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kgs

Sep 27, 2002, 6:28 PM

Post #1 of 6 (813 views)

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the Spanish language - distinctives

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I've read in more than one place that Spanish is particularly rich compared to other languages in this: Spanish uses lots of suffixes to convey meanings. A few examples are: -ita, -lento -ez, -itud. There are literally dozens more.I wonder how else Spanish differs from other languages... any hobby linguists out there who can provide us with more comparisons of Spanish to other languages? What characteristics make Spanish distinctive?

Dave C.

Sep 28, 2002, 12:54 AM

Post #2 of 6 (789 views)

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the Spanish language - distinctives

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: I've read in more than one place that Spanish is particularly rich compared to other languages in this: Spanish uses lots of suffixes to convey meanings. A few examples are: -ita, -lento -ez, -itud. There are literally dozens more.: I wonder how else Spanish differs from other languages... any hobby linguists out there who can provide us with more comparisons of Spanish to other languages? What characteristics make Spanish distinctive?I've studied several Romance languages, and the spelling of Spanish seems to me to be the closest of them to being phonetic or phonemic. The pronunciation of virtually any properly written Spanish word can be figured out easily by following a small number of rules. Spanish is also probably the easiest major Romance language to pronounce. It doesn't have the tricky vowels of French and Portuguese, the double consonant sounds of Italian, or the palatal consonants of Romanian.

Georgia

Sep 28, 2002, 2:16 AM

Post #3 of 6 (784 views)

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the Spanish language - distinctives

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I particularly like the reflexives that absolve the actor of responsibility: se me cayo, se me perdio, se me rompio, se me olvido.

Jim en Cancún

Oct 1, 2002, 2:50 PM

Post #4 of 6 (785 views)

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Same in English: se me cayó=it fell/ se me perdió=it got lost/, se me rompió=it got broken// se me o

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: I particularly like the reflexives that absolve the actor of responsibility: se me cayo, se me perdio, se me rompio, se me olvido.

Dave C.

Oct 2, 2002, 1:39 AM

Post #5 of 6 (785 views)

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Same in English: se me cayó=it fell/ se me perdió=it got lost/, se me rompió=it got broken// se me o

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: : I particularly like the reflexives that absolve the actor of responsibility: se me cayo, se me perdio, se me rompio, se me olvido. Yes, and in some cases, we have a similar way of saying things in English, as in "The car broke down on me yesterday", with the "on me" suggesting that it was "me" that suffered from the car's breakdown.

Georgia

Oct 2, 2002, 5:44 AM

Post #6 of 6 (802 views)

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Same in English: se me cayó=it fell/ se me perdió=it got lost/, se me rompió=it got broken// se me o

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But, is there a way in Spanish to LITERALLY say "I dropped it?" All I can come up with is "Lo deje caer." : : I particularly like the reflexives that absolve the actor of responsibility: se me cayo, se me perdio, se me rompio, se me olvido.