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dudas español

dudas en español

dudas español

Imagina que uno de tus amigos te cuenta una historia que realmente es increíble... y de verdad, tú no lo puedes creer. 

¿Sabes cómo puedes expresar que tienes dudas en español?

Hay varias formas de hacerlo, y en este pequeño post quiero contarte cómo.

________

Supongamos que tu amigo Daniel te dice que su hermano conoció a Shakira en una fiesta… 

Esta es una situación casi imposible ¿verdad? 

En este caso, si quieres expresar que esto no es realista, y no quieres ser muy directo puedes usar una pregunta para pedir una confirmación. 

Por ejemplo:

Daniel: ¿Te conté que mi hermano conoció a Shakira en una fiesta el otro día?

Saru: ¿A Shakira, en una fiesta… en México? … ¿Estás seguro?

Otras opciones son “¿En serio?… ¿Me lo juras?… ¿De verdad?“

Con cualquiera de estas frases parece que tú quieres creer lo que tu amigo dice, pero te parece difícil… 

Por eso, si las usas tu amigo seguramente no se sentirá ofendido.

________

Pero claro, si te sientes en confianza, también puedes responder usando una frase negativa como estas:

“Lo dudo mucho“ – I doubt it

“No lo creo“ – I don’t think so

“No me parece”  – It doesnt seem right to me

“No puede ser“ – it can’t be

_______

O si estás hablando con un muy buen amigo y estás seguro de que puedes ser muy informal, puedes responder con un poco de ironía y usar frases como:

“De ninguna manera” – No way!

“Ni en un millón de años” – Not in a million years!

“¿Estás de coña?” – is that a joke?

“Me estas jodiendo“ – you gotta be kidding me!

“¡Sí… claro!“ – yeah…. Sure!

“¡No exageres!“ – Don’t exaggerate!

“Ni de broma” – Not even joking!

“¡Que va!” – absolutely not.

Ten cuidado, porque si utilizas estas últimas frases es obvio que tú no crees ni una palabra de lo que dice la otra persona, y si él o ella es una persona sensible, puede que se enfade contigo jajaja

¿Conocías estas expresiones?
¿Cómo expresas normalmente duda en tu día a día?

 
 
 
 
 
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A post shared by Saru, your Spanish Teacher! (@hola.saru)

conversation starters spanish

conversation starters in spanish

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In today’s video, we will learn some tricks and phrases that natives use in Spanish to start a conversation with any stranger!

Remember that you can join our Spanish learning community by becoming a supporting member at www.holasaru.com and get access to exclusive content and full lessons for each one of my videos, with: extra reading practices and vocabulary lists, Anki desks with today’s phrases (sound included), a pronunciation practice in normal and slow speed and grammar and pronunciation notes!

Saru Rodríguez

Saru Rodríguez

My goal is to create fun, practical and interactive resources for Spanish learning.

Become a Supporting Member of our YouTube Channel and enjoy exclusive extra resources!

Tell me more!
romantic spanish

How to be romantic in Spanish

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Spanish warm up!

Hello my friend! As always, I want to prove to you that you can understand a lot in Spanish using your knowledge of other languages.

I have written a simple text in Spanish for you to learn some expressions, don’t worry, you will find a translation of the words you need right next to it.

Focus on understanding the meaning, not translating word by word!

Llegó San Valentin, también conocido como el día del amor y la amistad.

La verdad es que a mí no me gusta nada este día. No porque no tenga pareja, sino porque no me gusta sentirme obligado a hacer algo solo porque todo el mundo dice que es necesario.

Me encanta el romance, pero a mi ritmo.

Me gusta mucho dar y recibir regalos, por que sí, sin motivos.

¡Y amo los chocolates todos los días del año! No solo el catorce (14) de febrero.

Pero, si tú eres diferente a mí, y sí te gusta celebrar el día de San Valentin, voy a enseñarte algunas frases útiles para ser romantico en español.

¡Ten cuidado! Queremos ser romanticos pero sin ser cursis.

Useful words:

Llegó–  He/She/It arrived

conocido como– to be known as

amor y amistad–  love and friendship

La verdad es que –  the truth is that…

No porque no tenga– here: Not because I don’t have…

sentirse obligado–  to feel obligated or forced

algo– something

decir–  to say

Me encanta–  I love something

dar y recibir–  to give and to receive

regalo– gift

porque sí – Just like that, for no reason

si (no accent) – If (supposition)

algún – some

útil – useful

Ten cuidado – Be careful

sin – without

cursi – cheesy

Today’s lesson!

Valentine’s day is here and I’m sure you have a special someone (friend or more) to whom you want to express your affection (maybe even romantically).

In the hispanic world el día de San Valentin is dedicated to both, friends and partners, and you know we are not ashamed to tell our loved ones how much we love them… But that can be an issue sometimes.

 The thing is, we say “I love you” so casually on a daily basis, that if you really want to say something especial you will have to be more cretive than that.

But don’t worry ’cause I came to the rescue!

