the-language-guy

[the-language-guy]

Using the IPA. No, not Indian Pale Ale

Heyo everyone. So I’ve been introduced to something that makes the pronunciation of languages a lot easier. It’s called the IPA. [Insert applause here].

What’s the IPA. Well, I’ll tell ya. It’s sort of a code for pronouncing. All words in every language are constructed by sounds. The IPA has symbols to represent these sounds that are basically universal. 

How do I learn it?

Good thing you asked, Timmy. First, check out these links:

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:English_pronunciation

Good for seeing where you’re at with pronunciation. BUT BECAUSE OF DIFFERENT PRONUNCIATION DUE TO DIALECTS YOU MAY NOT FIT NEATLY INTO ANY BOXES OF CATEGORIES. Please consult your nearest linguist for any possible treatments.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA#Others

IPA for other languages, a more comprehensive list

http://www.ipachart.com/

For listening to sounds, go figure

The IPA is useful because of its universality. It’s good for transcribing words so you don’t get confused by spelling/orthographic functions of languages. See this link.

I will speak more about the IPA and its use in later posts. Signing off.

Happy Learning!!!

[the-language-guy]

Apologizing: The art form

Hello people. First, I wanna say I am so deeply sorry for depriving anyone of you of learning languages. I have just recently started college (Go ‘Cuse) a month ago. I naïvely thought this was going to be smooth when this was actually as smooth as sandpaper.

Second, holy crap so many followers, I should take a leave of absence more often. My plans for this blog are currently up in the air, but I promise I will try to update on the weekends as much as possible. So sorry about this

Take care and happy learning!

Also please don’t be afraid to ask me questions, I encourage it!!!!!

[the-language-guy]

French Quickie #2 ~ Present Conjugation

So there are 4 basic types of verbs based on their conjugation:

-ER verbs

-IR verbs

-RE verbs

Irregular verbs

Verbs are conjugated based on tense and mood, but for now, the present is our objective. Because writing the rules on a post would be too ugly and strenuous,(mostly ugly) I’m leaving this explanation to the professionals. Below are links to my favorite French sites, Lawless French.

ER VERBS

ER VERBS - PART TWO

IR VERBS

IR VERBS - PART TWO

RE VERBS

RE VERBS - PART TWO

I do not own and am not affiliated with this wonderful site. Apprentissage Heureux!

[the-language-guy]

Korean Sounds #1

So Korean is a tricky language. So tricky I have to write this post from my phone instead of my computer. The reason why it’s both tricky and easy is the pronounciation. Unlike Chinese and, to a lesser but greater than Korean extent, Japanese the language has an alphabet.

한국 The Almighty Hangul

It is your friend. Read it like a bookworm. Learn it like a student. Absorb it like a sponge. Snort it like coke. Whatever you have to do to ingrain it, do it. Why you ask? Cause you need to know it in order to speak it. Sort of common sense right, but one of the major problems of learning it the crutch of ROMANIZATION. Like the pinyin of China or romaji of Japan, but even more useless. There are two problems with it.

1. It is a Major Crutch *salutes Major Crutch*

The problem with relying on romanization of Korean is that you’re gonna be more invested in it than the Korean letters themselves. Even if you can tell what the words are and pronounce them using the romanization, it’s still a shortcut. Like writing the notes on sheet music, it can be good practice, but bad when in excess. There are sources and sites that say use it it’s helpful and others that say it’s the spawn of Satan. As the middle ground, you should use it as a learning technique. Romanize it on your own and study it, but don’t romanize every word you see. Mostly because of this second point.

2. It’s Usually Wrong

The problem with romanizing, especially with just literature, is that you get a misguided concept of how the words sound. With Korean, most of the consonants are the equivalent of Danny Phantom - in the middle. This is mostly because Asian phonetics are different than European/western phonetics. In Korean, 5 out of the 10 basic constants are mixed. Getting into specifics in another post, romanization makes hard and fast rules out of sounds and Korean letters. Also Korean has sound change rules, in which letters and their sounds elide and transform based on the combination of letters. So really, it’s cheating you out learning the phonetics of Korean.

Learning to read Hangul with pronunciation is the best thing you can do.

