Necesito Ayudar!!

I feel like I have hit rock bottom in my learning Spanish and I am trying hard nto to give up. That being said, can someone plese help me understand the whole past tense or give me another way to lok at things to learn it faster. I am so lost. Also, can anyone help me understand the pronouns.I have been studying the material but I am just loosing it. And I am dedicating at least 3-6 hours a day on spanish. :( :x Please help!

Hola. I'm sure most of us on this forum can relate to what you've said. Almost everyone learning another language feels overwhelmed at times. The important thing is to keep at it. It's also good that you're asking for help. However, it would be easier for other people to help you if you were more specific about what you don't understand. Just imagine if someone learning English said to you "please explain the past tense in English" or "please help me understand pronouns." Those issues are much too broad. What is it about the past tense that you're finding difficult? What pronouns are giving you trouble? If you can be more specific, probably some people on this forum will be able to offer help and suggestions. I assume that you've been reading the supplementary material from the Rocket Spanish course: the beginner's book, the advanced book (which I think is where the past tense is discussed), the conversation book, etc. Those are good, but if you find that they don't answer your questions, you may want to look at some other information, either in a book or online. For example, there's a very useful site that offers LOTS of information about Spanish for both beginners and more advanced students. The URL is __http://spanish.about.com/__. Look for the section entitled "Lessons for Beginners." I hope this helps. ¡Buena suerte! (which means "good luck")

Hola otra vez. I looked again at your message, and I'm wondering whether some of your difficulty stems from your not being well-grounded in _English _grammar. If so, you're not alone. Unfortunately, lots of people educated in the United States nowadays get very poor instruction in grammar. If inadequate understanding of English grammar is part of what's giving you problems, you may want to take a look at this book: *English Grammar for Students of Spanish*. Since I was lucky enough to get an excellent grounding in English grammar when I was in school, I have no direct experience with this book, but I've seen it in bookstores, and I took a look at the table of contents at the amazon.com site (click on "search in the book") here: __http://tinyurl.com/4gf4m3__.

Part of it is that I am overwhelmed with all the differences in the past tense (so many stem changes). I am really good with the present tense and the conjugating. I am having a hard time conjugating in the past tense because of the complexity and how the meaning changes the words. I am trying to remain positive, but I it is just a lot ot learn. I now can imagine the difficulty of people learning english!! :shock: Oh and English is not a problem for me at all. I actually teach business english and writing as a college professor. I am more or less asking for an alternate way to better understand the past tense. Thanks for the websites. Every little bit helps when it comes to learning another language. I will go to the spanish site you suggest and in the man time I guess I will just keep studying.

Well, clearly I was way off when I suggested that perhaps the problem was an inadequate understanding of English grammar. ¡Disculpe! I confess, though, that I'm still not completely clear on what's giving you trouble. You talk about past tense stem changes as a problem, but there are probably just as many stem changes and other irregularities in the present tense as in the past (in fact, possibly more). It took me ages to feel comfortable using the verb *decir*, for example, because I could never remember how to conjugate it even in the present tense. And there are verbs such as *entender* that have stem changes in the present tense but not in the past. *Pedir* is another verb that still gives me grief. :( What I've found is that you simply have to keep using the verbs. The more you use them, the better able you'll be to remember the stem changes and other irregularities. That has certainly happened to me with *tener* because it's hard to speak or write Spanish without using it. You also talk about "how the meaning changes the words," but I'm not sure what you're referring to. There are a few words whose meaning can change when they're used in the past, but not all that many, I think. You also say you'd like an alternate way to better understand the past tense. Here, too, I'm not sure what you mean. Do you mean the difference between the preterite and the imperfect? I might add that one of the best resources I know for Spanish verbs is a book entitled *Spanish Verb Tenses* in the Practice Makes Perfect series. You can find more information on the Amazon.com site, including over 100 overwhelmingly positive reviews. Here's a link: __http://tinyurl.com/5argcq__.

