New here

Hola to all. I decided to start learning Spanish recently, and I wanted to get some opinions on Masculine vs Feminine words. It's so overwhelming and crazy to me at the moment, trying to attach a gender to every single word. Right now, it's almost detracting from my entire Spanish learning experience. I recently learned that the word "Destruction," (destrucción) is a feminine word, as in the Barbarian unleashed la destrucción upon the innocent, bloody bystander. For some reason, that just makes me laugh to think that word is considered feminine. I also learned that "cerveza" is also feminine. Beer is about as manly as you can get. Are there many other ridiculously random gender associations with words in Spanish, such as the two listed above? It's driving me nuts just thinking how ridiculous and random it seems most of them are. Beer is feminine. Destruction is feminine. A cage is feminine. Right now, that sounds like a UFC fight, yet it's supposedly feminine. This stuff is driving me nuts trying to rationalize. It seems like the majority of Spanish rules make sense, but this Masculine vs Feminine thing seems to have been created at random at times. Also, I'm struggling at the moment understanding how to use double words. What I mean are words that combine two english words, to make one word in Spanish. For example, "estás," "Hablas/Hablos," "Estoy," etc. The context of those words is harder to keep track of due to the double meaning. Are there any tricks to these words or things I should know that will help me?

Bienvenidos, Acedeck! Regarding whether a noun is masculine or feminine, sometimes the reasoning and "logic" behind assigning gender escapes me too. Don't try to overanalyze it... you'll drive yourself crazy!! Just learn the gender as you learn the noun, and it'll make things so much easier for you (_la_ casa, _el_ pollo, etc.) In the Beginning Book Grammar section, lesson 1.2, it explains how to distinguish how to determine the gender of most nouns. It's very helpful. As for what you're calling "double words"... that's easy too. In English, we have to put a noun or pronoun in front of most verbs, for example "I want a bottle of water." In Spanish, the noun or pronoun isn't necessary, as the conjugation of the verb tells you what the pronoun is. So, using the example I gave you, in Spanish it would be "(Yo) quiero una botella de agua." The pronoun is used only for emphasis or clairification. The form of the verb _querer_ that I used tells you automatically that the pronoun that precedes it is _yo_ (I). Most Spanish verbs follow a very easy format. All regular verbs that end in -ar (like hablar) are conjugated the same way. There is a specific way to conjugate all regular -er and -ir verbs (like beber and vivir) as well. Learn the format, and you'll be able to conjugate any of these regular verbs on the fly in a snap. Some verbs you just have to memorize, unfortunately, like estar, ser, ir, and dar. The "up" side is that this is WAY easier to learn and makes much more sense than French or English!! I feel sorry for folks that have to learn English as a second language. We have exceptions to every single grammatical rule, and most of our idioms make absolutely no sense at all. You'll get the hang of it as you start conjugating verbs. Using the verb _hablar_ (to speak), I'll show you what I mean. (yo) hablo - (I) speak (tú) hablas - (you) (informal) speak (él, ella, usted) habla - (he, she, or you) (polite, formal you) speaks (nosotros) hablamos - (we) speak (vosotros) habláis - (all of you) speak ** _Vosotros is used only in Spain. The Latin American equivalent is ustedes, which is conjugated differently._ (éllos, ellas, ustedes) hablan - (they, all of you) speak éllos is used for "they" when speaking of a group of all males, or a mixed group, and ellas is used when speaking of a group of all females. See how the verb changes? Hope that clears it up for you. There's a good book on verbs you can get, the Big Red Book of Spanish Verbs. I got mine at Amazon.com. It conjugates a gazillion verbs in every tense known to mankind. ¡Buena suerte!

Hola Acedeck. Welcome to the forum. I just want to add one or two things to Loriann's superb response. As Loriann pointed out , grammatical gender has nothing to do with qualities we normally think of as masculine or feminine. If you follow Loriann's advice and review section 1.2 of the Rocket Spanish Beginner's Book, you'll be well on your way to knowing whether a Spanish word is masculine or feminine. As you've already discovered, it usually has nothing to do with the meaning of the word. It may come as a surprise to you, but _many _ languages assign gender to words--it's not just Spanish. And some languages have not just two genders but _three_: masculine, feminine, and neuter! This is true of German and Latin, and probably a number of others. And some languages, such as Hebrew and Arabic, have different verb forms depending on whether the grammatical subject is masculine or feminine. In fact, I think English is the only language I've ever studied that _doesn't_ have at least two grammatical genders. So, buena suerte--and just be glad you're not studying German or Arabic! :mrgreen:

:mrgreen: Nohablo - My daughter took French last year in high school and hated it. She is required to have two years of language, so she thought she was going to be slick and take German this year... until I introduced her to a gentleman I know who is from Germany, and even HE advised against it. So... she took Mom and Dad's advice (this was a red-letter day, because the ex and I almost NEVER agree on anything!) and changed over to Spanish for this year. Of course, she is armed with Rocket Spanish, LSLC and episodes of SpanishPod (as well as the transcripts). Hopefully she learns more Spanish this year than she learned French last year. I don't understand how she got an A and understands and speaks so very little...

Thanks for the assistance. I'm definitely glad I'm learning Spanish over numerous other languages, including English. I definitely wouldn't want to learn English as a second language. I suppose the best approach is to throw English out the window when trying to figure out why things are the way they are in Spanish. I appreciate the clarification on the subject. I'm seeing this Beginners Grammar Book is really helping a lot. I tend to learn best when I learn some of the basics first, before jumping into the conversations. I'm dipping my toes in the grammar stuff, while I work on a few lessons here and there. Mi Novia is really impressed that I'm trying to learn Español (She's Mexican-American). I'm hoping that being exposed to her constantly speaking Español, while simultaneously studying with Rocket Spanish, I'll learn quickly. My sister is also a Spanish Major, so I can practice what I've learned with either of them. Now, I better get back to this lesson!

I find that when I'm exposed to a new verb, the approach that works best for me is to do several flashcards... on the front is the root verb (hablar, trabajar, mandar, etc.) and the conjugation on the back (hablo, hablas, habla, hablamos, hablais, hablan) as well as the meaning of the verb (to speak, to work, to order or command, etc.). I do up cards for the present tense, preterit, future and imperfect. My cards are color-coded (I'm a bit anal-retentive... :wink: ) by tense. I add a few new verbs every week, and I go through the stacks of flash cards once (sometimes twice) a day). So don't just stick your toe in the pool... wade right in! You sound like you've got two great resources to help you along the way, besides Rocket Spanish!

Welcome! I'm new, too, but I've been studying Spanish off and on for years. And I know what you mean about gender -- there's no discernible logic to it. Just for fun, go through your Spanish-English dictionary, noticing the gender of the various words you come across. It won't teach you anything new, but it's fun and it'll show you how right you are. You can't use logic -- you have to memorize -- or do like I do and make mistakes.