Let’s go through some phrases that you can use to impress your loved ones without crossing the line and sounding like Shakespeare … or even worse… sounding like a cheesy idiot xD (no offese, I’m one of those)

¿Are you ready?

¡Vamos! 

 

1. Te amo (don’t use this)

Let’s break that down:

Te amo means literally I love you.

In most languages people avoid saying this because It sounds overly emotional and a bit… too much.

In Spanish we use it every day for absolutely everything. So, If you really mean “I love you” like … THAT! … Then don’t say this.

It’s boring and it won’t ’cause the effect you want. (unless you are one of those people who never EVER express much emotions…and the other person knows it)

Pronunciation notes:

Nothing fancy about the pronunciation of this one. Just remember the falling intonation in the last sylable of “amo”

For the grammar freaks: “te” means “to you” and has the function of the direct object.

Note: everything written in “<…>” is an orthographic transcription, meaning it is exactly the way we spell and write that word or phrase. Everything written in “/…/” is a phonetic transcription, which means it is the way we pronounce it. In the phonetic transcription we separate the syllables with a dot “.” and we mark the strongest syllable with an apostrophe ” … ‘ … “.  So <hablar> is pronounced /a.‘blar/

2. Te quiero

Let’s break that down:

Te quiero also means I love you, but it’s a step down on the level of romanticism.

But don’t take me wrong. It is a really beautiful thing to say to someone, ’cause it means implicitly…”I appreciate you, I love you, you are important to me… and so much more“

It is simply not restricted to couples and family, you can literally say this to anyone you appreciate.

Pronunciation notes:

Remember the combination of <qui and que>? 

QU in front of those 2 vowels sound like /k/!

So, we pronounce /te.’kie.ro/

 

3. Me gustas mucho

Let’s break that down:

Now, me gustas mucho is something you say only to someone that you are attracted to.

It literally means “I like you a lot” and it can mean both, physically or intellectually.

This one you might want to say after a couple dates, or if you want to say it after the first meeting without sounding creepy… you can add a “creo que”:

No se porque, pero creo que me gustas (I’m not sure why, but I think I like you)

Grammar notes:

In this case “me” indicates the indirect object.

The form of this phrase might be a bit confusing for English speakers because, as you may have noticed, the verb is conjugated in the 2nd person singular (you), but that “me” makes it seem as if the subject of the sentence was the 1st person singular (I).

Don’t worry… In English it is very straight forward “I (subject) like (verb) you (direct object)”

In Spanish, just like in german or some romance languages, the verb “to like” works the other way around… “Tú (subject) me (indirect object /to me) gustas (verb conjugated according to the subjec)”

a more accurate translation would be “you make me feel attracted to you”.

If this is too abstract xD do like everybody else… memorize it and move on jajaja

4. Me encantas

Let’s break that down:

Finally my friends… We are on Valentines territory!

Me encantas is a great phrase to say someone who has you acting like a teenager even when you are 60. It literally means “you make me feel enchanted” and it means… man/girl I like everything about you, I think about you all the time and I can’t wait to see you again and squeeze you until you can not breathe xD

Just to clarify… I’m exagerating jajaja but go say this to someone you want to impress… or freak out 😉

Grammar notes:

This verb “encantar” works the same way as “gustar”.

Love it or hate it… ot doesn’t matter…USE IT!

5. Me encanta + something especiffic

Let’s break that down:

Sometimes being more especiffic adds another dimension to what you say.

In this case we will use the same verbes as before “me encanta, me gusta, amo” in combination with something of the other person that we want to compliment:

Me encantan tus ojos – I love your eyes

Me encanta tu mirada – I love your look (the way your eyes look)

Me encantan tus labios – I love your lips

Amo tu sonrisa – I love your smile

Amo pasar tiempo contigo – I love spending time with you

May I confess that I feel a little silly writing this lesson and realising how much I have actually used this in real life dating situations? xD

6. Hoy te ves preciosa (to a girl)

Let’s break that down:

Hoy te ves + an adjective (pick something that is not generic… never with “bonita or guapo”)

Hoy te ves means “today you look …” and I would combine it with some rare adjectives for complimenting like preciosa (wonderful – girl), fantástica (fantastic – girl), increíble (incredible -boys and girls), más guapO que nunca (more handsome than ever), más guapA que nunca (more beautiful than ever), guapísimo/a

This is used to compliment phisical features, so be careful, ’cause in the wrong context some pleople could not accept your compliment and answer something dumb instead….like “do you mean I normally don’t look good?!”

7. Quisiera estar contigo

Let’s break that down:

Quisiera estar contigo means “I wish I could be with you… or… I would like to be with you” but you have to be extra careful with this one!

Out of context people might understand that you want to have sex with them… and maybe you do… but we never say it xD

To avoid confussion you can add some adverbs like “siempre” (always), or “en este instante / en este momento” (in this moment):

Quisiera estar contigo en este momento

Quisiera estar contigo siempre

Quisiera estar contigo ahora

Remember the pronunciation of <qui> that we talked about earlier… it is /ki.’sie.ra/

8. Te extraño / te pienso

Let’s break that down:

Te extraño means “I miss you” and it is can be used with anyone.

