So I’ve read that saying “puedo tener” is incorrect. What is the correction? I read variations like “quisiera” but I read that as “I’d like”. For example, I’m wondering how I would ask my mom “can I have 5 dollars?”, “can we get a puppy?” Etc.

hola. varias veces, cuando juego juegos traducidos al español europeo, veo que suelen incluir estas dos palabras en su vocabulario, incluso cuando se supone que es para una audiencia más jovenes. acaso estas dos palabras son percibidas más suavemente?

salu2

Im pretty new to spanish and I've been trying to understand reflexive verbs; i get that they're actions done to yourself (i.e. me amo = i love myself) but I'm confused because you say "me gusta" which is "it pleases me" or "te amo" which is "i love you" . They both use reflexive pronouns but the verb isn't conjugated based off the pronouns, so the person recieving the action isnt the one doing the action. Why is that? and does it apply to every reflexive verb or only certain ones? I can't find anything explaining this lol

I passed a bunch of teen boys and I heard them repeatedly calling me gallo. Is gallo slang for something?

Hey everyone, I’ve always wanted to learn Spanish, and I started 3 years ago, but I was never able to stay consistent. For a long time, I only relied on Duolingo. It’s been 8-9 months since I last studied it because last year was so busy. With the help of Duolingo, I know a lot of words and maybe some phrases, but at the same time, I don’t really know anything because I’ve never used it in real life—no one around me speaks Spanish. I speak Hindi and English fluently, but I love literature and music so much, and through Spanish, I want to experience more of that.

So, can you guys please tell me where I can start? I can dedicate one hour a day to studying Spanish. Can you recommend some YouTube channels, apps, and techniques to study? I personally don’t find Spanish very hard, but I struggle with consistency. How can I practice it?

my bf’s dad calls his cat “chini” - is he calling her chinese?

I've always considered myself a smart person so I wanr to put myself to the test and learn Spanish. I'm trying to figure out the best ways to do it on my own. I've read about changing my phone to Spanish, watching Netflix in Spanish, listening to Spanish music. I just want to know if anyone ha suggestions to help. Also, if I do this method. How long would it take until the Spanish stops sounding like gibberish and I actually understand without captions? Any help is appreciated.

I've been trying to find interesting children's picture books or shorter chapter books that are written primarily in English but with keywords woven in in Spanish.

This is about my child's speed right now as she still understands very little Spanish but at 6 1/2 is too old to be engaged by very basic baby books with limited or no narrative.

She enjoys these type of books very much as it makes the input both comprehensible and engaging for her. To be clear, I'm talking about the kind of books discussed in this article (https://llamitasspanish.com/mixed-language-spanish-english-books/), not "bilingual books" in the classic sense. This source calls them "mixed language" books but I'm not sure if this term is universal.

I've managed to find a handful through my library, but there doesn't seem to be any classification system to make them easy to find in the catalog.

If anyone has any other suggestions or ideas for how to more effectively find similar titles or more information on any similar literature I'd really appreciate it. (FYI: we live in the US, and physical book format is highly preferred as we don't currently have good e-reader capabilities.) Thanks!

Mis padres son mexicanos, pero se mudaron a Puerto Rico, donde nací. A los dos años nos mudamos a Florida. Hasta que entré al kínder, solo hablaba español, pero mis padres me obligaron a hablar únicamente inglés para que pudiera destacar en la escuela, lo cual logré. Ahora me quedan dos años para graduarme, y aunque entiendo el español perfectamente y tengo un vocabulario bastante amplio, todavía me cuesta formular frases con fluidez porque no tuve la misma exposición que otros niños. Puedo hablar mejor que un “no sabo kid”, pero a veces me trabo o tardo en encontrar las palabras adecuadas. También quiero mejorar mi uso del español mexicano, incluyendo el slang y las groserías; sé algunas cosas como “güey” y “p*ndej0”, pero siento que aún me falta naturalidad. ¿Cómo puedo mejorar mi fluidez sin pasar vergüenzas? +También puedo leer con fluidez.

Customers will ask me this at work. Are they asking if I’m working hard? Is it a yes or no question?

Muchas gracias.

I wanna use them, please tell me if you know any.

So I am 23 years old, I grew up in the United States but in my household I have only spoken Spanish with my parents/entire family. So my Spanish is pretty solid, I have the ability to read and understand most Spanish as I even watch some shows in Spanish. I also have the ability to speak spanish and use it at my job to help spanish speakers win their cases, but it isn't perfect.

I want to perfect my Spanish but I want something to test me to figure out what my level is and to figure out what I need to do to perfect it. I would like to pay for a proper program to help me with this or if someone knows a free program or has other suggestions pls lmk ty

When someone says to me “buenos noches”, can I reply “igualmente”?

So I’ve been learning Spanish for a while (I’m in a Spanish immersion program at school and I’ve been in it since pre school). I already know most words and I can communicate with a native speaker without them swapping to English every 10 sentences. I can understand more Spanish than I can speak and my accent is mid but not horrible. I know slang in Spanish and many swear word like maricon. But what now? Im definitely not fluent because I still run into words that I don’t know and I still make grammar mistakes from time to time.

