Have you checked out the Living Language Community Forums lately? There are some great tips from our eTutors, and it’s the perfect place to ask your questions about studying any language. There are so many great discussions happening in the forums, in fact, that we’re going to start highlighting some of the most interesting tips and discussions here on the blog.
Recently, our Portuguese eTutor Dulce gave some great advice on using the Portuguese verb andar, which means to walk, in various idiomatic expressions.
“Andar de bicicleta, trem, ônibus, metrô ou taxi is to ride a bicycle, train, bus or subway.
You can also use andar with another verb to express continuity:
Eu ando um pouco cansada.
I have been a bit tired lately.Andar is also used to say that something works or doesn’t work:
Os relógios antigos só andam quando damos corda.
Old watches only work when we wind them.You can also use andar to mean hang out with people:
Julia e Paulo sempre andam juntos.
Julia and Paulo always hang out together.“
Have you come across any other andar expressions while studying Portuguese? Discover more idiomatic usages of andar in Dulce’s forum post.
In the German forums, some Living Language community members are discussing whether or not German is a hard language to learn. Hunter1234 writes:
“My question for all the German learners out there is, is German a hard language to learn, compared to any other language you might have tried to learn?”
Community member Grace_R offers her advice on what she finds easy (and annoying) when learning German:
“For me, some aspects of German are easier than English:
-Pronunciation: for the most part, German is pronounced the way it is spelled, much more uniform than English. I often learn new words by figure out how it is spelled and look it up in the dictionary after hearing it once.
-Vocabulary: English and German have a lot of same or similar words because they belong in the same language family AND subgroup. Of course, a lot of English words have made their way into German in recent years. Also, German compound words might be long, but they are very logical! I don’t find it difficult to learn those words at all.
What I find occasionally annoying but not difficult about German? I would say gender, plural form, and cases. These same aspects are way more simplified in English. But it’s really no big deal if you are relaxed and realistic about the process of language learning.”
What do you think? Is German harder or easier than other languages to learn for English speakers? Sign up here for a Living Language account to join in the conversation!