Maybe I am just a backwards learning when it comes to spanish. :oops: I have studied the present tense for so many years that even the irregular verbs are not to bad for me. 8) I am recently really venturing from the beginners guide to the advance. In the past tense, I am not clear on the preterite and the imperfect. That is one of the things that baffle me. I understand the difference, but when I go to read it I get confused. I also get confused about the verbs that change (or dont change in the past tense). When I asked if there was and alternate way of undersatnding, I was asking is there another method to help guide me to understand all of the differences in the past tense and conjugating. I will definitely look into getting that book to assist me in the past tense verb usage (as well as the present). I appreciate all of your help, even though I feel like I have spent more time confusing you with what I am confused about. :( I do apologize for that. I hope to be able to sit and memorize many of the verb changes and be able to go from there. I am not sure how effective that will be, but with the help of other training aids, I hope to reach my goal of fluency by July.

I feel a little funny giving you advice about this, since I have some of the same problems. The use of the preterite vs. the imperfect continues to drive me crazy, too! :( But we're not alone. I was talking with a native Spanish speaker who has a lot of experience tutoring English speakers who want to learn Spanish, and she said that the three most difficult things for most English speakers to master are *ser vs. estar*, *por vs. para,* and *the preterite vs. the imperfect*. And those would definitely be at the top of my list. The Spanish verbs book I recommended should help, but I find that I have to do more than just read the book and do the exercises. They're really helpful, but unless I then use the verbs a lot, I won't remember what I've learned. I've started to write short notes to friends in Spanish. The friends don't correct my errors, but I find the act of writing useful anyway. Just trying to figure out what words to use and how to conjugate verbs the verbs I need helps imprint vocabulary and verb forms in my feeble brain. :lol:

Nohablo, I wanted to let you know that I did purchase the Spanish Verb Tenses in the Practice Makes Perfect series. I also purchase the Pronouns and prepositions book also. I have so many training aids now that I have no reason to to understand. BUT I guess we will have to see about that! :lol: I will be spending my weekend studying part 2-5 of the beginner's course. :( (Yeah, I started all over so I can supplement my work with activities from the workbooks I bought for better understanding before restarting the advance course work again). I will be sure and post how helpful these other training aids are in case others would like to use any of them. Thanks for the help with providing the extra training aids to go along with the rocketspanish curriculum.

I totally agree with you regarding past tense. Understanding the Preterite tense is like a yo-yo for me. I totally understood the easier verbs such as comer, hablar, vivir and how they are conjegated, however when I got to the part where they talked about irregular verbs such (ir, ser) and seen the word (FUI) I was like "what the heck!". Here's what I do to help me. After finishing section 1 of the advanced book, I took a day off. No Spanish at all. The following evening, I went on line to mylanguageexchange (There may be other similar sites, but I like this one) and started several chat conversation with native speakers, with the sole intention of talking about what I did in the past. I made a point to use words such as (ayer, anoche, <anything> pasado(a), el otra dia). As I was typing, I was suprised how quickly many of the preterite verbs just came out. It's hard to explain. Without much thought, the verb endings just start to flow after a while. I even threw in a couple (FUI) verbs. Many times, I had to resort to my notes, but I remembered quite a bit. I know writing is not the same as speaking, but it helps reinforce what you've learned. ( As an English teacher, you're way more qualified than I am when it comes to learning methodologies) Now if I can only speak Spanish without having a brain freeze as often the case with me.

Ronaldo, When I first saw the preterite tense, I was blown away. :shock: Like you, I knew the other verbs like comer, hablar, and vivir so well that when I saw all the other forms I just felt overwhelmed (esp fui, fue, ect). Well, the weird thing is that I know all of the rules, I just cant translate them as fast as I would like, plus all the irregularities make it tough. (Yeah I am weird like that and I guess that is why teaching English is so natural for me - you have to know the rules!). :lol: I will have to try your method of learning when I get to the advance area of the book. Although taking a day off more than likely will not happen for me. I love my spanish soap operas. :lol: I watch them with the captions on since I can read it very with very little problems (hearing it is still rather difficult due to the slow translation with certain words in my mind). Normally, when I am not doing the actual lesson, I am doing supplemental work sheets to reinforce all that I just learned before moving on to the next lesson. Oh and by the way, I have a Puerto Rican friend that always tells me that writing helps with learning to the comfort of putting sentences together. :) So I think it is excellent that you are utilizing the chat to help reinforce your learning. I do write it, but not as a chat...mostly via email to my friend. Buenos suerte en su appreniendo!!

Not sure if you resolved your difficulties with pronouns but I found this site very good for explanations. http://www.studyspanish.com/tutorial.htm Alan