Clarifying whether this lesson is for spoken or written SpanishI understand that dropping the ¨de¨ is something done sometimes in spoken Spanish in Mexico and elsewhere, but it would it be marked incorrect in written Spanish? It seems like there should be some discussion about how this differs from Castilian rules. ChatGPT says re Dropping the de
You may hear:
antes que
or
después que
especially in parts of Latin America.
For example:
Antes que llegues...
Después que terminó...
These forms occur in everyday speech in countries such as Mexico, parts of Central America, the Caribbean, Argentina, Uruguay, and elsewhere, though how common they are varies by region and speaker.
However:
They are considered regional rather than the neutral standard.
In formal writing, education, and when speaking to people from across the Spanish-speaking world, antes de que and después de que are the safer, more widely accepted choices.
If your goal is broadly natural, educated Spanish (which I know you've been working toward), I would recommend keeping the de.
When there is an indirect pronoun in a sentence we use: me, te, le, nos, os, les. However when the indirect pronouns le and les (meaning to him / to her / to them) are accompanied by the direct pronoun lo, la, los or las (meaning it / them) then le and les become se to avoid a clumsy sounding le lo, le la, les los etc, which is tricky to pronounce. Listen to this example.
I would say that this sort of explanation is probably utterly useless to 80% of people. I would bet a lot of money that the majority of first language English people reading this for the firs time have no idea what a direct pronoun is nor an indirect pronoun. It seems that all study guides, and text books assume that people are an expert in the technical language of their own language. They are not.
If someone ever produced material where they explain the 'technical' term before they try to explain how to use that term it would be so much more useful than throwing the terms around with no explanation.
If you read a mechanics' manual and it said "'Locate the second differential gear chain"" would that be helpful if it was the first time that you were looking at tractor's engine?
And the very next thing I read was "With an infinitive, imperative or present participle, se and the direct object pronoun can be either at the end of the verbal structure and attached to the infinitive, imperative or the present participle forming a longer word:
Because for sure, everyone in the world knows what a present participle is.
I have now read the whole thing, and it is clearly written by an expert in the language of an expert to someone who already understands that expert language. There is no attempt to actually explain what is going on to a novice.
It is actually terrible teaching.
What about using the ustedes form and not the vosotros form
Hola, why is con included in the above sentence ? Muchas gracias, Shirley.
Hello,
"I don't know who could have written that" is given as "No sé quién puede haber escrito eso" which backtranslates as "I don't know who can have written that". What about "No sé quien podría haber escrito eso"?
Muchas gracias,
Joanna
Hola Inma, In the 'Fill in the blanks" exercise for "El apóstol Santiago" the final blank of the exercise is: "Incluso había peregrinos que se encontraban años después....." I probably should have taken ore notice of the "met up" suggestion but I have never seen this usage before, and this lesson doesn't include the idea of "meeting up" as requiring the pronominal "encontrarse." As you know it focuses on the location of where people arrange to meet, and the idea of bumping into someone is not appropriate in this example. Would it be an idea to include this in the lesson? It fits with the pronominal notion of meeting "with one another" / "with each other" which is true for the expression "nos vemos entonces" for example, though I am not sure that you would use those words to translate the expression. Saludos. John
Como puedo evitar lo que no se entiende en México en el curso. A que no se usa aquí de esta manera.
A tan solo dos minutos de
I understand that dropping the ¨de¨ is something done sometimes in spoken Spanish in Mexico and elsewhere, but it would it be marked incorrect in written Spanish? It seems like there should be some discussion about how this differs from Castilian rules. ChatGPT says re Dropping the de
You may hear:
antes que
or
después que
especially in parts of Latin America.
For example:
Antes que llegues...
Después que terminó...
These forms occur in everyday speech in countries such as Mexico, parts of Central America, the Caribbean, Argentina, Uruguay, and elsewhere, though how common they are varies by region and speaker.
However:
They are considered regional rather than the neutral standard.
In formal writing, education, and when speaking to people from across the Spanish-speaking world, antes de que and después de que are the safer, more widely accepted choices.
If your goal is broadly natural, educated Spanish (which I know you've been working toward), I would recommend keeping the de.
Can you explain why it is not correct to use the article, as in “en de UNA visita oficial”?
The table (and quiz questions) say “creo” is the pretérito third person singular conjugation. My conjugation app and ChatGPT say “creó”. Which is correct? If “creo” is in error, please update the table and quiz questions. Thank you!
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