# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Influence of Spanish in the U.S. [IgeoNews]

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Spanish is the second language most widely spoken in the United States, after English. This country where Spanish is officially recognized in many jurisdictions Southwest, holds the world's second largest, after Mexico Hispanic community. Then follow from Colombia, Spain, Argentina and Peru. In the 2000 census, 12.9% of Americans claimed to use the Spanish language as a family.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Spanish Speaking Population by State Statistics - Statistic Brain

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Percent of Spanish Speaking Population by State Statistics

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
A Hispanic first marked the recently concluded NBA finals won by the Miami Heat: A Spanish language ad aired on an English-language broadcasting network during the finals --a move that may signal a significant change in advertising approaches toward Latinos in the United States.

The 30 second telenovela-esque Ford Motor company advertisement for the 2013 Ford Escape played twice on ABC - once during Game 4 and another time during Game 5. It was a first for the American car company, for ABC, and for the NBA.

When the 30 second national ad spot appeared just days before Game 4, Ford quickly decided to run the spot after being approached by ABC and its ESPN unit, about a large and growing Latino share of the audience for the first three games of the series between the Miami Heat and the Oklahoma City Thunder.

The number of Hispanic households tuning into this year's NBA Finals' was up 20 percent versus last season thru game 3, according to the NBA.

Miami heavy Latino viewership had something to do with that, but according to Ford, the company was told it was the highest percentage of Latino viewers of a non-soccer sporting event in the U.S.

"The ad breaks through the clutter, for Spanish speaking Latinos watching in English," said Alvaro Cabal, Multicultural Communications Manager for Ford. "It's a clever plan, and we are doing it because it makes sense."

Matt VanDyke, Ford's director of U.S. marketing communications, told Forbes magazine that ABC and ESPN "were interested in testing and learning and observing how the audience would respond to in-language Spanish advertising and asked if we wanted to test and learn with them."

The NBA ad was the highest profile Spanish-language ad to air since April of this year, when ESPN first introduced Spanish television ads on its English-language platforms for the network's most popular program, SportsCenter.

ESPN has seen an increase of it's Hispanic audience by 15 percent over the last five years, outpacing non-Hispanic audience growth, according to the network.

Isabella Sánchez, VP of Media Integration for Zubi Advertising, the firm that created the ad, cautiously believes airing Spanish language ads during English language programming could begin to be a trend but there are risks.

"It's a gamble," Sánchez explained. "You don't want to offend people and you want to make sure that you don't waste impressions."

The Spanish language commercial was aired with English language subtitles for that very purpose, Sánchez explained, you don't want to alienate a majority of "impressions" or people watching the advertisement that don't speak Spanish.

"At the minimum, I think advertisements like this one will air with English subtitles in the future," Sánchez stated.

The reality is most English language networks don't have a significant Hispanic audience, she said. Even for American Idol, the top ranked English-language show among Hispanics for many seasons, Hispanics do not compose more than 9 percent of the total audience.

Regarding the Ford ad, despite the subtitles, the ad still happened to anger some, and confuse others.

Ford shows ad in Spanish during Heat game? Pretty unamerican if you ask me @ BradTowboss @ jdrama1023 @ mdg254 @ JShipman15

- Patrick Drohan (@PLDrohan) June 20, 2012

I'm confused. Did I just see an all Spanish Ford ad on American English tv??? O_o

- Thunder Kat Heaux (@Vanilla_Vice) June 20, 2012

"Ford's use of a Spanish Language commercial, -- albeit with English subtitles -- nationally on such a high profile event at the NBA finals is a bold move that recognizes the importance of the growing Hispanic NBA fan base," Joe Uva, Director of Dunkin' Brand Group and former Univision CEO and President, wrote in an e-mail to Fox News Latino.

Latinos make up a significant portion of the NBA fan base -16 percent- and in some markets represents close to 50 percent or over 56 percent of team attendance, according to the NBA.

As the Latino population continues to grow in size and influence, expect companies to continue to re-evaluate their approaches.
Follow Bryan Llenas on Twitter @Bryan_Llenas. Follow us on twitter.com/foxnewslatinoLike us at facebook.com/foxnewslatino Bryan Llenas currently serves as a New York-based correspondent for Fox News Channel (FNC). Click here for more information on Bryan Llenas. Follow him on Twitter @BryanLlenas.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Spanish Ad During NBA Finals a First for Broadcast TV

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A Hispanic first marked the recently concluded NBA finals won by the Miami Heat: A Spanish language ad aired on an English-language broadcasting network during the finals --a move that may signal a significant change in advertising approaches toward Latinos in the United States.

# data[].attributes.body
Max:
(Estados Unidos) Bilingüe (español y inglés) / Dominante en el inglés

Padres:
Ann: (Estados Unidos) Monolingüe / Dominante en el inglés

Robert: (Estados Unidos) Monolingüe / Dominante en el inglés

Hermanos:
Robbie: (Estados Unidos) Bilingüe (español y inglés) / Dominante en el inglés

Abuelos Paternales:
Bob: (Estados Unidos) Monolingüe / Dominante en el inglés

Marge: (Estados Unidos) Monolingüe / Dominante en el inglés

Abuelos Maternales:
Max: (Estados Unidos) Monolingüe / Dominante en el inglés

Betty: (Estados Unidos) Monolingüe / Dominante en el inglés

Apuntes:
1.  Mi hermano y yo hemos aprendido el español a través de la escuela. Somos productos de la escuela estadounidense.

# data[].attributes.body
Primero, hay un fuente que es un sitio web que provee unas estadísticas sobre los hablantes españoles en los Estados Unidos. El fuente muestra a la audiencia el numero de hablantes españoles en cada estado de los Estados Unidos. También, el sitio web provee la porcentaje de los hablantes por cada estado. Por ejemplo, el estado con la población más grande es California. California tiene una población española de 4,303,949 personas. Texas es el estado que es el segundo más grande. El estado que tiene la población española más pequeña es Maine. Maine tiene una población de 2,664 personas. El estudio fue conducido en el año 2016.

Hay otro fuente que es un video que discute el “Spanglish” en los Estados Unidos. El video describe un proceso que se llama “ping-ponging”. Este proceso significa la manera para cambiar de las lenguas como un juego de ping-pong. Otro regla que el video presenta es el “Spanish Drag”. Esta regla significa las palabras en inglés que no traducen al español. Un ejemplo es “google”.

Siguiente, hay un video que discute la influencia del español en los Estados Unidos. El video muestra a la audiencia unos segmentos de unas celebridades que han hablados en español como el Presidente Barack Obama y también la actriz Gwyneth Paltrow. Estos segmentos significan la importancia del español en la sociedad estadounidense. También el video provee una predicción en cómo el español va a crecer en la sociedad.

Por final, hay una comercial para la compañía, Ford Motors, que es en español. Esta comercial fue la primera comercial en español para ser transmitida por una compañía de carros estadounidense, ABC, y también el NBA durante de un juego de Los Finales en 2013. Hay un encanto más grande para la influencia española en los Estados Unidos porque hay una población creciente de hablantes españolas en el país. Hay unos conflictos también porque algunos individuos pueden ser ofendidos de la programación.

# data[].attributes.headline
Capítulo 8: El Español en los Estados Unidos 

# data[].attributes.subject
Capítulo 8: El Español en los Estados Unidos 

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Short samples of speech of young women from Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and Panama. These samples are very typical of Spanish from each of these countries. I assembled these samples as part of a lesson on Caribbean Spanish.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
GRN Mexico has developed a diagnostic system to identify local languages.

Many different languages are spoken in the Migrant Labor camps in Mexico.

The speakers might say their language is Zapoteco but they will not know which of the 73 dialects of Zapotec they speak. Or they might say their languages is Mixteco which has 77 dialects. They do, however know the name of the district they are from.

The maps in this diagnostic system help identify the appropriate dialect, by showing which dialects are spoken in each district. Each dialect has a code which is tied to one of the diagnostic recordings. These recordings have 30 second segments of each of the Zapotec or Mixtec dialects.

Diagnostic Recordings and Maps

There are four diagnostic recordings, with associated maps and dialect lists. These are for Mixtec, Zapotec, Otros and Norte-Sur. The alphanumeric codes on each item on these recordings are indexes into the maps.

In the table below, click on each recording link below to see a list of the dialects each contain. Within those lists, click on the individual dialect names to see a full list of recordings in that dialect.

Select the appropriate map, and find the general area the speaker is from. Identify the code, and use this code to identify the dialect name.

Example

For example "M33" on the Mixteco map is at Costa Chica. This represents the sample with code "M33" on the Mixteco diagnostic recording. Play this sample, and some of the nearby ones as well, until the speaker identifies their own dialect.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
GRN Mexico has developed a diagnostic system to identify local languages. Many different languages are spoken in the Migrant Labor camps in Mexico. The speakers might say their language is Zapoteco but they will not know which of the 73 dialects of Zapotec they speak.

