{"id":1449,"date":"2013-09-30T10:23:12","date_gmt":"2013-09-30T14:23:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/?p=1449"},"modified":"2020-10-02T13:40:29","modified_gmt":"2020-10-02T17:40:29","slug":"just-ask-alex-september-2013-edition-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/2013\/09\/30\/just-ask-alex-september-2013-edition-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Just Ask Alex: September 2013 Edition"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: left\" align=\"center\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rawlangs.com\/\" aria-label=\"Alexbud\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-1293 alignleft\" alt=\"alexbud\"  width=\"98\" height=\"122\" \/ src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/28\/2013\/07\/alexbud.jpg\"><\/a>Avid language learner Alex Rawlings believes everyone can master a language, or many languages, like he has. That&#8217;s why he&#8217;s sharing his advice and answering <em>your<\/em>\u00a0questions\u00a0each month in the Just Ask Alex series. Missed a previous entry? See them all <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/category\/just-ask-alex\/\">here<\/a>. Have a question for Alex? Leave a comment or tweet @TLILanguages using <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/search?q=%23JustAskAlex&amp;src=hash\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#JustAskAlex<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\" align=\"center\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Just Ask Alex: September 2013 Edition\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/EIJT2mf7jSE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\" align=\"center\"><b>Does it matter if I get the gender of nouns wrong? How can I learn them once and for all?<\/b><\/p>\n<p>The idea that nouns can have a gender is a bit baffling for native English speakers at first. Even more confusingly, these genders can drastically vary across different languages. Why is a French table a \u2018she\u2019 but a German one a \u2018he\u2019?<\/p>\n<p>Well, the truth is that nobody really knows. Gender can make a subtle difference to the meaning of words, as I mentioned in an <a href=\"http:\/\/wp.me\/p3zoxX-iq\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">article on my blog<\/a> a few months ago, but nothing significant enough to have to worry about yet. Basically, <b>you just have to learn that that\u2019s the way it is<\/b>.<\/p>\n<p>The good news is that if you mess up and say something\u2019s masculine instead of feminine or vice versa, it doesn&#8217;t really matter. <b>9 times out of 10 you will be perfectly understood<\/b> based on the context of what you\u2019re saying, and people will just accept that you\u2019re a foreigner and you can\u2019t be expected to know everything. If speaking accurately is not your priority (there\u2019s no reason why it has to be\u2026) then not knowing genders shouldn&#8217;t present you with any serious miscommunications.<\/p>\n<p>But if you want to sound like a native speaker, then <b>tightening these grammar bolts is an important step<\/b> towards that. And actually, learning everything correctly might not be as daunting as it first seems.<\/p>\n<p>When I study German vocabulary, I always learn it with the article: der Tisch, die Bushaltestelle, das Kino and so on. When I need to remember a word, I find I remember the article as well, as though it were a part of the word in the first place. If you\u2019re a visual learner like me, you can also try writing out vocab lists in different coloured pens, and grouping it all by gender. You could also learn little stories to help you along, for example: \u2018Der Mann sitzt am Tisch\u2019 (the man is sitting at the table), \u2018Die Frau geht zur Bushaltestelle\u2019 (the woman is going to the bus stop) and so on. That way you will remember that Tisch (table) can only be masculine because the man is sitting there. Have a go at using various tactics to try and bring this grammar stuff alive, and work out which works best for you.<\/p>\n<p>But there are other ways to &#8220;cheat&#8221;, as well. Russian, for example, has a really transparent system of gender for nouns, which you can work out by the last letter of the word. If it ends in \u2018a\u2019 or \u2018i\u2019 then it\u2019s nearly always feminine, if it\u2019s a consonant then it\u2019s always masculine, and \u2018o\u2019 or \u2018e\u2019 means it\u2019s neuter. Equally in German, \u2018-ung\u2019 and \u2018-schaft\u2019 are endings always seen on feminine nouns. There are rules like this in every language, and any reputable grammar book will tell you what these are.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>How can you understand the difference between tenses?<\/b><\/p>\n<p>When you\u2019re quite new to learning languages, tenses can be quite intimidating. They come with impossibly long names, they might be tricky to learn, and you don\u2019t understand why you keep getting them wrong.<\/p>\n<p>As you learn more languages, the technical names for grammar aspects like tenses become more familiar, and understanding how languages work becomes easier to get your head around.