And I don’t just mean official and polite vocabulary. Though that is also interesting to know.

Here’s my situation: I (55F) live in Mexico, my roommate is 73M. I’m very fond of him, like I discovered an older brother or a young uncle I never knew I had.

But he is very much of his generation (full of unregenerate views of others, plus he’s a U.S. citizen despite living in Mexico his whole life), and a crusty old codger to boot.

So I found myself thinking, “how do you say ‘crusty old codger’ in Mexican Spanish”? Presumably there’s no actual translation - but how do you express this idea?

How do you talk about old people in general, whether politely and respectfully or in a more colloquial or derogatory way?

Some more examples of English phrases to translate:

• old bat • little old lady • senior citizen • old fart • old fogey • distinguished gentleman • old bastard

Please let your imaginations go! Share all the words and phrases you can think of and explain their nuances, whether in Spanish or in English.

Hi Folks, just wondering if anyone else is using WorldsAcross for Spanish and has noticed a big change. I started with WA in September and really enjoyed the site and maestros; it has helped me tremendously. I liked it so much that in December, when they had a big sale, I signed up and prepaid for one year. Well, come January, now it is very difficult to book tutors and the number of groups available is very low. Two tutors I regularly used are suddenly unavailable. I don't know if they are having financial problems and have had to cut costs and tutors, but it almost feels like a bait and switch. I thought things might improve if I waited, but it is not. Anybody else having issues?

Hey everyone, so this is my first ever Reddit post... I come to you all for advice on how to help my boyfriend on his Spanish learning journey.

I'm Mexican, he's English, and at the moment we're both living in Mexico City. I've read some of the posts here saying that I should speak in Spanish to him more but we've struggled with doing this because English is simply so much easier.

He's been taking one on one lessons with a teacher once a week for almost two months now, but he gets quite unmotivated because the things he's learning are so basic that his understanding of the spoken language is not catching up.

So, if anyone has any lived experience or advice on how I can help him get better at Spanish, I'd really appreciate the tips. (And yes I know I'm not responsible for his learning, howeverrr it'd be nice to help him in any way I can :)

hi guys. this summer i will be studying abroad in spain for 6 weeks in an intensive language-learning program. im trying to get a better grasp of the language before the program starts. any tips/recommendations? anything helps!

Just as in the title, I remember this physics lecture or perhaps series of lectures about light and its properties, the professor was a middle-aged guy with a wonderful argentinian accent.

Does this ring a bell to anyone?

What would a mother use to call her kids (teenage boys)?

I keep wanting to use “¿sabes?” the way you’d use “ya know?” at the end of a sentence in english. Is that acceptable, or should i find another filler phrase? I can’t find anything relating to this anywhere else.

What's the best word for ski resort and ski lift?

How should I say ‘excuse me’ in the instance of walking by someone or needing to get through. What about ‘excuse me’ as way to get their attention that you have something to say to them. That’s ‘perdón’ right? TIA!

I know that a common way to answer a phone is to say “Dime”, “Digame” or simply “Si”, but how Spaniards would answer an intercom / entry phone and let people in?

Hi, I’ve been learning Spanish for about 7 years now and am pretty much fluent but some coloquial things still trip me up. I’ve been loving Bad Bunny’s new album lately but who was gonna tell me that THIS is how you say “I should’ve taken more photos”?! If someone were to have me write out that sentence in Spanish I probably would write “Yo debería haber tomado mas fotos cuando te tenía” or something like that. But why does BB say “Debi tirar”? Is the “debi + infinitive” a better way to say “I should have ____”? Lmao it’s these little things that keep me confused after all these years.

I am learning Spanish and decided to look up & take some notes on preppsitions... Instead of copying down a simple list, I started reading the Wikipedia entry and came across this sentence as an example for the preposition "a"; "Te quieren ver a ti".

Can someone help me understand why "te" is used here? Is there a difference in meaning if instead it was written as "Ellos quieren ver a ti"?

So my coaches in volleyball are spanish and they keep calling people this word “Potito”. And they won’t tell us what it means. And when you try to put it into google translate it just says it means “Jar of baby food”. But i know that that’s not what they mean. Does anybody know what it means? They are from Málaga in Spain.

I am learning Spanish from many different sources. I have been conversing with people all around the world on Italki, and have been consuming plenty of media on YouTube. Sometimes I learn something from someone from Andalusia, other times from Colombia, others from Argentina, etc.

When speaking I like using vosotros and sometimes I also like using vos, and I like saying some words with ceceo for the clarity it can provide, and sometimes it feels nice to aspirate the 's', etc, etc. Because why not?

I like little phrases I pick up from certain areas, and I have no interest in speaking like one certain people, rather I prefer to embrace the language and the melting pot of customs that comes with it.

To native speakers: how weird does it sound if someone speaks with such a melting pot of different phrases and customs?

Does it sound just strange, or does it sound wrong, or does it sound fine to you?

I’m watching Spanish twitch streams and I often hear people say vale, but Google translate says it means “voucher” I don’t believe this is the correct context though? They seem to say vale in response to something, like not part of a whole sentence