los pantalones cortos
Today’s Learn Spanish: Word Of The Day is:
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Learn Spanish – Word Of The Day – los pantalones cortos
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Tags: Learn Spanish
Aspect is often confused for tense; while tense describes the time at which an action occurred, aspect describes the way in which the action occurred despite the time of the action. In English, there are four different aspects: simple, progressive, perfect, and perfect progressive. Each of these describes the manner in which in action is taking place. As this can be hard to describe, I will demonstrate with an example of each.
In the example below, please do not be confused by the presence of words such as ‘present’, ‘past’, or ‘future’; these are tenses, not aspects, and will be covered in another article. Those tenses are merely referenced for the sake of the example. Examples:
Present Simple: I sing.
The example above uses the ‘simple’ aspect; it describes an action that is occurring presently, though it is a single action and not one that would be considered ongoing; essentially, it is more akin to describing a state of being rather than an action that is actively being taken.Present Progressive: I am singing.
This example uses the ‘progressive’ aspect; it describes an ongoing action. Instead of describing a state of being, such as above, it describes what the subject is actively doing over a period of time. If you are currently taking an action that is not yet over but has already started, this is the correct aspect to use.Present Perfect: I have sung.
This example utilizes the ‘perfect’ aspect; like the first example, this aspect tends to describe a state of being rather than an ongoing action. It is saying equally: “I have sung before”, as well as, “I have just sung.” While the latter seems to fall into the past tense, it does not. Despite the fact that the action has already taken place, it is describing a present state of being. (A past tense version would be the Past Perfect: “I had sung,” which tends to describe a state of being in past rather than present.)Present Perfect Progressive: I have been singing.
The ‘perfect progressive’ aspect describes an ongoing action that has either recently completed or is still occurring. Again, while it seemingly describes an action in the past, it actually describes a present state of being. The subject here is not commenting that he or she has sung in the past, but rather that he or she has recently been singing and so the ongoing action has occurred until recently.
Aspect can be very difficult for native English speakers to grasp because it seems to be so firmly tied to each tense. In reality, aspect affects each of the tenses we use, but it describes only the action, not the time at which it took place. In another article I will explain tense and how it works with aspect to create a full description of scene in the past, present, or future.
For further reading: Grammatical Aspect at Wikipedia.
As always, comments are welcome.
Tags: Learn English
le manteau
Today’s Learn French: Word Of The Day is:
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Learn French – Word Of The Day – le manteau
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Tags: Learn French
Grammatical articles tend to cause a lot of trouble for beginning students of foreign language; I will give a brief explanation of their purpose in the English language. Grammatical articles in English are broken up into four types: definite, indefinite, partitive, and zero. They are described below.
I will start by explaining that the word the is a definite article; it is definite because it refers to a specific object. Example:
The car is red.
In that sentence, the definite article ‘the’ tells us that a specific car is red, not an unspecified or otherwise random car. This is important to note because definite articles serve the same purpose in the Romance languages. However, unlike the Romance languages, English nouns are genderless; in French, for example, a noun will either be masculine or feminine and thus tied to a specific definite article. In English, we only have one definite article and it is ‘the’.
I will start by explaining that indefinite articles in English are ‘a’ or ‘an’; these are called indefinite because they do not refer to a specific object. Example:
A car is red.
An elephant is gray.
The emphasized words above are indefinite articles; they do not refer to a specific car or elephant. Instead, they refer to seemingly random objects or are generalizations about the objects. You might interpret ‘An elephant is gray,’ to mean that generally, elephants are gray. In foreign language, an indefinite article is sometimes modified by the gender of the noun it is referring to. I will go into specifics for each language in separate articles.
In English, we do not have a specific word for partitive articles. Partitive articles are used to describe only a part of something or to describe something that is not broken into parts. Example:
Would you like some water?
Do you have any money?
Both of these provide the same functionality as a partitive article; they do not reference specific amounts of specific water or money. In many foreign languages there are specific words for partitive articles and there are specific rules that govern them.
A zero article is actually the lack of an article. It is used for broad generalizations or comparisons. Example:
Dogs are my favorite animals.
Cats are cleaner than Dogs.
As you can see, there is no article present in either of those sentences, so we take them as general statements instead of referencing specific objects.
As always, comments are welcome; this topic may seem simple but I do not want anyone to be left in the dark, so please write if you are having trouble.
Tags: Learn English
el sombrero
Today’s Learn Spanish: Word Of The Day is:
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Learn Spanish – Word Of The Day – el sombrero
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Tags: Learn Spanish
Welcome to Lesson 1 of my Learn German series! Follow along and you’ll be speaking German in no time. In this lesson I will cover two areas: numbers and vocabulary. Let’s learn German!
Here are the numbers one through ten.
Follow along with this audio file: Learn German – Lesson 1 – Numbers 1-10
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- eins
- zwei
- drei
- vier
- fünf
- sechs
- sieben
- acht
- neun
- zehn
Practice these every day to make sure you remember them. Speak them aloud, too!
Let’s learn the names of some animals! We will use these once we begin creating sentences.
Follow along with this audio file: Learn German – Lesson 1 – Animals
der Bär
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die Katze
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der Fisch
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der Löwe
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der Tiger
That’s all for this lesson; in the next lesson we will begin verb conjugation and and finish up numbers 11-20! As always feedback is welcome; these lessons are for you.
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Tags: Learn German
la jupe
Today’s Learn French: Word Of The Day is:
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Learn French – Word Of The Day – la jupe
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Tags: Learn French
Recently I posted about my Harper Collins French Dictionary and Bescherelle; these are the tools that have helped me learn French. Today, I have two books to recommend that have helped me learn Spanish.
501 Spanish Verbs is a great resource for students regardless of their level of study. This book details 501 different Spanish verbs from A to Z; it provides their meaning and their full conjugations for each tense and mood. I use this book regularly when I am doing any work in Spanish, especially when I am construction lessons and articles for this website. It has proven to be a great resource for me and I think every student of Spanish should own this.
Langenscheidt's Pocket Bescherelle Spanish Verbs is not a book that I have personally used, however, it carries the word ‘Bescherelle’; the Bescherelle brand, as well as then Langenscheidt brand, is widely-known for its accuracy. This small book uses a formulaic approach to list full conjugations for over 12,000 different Spanish verbs! I have not personally used this book, however, I would definitely trust it due to the brands involved. If you are looking for something different from the 501 Spanish Verbs book, this would definitely be the way to go.
Tags: Learn Spanish
