Zwielicht
Elite Member
- Aug 31, 2013
- 21,128
- 40,601
I'm with the others who recommended Duolingo. I use Duolingo for Russian when I go for an extended period of time without speaking it (I usually have to read it for one reason or another, though).
You see, first, we learnt all about "el" first and how masculine it was. It was a manly "el" used for manly words (as even objects had a gender), like monkey. Then we got to "mono". Not to be confused with "mano" (hand), mono was the monkey in question. He had it going on, although we never learnt why he slept in the street. Next on the agenda was "duerme" (sleep, or sleeps in this case). There are multiple variations of this word like "dormir", which is like "I'm going to sleep", but we didn't learn much else about it because the monkey wasn't going to sleep, he was already asleep! The beginning of the second semester was when we learnt all about "en". En is just in, but it's not in, it's en, just homonyms, but don't say in, because it's en. Toward the end, we made it to "la", which is just "the". "¿Por qué?", you say! Why "la" and not "el"? Because the road is a woman, and women have curves like roads (except North Dakota Highway 46). Finally, we learnt about calle (street). Calle means street, but not highway! Do not confuse it for a highway! The monkey is not foolish enough to sleep on a highway, just a street.
If you think that's ridiculous, get this: I had a 95% in that class, meaning I understood 95% of the phrase "El mono duerme en la calle". I'm still waiting for the day I can see a monkey sleeping in the street, because I know I'll be ready, ready to say "Hey, el mono duerme en la calle"!
You made more progress than I did with my Spanish class in high school. We spent the majority of the year studying one phrase, and one phrase only: "El mono duerme en la calle" (translation: the monkey sleeps in the street). The instructor, Señor Manos (translation: Mr. Hands, like the guy who shagged horses) had the whole curriculum based around that phrase. He made us draw pictures of it, read the phrase backwards, and envision the monkey sleeping in the street.I second Duolingo. It was great. Took me a while, but with Duolingo combined with Memrise (I liked Memrise better), I got the hang of it, and now I can consistently tell Spanish speaking people that the fire truck is red.
You see, first, we learnt all about "el" first and how masculine it was. It was a manly "el" used for manly words (as even objects had a gender), like monkey. Then we got to "mono". Not to be confused with "mano" (hand), mono was the monkey in question. He had it going on, although we never learnt why he slept in the street. Next on the agenda was "duerme" (sleep, or sleeps in this case). There are multiple variations of this word like "dormir", which is like "I'm going to sleep", but we didn't learn much else about it because the monkey wasn't going to sleep, he was already asleep! The beginning of the second semester was when we learnt all about "en". En is just in, but it's not in, it's en, just homonyms, but don't say in, because it's en. Toward the end, we made it to "la", which is just "the". "¿Por qué?", you say! Why "la" and not "el"? Because the road is a woman, and women have curves like roads (except North Dakota Highway 46). Finally, we learnt about calle (street). Calle means street, but not highway! Do not confuse it for a highway! The monkey is not foolish enough to sleep on a highway, just a street.
If you think that's ridiculous, get this: I had a 95% in that class, meaning I understood 95% of the phrase "El mono duerme en la calle". I'm still waiting for the day I can see a monkey sleeping in the street, because I know I'll be ready, ready to say "Hey, el mono duerme en la calle"!