# data[].attributes.headline
Capítulo 7: Los Dialectos de Español en Todo el Mundo

# data[].attributes.subject
Capítulo 7: Los Dialectos de Español en Todo el Mundo

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Ambitious language learners the world over are devoting hours and hours every week to learning Spanish, but most of them have never spared a thought for which Spanish.

Last week we posted about European vs Latin American Spanish, but the differences don't stop there. Spanish, like its distant cousin English, is a pluricentric language, meaning that it has multiple national and regional standards that often vary greatly in pronunciation, word choice, idiom, and even grammar.

It's true that, like in English, most native speakers of the many different dialects of Spanish understand each other with relative ease or by listening just a bit more closely. But also like a non-native learning English in New York City will struggle to understand a thick Scottish brogue, dialects of Spanish often feature differences that present challenges for learners.

There are countless linguistically discrete dialects in every country, region, and even city of the Spanish-speaking world, but whatever variety of the language you're learning, it probably falls into one of these five broad categories:

1) Español Mexicano y Centroamericano

Mexico is by far the world's largest Spanish-speaking country, and also the heart of the Latin American foreign film and media world. More for these reasons than any inherent features of the language, Mexican Spanish is often considered one of the 'clearest' Latin American dialects, and it has greatly influenced the Spanish spoken in Central America and the rest of Latin America as well.

Mexican Spanish is known for its strong pronunciation of most consonants, tuteo (use of tú rather than vos), and the famously rich Mexican slang. As you move further south through Central America the language use will change gradually, and in Costa Rica and Panama especially will feature more of its own local quirks.

2) Español Andino

Another Latin American dialect frequently described as 'pure' or 'clear', Andean Spanish is the language spoken by city-dwellers in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and parts of Venezuela and Bolivia. This collection of dialects is influenced by its European heritage as well as local indigenous languages like Quechua and Aymara. While it includes a wide variety of differing pronunciations, one feature learners will appreciate is that most consonants are firmly and prominently pronounced in the Andes.

Andean dialects have their own distinctive features, but most of them shouldn't complicate comprehension for Spanish learners. In Colombia for example, the diminutive ending -ico is often used in place of -ito to make something small or cute, and each country, region, and even city often has its own trademark phrases and pronunciations.

3) Español Rioplatense

The Spanish spoken in the Southern Cone of South America is often described as sounding exotic and intriguing even to native Spanish speakers from other regions. The speech of Argentina and Uruguay (and to a lesser extent Chile, with its own distinctive but Argentinian-influenced dialect) is one of the most distinct dialect families of Spanish, and most learners will either love it or hate it.

The trademark feature or Rioplatense is use of the /sh/ sound for the ll: when an Argentine is bringing chicken and onion to the potluck, they'll tell you that " sho shevo cebosha y posho" ( yo llevo cebolla y pollo). Rioplatense also uses the voseo, which means that in place of the perhaps more familiar tú, you'll hear vos and its corresponding verb conjugations, for example, " Y de dónde sos vos? " ("And where are you from?").

4) Español Caribeño

Caribbean Spanish can be one of the most difficult to understand for learners who aren't used to its speed, sounds, and many distinctive words and phrases. From the Caribbean coasts of Venezuela and Colombia, through Panama and coastal parts of Central America, and throughout the Caribbean islands, Caribbean Spanish is like its own little language in the region.

More so than in other dialect groups, Caribbean Spanish often drops pronouncing the /s/ sound anywhere other than at the beginning of a word, and /r/, /d/, and /b/ are also frequently swallowed up by their surrounding vowels: a well-meaning Cuban is likely to greet unsuspecting tourists by asking " De dónde eh uhte?" ( de dónde es usted?). Watch out for even more confusing letter swaps on islands like Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, where /l/ often replaces /r/ in the middle of words, but go ahead and order the celdo con velduras ( cerdo con verduras) for dinner, even if it sounds funny.

5) Español Ibérico (o Español Europeo)

Spanish in the mother country differs greatly from its Latin American cousins, but the Spanish of the Iberian Peninsula should still in most cases be relatively easy to understand for speakers and learners of other varieties. Some of its trademark features are the ceceo, often described as a 'lisp' in the way the Spaniards pronounce the letter c, and a noticeably harder, guttural pronunciation of the j that sounds like it'd be more at home in Dutch or Arabic.

The majority of vocabulary and grammar differences in the Spanish-speaking world are between European Spanish and the Latin American dialects. Most native speakers know that words like zumo and jugo mean the same thing and that the first is preferred in Spain, but others may cause comical mix-ups. Other usage differences, like Spain's favored vosotros for addressing groups of familiar people (instead of ustedes, which is reserved for groups of unfamiliar people), mark its distinction from Latin American Spanish.

As you start or continue to learn Spanish, take a moment to consider what variety you're learning, where it's spoken, and in what parts of the Spanish-speaking world you may encounter communication barriers.

The good news is, the longer you keep listening to and speaking in the language, the greater your tolerance will become for understanding differences in pronunciation and usage. Don't despair if your Mexican immersion trip leaves you feeling lost trying to understand Cubans, Chileans, or Spaniards - the only thing to do is keep listening, keep talking, and eventually you'll find yourself able to converse with hispanohablantes the world over!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Many Dialects of Spanish (and What They Mean for Language Learners)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Ambitious language learners the world over are devoting hours and hours every week to learning Spanish, but most of them have never spared a thought for which Spanish. Last week we posted about European vs Latin American Spanish, but the differences don't stop there.

# data[].attributes.body
Primero, hay un sitio web que describe los dialectos de México. El escritor discute las lenguas diferentes o dialectos diferentes que son hablados entre los campos de trabajo para migrantes. Por ejemplo, en la lengua de Zapoteco hay setenta y tres dialectos diferentes. Otro ejemplo es la lengua Mixteco, que tiene setenta y siete dialectos diferentes.  El sito web provee unas grabaciones para comparar los dialectos diferentes.  El escritor también provee unos mapas que muestran la audiencia donde los dialectos diferentes son hablados. Es importante porque la misma lengua puede tener muchas variaciones que son dependientes de la localización, la gente, y la influencia extranjera o indígena.

Siguiente, hay un video que provee unos segmentos de hablantes españoles que son de países diferentes. El video analiza la gramática y las maneras de pronunciación para distinguir las diferencias del español en países diferentes. Por ejemplo, el video discute el papel de “s” en México y en España y cómo los hablantes pronuncian el “s”. También el video explica que con los dialectos diferentes hay unas diferencias entre el vocabulario de español.

Hay otro video que presenta la audiencia con unas variaciones de español en el Caribe. El video provee unos segmentos de gente de países como Cuba, la República Dominicana, Puerto Rico, y Panamá. La audiencia puede comparar estas formas de español con el español en España y México.

Por final, hay un artículo que discute el español en todo el mundo. El artículo describe como el español es una lengua con unas normas regionales y nacionales que varían en maneras diferentes con la gramática y la pronunciación. Por ejemplo, el artículo discute que México usa la forma “tú” en la gramática y no el “vos” como en España. Otro ejemplo es el español Andino que tiene un estrés fuerte en los consonantes. También provee detalles sobre las países como Argentina y el Caribe.

# data[].attributes.headline
Capítulo 7: Las Diferencias Entre la Lengua de Español

# data[].attributes.subject
Capítulo 7: Las Diferencias Entre la Lengua de Español

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Are There Differences Between Spanish In Latin America And Spain?

# data[].attributes.headline
Capítulo 7: Variación Lingüística en Español

# data[].attributes.subject
Capítulo 7: Variación Lingüística en Español

# data[].attributes.body
El primero fuente es un artículo que discute el uso de los símiles, los modismos y las metáforas en el español y en el inglés. El artículo da los lectores las definiciones de los componentes gramaticales. También el artículo explica unos problemas con las metáforas en países extranjeros. Por ejemplo, cuando una persona visita a América Latina, es posible que la persona no va a entender unas de las metáforas. Los significados pueden ser perdidos en la traducción.

Otro fuente es un video que explica los papeles semánticos en una oración. El video describe los componentes como el agente, el paciente, el fuente, el recipiente, el locativo, el beneficio, y el instrumento. El agente es como el iniciador en la oración. El paciente es el ente que sufre la acción. El locativo es el lugar donde la acción ocurre.  El video también provee unos ejemplos para practicar para identificar los papeles diferentes.

Otro fuente describe los homófonos. Los homófonos son esenciales al conocimiento de la lengua de español. Los homófonos son unas palabras que tienen el mismo sonido pero tienen unos significados diferentes. El artículo da a los lectores unas maneras y unos consejos para identificar y distinguir los homófonos. Es muy importante entender el contexto de los homófonos para distinguirlos.

Por final, hay un video que explica la deixis. La deixis es una estrategia para identificar las referencias en una oración que indican el contexto de personas, lugares y tiempos. El video usa el término “elementos básicos” para definir los hablantes, oyentes, tiempos, y espacios en una oración. Hay unas versiones diferentes de la deixis que incluyen social, personal, tiempo, y espacial. Por ejemplo, la deixis social es una referencia a un participante de la conversación con un función distintiva. La deixis personal refiere al papel que ocupa un participante. El video también da la audiencia unos ejemplos para identificar las versiones diferentes de la deixis.

