beginner Spanish question

[shug23]

Thanks. I am signed up to audit a Spanish 1 class at the university beginning at the end of August. I am just getting a jump and using 3-4 sources..Babbel, and The Language Tutor on You Tube are two and the class textbook. Six weeks ago, I knew maybe 15 Spanish words, if that. Fortunately I know German, so am already comfortable with how the Spanish verbs conjugate and the concept of male/female nouns. So far my take on Spanish is it seems like they use about 12 different letters and permutate them in various orders and throw in an accent every once in a while to form all their words ! ( I joke).... The hardest part so far is my listening skill----they talk so fast and most of their words seem to end in vowels, but hopefullyn that will come.

SO, how do you say " She is German" and how to you say " She speaks German" ? Ella es alemanes and Ella habla aleman ?

How do you say. " I have a German light" ( I am trying to use the word German as an adjective of a female noun). Yo tengo alemanes luz ?

[Cenwalh]

Thanks. I am signed up to audit a Spanish 1 class at the university beginning at the end of August. I am just getting a jump and using 3-4 sources..Babbel, and The Language Tutor on You Tube are two and the class textbook. Six weeks ago, I knew maybe 15 Spanish words, if that. Fortunately I know German, so am already comfortable with how the Spanish verbs conjugate and the concept of male/female nouns. So far my take on Spanish is it seems like they use about 12 different letters and permutate them in various orders and throw in an accent every once in a while to form all their words ! ( I joke).... The hardest part so far is my listening skill----they talk so fast and most of their words seem to end in vowels, but hopefullyn that will come.

SO, how do you say " She is German" and how to you say " She speaks German" ? Ella es alemanes and Ella habla aleman ?

How do you say. " I have a German light" ( I am trying to use the word German as an adjective of a female noun). Yo tengo alemanes luz ?

You're supposed to be auditing a university Spanish course and you don't speak Spanish?! That is absolutely shocking to me, I cannot believe a university would consider that. I appreciate that it sounds like a beginner course, but even so, that beggars belief. Edit: I have since been informed that 'audit' has a different meaning in this context. I've left this to avoid confusion.

She is German: [Ella] es alemana
She speaks German: [Ella] habla alemán

I have a German light*: [Yo] tengo una luz alemana

To summarise on alemán as an adjective: when masculine and singular it is alemán, when feminine and singular it's alemana, when masculine and plural it's alemanes, when feminine and plural it's alemanas.

Un objeto alemán, una luz alemana, unos bolígragos alemanes, unas personas alemanas.

I'm not really sure what to recommend for your specific requirement of needing to verify the quality of a Spanish course, and generally I'm not one to recommend specific grammar study, but I have seen people point to this resource which seems to offer good explanations of adjectives, along with lots of other grammar points: StudySpanish.com Grammar

*light could have had lots of translations, but this being a grammatical point, not a vocabulary one, I have decided not to quibble.

[shug23]

I am not auditing in the sense of seeing if everything the teacher is doing makes sense...I am auditing the course (versus paying for it) to learn the subject. Thanks for the answers on "German'

[Herodotean]

You're supposed to be auditing a university Spanish course and you don't speak Spanish?! That is absolutely shocking to me, I cannot believe a university would consider that. I appreciate that it sounds like a beginner course, but even so, that beggars belief.

An "auditor" in the context of US higher education is a student who attends all the classes and may or may not do all the work, but doesn't receive a grade for the course (except perhaps the designation AU on the transcript). It's generally nothing more than formal permission to attend the class meetings for a course. It is perfectly reasonable for shug23 to audit (in this sense) Spanish 1.

ETA: I use "course" here in the US sense, roughly equivalent to UK "module." UK "course," as far as I understand, is US "degree program" or "course of study."

[Cenwalh]

You're supposed to be auditing a university Spanish course and you don't speak Spanish?! That is absolutely shocking to me, I cannot believe a university would consider that. I appreciate that it sounds like a beginner course, but even so, that beggars belief.

An "auditor" in the context of US higher education is a student who attends all the classes and may or may not do all the work, but doesn't receive a grade for the course (except perhaps the designation AU on the transcript). It's generally nothing more than formal permission to attend the class meetings for a course. It is perfectly reasonable for shug23 to audit (in this sense) Spanish 1.

ETA: I use "course" here in the US sense, roughly equivalent to UK "module." UK "course," as far as I understand, is US "degree program" or "course of study."

Thank you so much for this explanation! I knew I had to have been missing something after the last post, but I didn't want to drag it out. It's amazing that with so much exposure to American media growing up, there are still things that confuse me.

[Kraut]

I wouldn't dare say definitively whether the names of all languages are masculine, but all the ones I've thought of in the past minute or so have been...

In the German language all languages are neuter.

"Deutsch ist eine schwere Sprache."
"Das Deutsch, das er spricht, ist sehr gut."

Beginners often say "Meine Deutsch ist sehr schlecht.", instead of "Mein Deutsch ...".