Language Notes

As I've been getting more accustomed to hearing and speaking Spanish I've started to develop affection for the language.

The primary thing I like about Spanish is that words change meaning based on context. In English the word changes when the context changes. A good example of this is the Spanish preposition "por", which as far as I can make out is most frequently used to mean "for" in English. But "por" can also mean "through", "in", "by", and "per". So in English you would have to say "written by" or "in the evening", whereas in Spanish you can say "escribo por" or "por la tarde". Even more extreme examples would be "por fin", which means "finally", and "por supuesta", which means "of course".

I like this about Spanish because it makes the language a little easier to learn; as long as I can recognize the word "por" in a sentence I can understand it in terms of the verbs and subject. In English I would have to know each of those different words for every context. It gives me a little more appreciation for how difficult English must be to learn.

I'm pretty sure I've always been taught this in my Spanish classes, but it finally clicked last week sometime. Those moments of recognition of understanding are the most rewarding part of learning something.

Of course, just as I like this about Spanish and don't like it about English, there are things that go the other way. My favorite example of this is comparisons. In English if I want to say something is nicer, bigger, or more whatever than something else, I can just use that word, modified with an "er"  or est" ending (nice, nicer, nicest). When comparing in Spanish, I have to say "es mas (grande, simpatico, ect.) que (the thing I'm comparing)". It's not a big deal, but it makes me feeling like I have to say a long sentence when I want to compare something, instead of just being able to say "It's nicer".

Having thought about this pet peeve of mine I realize it's not that much longer in Spanish, but it still annoys me every time I have to use it.

Language is fun!