Spanish course: How to Request Action by a Group That Includes Yourself

Either the Imperative Mood or 'Vamos a' May Be Used

Spanish has two main ways of making suggestions or commands to a group that includes the person speaking. Both of them can be used as the equivalent of the English "let's" in a sentence such as "Let's work."

Imperative mood: The most straightforward way is to use the first-person plural imperative mood, which takes the same form as the first-person plural form of the subjunctive mood. In regular -ar verbs, the ending is replaced by -emos, and in -er and -irverbs, the ending is replaced by -amos:

• Bailemos un vals. Let's dance a waltz.
• Compremos una casa en España. Let's buy a house in Spain.
• Hagamos un trato. Let's make a deal.
• Tratemos de ser felices. Let's try to be happy.

If you're using the imperative form of a reflexive verb, the -emos ending becomes -émonos, and the -amos ending becomes -ámonos. In other words, the -nos ending is added to the verb, but the -s is dropped before the pronoun:

• Levantémonos a las seis de la mañana. Let's get up at 6 a.m.
• Lavémonos las manos. Let's wash our hands.
• Riámonos un ratito. Let's laugh a little bit. (Réirseis an irregular verb.)

In the negative form, however, the pronoun comes before the verb: No nos mejoremos. Let's not improve ourselves.

With a form of ir: Probably more common than the imperative mood, and even easier to learn, is to use the third-person form of ir followed by a, i.e., "vamos a," followed by the infinitive:

• Vamos a nadar. Let's go swimming.
• Vamos a casarnos. Let's get married.
• Vamos a estudiar. Let's study.
• Vamos a viajar a Italia. Let's go to Italy.

You may note that "vamos a + infinitive" can also mean "we are going to + infinitive," so the first sample sentence above could also mean "We are going to swim." Indeed, "ir a + infinitive" is a very common substitute for the future tense in Spanish. In the first-person plural, then, context will determine what is meant.
It is not uncommon when meaning "let's" to replace "vamos a" with simply "a." For example, "a ver" is a very common way of saying "let's see."

Final translation note: When translating from English, do not confuse "let's" as a suggestion to the group with "let us" as a way of asking for permission. For example, one way you might say "let us help you" would be "Permítenos ayudarte," where the verbpermitir is used in the third person (the person being addressed) rather than the first person (the people who want to help).

Source: About.com, Gerald Erichsen

Learn Spanish by playing online games

Spanish Matching games are a great way to build and retain Spanish vocabulary.

Words are matched to the appropriate images and incorrect answers are displayed. Students will learn new vocabulary words in a way that is more enjoyable than reading from a textbook.

Try Drag-n-match with Spanish animal names:



Source: 123teachme.com

Barack Obama: American children should learn to speak Spanish

The American president Barack Obama says in this video that he thinks that American children should learn Spanish as well as English. If he says so...



Source: Youtube

The two most common problems in speaking Spanish

If you already speak some Spanish, chances are good that you have some of these problems:
1. difficulty understanding native speakers
2. translating in your head before you speak

Why You Have These Problems?
Think back on your Spanish classes. How much time did you actually spend speaking Spanish out loud, in a conversational setting? How much one-on-one time did you get practicing with a native speaker? In most classes you don't get very much individual practice at all.

A Different Path
If you would like to learn to speak Spanish and to actually understand native speakers, it is very likely that the problem is not that you don't know enough.
You probably know quite a few words, and understand quite a bit of grammar. Learning more words and studying more grammar is not the path to conversational fluency. The path of success lies in lots of one-on-one practice with a native speaker.

Learning to speak Spanish in 2 simple steps

Step 1: Learn to speak Spanish using the correct method, and you will learn to build sentences and become conversational quickly. It isn’t only about learning some words and phrases, but you will actually have to learn to build sentences in order to be able to speak Spanish. Keep in mind that learning Spanish can be fun and easy if you choose the right Spanish course.

Step 2: Start speaking Spanish with others, and your confidence will grow quickly. Perhaps this is the most important step. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes, everyone does this in the beginning. Just go on and you’ll get better at it along the way.

You will become fluent in conversational Spanish faster than you ever thought possible.

We highly recommend you to try the course of David Rivera, he even offers free courses on his website!

Learn Spanish because it is one of the most spoken languages in the world!

In 1999, there were according to Ethnologue 358 million people speaking Spanish as a native language and a total of 417 million speakers worldwide. Currently these figures are up to 400 and 500 million people respectively. Spanish is the second most natively spoken language in the world, after Mandarin Chinese. Mexico contains the largest population of Spanish speakers. Spanish is one of the six official languages of the United Nations, and used as an official language of the European Union, and Mercosur.

You see, Spanish is spoken by so many people in the world that it is worth the effort to learn it!

Source: wikipedia

Spanish Language Basics : Everyday Spanish Phrases by Priscilla Monserrate-Sanders

Priscilla Monserrate-Sanders has developed Spanish learning programs for Latino children and youths for over 10 years. In this short youtube film she introduces you to the most commonly used Spanish phrases including "hola" for hello, "buenos dias" for good morning and "gracias" for thank you. Learn some conversational Spanish with help from the founder of a Spanish language school in this free video on everyday Spanish phrases.

Source: youtube (holaschool.com)