"Inglés-Latino" website (under construction)

When (and if) my website ingles-latino@yahoo.com is constructed, it should allow for visitor posts and comments concerned with the efforts of independent students of English from Spanish or other Romance language backgrounds to learn English through their own efforts rather than to pursue institutional or commercial courses.

Polyglot: foreign language learning and teaching

I plan to use this blog for a work in progress, a treatment of the English verb for Spanish (and other Romance language) speakers.  

The greatest difference between Spanish and English, the greatest source of difficulty for learners of each other's language, lies in the difference between a verb system developed for speakers of an originally Germanic language and that for speakers of a Latin descent language. " The basic verbs of English are mostly Germanic in origin, for example, "have," "do," and "be," are indispensable to the formation of English verb conjugations and simply have to be learned through practice  

A strict translation from the English verb to the Spanish is not practical.  If I say emphatically, "I do work very hard!" I cannot translate that literally as "Hago trabajo muy duro." If I say, "Hago un trabajo muy duro," then, again, I will not have stated my English meaning accurately. It would be better to say "¡Sí, yo trabajo muy duro."

The English emphatic use of "do" has no precise equivalent in Spanish.  Emphasis in Spanish is achieved through other means, in this case, the use of the pronoun and, in context, probably a change in intonation.  And, in reverse, the same problem arises for English speakers who never at the start are quite sure when they should use "yo" and when they should not use it.  English speakers should try to forget their English verb habits and to avoid efforts at translation.  It is simply better to work with Spanish verbs in the context of other Spanish usages.  Eventually, practice will make what is impossible at the outset completely simple.