This is probably really simple but I keep getting confused by which form I’m meant to use. Do I match it to the person I’m talking about or do I match it to the gender of the noun? And which part of the sentence do I use to determine whether I use the singular or plural?
For example “Le mando notas” means I send him notes. What about a singular note? If I’m sending her notes does it become la? If I was sending them notes would it be las or les? If notas is feminine why don’t I use la?
Is there a simple way to remember whatever the rule is? Thanks!
A book you might find helpful is English Grammar for Students of Spanish. I can’t remember which edition I got. I’ll check my shelf when I’m home. It answers questions like yours with reference to English grammar. It’s kind of a reverse Spanish grammar. It is about Spanish grammar, though. I’ll try to find the relevant answer, too, when I find the book.
Thank you, that would be incredibly helpful. Obviously the goal is to think in Spanish rather than trying to translate each word to English or vice versa, but I seem to need to understand the literal translation first. As soon as I was told “in Spanish you say you have cold, not feel cold” I understood, but it’s like I need to be told what the rule is before “yo tengo frío” feels normal for me.
I wouldn’t worry too much about thinking in Spanish for now. Don’t do what I did, persuaded by the ‘no translating’ crowd. I refused to look up words because I was just supposed to magically understand the Spanish in context. I wasted so much time. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a place for that. But it’s okay to look up words. And grammar.
The more vocab and grammar you know, the more comprehensible you will find Spanish and the more you can do extensive reading and listening effectively.
When you do translate, though, try to do it literally from the Spanish. I.e. don’t try to translate it into a grammatically correct English version of the same thing. E.g. as you said, don’t translate ‘tengo frío’ as ‘I’m cold’ or ‘i feel cold’ but as ‘i have cold’. This will help you to get your head into Spanish grammar and thus help you to think in Spanish.
There’s no need to force ‘thinking in Spanish’ (it sounds like you’re not trying to). There are some techniques you can use to help do so. But otherwise it comes naturally. If you keep going you will reach a point when the meaning clicks. Some call it an epiphany moment.
It’s really bizarre. It’s like you’re floating in the back of your head watching the middle of your head think, in English, ‘I can see the front of my head reading in Spanish and understanding it’, but you’re also fully in the front of your head, imagining a world that is crisp and clear because you are actually understanding the Spanish novel that you’re reading. It doesn’t last long so savour it. I’d learn another language just to feel it again for that hour-or-so.
If you read on the Kindle app, you can change the dictionary settings and tap on a word or even a phrase for a translation. Some translations are a bit iffy. But if you intensively read a novel or two like this, you’ll progress quite quickly and by the end you won’t have to look up nearly as many words as you did at the beginning. In the right novel, you’ll see indirect and direct object pronouns used so many times that you’ll get a natural feel for them (I think these are the concepts you’re looking for, btw). I like to read about a grammar point and then look for it ‘in the wild’ like this.
I checked the book. That’s the right title. I’ve got the fourth edition. It was cheap second hand on eBay. I recommend it. Author is Emily Spinelli. In my copy, the info you’re after is in chapter 38.
I can’t really top what WaterBowlSlime said, but I’ll give you some of what the book says so you see what I mean when I say it’s helpful (I’m not going to be exhaustive, though).
Subject pronouns are: I, you, he, she, it, we, you, they.
Object pronouns are: me, you, him, her, it, us, you, them.
For example:
‘Me’ is the direct object and is a pronoun = direct object pronoun.
But ‘me’ can also be an indirect object pronoun. For example:
‘Me’ is the indirect object and is a pronoun = indirect object pronoun.
The chapter then explains what is different and similar about Spanish (in)direct object pronouns.
When ‘you’ would be ‘tú’ (informal singular) or ‘vosotros’ (informal plural), the direct object pronoun to use is ‘te’ (for tú) or ‘os’ (for 'vosotros). ‘Me’ stays as ‘me’. ‘Him’ becomes ‘lo’ (not él). ‘Her’ becomes ‘la’ (not ella). ‘Us’ becomes ‘nos’ (not nosotros/as). Examples:
The direct object pronoun is slightly different for ‘it’, ‘them’ (and these change by gender), and for ‘you’ (when ‘you’ is polite and singular or plural). So ‘it’ and ‘you’ (formal singluar, ‘usted’) becomes either ‘lo’ (masculine) or ‘la’ (feminine). So ‘them’ and ‘you’ (formal plural, ‘ustedes’) becomes either ‘los’ (masculine) or ‘las’ (feminine). The gender, here, depends on the noun that they are replacing (called the ‘antecedent’. So e.g. the antecedent for ‘las’ could be ‘las chicas’ (‘the girls’). Examples for ‘it’/‘them’:
Examples for ‘you’ when ‘usted’ or ‘ustedes’ would be needed:
You may notice that the book separates ‘him’ and ‘her’ from ‘it’, ‘you’, ‘them’, even though they seem to have the same pattern (‘lo’/‘la’). Don’t ask. I have no idea why. I’d have kept them together, but maybe I’m missing something.
