Tapas are a type of food popular in Spain. People in Spain eat differently and at different hours than those in North America. Generally breakfast is very light consisting of only a coffee with milk and perhaps a churro, a cylindrical deep-fried pastry similar to a doughnut. Lunch is served around midday and is often followed by a siesta, a midday nap.
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Every language has some way of showing the function of nouns and pronouns within a given sentence. Some languages, such as modern English, rely heavily on word order and prepositions whereas other languages rely on declensions. Declensions are the changes that occur to the endings of articles, pronouns, possessives, adjectives, nouns etc. to show their function in a given sentence. (Changes that occur to verbs are called conjugations).
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Eva Perón was born María Eva Duarte in 1919 in a small village in Argentina. Her early life was difficult because her mother was the mistress of her already married father. During her life, he failed to recognize her as his legitimate daughter. From a young age, Eva was interested in dancing, acting and modeling and at 16 she moved on her own to the capital city of Buenos Aires. It was her dream to be a cinema star. She was a very attractive young woman and was soon turning heads in in the capital city. She received work immediately and began traveling in the upper social circles of the city shortly thereafter.
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Spanish is unique in that it has two verbs which mean ‘to be’. One must memorize which one to use for each situation. The verb ser describes the essence of something. Although everything changes with time, ser is used to describe qualities that do not normally change overnight. The verb estar is mainly concerned with location and temporary states of being. It also functions as an auxiliary verb in Spanish.
Read moreSpanish and English generally do not create compound nouns in the same way. Examples of compound nouns in English include: open-heart, breakwater, basketball. English features adjective + noun (blackboard), verb + noun (breakwater) or noun + noun (football) combinations. English also frequently hyphenates words. The Spanish language has few hyphenated words as generally they are only used in cases of adjective + adjective or noun + noun combinations in which both elements are of equal importance, as in relaciones sino-estadounidenses (Chinese-US relations).
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Unlike English, German uses a variety of prepositions to express ‘to’ with verbs of motion. What follows is a concise study guide to this tricky aspect of German grammar.
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One unique feature of the German language is its ability to create extremely long compound nouns. While this can seem daunting at first, it’s simply a matter of breaking down the noun into its component parts to understand its meaning.
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As a Spanish and German language instructor I am sometimes asked to do translation work. However, I am not qualified as a translator or interpreter and must carefully explain that to my clients. They are sometimes confused, they don’t understand why if someone can speak two languages they cannot simply translate between them. The answer to this question is explained in the wonderfully written Found in Translation co-authored by Nataly Kelly, a Spanish-English translator and Jost Zetzsche a German-English interpreter.
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It’s always an advantage when learning a new language to know a bit about its history and relevance in the modern world. Here are some interesting facts about the Spanish language:
Read moreCertain daily expressions in Spanish and German use the verb ‘have’ in a figurative sense. Below is a list of common expressions in which both Spanish and German function in this manner. As these expressions do not always translate literally into English, they are best memorized.
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