# data[].attributes.headline
Capítulo 6: El estudio del significado: semántica y pragmática

# data[].attributes.subject
Capítulo 6: El estudio del significado: semántica y pragmática

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Idioms similes and metaphors belong to a category of language forms that many linguists and translators have characterized as 'untranslatables´. That is firstly because they are so bound by the culture from which they spring that it is difficult to render them in translation by normal translation methods. Secondly, the literal meaning and the true meaning of these words share a rather ambiguous relationship, and do not reflect each other. Apart from idioms similes and metaphors, this category of language forms also includes proverbs, word plays and linguistic 'folklore´.
Definition and Function

In English, an idiom is an expression that means something other than the literal meaning of its individual words. For example, the idiom 'bone of contention´ refers to a matter of dispute, and not really to two animals quarrelling over a bone. In Spanish, an idiomatic expression is known as 'modismo´. For example, 'a grandes rasgos´, 'a la Americana´, 'carne de gallina´, etc. Metaphors and similes are both figures of speech in which two dissimilar objects are compared to one another. In a simile the comparison is made explicit with the use of words such as 'as´ or 'like´, for example, 'as clever as a fox´ or 'as pretty as a picture´. In a metaphor the comparison is implied, for example, 'She has a sunny disposition´ or 'He has a green thumb´.

Examples
A method known as 'equivalence´ has been devised to render idioms similes and metaphors in Spanish translation. Equivalence in Spanish translation refers to the process by which a Spanish translator identifies a similar expression in the target language. The similarity that the translator should aim for is not that of lexis or of syntax, but one of meaning and impact. For example, the English idiom 'the cat was let out of the bag´ can be said in Spanish as 'se descubrió el pastel´. The Spanish expression literally means 'the cake was discovered´, but figuratively it refers to the same idea as the English expression, namely that 'the secret was revealed´.
Potential Problems
Idioms similes and metaphors in Spanish translation create some peculiar problems of their own. It may sometimes happen that the objects or concepts being compared in the source language do not exist in the target language. For example, the Native Indians of Latin America are unfamiliar with the concept of snow. A successful Spanish translation of the English simile 'as white as snow´ will demand the use of a target word that fulfils the same notion as that of snow. In many cases, the clouds or the feathers of a bird were found to supply the equivalent notion. Sometimes it also happens that the objects being compared have different values in different cultures. The 'ox´ is a symbol of strength in the English-speaking world, and to say that 'he is an ox´ is a compliment. However, for the Argentine gaucho, the ox represents passivity and stupidity. Once again, the notion of equivalence will come into play, and the translator will have to identify the Argentine symbol for strength. Proverbs popular saying and linguistic folklore in Spanish translation can be similarly rendered by applying the concept of equivalence.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Consideration of Idioms, Similes & Metaphors | Spanish Translation

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Idioms similes and metaphors belong to a category of language forms that many linguists and translators have characterized as 'untranslatables´. That is firstly because they are so bound by the culture from which they spring that it is difficult to render them in translation by normal translation methods.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
[Introduction to Linguistics] Thematic Roles

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Visit our website: http://bit.ly/1zBPlvm Subscribe on YouTube: http://bit.ly/1vWiRxW Like us on Facebook: http://on.fb.me/1vWwDRc We discuss Gricean Maxims and look at Implicature and Presupposition. Normally entailment would fit nicely into this lecture, but it has already been covered! Hello, welcome to TheTrevTutor. I'm here to help you learn your college courses in an easy, efficient manner.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Most world languages have some pesky homophones - words that sound the same but mean different things.

Some languages do this more than others, of course.
Spanish is a pretty big offender, even mixing up its native speakers with trickier sounds!
As though we needed more obstacles thrown in our path when trying to learn Spanish.

But, c'mon, you're an English speaker.

English is infamous for its homophone usage - their, there and they're, anyone? - so count yourself lucky that you don't have to learn those from scratch.

Spanish Homophones: 5 Common Mix-ups and How to Tackle Them

Why Learn Spanish Homophones?

As big a pain as it is to learn and recognize the homophones, it's a deed that must be done.

Much like mastering gender or the plural in Spanish, it's a step you must take to reach fluency. If you can't learn to recognize homophones in oral communication, you'll be tripped up in conversation time and time again. (Remember to brush up on those listening skills, and stay on top of your false friends!)

Your conversation partner might tire of your confused looks, so it's best you learn to embrace the homophones. With time, you'll learn to focus on contextual clues. But when first starting out, it's important to have a mental list going of the homophones of a language.

And now for the good news: Spanish has far fewer homophones than English. In this respect, it's a really easy language to study.

The phonetics, or sound system, of Spanish is relatively uncomplicated. Each letter is assigned one sound, with only very few exceptions. Compare this with English, where a simple "e" can take on a multitude of different sounds, and Spanish suddenly seems like a piece of cake.

Let's start by identifying the type of Spanish homophones that are out there.

Spanish Homophones: Common Mix-ups and How to Identify Them

1. The Accents Pitfall

Some words not only sound the same, but are written exactly the same. Well, almost. The Spanish language helps us out by throwing on accent marks where it deems necessary.

Take, for example, el and él. Same exact letters. The only difference is in the symbols. Normally, Spanish accent marks (called tildes, not acentos - here's the complete guide) are used to show where the stress should fall. In the case of él and el, however, the accent is simply used to differentiate meaning - with the accent, él means 'he," and without the accent, el is the definite article "the."

Another instance of this is de and dé. Again, the accent here doesn't mean "pronounce the e with a little more force." It's simply used to distinguish the two words, since they're spelled and pronounced exactly the same. Without the accent, de is the preposition "of." With the accent, it's the command or subjunctive form of the verb dar, meaning "to give."

2. The B/V Pitfall

If Spanish is completely phonetic, why can't they do away with either the B or the V? It's a question that keeps me up at night but, alas, both B and V make a light b sound. Not quite as forceful as the English b, but with the lips a bit more relaxed (a voiced bilabial fricative, if you want to get technical). Therein lies the reason Spanish speakers have difficulty hearing the difference between "berry" and "very" or "vest" and "best," but I digress.

An example of the B/ V pitfall would be hierba (weed) and hierva (he/she boils [water]). Also: iba (I/he/she was going) and IVA, an acronym that stands for "sales tax." See? Not the same meanings at all, but these sounds make it easy to get tripped up if you can't understand the context.
hierba, hierva:
https://www.fluentu.com/blog/spanish/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/12/Hierba-hierva.mp3

https://www.fluentu.com/blog/spanish/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/12/Iba-IVA.mp3

3. The Silent H Pitfall

I mean no disrespect to Spanish here, but its H is useless. The letter is a remnant of Latin, Spanish's predecessor, but it serves no purpose in pronunciation today (except to trip learners up). Therein lies the problem with homophones such as Asia and hacia, the first one being the continent, the second being the preposition "towards." So you can move " hacia Asia," but you should know the difference between the two.

The silent H pitfall doesn't just occur with the vowel a. Some examples with other vowels:

With o we can use the simple example of hola (hello) and ola (wave). These are pronounced exactly the same.

An example with e is echo, the first-person conjugation of echar, a verb which has about 20 meanings but we'll go with "to throw away" here. Then you have hecho, with a silent h, meaning both "fact" and also the participle form of hacer (to do or make).

See what a headache these homophones can be?

https://www.fluentu.com/blog/spanish/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/12/Hacia-Asia.mp3

https://www.fluentu.com/blog/spanish/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/12/Hacia-Asia-slow.mp3

https://www.fluentu.com/blog/spanish/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/12/Hacia-Asia-faster.mp3

https://www.fluentu.com/blog/spanish/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/12/Hola-ola.mp3

https://www.fluentu.com/blog/spanish/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/12/Echo-hecho.mp3

https://www.fluentu.com/blog/spanish/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/12/Hechar.mp3

4. The Y/LL Pitfall

These sounds are pronounced slightly differently. To the untrained, non-native ear, the difference is hardly discernible. If you travel to Argentina, however, you're in luck. There, the double L is pronounced similarly to the English "sh," so it's clearly distinguishable. Elsewhere, however, the problem of homophones rears its ugly head once again.

Examples:

Arroyo - a small stream or river
Arrollo - the first-person conjugation of arrollar, which means "to run over, to knock down"

https://www.fluentu.com/blog/spanish/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/12/Arrollo-arroyo.mp3

Rayar - to draw lines, to scribble
Rallar - to grate (cheese, for example)

https://www.fluentu.com/blog/spanish/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/12/Rallar-rayar.mp3

5. The C/Z/S pitfall

Here we have not just two but three sounds to look out for. With the C/Z/S pitfall, it's important that we separate Castillian Spanish (from Spain) from the rest of the pack.

In Spain, the S makes an English "S" sound, but the C and the Z make an English "th" sounds. That's what people are talking about when they affectionately (or mockingly) refer to the Spanish "lisp" (the real term is ceceo, said, of course, with two lisped C's). And due to Spanish phonology, C and Z can never appear in the same letter "slot" of a word, so there's really no C/ Z/ S pitfall in (most parts of) Spain.

