How words change in spanish

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Paul_Moechner2022
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How words change in spanish

Postby Paul_Moechner2022 » Mon Jan 09, 2023 9:54 pm

Thanks to this forum I have LOTS and LOTS of resources to go through to learn everything I want about the spanish language.

So far I've noticed that there's a pattern to some words in spanish and I am curious if there is a way to explore/study/etc how words transform into other words.

An english example is:
eat
eating
eats

Spanish examples I found is:
come
comer
comida
es
esta
estas
estoy

I will eventually figure this out on my own thanks to the spanish resources thread on this website. It's just a matter of going through the learning material until I 'stumble' over what I'm looking for lol. ...But I feel it would be a good idea to ALSO ask here how I can explore this aspect of spanish. If I can understand how words transform, I can string sentences together more quickly, and even expand my vocabulary more quickly...at least that's my theory, lol.

Hope my thread here makes sense lol.
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jeff_lindqvist
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Re: How words change in spanish

Postby jeff_lindqvist » Mon Jan 09, 2023 10:29 pm

Other members will chime in, but my short answer is that verbs change according to person and tense.

A longer answer is that there are six "persons" (I, you (sg.), he/she/it, we, you (pl.) and they), and more than a dozen tenses.

Resources like these might be of some help:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_conjugation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_verbs
https://www.learnalanguage.com/learn-sp ... ish-verbs/

What study material are you using?
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Re: How words change in spanish

Postby Kraut » Tue Jan 10, 2023 2:32 am

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Paul_Moechner2022
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Re: How words change in spanish

Postby Paul_Moechner2022 » Tue Jan 10, 2023 4:29 am

jeff_lindqvist wrote:
What study material are you using?


Well, to be honest I'm doing a sort of a "bull in a china shop" approach because there are so many free resources I have found online via youtube and this website, that I don't know where to begin. So I'm just sort of bouncing around until I get into a work flow. I got sort of a semi-work flow going now haha.

Here is the simplest way I know how to describe my current learning process:
1. I moved to Mexico from the USA. So I am living in the country that I want to speak spanish in.

2. Figuring out my own way of learning spanish started off with google searching, which lead to a youtube video series I found which I asked about on this forum. That thread lead to me learning about the spanish resource thread on this forum, which led me to duo lingo.

3. So as I continue to explore all the online resources, I now spend a certain amount of time every day on duo lingo, and between duo lingo sessions, I have a growing stack of flash cards with notes I have taken from duo lingo, the youtube spanish class series I use, and other sources (like this website) to help me memorize the alphabet, numbers, vocabulary expansion, etc. So basically I'm bouncing between several different learning sources: youtube, this website, duo lingo, flash cards of notes I've been taking from all the study sources, on top of interacting with folks who speak spanish whenever I can which leads to #4:

4. I also walk nearly two kilometers a day for exercise and therefore naturally interact with folks that I pass by. The more my vocabulary grows, the more I interact with people. Also, despite me being within walking distance of two walmarts, I do all my grocery shopping at small private businesses scattered throughout the neighborhood because I interact with more people that way. I also try to understand anything I read on business advertisements, bumper stickers, etc.
Last edited by Paul_Moechner2022 on Tue Jan 10, 2023 4:34 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Paul_Moechner2022
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Re: How words change in spanish

Postby Paul_Moechner2022 » Tue Jan 10, 2023 4:31 am

thanks for the two replies! I'll explore the links that you both gave me. :)
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Re: How words change in spanish

Postby Kraut » Fri Jan 13, 2023 4:11 pm

Paul_Moechner2022 wrote:4. I also walk nearly two kilometers a day for exercise and therefore naturally interact with folks that I pass by. The more my vocabulary grows, the more I interact with people. Also, despite me being within walking distance of two walmarts, I do all my grocery shopping at small private businesses scattered throughout the neighborhood because I interact with more people that way. I also try to understand anything I read on business advertisements, bumper stickers, etc.



You could also try a more theme-related approach and study the things you do on a daily basis like your number four above. I have run this passage
in DEEPL and GOOGLE. Deepl is better but also offers more elegant translations, while more literal translations might be better in the initial stage.

También camino casi dos kilómetros al día para hacer ejercicio y, por tanto, interactúo de forma natural con la gente con la que me cruzo. Cuanto más crece mi vocabulario, más interactúo con la gente. Además, a pesar de estar a poca distancia de dos Walmart, hago todas mis compras en pequeños comercios privados repartidos por el barrio porque así interactúo con más gente. También intento entender todo lo que leo en los anuncios de los comercios, en las pegatinas de los parachoques, etc.

También camino casi dos kilómetros al día para hacer ejercicio y, por lo tanto, interactúo naturalmente con la gente con la que paso. Cuanto más crece mi vocabulario, más interactúo con la gente. Además, a pesar de estar a una corta distancia a pie de dos Walmart, hago todas mis compras en pequeños negocios privados repartidos por todo el vecindario porque interactúo con más personas de esa manera. También trato de entender todo lo que leo en los anuncios de negocios, calcomanías en los parachoques, etc.


Of course the above is above your level, therefore you should do it shorter and simpler at the beginning.
I would learn sentences like the following by heart:

"También camino casi dos kilómetros al día para hacer ejercicio."
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