A question...

[ExOrienteLux]

Buenas tardes, todos.

Well, I would be writing more in Spanish in this post, but since I haven't used it for a year or so, I've degenerated to where I only remember enough of the tongue to make bad Spanglish.

So, what I'm looking for is either help over PMs or a good remedial Spanish site.  I'd really like to be able to talk relatively fluently again.  I mean, I can decipher written Spanish, but I can't write it or speak it anymore.  So, help of any sort would be much appreciated.  Oh, and one more thing: how do you get accents and tildes and that good stuff when you type?

Muchas gracias,

Josh (I'd say 'Jesus', but let's not, shall we?  )

[Mor Ephrem]

The last time I took Spanish classes was in high school, and after that, I haven't had to use it more than a few times, so while I left for college with a decent ability to use the language, nearly five years later it's more or less the way Josh describes.  Because of this, I'm looking forward to any responses to his post.

[Fr. David]

Well, --

I'm a Spanish teacher here in the States and the online tutorial I always have my kids use is www.studyspanish.com.  There are vocab and grammar sections, and at the end of each section -- where they give you descriptions and examples of everything -- there are free quizzes that you can take over and over to check comprehension.

Accents, using the right-hand number keypad:
+¦ -- ALT+164
á­ -- ALT+0225
é -- ALT+0233
í  -- ALT+0237
+¦ -- ALT+0243
+¦ -- ALT+0250

I didn't include the uppercase vowels, since one doesn't really use them much.

[TonyS]

So, what I'm looking for is either help over PMs or a good remedial Spanish site.  

Josh (I'd say 'Jesus', but let's not, shall we?  )

Dear-in-Christ Joshua,

Well I would be happy to help you as much as I can, please contact me via PM and I will provide my e-mail, etc.

Lesson 1:  Hispanohablante, the -nte ending is rather normal, I can't recall an -nto off the  top of my head.

Lesson 2: Joshua and Jesus are related but in Spanish the equivalents are Josué and Jesús.

Tony

[TonyS]

Lesson 1:  Hispanohablante, the -nte ending is rather normal, I can't recall an -nto off the  top of my head.

Just to clarify my unqualified comment, -nto endings exist in such words as monumento, tanto, manto, tonto, etc.  But, adverbs/adverbials (sometimes functioning as nouns) (I think that is what they are called) derived from verbs take the -nte, for example:  amar -> amante, hablar -> hablante, parlar -> parlante, seguir -> siguiente, correr -> corriente, tener -> teniente, etc.  

I am pretty sure there is an explantation from Latin.  IIRC, the -ns/-ntis -> nte while -ntum -> nto.

[Fr. David]

Any kind of adjective -- ¡casi, casi,  TonyS! -- that ends in "e" (like triste, hispanohablante, siguiente, etc) have no "o/a" distinction re: masculine/feminine.

[Maria]

I'm restudying Spanish also, but I have linux

So I have to flip to the Spanish (flag) and then use the ; key to get an accent. But I don't see the flag here.

Anyone have any thoughts on how to do this using Linux and open office. The ALT + 3 digits doesn't work with linux.

Love, Maria

[ExOrienteLux]

Thanks for the help, everyone.  I've taken a look at the site Pedro gave me, and it looks to be excellent.  Now, I just have to get a high-speed Internet connection again.

See, TonyS, I should have known that, but that's what not using a language for a year does to you!

[Fr. David]

Not familiar with linux, but worth a try:

Try CTRL+' (apostrophe), then let go of CTRL and tap the vowel of choice.

Does linux have symbol insertion?

[Robert]

What Linux window manager are you using??

KDE, Gnome, WindowManager, Enlightenment?

All have different methods.  I am running KDE 3.2.92  and have no problem with it.

I don't know all of them off-hand, but let me know what you are using and I will tell you how to insert unicode characters.

Robert

[Maria]

What Linux window manager are you using??

KDE, Gnome, WindowManager, Enlightenment?

All have different methods.  I am running KDE 3.2.92  and have no problem with it.

I don't know all of them off-hand, but let me know what you are using and I will tell you how to insert unicode characters.

Robert

Hola Captain Roberto

Tenía KDE y es muy dificil porque los llaves son diferente.

Ay+¦deme por favor.

Gracias,

María

[Maria]

Hi Roberto,

I'm back using the American Flag, so I can't type in Spanish.

Everytime I change languages (flags), I have to close the window (-) and then open it up again because it somehow locks on me. Is this normal?

Lately my computer will occasionally go back to the desktop dumping the Internet if I close the window, or when I try to send a message on a forum. So I don't like closing windows.

Anyway, this time I figured how to put accents on the vowels (typing the ' key first followed by the appropriate vowel to be accented). I type the n-ya (fancy n) utilizing the ; key.

The rest I'm not sure of yet - however it seems like the brackets are not usable - so I will have trouble typing in the and etc.

If you could somehow let me know what keys do what on my keyboard, I would greately appreciate it.

Thanks,
Maria

[Robert]

Hey Maria,

In answer to the latter portion of your question, the following website will show you a visual keyboard for the language you specify. Just select "Spanish" and it will have an illustrated keyboard that shows what keys do which.

http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev/reference/keyboards.aspx

As far as your KDE concerns, KDE can be a flaky beast sometimes.  What Linux distro rae you using??

R

[TonyS]

Any kind of adjective -- ¡casi, casi,  TonyS! -- that ends in "e" (like triste, hispanohablante, siguiente, etc) have no "o/a" distinction re: masculine/feminine.

Dear Pedro,

Indeed.  But, triste is not formed in the same way as siguiente.  While I am sure most people don't think this way, if one can keep in perspective how words are formed that may help. Anyway, my point was not about gender distinction but rather word formation.

Best of luck!

T

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