In Central and South America, and the Canary Islands of Spain, however, we do see the C/ Z/ S homophones. The C, Z and S all sound alike - like the English "s" sound. So you can never quite tell if your conversation partner is talking about his house - casa - or hunting, caza. Another example is ciento (one hundred) versus siento (I feel).

https://www.fluentu.com/blog/spanish/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/12/Casa-caza-LATAM.mp3

https://www.fluentu.com/blog/spanish/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/12/Caza-Spain.mp3

https://www.fluentu.com/blog/spanish/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/12/Ciento-siento.mp3

How to Tackle Spanish Homophones

Now we've identified the types of Spanish homophones. They may seem tricky, but don't despair. There are ways to tackle them that don't have you bowing down in defeat.

It seems like a no-brainer, but if you know that both the words casa and caza exist, you can begin to see which one fits better in context (and I'm willing to bet it's casa 90% of the time).

Step #2. Context is your best friend.

As you begin to get fluent in the language, you'll use contextual clues to fill in vocabulary you're not familiar with. This will also help you to choose which vocabulary makes the most sense. In the beginning, when you're just starting out, you can probably know that people are greeting you with hola, not ola. But if the homophone in question is more complicated, or the two words share the same part of speech - two high-level verbs like rayar and rallar, for instance - context becomes hugely important to ascertaining meaning.

Step #3. Focus on the nuances of the Spanish sound system.

Like I said, to the untrained ear, the above pitfalls make these pairs sound like true homophones. But in reality, certain accents and speakers do pronounce some of the letters slightly differently. Focus on whether you can hear a tiny, minuscule difference between the B and the V. Is one softer than the other? Is one sound produced by using the teeth a bit, and not just both lips?

The nuances of the Spanish sound system also extend to the accents and the geographic areas in which you're learning or speaking Spanish. If you're in Spain, the "lisp" should give you a big clue. If you're in Argentina, no need to fear the Y/ LL pitfall. It's good to familiarize yourself with the basic rules of Spanish everywhere, but if you plan on moving to Ecuador, for example, read up on Ecuador's specific accents and sound system.

Spanish Homophones: 5 Common Mix-ups and How to Tackle Them

Oh, and One More Thing...

If you liked learning all this incredibly useful Spanish, then you'll love FluentU.

FluentU takes real-world videos-like music videos, commercials, news and inspiring talks-and turns them into Spanish learning experiences. Other sites use scripted content. FluentU uses an immersion approach that helps you ease into Spanish language and culture over time. You'll learn Spanish as it's actually spoken by real people, so you'll be exposed to Spanish homophones in their natural habitat.

FluentU has a wide variety of videos, covering loads of topics like soccer, TV shows, business, movies and even magical realism, as you can see here:

FluentU brings native videos within reach with interactive transcripts. You can tap on any word to look it up instantly. Every definition has examples that have been written to help you understand how the word is used. If you see an interesting word you don't know, you can add it to a vocab list.

Learn all the vocabulary in any video with FluentU's Learn Mode. Swipe left or right to see more examples of the word you're on. Then play some fun, interactive learning games like word matches and fill-in-the-blank.

The best part is that FluentU keeps track of the vocabulary that you're learning, and it recommends you examples and videos based on the words you've already learned. Every learner has a truly personalized experience, even if they're learning the same video.

Start using FluentU on the website with your computer or tablet or, better yet, download the FluentU App for iPad and iPhone from the iTunes store.

If you liked this post, something tells me that you'll love FluentU, the best way to learn Spanish with real-world videos.
Experience Spanish immersion online!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Spanish Homophones: 5 Common Mix-ups and How to Tackle Them

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Most world languages have some pesky homophones -- words that sound the same but mean different things.Some languages do this more than others, of course.Spanish is a pretty big offender, even mixing up its native speakers with trickier sounds!As though we needed more obstacles thrown in

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Deixis y tipos de deixis - Lengua - Educatina

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Más sobre este video en: http://bit.ly/1cbyLLH ▶ Suscríbete: http://bit.ly/SubscribeEducatina ▶ ¡No olvides dar un "Like" y Comentarnos! - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - En esta oportunidad abordaremos el tema de la deixis como también así los tipos de deícticos que nos remiten al contexto de situación comunicativa.

# data[].attributes.headline
Capítulo 5: Historia de la lengua española 

# data[].attributes.subject
Capítulo 5: Historia de la lengua española 

# data[].attributes.body
El primero fuente es un video que discute la evolución del español. El español tiene una influencia alrededor del mundo y es evidente en Europa, las Filipinas, América del Sur,  y por final América del Norte. Los dialectos en España empezaron con la evolución de la lengua Latín Vulgar. Los dialectos del Castellano aparecieron en la península ibérica durante el Medioevo. El Latín Vulgar apareció a través de los choques entre el clásico Latín Romano y las lenguas pre-Romanos de la gente Íberia, Celta, y Cartaginés. El castellano era un híbrido porque lo mezcla con elementos del árabe. La estandarización del Castellano empezó en el año 1200. También, el español ha influido muchas partes del mundo a través de la colonización.

Hay otro video que discute las lenguas románticas. Las lenguas románticas más importantes son el español, el francés, el italiano, el portugués, y el rumano. En el mundo hay casi ochocientos millones personas que hablan las lenguas románticas. Todas las lenguas vienen de Italia y se llaman las lenguas románticas porque todos son derivados del latín. Había dos tipos de latín, el clásico y el vulgar.  El latín vulgar evolucionó en lenguas diferentes como el español con el tiempo. Hoy, 42% de la población de la Unión Europa usa una lengua romántica.

Hay otro video que describe la historia del español. El video dice que en el año 2050, 10% de la población en el mundo hablará el español. El latín es el madre y el padre del español. Los dialectos del latín han transformados a las lenguas románticas. También hay un gran influencia del árabe en el español, específicamente en las ciencias. Las Américas también muestra cómo la lengua ha transformada con la influencia de unas lenguas indígenas.

Por final, hay un fuente que discute la letra ibérica. Hay tres letras que son relacionados a la lengua ibérica. Las letras son el noreste, el sureste, y el sudoeste. El noreste es el mejor de las letras ibéricas. El noreste tiene la dirección de la izquierda al derecho. El artículo discute la puntuación con el noreste también. El sureste está escrito con la dirección derecho a la izquierda. El sudoeste tiene su origen en Portugal y unas partes de España. Es similar al sureste en que está escrito con la dirección derecho a la izquierda también.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Spanish - Language Information & Resources

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Information and Resources for Spanish - One of more than 150 languages and dialects translated & interpreted by ALS International

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Romance Languages and What Makes Them Amazing

# data[].attributes.body
Primero, hay un documento que provee una descripción detallada sobre la sintaxis en el español. La descripción es muy formal, pero da la audiencia unas reglas y detalles en cómo la gramática puede ser analizada adentro de una oración. El documento explica el orden constituyente en que los sustantivos, los adjetivos, los verbos, y las preposiciones preceden sus complementos. También, el documento describe los factores determinantes y que los preceden las frases de sustantivos. Hay mucha información en el documento sobre la gramática y la disposición de los componentes.

Hay otro video que describe las reglas de la estructura de las frases. El video explica las reglas con la ayuda de unas diagramas de árbol. Las oraciones son compuestos de unas frases de sustantivos y unas frases de verbos. El video provee una introducción de los factores determinantes y los sujetos en las frases de sustantivos. Las frases de verbos se componen de un verbo y una frase de proposición. Después, el video explica el orden de los palabras y cómo una oración puede generar muchas oraciones del frase inicial.

Siguiente, hay un video que describe la ambigüedad en el español. Los palabras pueden tener significados diferentes cuando los están adjuntados con otros componentes de una oración. En cada lengua, un palabra puede tener varios significados. La manera en que unos palabras son conectados es importante. La audiencia necesita examinar todos los componentes en una oración para entenderla totalmente. Hay varias cosas que influyen la interpretación de un oración.

Por final, hay otro video que explica los usos diferentes del palabra “se”. El video da la audiencia unos ejemplos de los usos de “se” en español y describe cómo nosotros pensamos en español en comparación con inglés. El “se” reflexivo representa algo que una persona hace a usted. Después, el video describa el uso impersonal y el uso pasivo de “se”. Este uso representa algo que una cosa hace. Un ejemplo es, “se habla español”. Finalmente, el video describe los incidentes accidentales. No hay una construcción similar en inglés. Un ejemplo de los incidentes accidentales es, “se me rompieron los platos”.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
[Introduction to Linguistics] Word Order, Grammar, and Phrase Structure Rules

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In this video we look at word order in languages, grammaticality, prescriptive and descriptive grammar, as well as some basic phrase structure rules. Check out my NEW syntax series on my YouTube channel for more syntax! Visit our website: http://bit.ly/1zBPlvm Subscribe on YouTube: http://bit.ly/1vWiRxW Like us on Facebook: http://on.fb.me/1vWwDRc Hello, welcome to TheTrevTutor.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How to use "se" in spanish - the most confusing word

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Why Are There So Many Meanings? Ambiguity

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Why do so many words and sentences have multiple meanings? How do we deal with all of the overlaps? In this week's episode, we talk about ambiguity: where it comes from, how we deal with processing it, and how children pick meanings from the menu of semantic possibilities they're presented with.