We can see from these examples that Spanish has more direct object pronouns than English. Where we might use ‘you’ in English, in Spanish we might need: ‘te’, ‘os’, ‘lo’, ‘la’, ‘los’, or ‘las’. The last three are trickiest because we have to remember that the ‘usted’ ‘you’ and ‘ustedes’ ‘you’ often take the same for as ‘they’/‘it’/‘them’ because when we use ‘usted’ and ‘ustedes’, we’re talking about the other person in the third person. Kind of like in historical dramas when e.g. a priest calls the king (sat in front of them) ‘his majesty’ rather than ‘you’ or ‘your majesty’.
The book has examples for indirect object pronouns too but it’s… erm… quite painstaking to type out this kind of thing, so I’ll leave it here and encourage you to find a cheap copy of the book or find a PDF (the 3rd and 4th editions seem to be available on the high seas – in the third edition, I would hazard a guess that the relevant chapter is 39). I’ll finish by saying that ‘le’ is the indirect object used when you would say ‘him, her, you [usted form]’, and ‘les’ is the indirect object used when you would say ‘them, you [ustedes form]’. And ‘indirect objects do not distinguish between gender’.
Hopefully this makes sense. I think it’s easier in practice than in theory, once you’re aware of the broad idea.
Thank you SO MUCH! All your tips have been incredibly helpful. I’ve downloaded a Spanish dictionary for my kindle, and some short story books. I found a short Spanish poetry collection on LibriVox and the narrators voice is wonderful. The cadence is relaxing too so I’ve been listening to it as I go to sleep. I can’t tell you what the poem is about but I can definitely understand some words!
This review of the book couldn’t be more spot on for me;
“The students that have bought the book on my recommendation have found it very useful. They find it difficult to understand grammatical terms as they haven’t got a grounding in English grammar. The book helps them to understand how their own language works and how this can be applied to another language. It speeds up their progress in Spanish”
That’s why I was struggling to even explain what I didn’t understand- I don’t know the correct terms for English grammar. Which is absolutely ridiculous considering I got an A* for English Language at GCSE and an A for English Literature at A-level! The book is out of print now but I found a pdf and I’ve ordered a used copy (I’m old and I think I’ll always prefer learning from physical books).
I’m going to take your advice on translating word for word if it’s the easiest way for me right now. I’ll let the thinking in Spanish come in time. I look forward to the epiphany moment! I have had a tiny one already, very near the start I was able to read a sign a tennis fan was holding up: “Carlitos, mi hijo quiere tu camiseta”. It’s got to be up there with “Dónde está la biblioteca” as one of the most simple Spanish sentences but I was so pleased with myself for understanding something irl!
Thank you again for the effort you put into helping me. I truly appreciate it - you’ve made my week!
You’re very welcome.
I hope you’re enjoying the poetry. If you like that kind of thing, one exercise that I like doing is translating song lyrics. Dom La Nena, Bomba Estéreo, and La Femme are good for that. If a translation already exists on e.g. Google (search song title + ‘letra’), you can check yours against it. Or: make a word document with a table with two columns. English goes on one. Spanish in the other. Then listen to the song on repeat. Read the English through one translation. Then Spanish in the next. Do this a few times. Talk about ear worms!
We’re in s similar position. I was getting so frustrated with grammar books. Oh that’s how you conjugate the future imperfect? Wow, great, thanks. But wtf is the future imperfect?! Some of the grammar is straightforward enough. For the trickier bits, this book comes in handy (there’s one for French and maybe German if you revert branch out).
It’s great when you see Spanish in the wild and understand it, isn’t it? You’re already on the right track if this is happening. As you build up your vocab you’ll also build up chunks of language (collocations) like this. Interpreting the vocab, then the chunks will become more and more automatic until your brain just goes straight from Spanish to meaning.
One thing that can help with automaticity is grammar drills. I’m not very consistent, but I grab a notebook and write out a sentence, then change one variable and write it again, and so on. You can’t go over the basics too many times. Once you hit the sweet spot of over-learning, you won’t forget it.
The same principle applies to reading. It’s good to stretch yourself but also to go over and over texts that only included the basic grammar structures that you already know. I find the really young children’s books too difficult as they’re written for adults to read aloud and the first steps books contain too few words. Books aimed at 8–9+ get the balance about right. An enjoyable enough book series written for native children (translated from English but that doesn’t matter) is Isadora Moon by Harriet Muncaster. If you were to sail the high seas, you might see it on a clear day.
(I say it like this not just in an attempt to be witty but also as an opportunity to say that while Spanish uses the subjective quite a bit, and some say it’s never used in English, this use of ‘were to’ is a rare example of the subjunctive in English (I think!).)
When you’re more confident, Bernard Cornwell’s Last Kingdom series is good because it’s mostly in the first person so you get loads of repetition of the grammar that you need to talk about yourself. (I got stuck at #4 at first, though. I didn’t get on with the translation. Six months later, I picked it up and it was fine – so it was my lack rather than the translators.) You can also watch the Netflix series dubbed in Spanish before or after to hear how professional voice actors pronounce the words you’re reading. (The books don’t align too well with the show, though, so if you love the books read them first or you’ll get spoilers.)