[the-language-guy]

German Road Trip #4

Phrases

Bitte - Please

Nein - No (saying “no” nein times fast)

Tschüss - Bye

Ja - Yes

Hallo - Hello (Go Figure)

Danke - Thank/Thanks/Thank you (just all the thanks)

Guten Morgen - Good morning

Guten Abend - Good evening

Gern geschehen - You’re welcome

Guten Tag - Good afternoon/Good day

Willkommen - Welcome

Bis bald - See you soon (something you wanna say to your hair)

Auf Wiedersehen - Goodbye (Heidi Klum)

Bis später - See you later (alligator)

Gute Nacht - Good night

Bis morgen - see you tomorrow (Think about “see you in the morning” which will be tomorrow)

Leider - Unfortunately/Sadly (we are out of whipped cream)

In Ordnung - Alright/Fine (think about something being in order)

Es tut mir leid - I’m sorry (Literally, it does me suffering, so very dramatic and heartfelt)

Entschuldigung - Sorry/I am sorry

Genau - Exactly

Keine Ahnung - No idea

Mir geht’s gut - I’m fine

Alles klar - All right

Wie geht’s - How are you?

A: Guten Morgen

B: Guten Morgen, wie geht’s?

A: Mir geht’s gut

C: *bumps into A* Oh Entschuldigung

A: Das ist in Ordnung

A: *to B* Bis bald

German phrases, like half of these we already know from popular culture. Now onto the accusative. Glückliches Lernen!

[the-language-guy]

German Road Trip #4

Basics #2

Die Frauen - The women

Frauen - Women

Die Männer - The men

Männer - Men

Wir - We

(Wir) Sind - (We) are

Die Mädchen - The girls

Mädchen - Girls (stays the same as the singular “girl”)

Ihr - You

(Ihr) Seid - (You) are

Die Kinder - The children

Jungen - Boys

Das - That (Was Ist Das? - What is that? - this also neuter the)

Sie - They

(Sie) sind - (They) are

Note on das, it can be translated to “these”, the plural of “that” if “sind - are” is used next to it.

Das sind Mädchen - These are girls.

Das ist ein Mädchen - That is a girl.

Also, all nouns are capitalized (because these dicks, Seratius Krestus - 1523 and Johann Christoph Adelung - 1774 (also Konrad Duden - 1880 but the other two laid the framework before), decided that all German nouns be capitalized)

Another note, some (15% of) German nouns change stems when pluralized. Just a heads up! 

So far so good. Although I’ve started this course on Duo before, German still entrances and alienates me with its grammar. It's so fascinating to trace the origins of English in German language.

Anyways, glückliches Lernen!

[the-language-guy]

German Road Trip #2

The

Das - The (for neuter objects)

Der - The (masculine)

Die - The (feminine)

Short for a lesson, but a crucial one. What separates German from all the other languages is the neuter, where a noun is grammatical genderless. 

Das Brot, Das Wasser, Das Kind, Das Mädchen (apparently the “-chen” is a cute diminutive like the Japanese honorific “chan”)

Der Mann, Der Junge

Die Frau

[the-language-guy]

French Verbs #3

Present Indicative

So you wanna speak French, well listen up. The most important tense and mood in French is the present indicative. This is the present tense in which you talk most often in.

Facts

These statements are statements that are always 100% true, no matter what. 

Le soleil se lève à l’Est. - The sun rises in the east. 

Deux et deux font quatre. -Two and two make four. 

Mon chapeau est gris. - My hat is gray. 

Les éléphantes sont lourds - Elephants are heavy. 

These are facts and cannot be disputed. If anyone said anything different, you would honestly be confused by their existence. All facts are in the present indicative because the facts persist to be true at the current moment and are pointed out (indicated) by the speaker.

Current Events

This condition describes things that are happening right now, as well as events that were happening and are still happening (like the fact you’ve been waiting for 50 minutes to get some fries or you’ve been working at you job for 1 year now - Congrats). 

Je veux un bonbon - I want a sweet.

Il marche au travail - He walks to work.

Nous mettons nos manteaux - We put on our coats.

Vous travaillez depuis trois ans. - You have been working here for three years.

Elles mangent leur repas depuis 10h. - They have been eating their meal since 10 a.m.

Above are examples of things going on in the present time and things that have been going on from past to present. Notice in the last three examples, the French is in the present but the English is in the past. That’s all because of the word “depuis” which means for or since. The word “for” relates to a duration of time while “since” means something is ongoing from a certain point.

