Do you like games? How about learning Spanish with games? Well, we are going to play one to learn one of the most useful lists of vocabulary to help improve your fluency- Spanish opposites. Opposites will allow you to describe situations and details more easily. Again we will go through the 4 steps of the learning process. During the “practice” step we will play a game to help improve our retention of the words from the list. The game is part of the slide show I made which will also take you through all the learning steps. Don’t forget to pick up your FREE GIFT above this paragraph. I have personally created three downloadable and printable Spanish Opposites Puzzles and to receive future updates and more free gifts from my newsletter which I send out periodically.
Play close attention to the pronunciation and repeat the words aloud. Our goal is not only to pronounce the words correctly but also to do so with as little accent as possible, if at all.
Now let’s take what you learned from the previous post to the next level. We’re going to make complete sentences, then create flashcards to “repeat” them out loud and “practice” them in order to retain what we’ve learned.
Review the following sentence patterns and pay special attention to the sample sentences. Keep the vocabulary flashcards from the previous post. You will need them to complete this exercise.
Learn
Read over the sentence patterns, then review the sample sentences.
Sentence order
1. querer = to want Quiero + el/la/los/las (entrem és, plato principal o postre) por favor. = I want + (appetizer, main dish, drink or dessert). Quiere + el/la/los/las (entrem és, plato principal o postre) por favor. = (He, he, she or you) wants/want (appetizer, main dish, drink or dessert). Quisiera + el/la/los/las (entrem és, plato principal o postre) por favor. = (I, he, she or you) would like + (appetizer, main dish, drink or dessert).
Sample sentences:
Quiero la sopa de vegetales por favor. = I want the vegetable soup please.
Quiere los plátanos maduros por favor. = He wants the sweet plantains. *Note. Also means she or you…
Quisiera el tres leches por favor. I would like the tres leches. *Note. Tres leches is the name of the dessert so it remains in singular form. Also note that this sentence could also mean He wants, she wants or you want. Using “quisiera” is a much more polite way to ask for something.
2. comer = to eat
Hoy quiero comer + el/la/los/las(entrem és, plato principal o postre). = I want to eat +the (appetizer, main dishor dessert).
Hoy quiere comer + el/la/los/las (entrem és, plato principal o postre). = I want to eat + the (appetizer, main dish or dessert).
Hoy quisiera comer + el/la/los/las (entrem és, plato principal o postre). = Today (I, he, she or you) would like to eat the (appetizer, main dish, or dessert)
Sample sentences
Hoy quiero comer el pescado. = Today I want to eat the fish.
Hoy quiere comer el pollo. = Today she wants to eat the chicken.
Hoy quisiera comer la ensalada. = Today I would like to eat the salad. *Note. You couldn’t say “comer la sope” in Spanish instead “tomar la sopa”.
3. tomar/beber= to drink
Hoy quiero tomar + un/una (bebida). = I want to drink + a/an (drink).
Hoy quiere tomar + un/una (bebida). = I want to drink + a/an (drink).
Hoy quisiera tomar + un/una (bebida). = Today (I, he, she or you) would like to drink + a/an (drink).
Sample sentences
Hoy quiero tomar una cerveza. = Today I want to have a beer.
Hoy quiere tomar un jugo de naranja. = Today she wants to have an orange juice.
Hoy quisiera tomar un agua. = Today I would like a water. *Note. Agua is a femine word, but it is preceded by “un” and not “una” due to a grammar rule that states if a word begins with a stressed “a” sound then you precede it with the indefinite article “un”.
4. dar = to give, traer = to bring, to come with
The verb “dar” is not used as a command here so it is not pushy. This is a question and ,therefore, it is polite.
¿Me da + un/una/el/la/los/las (entrem és, plato principal, bebida o postre) para mi (entrem és, plato principal, bebida o postre)? = Can you give me + (appetizer, main dish, drink or dessert) for my (appetizer, main dish, drink or dessert)?
¿Me trae + un/una/el/la (bebida) por favor? = Can you bring me + a (drink) please?
¿Qué trae el/la (plato principal)? = What comes with the (main dish)?
Sample sentences
¿Me da los tostones para el entremés y el pollo para el plato principal? = Could you give me the the fried green plantains as my appetizer and the chicken as my main dish.
¿Me trae una cervez⌠a por favor? = Could you bring me a beer please?
¿Qúe trae el pescado? = What comes with the fish?
Bonus:
Here are some Spanish verbs that replace an entire phrase in English “to have (breakfast, lunch or dinner)”. It is not correct to say “tener desayuno, tener almuerzo or tener cena” nor “comer desayuno, comer almuerzo or comer cena”.
