules of emphasis (or just listen to so much Spanish that they become second nature) in order to be able to correctly pronounce words as a non-native speaker.

**Jca** · April 22nd, 2005, 10:30 AM

What I was saying was that the accent marks don't really help me much with my Spanish pronunciation, because they're not on every word. You have to learn the rules of emphasis

When you find a new word, the accent is telling you how to pronounce it. Just think of some example words and you'll see:

esperanza : you see no accent, so as it ends in vowel (or 's' or 'n'), the stress doesn't fall on the last nor on the last but two -> esperAnza

[b]c

July 4th, 2005, 08:16 AM

Hola nenes!

Yo hablo calstellano es q me vivia mucho tiempo en Argentina.Si, hay una differencia entre espanol (se hablan en Espana) y castellano (q se hablan en Argentina).Por ejemplo hay una differencia en el significato de algunas palabritas.Claro q tambien hay una gran differencia en pronuncia y en una forma de hablar eso o eso.
Espanol....pardon..castellano es mi segunda lengua. Es q mi nazionzlita es rusa, yo hablo ingles y despues empeze a ensenar espanol, pero despues de irme a Argentina la lengua castellana me parecio mas ... mas para mi!!!