# data[].attributes.headline
Capítulo 4: La Estructura de la Oración - Sintaxis

# data[].attributes.subject
Capítulo 4: La Estructura de la Oración - Sintaxis

# data[].attributes.headline
Capítulo 2: Los Dialectos y las Familias de Lenguas

# data[].attributes.subject
Capítulo 2: Los Dialectos y las Familias de Lenguas

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
HLW: Introduction: Dialects and Languages

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
How Language Works: the Cognitive Science of Linguistics. Edition 3.0. An introductory course in linguistics. Freely available for downloading and mirroring. Author: Michael Gasser, Indiana University.

# data[].attributes.headline
Capítulo 2: Las Sílabas y sus Articulaciones 

# data[].attributes.subject
Capítulo 2: Las Sílabas y sus Articulaciones 

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In this lesson I cover the rules for pronouncing vowel combinations, or two consecutive vowels, in Spanish. Basically, the issue is whether to pronounce them together, in a single syllable (diphthong), or as two distinct syllables (hiatus). Here are the rules and some examples...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How Do We Stress Our Words? Foot Structure

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
How do different languages play with pitch to create differences in meaning? How do we tell where stress falls? In this week's episode, we look at stress and foot structure: how languages use tone, pitch, and stress; how we can build different kinds of feet; and how where we place our stress can change the way we emphasize our sounds.

# data[].attributes.headline
Capítulo 2: Los Sonidos de la Lengua: Fonética y Fonología

# data[].attributes.subject
Capítulo 2: Los Sonidos de la Lengua: Fonética y Fonología

# data[].attributes.headline
Capítulo 1: 2.4 Lenguaje y Cerebro: Neurolingüística

# data[].attributes.subject
Capítulo 1: 2.4 Lenguaje y Cerebro: Neurolingüística

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This was a short video I created to try to raise money for scholarships for people with aphasia. While that campaign has ended, this video can provide a brief description and example about aphasia and it's devastating effects.

# data[].attributes.body
El primero fuente es un pasa de diapositivas que explica algunos componentes en las lenguas de Español y Ingles. El pasa de diapositivas compara la concordancia y la inflexión. También el fuente discute las conjugaciones, los verbos, el sintaxis, y por final la ortografía. Por ejemplo, el pasa de diapositivas discute la diferencia entre “las chicas son altas” que significa la misma de “son altas las chicas” y que estas dos oraciones son diferentes de la traducción en Ingles. Todas las comparaciones son aplicadas a un hablante de español, Javier, quien está tratando aprender el ingles.

Hay otro video que discute la pluralidad de los sustantivos. Este video dice que los sustantivos y la pluralidad son similares al ingles. El video da la audiencia unas reglas para escribir los sustantivos plurales. Uno es cuando un sustantivo tiene un “o” al final, solo necesitas un “s” para ser plural. Otro es cuando un sustantivo tiene un consonante al final, solo necesitas incorporar un “es” para ser plural. Por final, el fuente discute que en algunos casos la pluralidad no importa porque el género.

Otro artículo discute unas reglas para el género. La primera regla es que los sustantivos con un “o” al final son masculinos. La segunda regla es que los sustantivos con un “a” al final son femeninas. También explica que los grupos de género mezcla siempre son masculinos. Hay algunos sustantivos en español que tienen la misma forma para el masculinidad y la feminidad. Por final, el artículo dice que todas la palabras que terminan en “sión”, “ción”, “dad”, y “tud” siempre son femeninas.

Por final, hay otro artículo que explica las palabras compuestas. El artículo discute como muchas de las palabras compuestas en español son masculinos. También muchas de las palabras compuestas son formadas por un verbo y la adición de un sustantivo plural. El artículo provee muchos ejemplos de las palabras compuestas y sus fórmulas. Por ejemplo: Quitar à Sol = el quitasol.

# data[].attributes.headline
Capítulo 1: 2.2 Comunicación Animal: Características del Lenguaje Humano

# data[].attributes.subject
Capítulo 1: 2.2 Comunicación Animal: Características del Lenguaje Humano

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
There has long been an idea that humans stand alone in this unique communication we call language. In other words, our grammatical capabilities (knowing how to order the parts of our communication), our ability to talk about abstract concepts, and to create new words and communicate new ideas separate us from the rest of the animal kingdom.

But, as researchers study the communication systems of other very social animals more similarities have been discovered. When you go straight to those researchers, they claim that animals are doing way more in their communication than we ever imagined and they are asking us to re-evaluate our ideas about the nature of language.

For example, Dr. Savage-Rumbaugh, a primatologist, claims that nonhuman primates (bonobos) understand spoken language and can execute tasks thought limited to only humans (such as manipulating fire, playing the piano, drawing, and driving golf carts).

Dr. Con Slobodchikoff, a biologist and professor, started studying prairie dogs decades ago and found they were talking about much more than just who or what was trying to eat them. He and his fellow researchers had dogs of different colors and humans wearing different color clothes walk past the colony. The alarm calls indicated the predator's size, shape, speed, and even, for human predators, what the person was wearing and if the person was carrying a gun.

Denise Herzig, a marine mammal behavioral biologist, has spent almost 30 years studying dolphins in the wild. She claims dolphins do have a complex communication system but we humans are lacking the 'Rosetta Stone' to understand what they are saying. Research indicates dolphins use whistles to identify age, location, names, and gender. They can also understand some grammar in a gestural language researchers used to communicate with them.

While these communication systems may have some of the qualities of language, many language experts believe animals fall far short of the kind of language feats that humans have accomplished. This NY Times article debates the question of whether or not the bonobos in Dr. Savage-Rumbaugh's research were actually using language.

The article argues that humans are unintentionally influencing these animals, a kind of 'Clever Hans' effect. Another point is that language capabilities are hardwired in humans and not in other animals. Dr. Noam Chomsky, one of the most important linguists of our time, is known for his theory that language is innate to humans and, therefore, trying to teach animals to use language is irrational.

Most linguists argue that our brains developed special wiring needed for language after our human ancestors split from those of the apes millions of years ago. The proof, according to these scientists, lies in the fact that very young children can easily construct a grammatically correct sentence with no input beyond hearing language used around them.

It is a common understanding that human language stands alone due to the powerful combination of grammar and productivity. The human brain can take a finite number of elements and create an infinite number of messages. We can craft and understand complex sentences, as well as utterances that have never been spoken before. We can use language to communicate about an endless range of subjects, talk about imaginary things, and even to lie. We do not see these capabilities in other animals.

Research continues to reveal more and more about animal communication and viewpoints may shift and evolve as our understanding grows. It may turn out that human language and animal communication aren't entirely different, but exist on a continuum. After all, we are all animals.

For more on animal language, watch this TED-Ed Lesson: How to speak monkey: The language of cotton-top tamarins.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Do animals have language? - Michele Bishop

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
There has long been an idea that humans stand alone in this unique communication we call language. In other words, our grammatical capabilities (knowing how to order the parts of our communication), our ability to talk about abstract concepts, and to create new words and communicate new ideas separate us from the rest of the animal kingdom.

# data[].attributes.headline
Capítulo 1: 2.3 Adquisición del Lenguaje

# data[].attributes.subject
Capítulo 1: 2.3 Adquisición del Lenguaje

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Teaching Vocabulary to Young Learners Through Brain-Based Teaching Strategies by Setenay Çelik

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Everything in Spanish is either male or female.

The language is charged with gender power.
If two words are not paired correctly, the imbalance creates waves of discomfort in its users.
Knowing Spanish gender separates the Spanish language learners from the fluent speakers.

If you already speak a Romance language (those that come from Latin), then you will not be confused by this characteristic. If you are used to speaking in neutral terms, be prepared to open a new avenue of perception in your mind. This will change the way you view the world.

Getting the hang of Spanish gender can take time, but it is the next big step after getting a handle on the Spanish learning basics, such as learning how to self-teach, making Spanish words plural and knowing where to place accent marks. The following tips regarding Spanish gender will help train your brain to recognize, categorize and eventually produce gender accurately while speaking Spanish.

8 Simple Rules for Mastering Spanish Gender

A noun is born: Male or female?

A noun is a person, place, thing or idea. Every noun in Spanish has a specific article that denotes the gender of the word. They can be definite or indefinite and have four forms:
person
el niño → the boy la niña → the girl
los niños → the boys las niñas → the girls
place thing idea
Living Creatures are referred to by the gender they represent

This one is simple. Every living creature is either an or a If you are an English speaker you have always referred to creatures with the. The Spanish language is a lot more detailed in this respect. It loves to observe and categorize the differences. With this in mind, take note of the first two rules for mastering Spanish gender:

Rule #1

When speaking about living creatures, nouns that end in "o" are masculine.