Habit

Habits are conducted in the present indicative in French (or else it wouldn't be in this post). Whether it’s smoking a cigarette every hour on the hour or going to eat breakfast at a café every morning, it’s conducted in the present.

Je mange de la pizza tous les vendredi. - I eat pizza every Friday.

Nous allons faire du shopping tous les deux semaines. - We go shopping every two weeks.

Elle joue de la violon tous les jours. - She plays the violin every day.

The bolded parts show the frequency of the habit, all conducted in the present because think about it. If it happens every X amount of times, it’s so persistent and regularly occurring, thus it’s always present. 

Near Future

In the not too distant future, the verb “aller - to go” is used to describe it. Although in future, it’s going to happen so soon it might as well be happening now. (Like when you say I’m going to wash the dishes and take out the trash, it’s gona happen Mom).

Il va sortir. - He’s going to go out.

Nous allons regarder ce film. - We are going to watch this film.

Ils vont faire la vaisselle. - They are going to wash the dishes.

Going is in the present, but implies something will be done soon

Bonus Round: 

Historical Present

Hear ye, hear ye. This tense uses present verbs to show that something is occurring right now, but in the past almost as if you’re there watching history unfold. It’s like a documentary, the commentary is in the present tense - but the events being described have already happened.

Le Vésuve éclate prés de Pompéi. - Vesuvius erupts near Pompeii.

That’s all the info on the present indicative, next we’re gonna learn how to conjugate. And sorry about this late posting, my internet is being complicated. Anyways happy learning!

[the-language-guy]

Spanish Roadtrip #6

Shopping

La camisa - the shirt (like a camisole)

Azul - blue

Verde - green

La chaqueta - the jacket

La tienda - the store/shop

Querer - to walk

La ropa - the clothes

Marrón - brown

El vestido - the dress (odd how it’s grammatically feminine)

El sombrero - the hat

Gris - grey

La camiseta - the T-shirt

Comprar - to buy/to get (by purchasing)

Este/esta/esto - this

La falda - the skirt

El abrigo - the coat

Rojo/roja - red (you already know this)

Differente - different

Ese/esa/eso - that

Caro - expensive

La catera - the purse

El reloj - the watch

Demasiado - too (much)

Favorito - favorite (go figure)

El regalo - the gift

cómoda - comfortable

Now I can shop in Spanish stores. 

Yo necesito comprar una camisa para mi hijo./I need to buy a shirt for my son. 

Ese abrigo es en mi color favorito, rojo./ That coat is in my favorite color, red.

Quiere un reloj y una catera como un regalo./He wants a watch and purse as a gift.

Happy learning!

[the-language-guy]

Spanish Subject Pronouns

So, Spanish has some subject pronouns, pronouns used to replace repeating the noun itself. The pronouns in Spanish are:

Yo (pronounced as yo) - I

Tú (pronounced as to) - You

Él (pronounced as l) - He

Ella (pronounced as eh-ya) - She

Usted (pronounced as oo-stead) - You

Nosotros (pronounced as no-so-tros) - We

Vosotros (pronounced as vo-so-tros) - You

Ustedes (pronounced as oo-stead-s) - You

Ellos (pronounced as eh-yos) - They

Ellas (pronounced as eh-yas) - They

It's not me, it's “You”

You has a very odd place in language because “you” can address either one or multiple people and also have a formal or informal setting. In Spanish, there is also the challenge of region, Spain and Latin America use different you’s as well.

Tú - It’s “you” informally and singularly. It’s used for friends you’re getting coffee with, family you see on a daily basis, your children who always get in trouble, and that loveable furball whether it be dog or cat.

Usted -  Respectful and singular. Good to use for strangers, bosses, and people who are older than you.

Vosotros/Vosotros - Group of people that you know and love, also if you’re in Spain. You’ll never hear it in Latin America.

Ustedes - Used to any group of people, formality eschewed in Latin America. In Spain, a formal group is the condition required.

Bonus Round:

Vos - Used like tú, but in certain Latin American countries. Vacation or get kidnapped to find out where.

