Thursday, August 13, 2009

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Promotion Sample

Spanish Poducate.me Offers
Be the first to receive our special offers! sign up now!

If you are a member you will receive our special offers in your email.
Enjoy the following offers:

Plan your Spanish course between now until December 28 of 2009 -- and get a 15% discount when you sign up before August 30!

Mexico's awaiting! Don't wait to sign up!

Learn Spanish fast, easy, and at a low price by booking a 12-week Intensive Course.

Simple as that.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Test

Welcome to Vol. 2 of the Poducateme Online Newsletter! Weekly Spanish lessons with audio links, as well as travel phrases and more. Thanks again for signing up for the newsletter - I hope you enjoy this week's lesson.
Lesson of the Week:Intro to Verbs
In Spanish, there are 3 types of verbs—the root,+ AR, ER, or IR(for “hablar” the root is HABL +AR). This makes up the infinitive or base verb, which you later change to indicate who is doing the action and when.In English infinitives have the word “to” in front of them. These infinitives don’t specify who is doing the action—that’s what conjugation is for. Look at the following infinitives:
AR
ER
IR
hablarto speakverto seevivirto live
bailarto dancecorrerto runasistirto attend
formarto formleerto readinsistirto insist
cantarto singbeberto drinkescribirto write

Travel Phrases of the Week

HELPwords!

no hablo español....................I don't speak Spanish
noentiendo
..............................I don't understand
¿habla inglés?.........................do you speak English?
más despacio,por favor
........slower please
¿me ayuda?
.............................can you help me?
necesito un médico
.......... .....I need a doctor
estoy perdido
.......................... I am lost
¡ayúdeme!
.................................help me!
¡peligro!
.....................................danger!
¡cuidado!
..................................careful!
¡llame al policia!
.....................call the police!
¡ladrón!
.....................................thief!
¡para!
.........................................stop


Testimonial

Maria,
The basic course arrived Monday. I think it is great. It is so easy to understand, I can go at the pace that is just right for me and review all I need to! I have confidence that on my next trip to Mexico, I will be able to converse a little without asking "Do you speak English?" first. Thanks for this terrific product!
Perry House

"Ask Maria " Section -----

Question
Hola Maria,
I just ordered the lessons thru the mail and am just into the free lessons on the computer. The question is probably rushing into this but over the years and lately I have noticed several punctuation mark are to me, upside down and at the front of some sentences. Why? Remember I'm a very very beginning beginner. I'm also looking forward to this. I'm 63 years and recently retired and decided to do something challenging. This will fill the bill I'm sure.
Thanks,
Deisy
Answer
Hola Deisy,
Basically, the upside-down question mark at the first of a sentence lets you know that the sentence is a question before even starting to read it. Personally, I think we should do this in English. Have you ever been in a class where they read a play aloud and you got to the end of the sentence and realized it was a question and you read it like a statement? So...at the end you tried to adjust your voice to turn it into a question and it came out wrong? Unfortunately, I have. If we had upside-down question marks in English, like they do in Spanish, it would take care of this problem. Hopefully that answers your questions.
Hasta luego,
Maria

Travel Spot of the Week

This cozy beach town in the merengue capital of the world offers gorgeous pristine beaches, friendly locals, and a chance for a true tropical getaway. While many package deals go to nearby Puerto Plata, Sosua is the real gem.
Want more, just subscribe today to our weekly newsletter.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

ZzAaBcDe050

Spanish for Beginners
Just as maleness or femaleness is an inherent characteristic of human beings and most animals, so is gender an inherent characteristic of nouns in Spanish. With only a few exceptions, mostly those of occupations such as dentista, the gender of nouns doesn't change with the context, and a noun's gender determines the form of many adjectives that describe it.
Unit 1:Gender, an Inherent Characteristic of Spanish Nouns

Although Spanish nouns are classified as either feminine or masculine, remember that there can be feminine nouns that describe things we think of as masculine, and vice versa. For example, un elefante , which is masculine in form, refers to an elephant whether it's male or female. For some people, it might be easier to think of them as simply two classifications rather than giving them a sexual identity. Unlike German and some other Indo-European languages, Spanish has no neuter nouns. (There are a few neuter pronouns, such as lo and ello , that are used under limited circumstances.)

The basic rule is that masculine nouns go with masculine adjectives and articles, and feminine nouns go with feminine adjectives and articles. (In English, the articles are "a," "an" and "the." Also note that in Spanish many adjectives don't have separate masculine and feminine forms.) And if you use a pronoun to refer to a masculine noun, you use a masculine pronoun; feminine pronouns refer to feminine nouns.

Nouns and adjectives that end in -o (or -os for plural adjectives) generally are masculine, and nouns and adjectives that end in -a (or -as for plural adjectives) generally are feminine, although there are exceptions . For example, cada día means "each day." Día ("day") is a masculine noun; cada ("each") can be either feminine or masculine.

Since you can't always tell by looking at a noun or knowing its meaning whether it's masculine or feminine, most dictionaries use notations ( f or m ) to indicate the gender. Tto precede words with an el for masculine words and a la for feminine words. ( El and la both mean "the.")

Here are examples that show some of the ways a noun's gender affects the usage of other words.

  • the man: el hombre (masculine article, masculine noun)
  • the woman: la mujer (feminine article, feminine noun)
  • a man: un hombre (masculine article, masculine noun)
  • a woman: una mujer (feminine article, feminine noun)
  • the men: los hombres (masculine article, masculine noun)
  • the women: las mujeres (feminine article, feminine noun)
  • the fat man: el hombre gordo (masculine adjective, masculine noun)
  • the fat woman: la mujer gorda (feminine adjective, feminine noun)
  • some men: unos hombres (masculine determiner, masculine noun)
  • some women: unas mujeres (feminine determiner, feminine noun)
  • He is fat : Él es gordo . (masculine pronoun, masculine adjective)
  • She is fat : Ella es gorda . (feminine pronoun, feminine adjective)
If you have two or more nouns that are being described by a single adjective, and they are of mixed genders, the masculine adjective is used.
    Example: El carro es caro , the car is expensive (masculine noun and adjective).
    La bicicleta es cara , the bicycle is expensive (feminine noun and adjective).
    El carro y la bicicleta son caros , the car and the bicycle are expensive (masculine and feminine nouns described by a masculine adjective).