-desayunar = to have breakfast
-almorzar = to have lunch
-cenar = to have dinner
Sample sentences
¿Quisieras desayunar conmigo el lunes? = Would you like to have breakfast with me on Monday?
Almuerza todos los días con su mamá. = He has lunch with his mom everyday.
Cena a las ocho una vez la semana. = She has dinner at 8 once a week.
Repeat + Practice
Create flashcards for the verbs, indirect objects (un/una) and direct objects (el/la/los/las) out of index cards and combine these new cards with the ones you made for the post from Part 1. Create the flashcards the same way you did in Part 1. Then read the following instructions.
Flashcard Drill Instructions
Make separate piles for each type of word facing up in Spanish. Then spread the piles loosely in order to see many of the cards.
Make sentences following the sentence patterns above by choosing a card from each pile.
Create as many sentences as possible while saying them out loud. This time realize you will not be able to check your answers on the back of the cards because the sentence order can be different between the two languages.
Use
This is where it all comes together. Unless you use what you have just “uploaded” into your brain you will lose it. So I challenge you to do one of the following.
Go to the Latin/Spanish section closest to where you live and find a eatery where the majority of the staff speaks Spanish.
Search online for reviews of the most authentic Latin American restaurants closest to you. They can be Mexican, Peruvian, Venezuelan, Colombian, etc. Have fun go eat there, but order in Spanish!
Invite a Spanish-speaking friend out to lunch or dinner. Ask what their favorite place to eat is, but you must speak in Spanish! It will be a much more successful exercise if you invite a friend that does NOT speak much English.
¿Tienes hambre? Are you hungry? Well, maybe for knowledge you are at least. One thing I find very important about learning Spanish is not getting bored. So let’s try our best to learn things you can use. And what better thing is there to learn than to know how to actually speak in sentences? Anyone? That’s right! How to speak in full sentences about food. 🙂
As you may have seen in another one of my posts about advancing Spanish fluency we talk about the learning process. Just glancing over some random grammar point is not enough to retain what you’ve learned. You have to repeat, practice then use the material before it sticks in your brain. Imagine talking about playing the piano, perhaps even tapping on a few keys then expecting yourself to play a whole song in front of an audience. Not gonna happen! It’s also why just taking classes alone isn’t going to make you fluent or even hold much of even a basic conversation.
The same thing goes for languages except in you also have to think on the run too. Until you are forced to think about what you want to say you will have a tough time memorizing words, sentence order and so on. So briefly here is the learning system again:
Learn (be introduced to new grammar, vocabulary,etc)-Repeat (write or speak out loud sample sentences)-Practice (at home, classroom)-Use (in real world situations)
Dining is a fun atmosphere in which to use your Spanish and no matter where you live there seems to be at least some restaurants where the whole staff speaks Spanish.
So first step…
I. Learn
Here are some phrases we will start with. We are not going to recreate a whole skit of being at a restaurant rather the parts you speak. So take a peek at the list below.
Verbs:
-querer = to want
-comer = to eat
-tomar/beber = to drink
-dar = to give
-traer = to bring/to come with (side dish with meal)
Nouns:
-entremés(appetizer): sopa de vegetales (vegetable soup), ensalada (salad)
-plato principal(main dish): carne (meat), pescado (fish), pollo (chicken), arroz (rice), platanos maduros (fried sweet plantains), tostones (fried plantains)
-bebida(drink): cerveza (beer), agua (water), refresco/soda (soda), jugo de naranja (orange juice), leche (milk)
-postre(dessert): tres leches (tres leches), flan (flan), helado (de vainilla, chocolate, fresa)= vanilla, chocolate or strawberry ice cream
Repeat + Practice
Now we are going to combine the next steps in the learning process. We are going to make flashcards out of notebook/index cards. Go back over the list and…
Create Flashcards
1. On one side write the Spanish word in big letters in the middle of the card. In the bottom right corner write the type of word, for example, “verbo”, “sustantivo”, etc…
2. On the other side of the card write the English word in small letters in the middle of the card and in the lower right corner the type of word, verb, noun and so on.
*Note: The purpose of the Spanish being in big letters and the English in small letters is to make the Spanish stand out in your mind. In fact, you could even use two different colors: Spanish in RED and English in BLACK.
**Note: I would recommend drawing the images on the back or finding some pics online to cut and tape to the back of the cards instead of using the English translations. Image association is more powerful than using the English translations. You will need some help from your first language, but the less the better.
Flashcard Drill Instructions
1. Put all flashcards in one pile Spanish side facing up.
2. Guess word in English by saying it out loud. Turn over to check for answer.
3. If correct place in “correct pile”. If not, put in “retry pile”.
4. Go through all flashcards one time. Review “retry pile” cards for correct answers before attempting the answers a second time.