Gender Changing Pronouns

Él/Nosotros/Vosotros/Ellos are masculine pronouns that have feminine counterparts. Él has Ella if the subject is a female/feminine object. Nosotros/Vosotros/Ellos have what I call the “One Masculine clause”. If the subjects are all masculine, masculine pronouns. All the subjects female, feminine pronouns. Feminine and one masculine, back to masculine pronouns. These are the rules. Oh to change them, replace the “o” with an “a”. Simple right?

Well, these are the pronouns and rules in Spanish. Be sure to study them. Until next time, happy learning!

[the-language-guy]

German Roadtrip #1

So today, we’re embarking on German, so yeah pray for me.

Basics #1

Mann - man (go figure)

Frau - woman

Junge - boy

Ein/Eine - a

Ich - I

Bin - am

Mädchen - girl

Kind - child

Und - and

Du - you

Bist - (you) are (paired with Du)

Wasser -Water

Brot - Bread

Er - He

Ist - is

Trinken - to drink

Es - It

First Duolingo lesson of German complete, for the fifth time. Looking at this German nouns will be easy to understand since they look like English nouns.

Well, see you next time on a German pitstop. Happy learning!

[the-language-guy]

Spanish Roadtrip #5

Family

La madre - the mother

El carro - the car

Mi - my

La casa - the house

Tu - your

El padre - the father

Elegante - elegant

Inteligente - intelligent

El gato - the cat

El perro - the dog

La hermana - the sister

Muy - very

Tener - to have

El hermano - the brother

Grande - big

El abuelo - the grandfather

La abuela - the grandmother

La familia - the family

Perfecto - perfect

El apartemento - the apartment

Bonito/Bonita - pretty/beautiful/nice (well you look bonita)

El esposo - the husband (male spouse)

La bicicleta - the bicycle

Vivir - to live

En - in

Hijo - son/child

Hija - daughter/child

Interesante - interesting

Learned some possessive words, some more verbs. more differences between French and Spanish are apparent. See you next pitstop!

[the-language-guy]

French Verbs #2

Moods and Tenses

French has several moods and tenses for conjugation. Tenses you are already familiar with, past, present, and future. Moods, however, you are less familiar with. The five (well six, but I covered one in adjectives) moods are the indicative, subjunctive, imperative, conditional, and infinitive.

Tenses

The past in French has two options: ongoing/habitual or single-occurrence. This refers to the imperfect (ongoing) and passé composé (single-occurrence). The present is the present (no time like it), thus it is used for current actions (and the near future). Finally, the future is for actions that will take place.

Indicative Mood

Regarded as the “normal” mood, it’s the mood that expresses almost everything, from making a sandwich to wanting to kill someone for stealing that sandwich (no one else has a moist maker). It’s the mood for everything, the equivalent of the little black dress.

Subjunctive Mood

This is where French’s explicit meaning is equal to English’s implicit meaning. The subjunctive is used for probabilities, feelings, doubt (basically, if it's not a fact, it not used). That means it can be used to inspire confidence in an event. Saying “he will come” in the indicative is a lot more reassuring (even if it’s a lie) than the subjunctive. The subjunctive is also used as a dependent clause.

Imperative Mood

Hail Cesar. This mood is for orders, and is only conjugated for the second and third person. That’s it. No much discussion for orders. Oh also, they don’t have the similar sentence structure, much like commands in English.

Conditional Mood

This is your shoulda, coulda, woulda mood. This mood talks of actions that would occur if something were to happen. A could happen if B happened. That's pretty much it.

Infinitive Mood

This is the base form of all verbs, it is to “verb”. It’s usually used for a second or third+ verb after a conjugated verb. It can also be used like a noun (not exactly a gerund though, we’ll get to that another post) such as Voir, c’est croire - Seeing is believing/To see is to believe.

Now moods and tenses are reviewed, I will go into Subject-Verb-Object (sentence structure) and the intersection of moods and tenses for the verb conjugation. Happy learning!

[the-language-guy]

Spanish Roadtrip #4

El restaurante - the restaurant

La mesa - the table (if you know your geology, a mesa is a flat-topped hill)

Uno

Dos

Tres (I’m not translating these because let's be honest, we should all know them)

Las personas - the people (people is always feminine)

Para - for

cerrado - closed

El pescado - the fish

El sándwich - the sandwich

La hamburguesa - the hamburger 

El queso - the cheese

La carne - the meat

Con - with

La taza - the cup

La naranja - the orange

El vaso - the glass

El café - the coffee

El jugo - the juice

Sin - without/with no (Everybody wants to be without sin)

El azúcar - the sugar

El jugo de naranja - the orange juice

La sal - the salt (sal is actually latin for salt as well)

El tomate - the tomato (go figure)

O - or

La ensalada - the salad (go figure 2)

Pagar - to pay

La cuenta - the check

So finished the restaurant section of Duolingo. This reminds me that French and Spanish are so alike and so diff. Anyways, see you next pitstop!

