Improve your writing with Google
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When writing Spanish, you can use Google to figure out correct grammar. Just search for a short phrase in quotations and look at the total number of results.
For example, which is correct: "tengo ganas a", "tengo ganes en", or "tengo ganas de"?
Try each in Google, and note the total results (in the upper right corner):
"tengo ganas en"
"tengo ganas a"
"tengo ganas de"
It's not foolproof, but in this case it's clear which is correct, no?
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¡muchas gracias!I feel like it is pretty clear.
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Also Set your your web mail account, your cell phone, your
television's menu, your computer's interface to Spanish. It's an easy way to improve vocabulary and feel a little more immersed into the language.
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That's such a great suggestion. I've used it before, and in exactly the same context. It's not easy to remember which prepositions are used with certain verbs or adjectives, so I just go on the internet and see what shows up the most.(Of course, non-natives are also writing things on the internet, so sometimes you get faulty results. But those numbers are usually much lower than the grammatical strings, so you can usually tell who's a native fluent speaker and who's not!)
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As a software analyst, I have to disagree with Anna's suggestion. If your competency with a foreign language is not sufficient and you set your electronic gadgets to that language, it's much more likely that you will accidentally delete, uninstall, or disable something... or make information public that you meant to keep private, or any number of other problems. Troubleshooting becomes extremely difficult if you have an urgent problem as well.I understand why Anna's suggestion to change the language of your gadgets might seem helpful in theory, but in practice, it is not a good idea.Better Options:Try Duolingo. It's a computer science project that works on translating the web. It was developed by students of Luis von Ahn, who invented Captcha and Re-captcha.Google has some web translation projects as well that are open to participants. I believe all you need is a plug-in.
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I'm not familiar with Duolingo, but all of the other translation applications I've seen aren't able to handle complex constructions, idiomatic language, particle verbs, etc. They are generally good for vocabulary and simple sentences, but I've seen some bizarre translations that were basically word salad.
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Hello JDuffy and UpstateLangFAN
Thank you for your feedback and sharing your experience!
It is probably not a good idea for a beginner or essential-intermediate level student, but I would recommend it for advance level student
I decided to update my email account and my phone to English when I was learning English in school and I have to say it was confusing for a while (and definitely a bad idea if you are in a hurry to find something or to do something important). But it was very useful after a while and I mastered my email and phone related vocabulary. (When I lived in Spain and I did not use this vocabulary at all in a dairy basis).
I hope no one got in trouble with my recommendation ;)
Cheers!
