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- Topic: Spanish >
- "Yo hablo inglés."
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I notice inglés isn't capitalized. Is it like Russian where the only capitals are the beginnings of sentences and proper names?
steelplate- That,s the same in French, we capitalize the country, Canada, les Canadiens. We don't capitalize the languages, the same in Spanish.
And we don't capitalize the nationality in French or Spanish or Romance languages. El idioma español. Una chica española.
In your exemple, it's capitalized because it's people of the country in their whole "les Canadiens".
I believe Spanish has some proper nouns lowercase, such as the months(septiembre), and as you stated, "ingles". On the other hand, countries such as España (Spain) and (la) República Dominicana (the Dominican Republic) are capitalized, as many of my fellow commenters stated. Again, I'm not very fluent in Spanish, so correct me if I'm wrong.
Proper nouns must be capitalized in Spanish. Months, days of the week, and languages aren't considered proper nouns; that's why they're not capitalized.
In spanish you have to learn the verb conjugation. I speak= Yo hablo, You speak= Tú(Usted) habla, He speaks= Él habla, She speaks= Ella habla, We speak= Nosotros hablamos, Yuo speak= Ustedes hablan, They speak= Ellos hablan
Conjugation would be nice to start with in Duo Lingo. Ive taken French in the past but I am new to Spanish and Portuguese, it would have helped things flow alot smoother, had I had this understanding.
Hablo is the "yo" form, hablas is the "tú" form.
So "I speak" = "Yo hablo" And "You speak" = "Tú hablas"
Why doesn't "hablo" or "hablas" suffice if it already has the conjugation built in like that?
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Take Notes:
"Proper Nouns" name people, places, and things. Every noun is classified as either a common or proper noun. A proper noun has two distinctive features: 1) it will name a specific [usually a one-of-a-kind] item, and 2) it will begin with a capital letter no matter where it occurs in a sentence.
In the Spanish language:
NO: Do not capitalize "señor" or "señora" (Mr./Mrs.) even if used as a title before the proper name.
YES: Do capitalize "Sr."/"Sra." (Mr. Mrs.) if used before a proper name as a title. This is the same in English: we don't capitalize mister or ma'am but we do capitialize Mr./Mrs.
YES: Do capitalize the first letter of each word in newspaper and magazine titles/headlines.
YES: Do capitalize religious festivals and national holidays.
NO: Do not capitalize the first letter of each word in titles of books, films, and works of art, EXCEPT for the first word. In English, you do capitalize the first letter of each word.
NO: Do not capitalize the days of the week; months of the year; languages; nationalities; religions; nor the first word in geographical names.
how important are the accents? can i be lazy and not write them? XD, like online conversation ..
Accents are very important in the spanish language. Without them, we would not be able to tell the difference between many words. For instince, the word 'bebe' is the 3rd person singular form of the word 'beber' to drink. But the word 'bebé' means baby. If you don't put on the accent, you can't really tell the difference between these words outside of context. Duolingo may not get on to you about them, but it is wise to get used to using accents now while you are learning the language.
amrok- sometimes a word without its accent becomes a bad word or a funny word, for exemple : año = year, and ano = a piece of your body that you normally hide. lol
When "hablo" is used for "yo" & hables is for "tu". How about for the third person? Like (el/la)he/she, when yo and tu are 1st and 2nd person.
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@RoseAnneTa:
"el"/"la" are masculine/feminine definite articles you would use in Spanish for masculine or feminine nouns: in English, it is the word "THE." NOTE: "el" does not have an accent on the "e."
"Habar" is a verb that means "to speak" and the conjugations are:
Yo hablo (I speak)
Tú hablas (you speak) accent on the "ú" (singualr, informal)
Usted habla (you speak) singular, formal
Ustedes hablan (you speak) plural formal
Él / Ella hablan (He/She speaks) NOTE: "Él" has an accent on the "É"
Ellos/Ellas hablan (They speak)
Nosotros hablamos (We speak)
I've also seen people mention a form "vosotros" which I assume is a dialectal variation. Where it's used, would this be equivalent to ustedes? or maybe a plural informal?
Yes, in Spain, vosotros/vosotras is the plural form of tú (informal), whereas ustedes is used as the plural form of usted (formal).
In Latin America and southern Spain, vosotros/vosotras does not exist, so we use ustedes instead.