[the-language-guy]

French Verbs #1

Oh, verbs. The most important part of a sentence besides the subject. Verbs, if you forgot from elementary school, are actions. They give info about what an object does or is. Verbs can be separated into state-of-being, action, impersonal.

 In French, there are two state-of-being verbs: être (to be) and avoir (to have). “To Be” is an unnoticeable and common action, thus it is the pinnacle of state of being (its in the name). “To Have” is considered a state-of-being because the state of having something is unnoticeable (such as having an object, a malady, a thought, etc are all unnoticeable), thus a state-of-being. These two verbs are also called auxiliary verbs because they help with conjugating other verbs for compound tenses.

Action verbs are verbs that you can see being performed or can perform (unlike state-of-being verbs whc, which are most verbs. To walk, to breathe, to know, to smile, to cry, to dance, to run, to eat, to turn on, to sleep, to live, to fall, etc. etc. These verbs are like 99% of all the verbs in French.

Now finally, impersonal/dummy verbs. These are called that because they have no real subject. Pleuvoir (to rain) and Falloir (to be necessary) are notable examples because of their ability to only conjugate to the third-person singular (Il~it). It is raining (il pleut) and it is necessary (il faut) are the only conjugations for the verbs and the “it” is non-existent. It refers to nothing really, yet it’s used cause a verb cannot stand on its own.

Verbs are also conjugated, which means they are changed from their base, known as the infinitive, to fit a tense and mood and a subject/pronoun.

Conjugations can be split into simple and compound. Simple include: present indicative, imperfect indicative, simple past, future, conditional, present subjunctive, imperfect subjunctive. Compound tenses are compound past, pluperfect indicative, past anterior, future perfect, conditional perfect, past subjunctive, pluperfect subjunctive. The tenses and moods will be explored into the most intensive depth as you can imagine (gonna hurt me more than you readers).

Happy learning, verbs will be addressed again soon.

[the-language-guy]

French Adjectives #1

Adjectives are a part of speech that describes nouns, giving us more information about the noun. In my opinion, there are four major ways for adjectives to be classified in French. Basic, Noun, Verb, and Grammatical.

Basic adjectives give us info about the noun such as color, texture, size, weight, etc.

Noun adjectives describe what a noun is by modifying it with another noun, acting as one word. For example teacup, orange juice, tomato soup, house keys. These all are separate words but modify the other in French. In French, a preposition is used to modify the nouns.

Verb adjectives are relatively small, but use past participles as adjectives. Words such as lost, eaten, hidden all are derivatives of the verbs to lose, to eat, and to hide.

Grammatical adjectives are an odd case because they function as determiners and verb modifiers. Possessives, demonstratives, exclamative, indefinite, negative, and relative adjectives are used before nouns and give us extra information without using articles. (You would never say “the that” or “a my”)

I will go into the these in-depth in other posts, especially basic adjectives since it is the longest list (I promise to try to make it fun and educational) and grammatical (since they are the hardest).

Happy Learning

[the-language-guy]

Spanish Roadtrip #3

La maleta - suitcase

El teléfono - telephone

El taxi - taxi

El pasaporte - passport

El hotel - hotel

Necesitar - to need ( related to necessary, go figure)

Donde - where (Donde está la biblioteca?)

Aquí -  here

En - in

La reserva - reservation

El aeropuerto - airport (go figure, the sequel)

El dinero - money (Robert DeNiro makes a lot of dinero)

El tren - train (go figure, the trilogy)

El autobús - bus (go figure, the figuring)

El boleto - ticket

Estar - to be

La calle - street

El banco - bank (go figure, the figuring of the all)

El museo - museum (go figure, figure this)

El baño - bathroom

El hospital - hospital (go figure, the final figuring)

Closing thoughts: So, Spanish isn’t looking too difficult but looks can be deceiving. That’s all folks.