On Grammar and Meaning

[livingdeb]

In DuoLingo, they often show you a sentence written out while also saying it and then ask you to provide a translation. I have started not looking at the sentence to practice figuring out what they are saying just by listening. (Which I stink at.) Then I check by looking at the sentence. And only then do I type out the requested translation

Comments

[anonymous]

Ha! Even after all these year studying Spanish, I still sometimes get tripped up trying to understand when one word ends and the next begins. But you know, I don't think that spoken language was necessarily meant to be understood in isolation. I think we take for granted how much we rely on context to understand what we hear, even in our native tongue

[livingdeb]

Ha, I love your examples. And I had to ask my boyfriend to learn about "There, but for the grace of God go I."

Of course we often get the words AND the meaning wrong. ('Scuse me, while I kiss this guy.)

I do plan to get into more natural practice, but I'm still enjoying these training wheels for now.

[livingdeb]

Found another example. I heard "Usted estuvieron un perro," You were a dog. But the noun is singular and the verb is plural. Really they were saying, "Ustedes tuvieron un perro," You *had* a dog. Slight difference!