| Here I plan to push you on a little bit with your Spanish | | | | works and sticks in the memory when you are trying |
| lessons. I will help you make sense of some simple | | | | to familiarize yourself with a language like Latin |
| sentence formations and verb conjugations, hopefully | | | | America Spanish, really quickly. You must practice |
| joining a few of the dots that leave some people | | | | constantly until you are thinking in the language you |
| faltering at the first hurdle. | | | | want to master. |
| If you have been following any of the recent articles in | | | | (Answer to the above question: Ésta es la |
| Ezine, you will already know how to make short | | | | tele.) |
| sentences in Latin America Spanish using Ser and | | | | Let's move on to a little verb practice. |
| Estar. You should know how to say, for example, that | | | | The present progressive tense. |
| an animal is big, that something is something else. | | | | Latin America Spanish is interesting in that when you |
| Here are a few other words that might be useful in | | | | conjugate a verb in the present tense, the one verb |
| making sentences. | | | | actually has three meanings. Take hablar, for example. |
| Este=this, masculine. | | | | Hablo can mean I talk, I am talking, or I do talk. Escribes |
| Esta=this, feminine. | | | | can mean you write, you are writing, or you do write. |
| Ese=that, masculine, short distance away. | | | | So that means that you can say, Estudio espanol, |
| Esa=that, feminine, short distance away. | | | | when you want to explain that you are studying |
| Aquel=that, masculine, far away. | | | | Spanish over a period of weeks or months. You can |
| Aquella=that, feminine, far away. | | | | even use estudio to explain that you are studying |
| You are standing in front of the television, and you | | | | Spanish right this minute, but if you want to emphasize |
| want to tell someone what it is in Latin America | | | | the immediacy and progressive nature of the studying |
| Spanish. What is the word for television? - What | | | | act, you can also call upon the present progressive |
| pronoun do you use? Hint: It means this and is feminine. | | | | tense. |
| Do you need ser or estar? - Finally, how do you | | | | The present progressive tense has two parts. The |
| conjugate the verb? | | | | first is the appropriate form of the verb estar. The |
| Stop for a moment and look at the room around you. | | | | second is the gerund (-ing) form of the verb for |
| Touch an object near you and say aloud, this is the - | | | | whatever you are doing. Drop the ar, er, or ir. Take |
| Then point to an object near you, but a little further | | | | what is left of your verb. If it was an ar verb, add |
| away, and say, that is the - Then point to an object | | | | ando. If it was an er or ir verb, add iendo. So if I am |
| farther away and repeat. | | | | talking right this instant, I can say, Estoy hablando. If you |
| Repeat the whole exercise five times, identifying a | | | | are scribbling something down right this second, say, |
| total of 15 pieces of furniture, clothes, food, etc. This | | | | Estas escribiendo. Do you get the picture? |
| method is one of very few that I have found actually | | | | |