Ferme La Bouche

Luella-14_2

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

I'm desperately trying to get my head round the two different verbs for 'to be' in Spanish. 'Soy' English, because I always have been and I always will be. 'Estoy' married, because one day I might not be. 'Soy' administrator - why's that, one day I might be an astronaut? 'Estoy' washing up - well, sometimes it feels as if I always will be ... You get my drift?

The ser/ estar frustrated me when I started Spanish too. You're right in the temporary /permanent difference, the job thing I guess is seen as part of your chartacter and thus uses ser.
The washing up example will always be with estar as it uses the gerund *endo *ando. I love Spanish, never enjoyed learning German though. Going to try at Portuguese now though I think the difference is pronunciation from Spanish will throw me!

Savvy_Sue

Luella-14 wrote: »

The ser/ estar frustrated me when I started Spanish too. You're right in the temporary /permanent difference, the job thing I guess is seen as part of your chartacter and thus uses ser.
The washing up example will always be with estar as it uses the gerund *endo *ando. I love Spanish, never enjoyed learning German though. Going to try at Portuguese now though I think the difference is pronunciation from Spanish will throw me!

Thanks, that's also helpful. I don't know why I'm finding it difficult, it's the kind of thing I'd usually 'get'!

C_Mababejive

OP i did three years of Latin..and guess what? I doubt i can remember much if any..!

Oh hang on,its all flooding back...

Amo ,Amatis,Amant..declensions,cases,conjugations..i can feel one of my heads coming on..

Oldernotwiser

aliasojo wrote: »

Got a french question so thought I'd bump this.

Why are mushrooms masculine?

And more to the point, how do you know what should have the masculine prefix and what should have the feminine, when you are talking about neutral things like mushrooms or frogs or pigs?!

Daughter has just shown me a video that school showed them. It is supposed to help them decide when to use 'le' and when to use 'la'.

Suffice to say, I'm confused. I get the brother or sister thing as they are clearly male or female but a mushroom?

Help me understand please? It's been too long and I have no memory of mushrooms. :rotfl:

Note: the mushroom thing in particular is jokey, the main point is the fact it's a non sex thing iyswim.

What do you mean by a masculine and feminine prefix? I don't think that exists at all in any language I know.

Errata

Funny old language, Latin. Nobody knows what the correction pronunciation of words is. Post hoc ergo propter hoc.

Kaz2904

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

What do you mean by a masculine and feminine prefix? I don't think that exists at all in any language I know.

La bouche (the mouth) La voiture (the car) Le trottoir (the pavement).
The prefix is the "Le or La" THE!

aliasojo

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

What do you mean by a masculine and feminine prefix? I don't think that exists at all in any language I know.

Well it does in the French my daughter's school teaches.

Did you click on the link I gave above?

Oldernotwiser

Kaz2904 wrote: »

La bouche (the mouth) La voiture (the car) Le trottoir (the pavement).
The prefix is the "Le or La" THE!

That's not a prefix - that's the definite article!

aliasojo

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

That's not a prefix - that's the definite article!

I think you are being a pedant ONW.

I've just re-read the above posts and it's perfectly clear to what I am referring, even if the terminology I used was incorrect.

neverdespairgirl

I did French for 4 years, and German or 3 (up to GCSE) and also did Latin for 5 years (also to GCSE). I remember almost no French or German, but a lot of Latin.

I also now speak some Polish and Hebrew.