Rule #2

When speaking about living creatures, nouns that end in "a" are feminine.

*Beware of the gender trap!*

There is a slight possibility that you might fall into a "gender thinking trap." This deception tricks you into thinking that everything associated with a male will automatically be masculine and everything associated with a female will automatically be feminine. This is false. Only distinct living creatures fall under this categorization.

The following examples clearly illustrate how objects commonly associated with each gender do not follow the rule.

To keep you from falling into this trap, a very important step you can take is to experience and interact with these nouns in real-world situations. How can you do that from home? Through online Spanish immersion with FluentU!

FluentU is a video-based Spanish learning site which helps you learn the language through real-world videos, such as movie trailers, commercials, news and inspiring talks. Just take a look at this very, very small sampling of the video content below.

You can get a pretty good idea of the diversity of the content from that little list alone, but I strongly encourage you to click over to the site and take a better look, up close and personal!

There are a few different ways you can go about playing (ahem, I mean, "learning") with FluentU. After choosing an individual video based on your skill level and personal interests, you'll be prompted to choose between "watch" and "learn" modes.

If you opt for "watch," you'll watch your videos as normal with interactive subtitles that are translated both by word and by sentence.

If you click on "learn," then you'll go straight to the personalized flashcard content using key vocabulary from the video, giving you a chance to practice either ahead of time or after watching the clip. This "learn mode" actually integrates pictures, video clips and example sentences into the flashcards, making for truly memorable in-context learning experiences.

You can start using FluentU on the website with your computer or tablet or, better yet, by downloading the app from the iTunes store.

So, be sure to get in your authentic Spanish practice to really get these genders down. Ready for our last six rules?

The Masculine in Spanish

When there is a crowd or a group of people, animals, ideas or things that have a mixed gender, what gender is used?

If you answered, " the masculine gender is always used when there is a mixed group," you are already thinking in the same direction as the Spanish language.

Rule #3

When there is a group of mixed gender, no matter what the ratio is of females to males and males to females, the group is always referred to as masculine.

1 niño + 4 niñas = 5 niños 1 boy + 4 girls = 5 kids
3 gatos + 542 gatas = 545 gatos 3 male cats + 542 female cats = 545 cats

The masculine gender has more power than the female gender when it comes to making the rules. Although the words have the same value, the male acts as the default leader. To make the word feminine you simply add the feminine " a " touch.

Rule #4

Masculine nouns that end in consonants (non-vowels) have a corresponding feminine form that ends in "a"

el profesor → the male professor la profesora → the female professor
el doctor → the male doctor la doctora → the female doctor
el señor → the Mr. la señora → the Mrs.

Nouns, Gender and Professions

Some nouns that refer to professions do not change their forms. This does not mean that the importance of gender disappears. If the word does not change, the article is in full charge of specifying gender.

Rule#5

Some nouns that refer to professions have the same form for masculine and feminine. The article is the only thing that changes.

el piloto → the male pilot la piloto → the female pilot
el soldado → the male soldier la soldado → the female soldier
el modelo → the male model la modelo → the female model
el poeta → the male poet la poeta → the female poet
el atleta → the male athlete la atleta → the female athlete
el psiquiatra → the male psychiatrist la psquiatra → the female psychiatrist

Optional brain exercise* Make a list of nouns that currently surround you (wherever you are) in English (you decide on how many you want to attempt). Try to guess their gender in Spanish. Look up the words and see how many you got right and what rules you recognize.

Exclusive Endings

Some words are exclusively reserved for female articles and others are exclusively reserved for male ones. These will admit no opposite intervention, ever! The use of masculine articles with exclusively feminine endings and vice-versa will disrupt and distort your communication.

Rule #6

la exposición → the exhibition
la habitación → the room
la felicidad → the happiness
la solicitud → the application
la costumbre → the custom

Rule #7

Nouns that end in -ma require a masculine article

el problema → the problem
el emblema → the emblem
el enigma → the mystery

Exceptions That Create New Rules

Languages exist within a strict framework of rules, yet they are alive, they are dynamic, and the are continuously evolving. Therefore, there are always exceptions to the rules, and these exceptions, in turn, create new rules.

Rule #8

Some nouns that end in "a" are masculine

Some nouns that end in "o" are feminine

la foto → the photo
la mano → the hand
la radio → the radio
la moto → the motorcycle

Best Practices When Learning a Language

Remember, learning a new language is not a result but more of a process! It is important that you set a daily routine for your language learning that excites you and allows you to see results.

As it relates to gender, familiarize yourself with the rules. Listen carefully for them when watching your favorite movies. While reading a comic or newspaper, circle the gender agreements that most surprise you. Above all, find someone to practice with!

You will quickly catch on to the patterns, nuances and subtleties of the language this way. Think of how small children learn language for the first time. A ton of listening, a lot of gibberish, some clarity with mistakes, increase in vocabulary and finally fluency!

And One More Thing...

As mentioned earlier, FluentU is a fantastic platform of Spanish learning experiences through real-world videos-like music videos, sports games, video blogs and business videos. FluentU is designed to get you comfortable with everyday Spanish, by combining all the benefits of complete immersion and native-level conversations with easy-to-read subtitles.

You'll efficiently learn Spanish like you never have before, thanks to FluentU's huge selection of hand-picked videos-with topics like soccer, TV shows, business, speeches, movies and even magical realism-as you can see here:

FluentU brings native Spanish videos within reach with interactive captions. Did you miss a word? Just put your cursor on the captions to instantly view definitions and useful examples, while simultaneously pausing the video so you can start again once you're ready!

And FluentU is more than just videos-it's a complete language learning program. You can learn all the vocabulary in any video with FluentU's Learn Mode. Swipe left or right in the app to see more examples of the word you're learning. You'll be able to create vocab lists and track your progress as you advance through video after video.

The best part? FluentU keeps track of your vocabulary, and it recommends examples and videos to you, based on the words you've already learned. You have a 100% personalized experience.

Start using FluentU on the website with your computer or tablet or, better yet, download the FluentU App from the iTunes store.

If you liked this post, something tells me that you'll love FluentU, the best way to learn Spanish with real-world videos.
Experience Spanish immersion online!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
8 Simple Rules for Mastering Spanish Gender

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Everything in Spanish is either male or female.The language is charged with gender power.If two words are not paired correctly, the imbalance creates waves of discomfort in its users.Knowing Spanish gender separates the Spanish language learners from the fluent speakers.If you alread

# data[].attributes.headline
Capítulo 3: La Estructura de las Palabras: Morfología

# data[].attributes.subject
Capítulo 3: La Estructura de las Palabras: Morfología

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Compound words are formed when two words come together to make a new word or concept. In English examples include 'everyday' (every + day) or 'friendship' (friend + ship).

Most compound words in Spanish are masculine and are formed by taking the verb and then adding the plural noun (very rarely is it in singular).

Verb + Noun (plural)
Parar + aguas = el paraguas (umbrella)

A lot of compound words also end with a 's' however this does not mean that they are in the plural form; most do not change in the plural and singular form. A way to know if a compound word is plural is by looking at the article.

El abrelata s (can opener)
Los abrelata s (can openers)

Below is a list of some compound words in Spanish:

We hope you enjoyed this blog and if you want to learn more please sign up to our free newsletter here.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Compound words are formed when two words come together to make a new word or concept. In English examples include 'everyday' (every + day) or 'friendship' (friend + ship). Most compound words in Spanish are masculine and are formed by taking the verb and then adding the plural noun (very rarely is it in singular).

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Comparing english and spanish powerpoint

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
If you've already been through the lesson called The Sexualization of Nouns, this lesson will be really easy. Plural forms of nouns in Spanish are very much like plural forms of nouns in English. The sounds are almost exactly the same too.

# data[].attributes.body
El video que se llama, “¿Como nosotros enfatizamos nuestros palabras? La estructura del pie?” describe porque nosotros tenemos una subida o una baja en nuestra expresión. Los seres humanos no tienen una expresión de monótona pero tenemos una variedad de maneras para expresar una palabra. El video describe que ocurre adentro de las sílabas. Algunas lenguas cambian el significado de una palabra con el tono. El video usa una representación de un pie para indicar las sílabas y como nosotros las pronunciamos. Todas las lenguas cambian el tono, la duración, el ruido, y unos más atributos para comunicar efectos diferentes.

Luego hay un pase de diapositivas que se llama “Phonation”. Esto pase de diapositivas presenta la audiencia con información sobre las cuerdas vocales y como las cuerdas vocales mueven con voces diferentes. Por ejemplo, las cuerdas vocales están muy cercas en la garganta con un voz como un murmullo. Las cuerdas vocales vibran cuando las esta muy apartados. También el pase de diapositivas presenta unos trastornos que son asociadas con la fonética.