<\/p>\n<p>The past tense in most European languages is generally divided into two parts: the perfect and the imperfect, used for completed and uncompleted actions. The imperfect is used to set the scene, the atmosphere, the tone and generally background information for a story, while the perfect is used for actions that take place within that context. What is expressed in the imperfective is a constant that does not change, while the actions in the perfective are current, changing, but do not necessarily affect the overall context. Here\u2019s a diagram:<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/28\/2013\/09\/tenses.png\" aria-label=\"Tenses\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" alt=\"tenses\"  width=\"366\" height=\"210\" \/ src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/28\/2013\/09\/tenses.png\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>As the question sent in was originally about Spanish, I\u2019ll use that as an example:<\/p>\n<p>\u201c<span style=\"color: #ff0000\"><b>Hac\u00eda<\/b> <\/span>frio por la noche cuando Mary <span style=\"color: #ff0000\"><b>andaba<\/b> <\/span>por la calle. <span style=\"color: #ff0000\"><b>Llov\u00eda<\/b><\/span>, y no <span style=\"color: #ff0000\"><b>pod\u00eda<\/b> <\/span>ver las caras de los otros que <span style=\"color: #ff0000\"><b>estaban<\/b> <\/span>delante del supermercado.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This description is used to set the scene for what is about to happen. Because it doesn\u2019t change, all of the verbs are in the imperfective. Everything described \u2013 that it <span style=\"color: #ff0000\"><b>was<\/b> <\/span>cold, that Mary <b><span style=\"color: #ff0000\">was<\/span> <span style=\"color: #ff0000\">walking<\/span><\/b> through the street, that it <span style=\"color: #ff0000\"><b>was raining<\/b><\/span>, and that she <span style=\"color: #ff0000\"><b>couldn\u2019t<\/b><\/span> see the faces of the other people <span style=\"color: #ff0000\"><b>standing<\/b> <\/span>in front of the supermarket \u2013 is still going on when actions start taking place in the perfective:<\/p>\n<p>\u201c<b><span style=\"color: #0000ff\">Vi\u00f3<\/span> <\/b>a un hombre que <b><span style=\"color: #ff0000\">conoc\u00eda<\/span> <\/b>desde su infancia. \u00c9l la <span style=\"color: #0000ff\"><b>vi\u00f3<\/b> <\/span>tambi\u00e9n. <span style=\"color: #0000ff\"><b>Sonri\u00f3<\/b><\/span>, y le <span style=\"color: #0000ff\"><b>dijo<\/b> <\/span>\u2018hola\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The perfective verbs in blue, which in Spanish is called the preterite, are all things that happened in the context of the background \u2013 she <span style=\"color: #0000ff\"><b>saw<\/b> <\/span>a man, he <span style=\"color: #0000ff\"><b>saw<\/b> <\/span>her too, he <span style=\"color: #0000ff\"><b>smiled<\/b><\/span>, he <span style=\"color: #0000ff\"><b>said<\/b> <\/span>hello. But it\u2019s still raining, she\u2019s still walking through the street, and she still can\u2019t see who\u2019s standing in front of the supermarket. \u201c<span style=\"color: #ff0000\"><b>Conoc\u00eda<\/b><\/span>\u201d is in red because it provides more background information, and therefore must be in the imperfective. She <span style=\"color: #ff0000\"><b>knew<\/b> <\/span>him from her childhood, and that is something that does not change in this scene, but that provides a context for the perfective actions (in blue) that follow.<\/p>\n<p>Reading simple stories, perhaps even children\u2019s stories, and paying close attention to\u00a0the way that tenses are used is a good way to get used to them. It will also help you to develop more of an instinctive sense of when to use them.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<img width=\"350\" height=\"201\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/28\/2013\/09\/tenses-350x201.png\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/28\/2013\/09\/tenses-350x201.png 350w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/28\/2013\/09\/tenses.png 366w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/><p>Avid language learner Alex Rawlings believes everyone can master a language, or many languages, like he has. That&#8217;s why he&#8217;s sharing his advice and answering your\u00a0questions\u00a0each month in the Just Ask Alex series. Missed a previous entry? See them all here. Have a question for Alex? Leave a comment or tweet @TLILanguages using #JustAskAlex. Does&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"post-item__readmore\"><a class=\"btn btn--md\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/2013\/09\/30\/just-ask-alex-september-2013-edition-2\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1450,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[542801],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1449","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archived-posts"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1449"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1449\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8259,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1449\/revisions\/8259"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}