5. Go through flashcards in “retry pile” again.
6. The drill is finished when you no longer have anymore “retry pile” cards left.
7. Restart drill but reversing the language facing up. Now do the same exercise but starting from the other language.
Drill to Perfection
Do the drill enough times to where you can think of the word in either language without any effort.
Complete Sentences/Putting It All Together
At the risk of information overload I decided to place the last step in another post. Please click the link below to finish the exercise.
OK so you’ve seen some Spanish words that look almost like the ones in English. Did you know there are Spanish words that are the exact same as English? Yes, it’s true. The only difference is the pronunciation. In some cases a consonant might sound different like in “general”. In English the “g” sounds like a “j” as in the name Jason or like the “g” in the word ginger, but in Spanish it sounds like an “h” as in Henry or hill. In the word “color” the vowels sounds different. In English they are less distinct, almost a lazy sound. The first “o” sounds like an unstressed “u” like the “ou” in the word cousin and the second “o” sounds more like an unstressed “e” like the “ea” in the word pearl. Luckily for you Spanish pronunciation does not have as many variations. All the vowels maintain their same sounds in Spanish words. So in the word “color” both “o”s are open and are pronounced distinctly. They are the long vowel sound like in the English word “go”. That same “o” in “go” is how you pronounce the “Os” in the Spanish word “color”.
One more note to take heed when pronouncing Spanish words and a lesson well learned by Spanish speakers learning English. If you pronounce some words even slightly different that sound like completely different words to a native speaker. I remember one time talking to a cousin of my ex-wife while at a family outing in Venezuela. I was referring to the color of an object. I kept saying the word “color” in Spanish, but he continuously made a strange confused face. Finally through the context of my message he understood what I was trying to say. He soon corrected my pronunciation though. You see the word “color” in Spanish pronounced closely to its English counterpart sounds more like the word “heat” in Spanish, which is “calor”. It still wouldn’t be the exact same way to say it, but it would be the closest word a native speaker would understand.
OK enough of the talking. Here’s the list.
chocolate /choa-ko-LA-tay/
general /hen-ay-RAL/
hotel /owe-TEL/ *the “h” in Spanish is silent, it is never pronounced.
In the summer of 1995 I sadly finished another college internship at Disney World and returned home to Ohio. It was my second time doing the program within a year’s time. I didn’t want to leave for many reasons, but one was because the amount of Spanish speakers that I would encounter would drop off the face of the earth. There just aren’t that many native Spanish-speakers in Ohio especially compared to Central Florida and this is both the visitors from out of the country and residents.
So how was I going to practice Spanish with seemingly no one to practice with?
It did look gloomy, but there was hope. That ray of light that shines through when all hope seems lost. I wanted to learn so badly that there was nothing that was going to stop me. Ifound Spanish speakers any way I could. One of the first things I did was work a part-time job at a Mexican restaurant. There I met someone that would have a great impact on my language skills for the rest of my life. The funny thing was he was Puerto Rican, not Mexican. Rafael taught me what few people would do and that is to illustrate the slight differences in pronunciation between similar sounds in both English and Spanish. For example, the “de” in “de nada” is soft, more like the “th” in the words “they, the, this”. When you pronounce it like the hard sound in English as in the words “dog or David” then you speak with an accent. I never would have noticed if he hadn’t told me. Nevertheless, the point here is I looked for people. This is just one example.
There are other lessons I learned in Ohio about Spanish that I still could list off to you to this day. I will give you some ideas further down. I discovered animportant key to finding the right people and situations to improve my language proficiency, not all are equal. The main thing you are looking to do when seeking out Spanish speakers is to make friends with natives, even if they are just acquaintances. The ideal person is the one that wants to help you, who has patience and better yet if they can explain grammar and why things are said the way they are.
Celebrate every new word, every time you understand when a native speaks to you or a new phrase. Learning 10 new words, 50 a 100 is still more than you knew before. You start with words and some phrases, just words and phrases. Later you learn how to use verbs, the action words that act like glue to make the other words stick together which turn into sentences. You get better at making those sentences and you get better at understanding them being spoken to you as time goes on and then BOOM- you are very effective at communicating in Spanish.
I promise you there are native Spanish speakers somewhere in your area. You do NOT have to travel to another country to learn Spanish. This brief list gives you a variety because I know that not all are possible for everyone.
List of Places to Find Native Spanish Speakers in Your Area
Spanish church: the service itself is good to learn from but the more important part is making friends before and after.