No; Duolingo is supposed to teach you Spanish, and "hablo" ("yo" form of "hablar") means "(I) speak," not "(I) understand." The correct term for "I understand English" is "(Yo) Comprendo inglés."
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Would you actually bother with the pronoun normally? Having learned a bit of Latin in my youth I am tending to omit it, and Duo is ok with that, but I don't know which version would be normal usage. Does the pronoun not just add emphasis?
You can use it for comparisons: Yo hablo inglés y él habla español. In that case, it doesn't sound natural to omit it.
In this case, we would add it if, for example, someone was talking about the language(s) somebody else speaks, and then you go: (And) I speak English:
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Además del español, ¿qué idioma hablan ustedes?
- Yo hablo inglés
- Yo hablo alemán
If you were already talking about that person, you wouldn't normally add it: (Yo) hablo inglés en la escuela y con mi familia hablo en español.
I can't tell if the computer said ingles because there was no "in" sound in the sentence. All I could hear was Yo hablongles. I know that's not right, but that's the thing I heard.
Many times spanish words will appear to run together when spoken. For example, when you say 'usted es' you blend them together into one word, 'ustedes'. It's a lot easier and faster than pronouncing each word separatally.
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It's like that in just about every language. In English, you might say "That is not!" as "That's NOT!" and someone might hear "That's SNOT!"
I answered I talk English! is it wrong! and by the way I'm learning english too follow me plz its not that bad
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@harsalanpoor:
When writing or speaking the English language, we have to use the word "speak" when referring to languages: you would say "I speak English," OR "I enjoy speaking in other languages," "I speak Spanish rather well." "I am learning to speak French" YOU DO NOT USE "TALK" WHEN YOU REFER TO A LANGUAGE. Also, the word "english" must be capitalized "English."
I do not get this. So I clicked on what inglés meant, and it said: English, groins, and British. (Lol ignore the groins part) So I put British. It said I was wrong! Can someone help me on this?
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@RebeccaDanzig:
The Spanish language does not capitalize languages, nor nationalities. The Spanish word "inglés" can mean either the language English OR the nationality of Englishman from England. In this lesson, Duolingo wants you to put "English" (language). "Yo hablo inglés" = I speak English.
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@TheDrWho:
The Spanish word for English/Englishman is "inglés" and it is masculine, singular.
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No, there is no gender in "habla." Even though it ends in the letter "a," that does not mean it is feminine gender.
"Habla" is a conjugation of the verb "hablar" (to speak). You use it for both He /She speaks (Él / Ella habla) NOTE: "Él" has an accent on the "É"
Ellos/Ellas hablan (They speak)
hi guys I'm new at Duolingo and I would love if you guys helped me thank you for all you're time
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@maileue:
I would be glad to help you with both English and Spanish. Here are a couple of tips:
...always capitalize the first letter of the first word in both English and Spanish languages.
..."you're" is a contraction of "you are."
"Your" is possessive and you would use it to say "thank you for YOUR time."
I noticed that if you get it wrong the some question comes back but overall the app is great
That is so that you can keep trying and practicing until you are getting it right consistently.
Would it also be a good translation to say "I know English"? It was marked wrong, but I'm not sure if that's because it's really not a good translation, or if it should be accepted and I should flag it as an alternate translation.
Duolingo prefers literal translations when possible. I know English would be (Yo) sé inglés in Spanish.
Why does inglés have an accent on e? Is there a word ingles that means something different?
spicy- If you learned where to put the stress, you know that words ending by S N or a vowel have the stress on the penultimate syllable, but in Inglés, the stress is on the last one, that's why there's an accent to show where the stress is
Its frustrating to repeat this level again :/ i know this and wasting time. I want to advance and learn !!!!!
kat- try to click on the key to change the level, it's when you choose a lesson, don't start the lesson, click on the key, if you pass the test, you change the level
The fast version says Yo as Yo as in Yes. Slowed version pronounces it as a J sound. Which is correct?
It's a regional variation, but I'd say the most common pronunciation for that letter would be as an English J.
You can listen to native speakers pronouncing it here: https://forvo.com/word/yo/#es
I said, "English I speak..." but shouldn't it be "I speak English?" Not to sure how that works.
Yes, it should be "I speak English". If it didn't mark you wrong, then there's something wrong with Duolingo, lol.