Hay otro video que se llama “La Pronunciación de las combinaciones vocales en Español”. Este video describe como nosotros separamos las sílabas o como las expresamos juntos. El video presenta información sobre los diptongos y los hiatos y como la audiencia puede distinguir los dos. También hay unas excepciones donde necesitamos usar un acento escrito para indicar que unas vocales son separados. Por ejemplo, la palabra “reír” necesita un acento para distinguir las sílabas. El video sirve como una manera para aprender pronunciar unas palabras.

Por final, hay un artículo que se llama, “Los Dialectos y Las Lenguas”. El artículo presenta unos términos como “la comunidad de expresión”, “el acento ortográfico”, “el dialecto”, y “la familia de lenguas”. “La comunidad de expresión”, es un grupo de gente que comparte una colección de costumbres lingüísticos que son diferentes a unos costumbres de otras partes del mundo.  Los adornos de la expresión, el vocabulario, la pronunciación, y la gramática de una comunidad de expresión es clasificado como un “dialecto”. El artículo describe una lengua como un grupo de dialectos. Por ejemplo, el articulo presenta la diferencia de los dialectos del español en México y Argentina. “La familia de lengua” significa unos atributos o palabras que son similares en varias lenguas pero son muy diferentes. Las lenguas son relatados genéticamente y es porque nosotros podemos entender varias cosas de lenguas como el Papiamentu del Caribe.

# data[].attributes.body
El video que se llama, “Que es Afasia”, da la audiencia información sobre el problema de afasia. La mujer en el video describe como la afasia afecta la habilidad para hablar, entender, escribir, y leer.  Luego, un hombre, Michael, quien sufre de la afasia habla a la audiencia sobre su problemas y como él es un voz de esperanza. Él describe como su mente funciona perfecto pero él tiene unos dificultades hablar. La gente que sufre de la afasia puede mejorar con el tiempo y con la práctica de la expresión.

Otro fuente que tiene una conexión del capítulo uno es el video que se llama, “¿Animales Tienen un Lenguaje?”.  El video describe como todos los animales en el mundo tienen una forma de comunicación, pero no todos tienen un lenguaje. Hay unas categorías que son asociadas con el lenguaje como el discreto, la gramática, la productividad, y por final el desplazamiento. Muchos animales tienen unos de las categorías pero no todos. Por ejemplo, las abejas pueden describir los fuentes de comida a través del desplazamiento con unos movimientos del cuerpo. En realidad, los seres humanos jóvenes que tienen tres años pueden exceder muchos animales con el lenguaje.

Otro fuente es un video sobre el vocabulario y los niños. Una mujer turca enseña niños el ingles a través de las acciones y los objetos. Es más fácil para los niños aprender las palabras sobre los objetos y las acciones de la gente. Unos de su ejemplos fue una persona quien tenía calor y el calor fue asociada con un scooter. Es la manera en que los niños pueden asociar objetos con acciones.

Otro fuente es un artículo sobre las etapas en la adquisición del lenguaje. El artículo discute los patrones de sonidos que los niños desarrollan en edades diferentes. Por ejemplo, durante los edades de seis a diez meses los niños dicen palabas como “ba-ba” y “ma-ma”.  Esta estadística confirma la información en el libro. El artículo también explica como los niños usan la gramática y el sintaxis y que edad los niños los desarrollan.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
PHONATION - DR NITIN ANIYAN THOMAS (NATS)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
PHONATION AND ITS MECHANISM HOW PHONATION WORKS HOW SOUND IS PRODUCED PHONATION DIORDERS DIFFERENT CONDITIONS AFFECTING PHONATION VOCAL FOLDS AND ITS ANATOMY A...

# data[].attributes.headline
Capítulo 1: 2.3 Adquisición del Lenguaje

# data[].attributes.subject
Capítulo 1: 2.3 Adquisición del Lenguaje

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Stages of language acquisition in children

In nearly all cases, children's language development follows a predictable sequence. However, there is a great deal of variation in the age at which children reach a given milestone. Furthermore, each child's development is usually characterized by gradual acquisition of particular abilities: thus "correct" use of English verbal inflection will emerge over a period of a year or more, starting from a stage where vebal inflections are always left out, and ending in a stage where they are nearly always used correctly.

There are also many different ways to characterize the developmental sequence. On the production side, one way to name the stages is as follows, focusing primarily on the unfolding of lexical and syntactic knowledge:

Babbling

6-8 months

Repetitive CV patterns

One-word stage
(better one-morpheme or one-unit)
or holophrastic stage

9-18 months

Single open-class words or word stems

Two-word stage

18-24 months

"mini-sentences" with simple semantic relations

Telegraphic stage
or early multiword stage
(better multi-morpheme)

24-30 months

"Telegraphic" sentence structures of lexical rather than functional or grammatical morphemes

Later multiword stage

30+ months

Grammatical or functional structures emerge

Vocalizations in the first year of life

At birth, the infant vocal tract is in some ways more like that of an ape than that of an adult human. Compare the diagram of the infant vocal tract shown on the left to diagrams of adult human and ape.

In particular, the tip of the velum reaches or overlaps with the tip of the epiglottis. As the infant grows, the tract gradually reshapes itself in the adult pattern.

During the first two months of life, infant vocalizations are mainly expressions of discomfort (crying and fussing), along with sounds produced as a by-product of reflexive or vegetative actions such as coughing, sucking, swallowing and burping. There are some nonreflexive, nondistress sounds produced with a lowered velum and a closed or nearly closed mouth, giving the impression of a syllabic nasal or a nasalized vowel.

During the period from about 2-4 months, infants begin making "comfort sounds", typically in response to pleasurable interaction with a caregiver. The earliest comfort sounds may be grunts or sighs, with later versions being more vowel-like "coos". The vocal tract is held in a fixed position. Initially comfort sounds are brief and produced in isolation, but later appear in series separated by glottal stops. Laughter appears around 4 months.

During the period from 4-7 months, infants typically engage in "vocal play", manipulating pitch (to produce "squeals" and "growls"), loudness (producing "yells"), and also manipulating tract closures to produce friction noises, nasal murmurs, "raspberries" and "snorts".

At about seven months, "canonical babbling" appears: infants start to make extended sounds that are chopped up rhythmically by oral articulations into syllable-like sequences, opening and closing their jaws, lips and tongue. The range of sounds produced are heard as stop-like and glide-like. Fricatives, affricates and liquids are more rarely heard, and clusters are even rarer. Vowels tend to be low and open, at least in the beginning.

Repeated sequences are often produced, such as [bababa] or [nanana], as well as "variegated" sequences in which the characteristics of the consonant-like articulations are varied. The variegated sequences are initially rare and become more common later on.

Both vocal play and babbling are produced more often in interactions with caregivers, but infants will also produce them when they are alone.

No other animal does anything like babbling. It has often been hypothesized that vocal play and babbling have the function of "practicing" speech-like gestures, helping the infant to gain control of the motor systems involved, and to learn the acoustical consequences of different gestures.

One word (holophrastic) stage

At about ten months, infants start to utter recognizable words. Some word-like vocalizations that do not correlate well with words in the local language may consistently be used by particular infants to express particular emotional states: one infant is reported to have used to express pleasure, and another is said to have used to express "distress or discomfort". For the most part, recognizable words are used in a context that seems to involve naming: "duck" while the child hits a toy duck off the edge of the bath; "sweep" while the child sweeps with a broom; "car" while the child looks out of the living room window at cars moving on the street below; "papa" when the child hears the doorbell.

Young children often use words in ways that are too narrow or too broad: "bottle" used only for plastic bottles; "teddy" used only for a particular bear; "dog" used for lambs, cats, and cows as well as dogs; "kick" used for pushing and for wing-flapping as well as for kicking. These underextensions and overextensions develop and change over time in an individual child's usage.

Perception vs. production

Clever experiments have shown that most infants can give evidence (for instance, by gaze direction) of understanding some words at the age of 4-9 months, often even before babbling begins. In fact, the development of phonological abilities begins even earlier. Newborns can distinguish speech from non-speech, and can also distinguish among speech sounds (e.g. [t] vs. [d] or [t] vs. [k]); within a couple of months of birth, infants can distinguish speech in their native language from speech in other languages.

Early linguistic interaction with mothers, fathers and other caregivers is almost certainly important in establishing and consolidating these early abilities, long before the child is giving any indication of language abilities.

Rate of vocabulary development

In the beginning, infants add active vocabulary somewhat gradually. Here are measures of active vocabulary development in two studies. The Nelson study was based on diaries kept by mothers of all of their children's utterances, while the Fenson study is based on asking mothers to check words on a list to indicate which they think their child produces.

Milestone
Nelson 1973
(18 children)

Fenson 1993
(1,789 children)

10 words
15 months
(range 13-19)

13 months
(range 8-16)

50 words
20 months
(range 14-24)

17 months
(range 10-24)

Vocabulary at 24 months
186 words
(range 28-436)

310 words
(range 41-668)

There is often a spurt of vocabulary acquisition during the second year. Early words are acquired at a rate of 1-3 per week (as measured by production diaries); in many cases the rate may suddenly increase to 8-10 new words per week, after 40 or so words have been learned. However, some children show a more steady rate of acquisition during these early stages. The rate of vocabulary acquisition definitely does accelerate in the third year and beyond: a plausible estimate would be an average of 10 words a day during pre-school and elementary school years.