Family owned Latin American restaurants or cafes (Mexican, Dominican, Venezuelan, Colombian, Puerto Rican, etc.): the non-chain places are more likely to have native speakers working the whole restaurant, from hostess to server. I frequented a place and learned a lot just by creating conversation. Visit when it’s not busy.
Latin American Supermarkets or Convenience Stores: Not only learn the different names of foods from the signs but everyone usually is either native or second generation who speak it fluently. Even the ones here in the US remind me very much of the ones in Venezuela. See how more closely knit everyone is. All the customers and employees know each other.
Dance Classes (salsa, merengue): want to spice things up and have some fun? Learn how different dancing and music mean to Latin Americans and make some friends along the way.
Spanish tutors: you don’t need to drop a ton of money on a zillion lessons but just a few can help and again you can make friends with them and their friends. Latin Americans are very social people and often build a big circle of friends. You can find the tutors nowadays much more easily with the use of the internet. I found a tutor through my mom’s school where she taught and learned a lot just the few visits I went.
Universities: some students plan parties, festivals and other events. Sometimes native speakers are official tutors at the university for other students.
Latin American Festivals: great food, music and lots of people to meet. These are great opportunities for Latin Americans to meet each other especially in places where there aren’t many. There should be some that take place in your area.
Beauty Salons: Many Latin American women love to style hair and do nails and often start their own businesses.
Neighbors: Often there is someone in your neighborhood that’s a native speaker, even if just one. And people know people.
Farmers Markets and Flea Markets: This is a great place for Latin Americans to make some money while sharing their culture, plus a tasty way for you to experience it too.
You all will encounter obstacles while traveling down your Spanish journey. You will say things like, “I’m too busy”, “I’ve got kids”, “I don’t know any Spanish so how can I practice, where do I begin”, and others. It can be hard, but you can find ways. Please, please, please do not feel like you have to be on a schedule to learn, that you need hours and hours of time every week to learn because you don’t.
Don’t stop after the first few attempts to find people to practice with. It took me a few attempts before having success. But again, if you live in an area where there are not many Spanish speakers do not let this discourage you, seek them out, they are there.
It’s been a while since I used flashcards because at this point I truly see the same objects and actions in both English and Spanish. To me a table is a “mesa”, a street a “calle”, a cat a “gato”, to eat is “comer” and so on. They’re all the same and you will get there too. I’d bet you’ve already gotten there with some words. Here’s a technique you may like that I used to build Spanish vocabulary fast. I used picture flashcards as much as possible. I mention in another one of my posts about building vocabulary fast through images instead of translating with the use of picture dictionaries and picture flashcards. Here I will show you how I did it. I am not an artist, but I can draw a little. So I used to draw images of actions and objects on one side of an index card and the Spanish word on the other. Don’t worry if you cannot draw at all I will recommend some other ways to get around it. Try these exercises.
Create Your Own Flashcards with Drawings
I. Create the cards
1. Buy some cheap index cards.
2. Cut them in half to save on cards.
3. Choose a category like your bedroom.
4. Draw various objects on one side of each card until you have a pile of 10-15.
5. Look up the word in a Spanish-English dictionary, phone app or electronic translator.
6. Write the word on the opposite side of the drawing.
II. Memorization Technique
1. Look at all the cards one at a time. DO NOT try to memorize through the first run.
2. Next turn all the cards with the drawings facing up. And one-by-one attempt to say the word on the other side. DO NOT stop just look at each card one time.
3. Create two piles. Put the cards you don’t know in one pile and the ones you do know in the other.
4. Repeat these steps until you get all the cards correct.
5. The next step is to complete one run without getting any incorrect.
6. The final step is to randomly pull cards out of order to see how well you know them. In your free time randomly repeat this exercise to increase the likelihood you memorize your new words. Here’s my most important tip though. Upon learning any new word or phrase to ensure you memorize it for the long term you must use them at least three times within two weeks of learning them.
Tips to Create Flashcards for People that Do Not Draw
1. Search Images on Bing, Yahoo or Google. Do a search for the category of free printable Spanish flashcards, for example, zoo animals, colors, vegetables, etc. Just know that it may take several minutes to find exactly what you want.
2. Clip Art and Tables in Microsoft Word. If you are comfortable working with Word then create tables and fill them with text first then the images.
Bonus Spanish Flashcard Exercise for the Home and Office
This is the easiest exercise and perhaps most effective. Use index cards to create flashcards with just the words (no English translation please) for the objects in your home and office. Then simply tape them to the objects. Keep them posted up for several weeks. Please take the extra step to actually look at them and say them aloud. You will automatically associate the words and objects together and you won’t have to drill yourself to learn them because you will just casually look at them as you go through your day. Years from now you that image of your microwave with the card “microondas” will be stuck in your head!
Spanish for Busy People 