I re-listened to Language Transfer Track 42 this morning. Mihalis continues with the future tense and the verb poder, which means 'to be able'. 'Would you be able' is another way of saying 'Could you'. Using the rule and the key sound 'ía' you would think it should be 'poderías' but because this is a very common verb used over the many years, the 'e' got lost and the word evolved to 'podrías'. The other forms would be podríamos, podrían, podría. I love this! This will definitely help me to remember.
He also discusses the verb "gustar". I have always known this verb to mean "to like" but Mihalis suggests we instead think of it as "to be pleasing".
- I like it - It is pleasing to me - Me gusta
- I like them - They are pleasing to me - Me gustan
If we using the intermediate "Spanglish" translation, we arrive at the correct translation and avoid using the "Me gusto" incorrectly, which translates to I like myself or I am pleasing to me. Which might also be true, but may not be what you meant to say!
Me gustan mucho los videos de Ana? Te gustan?
Yes, I really like Language Transfer Guy….I may even go as far as to learn how to spell his name…I enjoyed the Butterfly Spanish….all these clever people with these millions of videos!! It’s amazing that everyone is not yet fluent….
ReplyDeleteI wonder if he approves of Esperanzo? This was a developed language whose creator hoped everyone would learn as their second language….then everyone could communicate with everyone….A great idea, unfortunately it did not take off! I guess that would put a lot of language teachers out of work, though….always 2 sides to the story!!
Haha! Mihalis, it's like Michael in Greek. I think he's great too. And I agree, we really have no excuse not be fluent. Go! Go! Go!
ReplyDeleteEsperanto from the Latin word spearare which means 'to hope'. That's so interesting. What a lovely thought that everyone could speak with each other. You can learn it on Duolingo I believe. Maybe that will be my next one.