Sex differences in vocabulary acquisition

Against a background of enormous individual variation, girl babies tend to learn more words faster than boy babies do; but the difference disappears over time.

Svetlana Lutchmaya, Simon Baron-Cohen and Peter Raggat (" Foetal testosterone and vocabulary size in 18- and 24-month infants", Infant Behavior and Development 24:418-424, 2002) found that in a sample of 18-month-olds, boys' average vocabulary size was 41.8 words (range from 0 to 222, standard deviation 50.1), while girls' average was 86.8 (range from 2 to 318, standard deviation 83.2). By 24 months, the difference had narrowed to a boys' mean of 196.8 (range 0 to 414, standard deviation 126.8) vs. a girls' mean of 275.1 (range 15 to 415, SD=121.6). In other words, the girls' advantage in average values had shrunk from 86.8/41.8 = 2.1 to 275.1/196.8 = 1.5.

As time passes, the difference disappears entirely, and then emerges again in the opposite direction, with males showing larger average vocabularies during college years (though again against the background of within-group variation that's much larger than the across-group differences). Here's table 6 from Janet Shibley Hyde and Marcia C. Linn, " Gender Differences in Verbal Ability: A Meta-Analysis", Psychological Bulletin, 104:1 53-69 (1988).

Perception vs. production again

Benedict (1979) asked mothers to keep a diary indicating not only what words children produced, but what words they gave evidence of understanding. Her results indicate that at the time when children were producing 10 words, they were estimated to understand 60 words; and there was an average gap of five months between the time when a child understood 50 words and the time when (s)he produced 50 words.

All of these methods (maternal diaries and checklists) probably tend to underestimate the number of words about young children actually know something, although they also may overestimate the number of words to which they attribute adult-like meanings.

Combining words: the emergence of syntax

During the second year, word combinations begin to appear. Novel combinations (where we can be sure that the result is not being treated as a single word) appear sporadically as early as 14 months. At 18 months, 11% of parents say that their child is often combining words, and 46% say that (s)he is sometimes combining words. By 25 months, almost all children are sometimes combining words, but about 20% are still not doing so "often."

Early multi-unit utterances

In some cases, early multiple-unit utterances can be seen as concatenations of individual naming actions that might just as well have occured alone: "mommy" and "hat" might be combined as "mommy hat"; "shirt" and "wet" might be combined as "shirt wet". However, these combinations tend to occur in an order that is appropriate for the language being learned:

1. Doggy bark

2. Ken water (for "Ken is drinking water")

3. Hit doggy

Some combinations with certain closed-class morphemes begin to occur as well: "my turn", "in there", etc. However, these are the closed-class words such as pronouns and prepositions that have semantic content in their own right that is not too different from that of open-class words. The more purely grammatical morphemes -- verbal inflections and verbal auxiliaries, nominal determiners, complementizers etc. -- are typically absent.

Since the earliest multi-unit utterances are almost always two morphemes long -- two being the first number after one! -- this period is sometimes called the "two-word stage". Quite soon, however, children begin sometimes producing utterances with more than two elements, and it is not clear that the period in which most utterances have either one or two lexical elements should really be treated as a separate stage.

In the early multi-word stage, children who are asked to repeat sentences may simply leave out the determiners, modals and verbal auxiliaries, verbal inflections, etc., and often pronouns as well. The same pattern can be seen in their own spontaneous utterances:

1. "I can see a cow" repeated as "See cow" (Eve at 25 months)

2. "The doggy will bite" repeated as "Doggy bite" (Adam at 28 months)

3. Kathryn no like celery (Kathryn at 22 months)

4. Baby doll ride truck (Allison at 22 months)

5. Pig say oink (Claire at 25 months)

6. Want lady get chocolate (Daniel at 23 months)

7. "Where does Daddy go?" repeated as "Daddy go?" (Daniel at 23 months)

8. "Car going?" to mean "Where is the car going?" (Jem at 21 months)

The pattern of leaving out most grammatical/functional morphemes is called "telegraphic", and so people also sometimes refer to the early multi-word stage as the "telegraphic stage".

Acquisition of grammatical elements and the corresponding structures

At about the age of two, children first begin to use grammatical elements. In English, this includes finite auxiliaries ("is", "was"), verbal tense and agreement affixes ("-ed" and '-s'), nominative pronouns ("I", "she"), complementizers ("that", "where"), and determiners ("the", "a"). The process is usually a somewhat gradual one, in which the more telegraphic patterns alternate with adult or adult-like forms, sometimes in adjacent utterances:

1. She's gone. Her gone school. (Domenico at 24 months)

2. He's kicking a beach ball. Her climbing up the ladder there. (Jem at 24 months).

3. I teasing Mummy. I'm teasing Mummy. (Holly at 24 months)

4. I having this. I'm having 'nana. (Olivia at 27 months).

5. I'm having this little one. Me'll have that. (Betty at 30 months).

6. Mummy haven't finished yet, has she? (Olivia at 36 months).

Over a year to a year and a half, sentences get longer, grammatical elements are less often omitted and less often inserted incorrectly, and multiple-clause sentences become commoner.

Perception vs. production again

Several studies have shown that children who regularly omit grammatical elements in their speech, nevertheless expect these elements in what they hear from adults, in the sense that their sentence comprehension suffers if the grammatical elements are missing or absent.

Progress backwards

Often morphological inflections include a regular case ("walk/walked", "open/opened") and some irregular or exceptional cases ("go/went", "throw/threw", "hold/held"). In the beginning, such words will be used in their root form. As inflections first start being added, both regular and irregular patterns are found. At a certain point, it is common for children to over-generalize the regular case, producing forms like "bringed", "goed"; "foots", "mouses", etc. At this stage, the child's speech may actually become less correct by adult standards than it was earlier, because of over-regularization.

This over-regularization, like most other aspects of children's developing grammar, is typically resistant to correction:

CHILD: My teacher holded the baby rabbits and we patted them.
ADULT: Did you say your teacher held the baby rabbits.
CHILD: Yes.
ADULT: What did you say she did?
CHILD: She holded the baby rabbits and we patted them.
ADULT: Did you say she held them tightly?
CHILD: No, she holded them loosely.

More Information

A good starting point for more information about child language acquisition is the CHILDES web site at CMU, where you can find out about downloading the raw materials of child language research, and also search a specialized child language bibliography.

A recent article in the NYT Magazine (Paul Tough, " What it takes to make a student", 11/26/2006) discusses at length some well-known studies about social-class differences in language acquisition (Betty Hart and Todd Risley, " Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of Young American Children" (1995); Betty Hart, " A Natural History of Early Language Experience", Topics in Early Childhood Special Education, 20(1), 2000; " The early Catastrophe: the 30 Million Word Gap", American Educator, 27(1) pp. 4-9, 2003). The abstract from the 2003 paper:

By age 3, children from privileged families have heard 30 million more words than children from underprivileged families. Longitudinal data on 42 families examined what accounted for enormous differences in rates of vocabulary growth. Children turned out to be like their parents in stature, activity level, vocabulary resources, and language and interaction styles. Follow-up data indicated that the 3-year-old measures of accomplishment predicted third grade school achievement.

42 is not a very large sample, and there are many other questions to ask, but this work suggests that we should be concerned about possible lasting effects of cultural differences in children's linguistic environment.

Another, more recent, study suggesting the same conclusion is Martha J. Farah, et al., (" Childhood poverty: Specific associations with neurocognitive development", Brain Research 1110(1) 166-174, September 2006). Prof. Farah and her co-workers "administered a battery of tasks designed to tax specific neurocognitive systems to healthy low and middle SES [socio-economic status] children screened for medical history and matched for age, gender and ethnicity".

Fig. 1. Effect sizes, measured in standard deviations of separation between low and middle SES group performance, on the composite measures of the seven different neurocognitive systems assessed in this study. Black bars represent effect sizes for statistically significant effects; gray bars represent effect sizes for nonsignificant effects.

All the participants in this study were African-American girls between the ages of 10 and 13. As the graph above indicates, the difference in performance on the "Language" part of the test battery between middle SES and low SES girls represented an effect size of about 0.95.

There were two language-related tasks:

Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT)
This is a standardized vocabulary test for children between the ages of 2.5 and 18. On each trial, the child hears a word and must select the corresponding picture from among four choices.
Test of Reception of Grammar (TROG)
In this sentence-picture matching task designed by Bishop (1982), the child hears a sentence and must choose the picture, from a set of four, which depicts the sentence. Its lexical-semantic demands are negligible as the vocabulary is simple and a pre-test ensures that subjects know the meanings of the small set of words that occur in the test.

This finding is consistent with a lasting effect of differences like those in the Hart & Risly study, ,though other explanations are also possible.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Linguistics 001 -- Lecture 23 -- First Language Acquisition

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In nearly all cases, children's language development follows a predictable sequence. However, there is a great deal of variation in the age at which children reach a given milestone.