Questions from Essential Spanish Lessons 1 and 2

Chase1

Hola, I had a few questions that came up when I was going through both of these lessons. If anyone could answer some or all of them, it would be greatly appreciated.

1) Is it really necessary to say "Yo" before a verb? As in "Yo necesito"? Is it necessary to ever say el, or nosotros,  etc. before a verb since the verb explains who it is talking about?

2) "Habla usted ingles?" Is usted necessary? Would I ever need to use it? Or is "Habla ingles?" ok?

3) When should I use the formal and informal tense? Is formal really used that often in real life? Would it seem weird to use it to someone who is around my age?

4) Saludos vs Hola......what is the difference and when would one be used over the other?

5) Encantado vs mucho gusto.....any difference?

6) Que tal vs que pasa......any difference?

7) What time should I start using noche instead of tarde?

8) "La Senora Martinez".......I saw this written in the book. Why the "la" before Senora?

 

 

Christopher

I'll let Anna give you a more complete response, but I wanted to share a few thoughts.

For (1) and (2), you're basically asking the same question: can/should pronouns be dropped in Spanish, and when? This came up in a thread before:

http://www.livinglanguage.com/community/discussion/298/soy-yo-soys#Item_18

The short answer is, both are correct, but there are certain situations when you'd be more likely to use the pronoun overtly, for example when you'd use stress intonation in English (I play piano, but SHE plays violin.) Anna gave some great examples of that in the thread I posted above.

We typically start by using the pronouns for a little bit at beginning, and then ease off quickly once you're used to them and the verb forms.

In (3), why say "de" and not the direct parallel of "a little Spanish," a lot of languages use the preposition of (or something similar) in this context. English uses it much more restrictively: 'I want some cheese' / 'I want some of the cheese' mean slightly different things and are used in different contexts. But in Spanish, after poco, de is used before a noun.

(4)-(6) are probably best left to Anna. But maybe think about things in English like 'hey' vs. 'hi' or 'what's up?' vs. 'what's going on?' The differences are probably similar.

(7) Is for Anna! (And in Spain, it's probably about 1am, ha ha...

(8) Is similar to the question about de. Some languages use the article (the) in front of names like this when you're talking about a person, but not when you're talking to the person. I'm not sure that there's a good reason why, at least not without getting into a theoretical linguistic rabbit hole. (I've never seen anything written about why this is, but I'm sure some linguist somewhere has proposed a theory.)

Chase1

Thanks Chris that helps as does that other thread you linked.

Mahima

Hi,

I'm also doing the Essential level, and would like to answer your questions. This is good revision

1) and 2) - Chris has already shared the thread with an excellent explanation and example by Anna.

3) - I seemed to have missed something here as the question talks about use of formal and informal whereas Chris's answer is about the use of "de" 

4) - not too sure but I feel "Hola" is a more specific "Hi" and "Saludos" is a more general "Greetings"

5) - Again not too sure but the difference is perhaps like "I love" and "I really like"

6) - This I need to know, as well

7) - Thank you for this....hahahaha...... Sundays normally start with Buenos Tardes for me rather than Buenos Dias

8) - It is "La Senora" because senora is a feminine word and the corresponding article is "la". Literally, it would mean - The Martinez lady.

Awaiting Anna's inputs now

Mahima

Christopher

Whoa... I must have hallucinated a question. I could have sworn I'd read a question about "hablo un poco de..." and why is de used. I'm confusing this question with someone else's. Lo siento!

I'll definitely let Anna answer that one. I have only an outsider's sense of formal vs. informal in any language, since we don't have the distinction in English. I get it mostly right in French and German, but Spanish is probably slightly different.

Christopher

One minor point, and you can completely forget about it unless you're worried about labels. The formal isn't a tense; tenses are verbal constructions that point specifically to time (present, past, future). There are also aspects (perfective, imperfective, progressive...) that combine with tense, but then we're really getting into linguistic jargon.

The formal and informal are sometimes called 'registers,' but you can just call them the formal and informal (constructions, forms). 

