Saturday, 16 July 2011
Saturday, 28 May 2011
My Review of Rocket Spanish
There are many Spanish language courses available today on the internet. The problem is finding a good Spanish course that covers all aspects of the language. This can be a difficult task, to say the least. It helps to get a recommendation when there are so many courses to choose from. Some good, many bad.
I have tried a few online Spanish courses with no real success. The problem with too many of these courses, aside from the quality, is that they aren't comprehensive enough. This is okay when you're just curious about the language and don't want to become fluent. I, on the other hand, was serious about learning Spanish. These courses were either missing important categories or didn't provide enough quantity overall. A good Spanish course should include all of the important aspects that make up the language. It should include interactive content as well as a testing feature to test your progress. It should also include a good, quality audio component. After all, you can't learn a language if you can't hear it.
A friend of mine recommended Rocket Spanish. I decided I would try it, considering that I had already tried enough other courses without much success, and I still wanted to learn Spanish. I purchased the hard copy version that comes on CDs, which took about a week and a half to receive in the mail. I was impressed by the amount of content in the course. It included everything I knew I needed to really learn the language. Nothing important is left out. It comes with over thirty audio course lessons and many other lessons that teach the Spanish language and culture, which is a lot more then you'll find in most courses. It also includes learning software to practice the language, which has been very helpful. I don't have to guess which parts of the course I need to focus on or if I have practiced enough because the software comes with a progress tracker, making it easier to move ahead.
The course is pretty straightforward and well organized. The lessons are easy to follow and provide lots of exercises for practice. Learning Spanish has become an enjoyable experience for me. It still takes work to learn Spanish but the course does really make it easier. If you've been shopping around for a good Spanish course then I recommend that you try Rocket Spanish. The hard copy version costs more but they do offer a cheaper downloadable version with instant access.
Using The Spanish Imperative Tense For Giving Advice
Today we are going to take a look at the Imperative Tense and how it is used to give advice. The Imperative Tense is often used to give advice, making it very common to see in advertisements. Open up any Spanish newspaper or magazine and you will be amazed to find it filled with the Imperative Tense.
"Busque nuestro cup?n en el interior del diario". (Look for our coupon inside this newspaper)
"No pienses m?s, compra tu Netbook en Compuword". (Don't think anymore, buy your Netbook at Compuword)
"Este a?o, vive M?xico" (This year, experience Mexico)
"Ahorre comprando en....." (Save Money buying at.....)
The Advertisements use the forms "Usted" or "T?" according to their target: young people or older people.
The Imperative tense is also very common in daily life to give advice to customers or friends. Let's see how we conjugate the Imperative in second person. But, be careful, when used informatively, the Imperative has different conjugations in the affirmative and negative forms.
Afirmative T?:
Verbs that end in AR: T? ComprA
Verbs that end in ER/IR: T? ComE, VivE
Verbs in the Present tense that have "go"in the first person for example "Tener" "yo tengo", are Irregular Verbs in T?.
Hacer: Haz. Tener: Ten. Decir: Di. Poner: Pon. Traer: Trae. Venir: Ven.
Negative T?:
If the verb ends in AR, it is like the "Yo" form in Present tense, but the "O" changes to "ES".
For example: Yo compro. Negative Imperative: No compres.
If the verb ends in ER or IR, it is like the "Yo" form in Present tense, but the "O" changes to "AS".
For example: Yo tengo. Negative Imperative: No tengas. Yo digo. Negative Imperative: No digas.
Afirmative and Negative Usted:
It is like T? in the Negative form but without "S".
For example: Usted tenga/ Usted no tenga.
There are some verbs that are totally Irregular:
IR: T? ve, T? No vayas. Usted vaya, Usted no vaya.
Ser: T? s?, T? no seas. Usted sea, Usted no sea.
Saber: T? sabe, T? no sepas. Usted sepa, Usted no sepa.
Estar: T? est?, T? no est?s. Usted est?, Usted no est?.
Hopefully this quick lesson will help you learn more about the Imperative Tense. The best way to learn the Imperative it to memorize these little formulas. Once you know the formula, you can use it for almost any verb! Make sure to also memorize the irregulars, as there is no easy formula for these.
If you use Learning Like Crazy's verb conjugation software called the Verbarrator, the imperative tense is one of the 20 or 21 tenses covered by the Verbarrator. Most of my students find the Verbarartor software more interactive than using the verb conjugation charts found online to learn the imperative tense and other Spanish verb tenses.