Te pienso means “I think of you” and it is a more poetic way of saying “I miss you”

 

Ahora, vamos a practicar pronunciación.

(now, let’s practice the pronunciation)

 

te amo

Normal

Lento (slow)

te quiero

 

Normal

Lento (slow)

me encantas

Normal

Lento (slow)

me encanta tu sonrisa

Normal

Lento (slow)

me encanta tu mirada

Normal

Lento (slow)

amo pasar tiempo contigo

 

Normal

Lento (slow)

hoy te ves preciosa

Normal

Lento (slow)

hoy te ves más guapo que nunca

 

Normal

Lento (slow)

quisiera estar contigo en este instante.

Normal

Lento (slow)

te extraño todos los días.

Normal

Lento (slow)

Now…

Conoces alguna frase romantica en español

(Do you know other romantic phrases in Spanish?)

Tell me in the comments 😀

Do you have any questions?

Leave them in the comments and I will do my best to answer them promptly.

See you on the next lesson!

poetry Spanish pronunciation

How to use poetry and music to practice your Spanish pronunciation

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Poetry Spanish pronunciation

This time I will tell you how and why you should practice pronunciation and entonation with music and poetry. To go to the full pronunciation practice prepared with the poem on the video, click here (Te miro – by Karmelo Iribarren) 😀

Spanish reading practice!

Today I will talk to you about and adaptation I use of the “Shadowing method” to improve our pronunciation in Spanish and slowly reduce our foreign accent.

But first, a little reading comprehension

Focus on understanding the general meaning and the feeling of the poem:

El método Shadowing

Hay muchas técnicas y métodos para aprender y practicar idiomas. Sin embargo, en los métodos modernos, no se da mucha importancia a la pronunciación.

Por eso, casi siempre, terminamos el nivel básico, el intermedio y, a veces, hasta hablamos fluidamente pero seguimos teniendo un acento fuerte.

La técnica del Shadowing es una práctica que te ayudará a imitar la melodía, el ritmo, la entonación y los sonidos del español para hablar como un nativo.

¡Vamos a ello!

 

Useful words:

hay muchas – there are many

Sin embargo –  nevertheless

dar importancia – to give importance to something

casi siempre –  almost always

a veces – some times

hasta – even

fluidamente – fluently

seguir teniendo – to keep having

acento fuerte – a strong accent

te ayudará– it will help you

imitar– to imitate

el sonido – the sound

hablar como un nativo– to speak like a native

¡Vamos a ello! – let’s go!

How to do Shadowing to really improve your pronunciation

Step 1: Read and record yourself

So, once you have picked a poem or a song that you like (you can pick it based on its translation or ask a friend to recommend you one), the first thing you need to do is …

1. Print the text, pick up your phone and start recording yourself as you read it out loud.

Don’t try to do it perfectly at this point, simply read it naturally, the way you would do it if you were talking Spanish to someone without paying much attention to the pronunciation.

Why?

Well, ojos que no ven… corazón que no siente. (Eyes that can not see… heart that can not feel – Spanish saying)

Most of the time we don’t really hear ourselves while we talk, and especially in a foreign language, our brain tends to ignore our mistakes. So, this recording will help us move from a simple “karaoke” sessions to powerful pronunciation practices.

We need to recognize our mistakes to be able to improve them 😉

Step 2: listen and draw YOUR intonation

Now that we have our recording let’s get the text we printed and draw all over it…

2. Draw lines over the sentences following your intonation, if it goes up, down or stays flat. Also, mark the places where you pause or tend to go fast

Again, this step is just to recognize what makes us sound foreign, so don’t worry about the right way to do it.

How to use poetry and music to practice your Spanish pronunciation

Step 3: Find a native to read it for you

After that, It is time to ask our Latino friends, teachers, or any Hispanic to  send us a recording of the same text… It is important that you ask a person that you want to sound like!!

3. Ask a native to record the same text for you and compare your pronunciation lines with his or hers.

If you don’t know any Hispanic people, don’t worry, you can find readings of almost every poem in Youtube, you can ask natives in Apps like Hellotalk, Verbling, Italki or… ASK ME! 

😀 I will be happy to prepare a full pronunciation practice for you with any poem or text that you like, as long as you agree to share it with all the students on this website (Tell me in the comments)

Step 4: Shadow it regularly for a week

Finally, let’s do the shadowing!!

4. Listen to the native and repeat sentence by sentence. Record yourself every time and listen to adjust your pronunciation (focus intonation and rhythm)  

You can practice with the same poem or song every day for a week, just 5 to 10  minutes will do 😀 

Remember you don’t need to do the whole song or the whole poem each time, it is ok if you focus on some of your favorite lines or the ones that seem most difficult for you, but most importantly, be constant.

FULL pronunciation practice of "Te miro"

Do you want me to read your favorite story or poem?

Share them in the comments and I will do my best to prepare them promptly.

See you at the next practice!