Chase1

Chris, you aren't hallucinating haha. I edited the post and deleted that question because I numbered them wrong. I had 2 #3's for some reason. I was trying to avoid the confusion but it seems like it might cause a bit more. The phantom question was indeed regarding "hablo un poco de espanol" and I wanted to know why "de" was used.

 

 

Anna

Hello Everyone!

Here is some clarification to your questions:

1-2) Should we drop the personal pronoun?

As Chris and Mahima mentioned the answer is, "it's up to you!" and you can do it as soon as you are confident to conjugate the verb following the pronoun. At a beginner level I always suggest to use the pronouns (yo estudio vs estudio) since it helps conjugating the verb.

http://www.livinglanguage.com/community/discussion/298/soy-yo-soys#Item_18

3) When to use usted vs tú (you formal/ you informal)

There is an old post about when to use usted/tú (formal vs informal)

http://www.livinglanguage.com/community/discussion/81

Please follow the tread if you have any specific questions about using usted/tu or if you need more examples!

4) Hola vs Saludos

¡Hola!, is always a salutation at the beginning of a conversation. It translates directly to "Hello"

¡Saludos! is a more more versatile salutation, it can be used both at the beginning or at the end of a conversation or letter/email. The closest translation is Regards.

Anna

5) Encantado vs mucho gusto.....any difference?

The word encantado literally means "to be pleased" and mucho gusto literally means "A lot of pleasure". The literal translation for encantado and mucho gusto is different but the meaning is exactly the same "please to meet you or nice to meet you"

6) Que tal vs que pasa......any difference?

¿Qué tal? is a common salutation you can use with anyone. Meaning, how is it going, what's up, how are you doing?. It is widely use, and you can make it more formal by adding "¿Qué tal está usted?"

¿Qué pasa? is a salutation meaning the same thing as ¿Qué tal?, however is very informal and you would only use ¿Qué pasa? with a close friend in a very informal context.
This expression is used also to literally ask What is the matter? / What is going on?

For instance: You look sad and your mother wants to ask you what is making you sad, she would say: ¿Qué pasa? In this case is not used as a salutation.

7) What time should I start using noche instead of tarde?

Oh this is a very good questions and very tricky question too!

La tarde is the time between noon (starting at 1pm) and dusk.

La noche is the time between dusk and midnight.

La madrugada is the time between midnight and dawn.

The use of "la tarde" changes depending on the country, for instance my friend from Colombia, Mauricio, only uses tarde until 6pm and uses noche from 8pm until midnight. In Spain we tend to use tarde until 8pm and use noche starting at 9pm.

There is not an specific rule, my advise is: "Al país que fueres haz lo que vieres" "wherever country you go, do what you see"

Anna

Erin

I'll let Anna finish her thought here, but doesn't it have to do with the use of a title like "Señora" or "Señor" or "Presidente" for example? So if Señora Martinez's first name is Claudia, we would never say "La Claudia."  (Although, come to think of it, I have heard people say this when talking about friends, but it seems like it may be idiomatic and restricted to certain meanings.  Anna, can you help with that?)
Also, like Chris said, we wouldn't use the definite article if we were talking to Señora Martinez.  So when talking about someone with a title, we use the definite article, right Anna?

Anna

Hello Erin! I was writting my post and I never saved the changes. 

8) Using the definite article with personal titles.

Here is some more clarification about when to use the definite article (EL/LA) with personal titles like Señor, Señora, Ministro, Doña, etc.

The article el/la is always used before most personal titles when talking about people, but not when talking to them directly. 

Example:

Talking about people: El señor Martínez está en casa. (Mr. Martinez is at home.)
Talking to people: ¡Hola, señor Martínez! (hello, Mr. Martínez). 

More examples:

Talking about people:  El ministro hablo en la televisión. (The Minister spoke on TV)
Taling to people:  Ministro, ¿cuál es su opinión? (Minister, What is your opinion?)

I hope this helps!