Topic: Purrfect Language Crash Course 1: Spanish

[Helada Quemadura]

We're gonna be doing a netwide series of streetwise teaching people foreign languages. Learning a new language can be hard but just like your native tounge, you eventually pick up on it whether it is a few words, sentence, or even phrases thus the term "streetwise".

Other course topics to follow (we'll hyperlink em' when we make em')

Course 2: French
Course 3: Japanese
Course 4: Chinese

If you wanna help or teach a language outside these four then feel free to join in the current topic or start another language since this stuff we teaching you we learned streetwise as well.

Lesson 1: The Alphabet

The alphabet is similar to English. It contains everything english has and then some. The pronounciation for most of the letters are different "o" is the only one that sounds the same in either language. The vowels sometimes have an accent that can differentiatethe sound slighty by raising the voice a slight pitch higher like mama for example sounds like mom-muh but with the accent it is mom-mah.

a = a(ah)/short a in English.
b = be (bay)
c = ce (say)
ch = che (chay)
d = de (day)
e = e(eh)/long a or short e in English
f = efe (F.A.)
g = ge (hey/hay)
h = hache (ah chay) [H's are silent except with ch and sh
i = i (e)/long e or short i in English
j = jota (hotah)
k = ka (car without the r)
l = ele (L.A.)
ll = elle (A yay)
m = eme (M.A.)
n = ene (N.A.)
ñ (The ~ over the n) = eñe (N yay)
o = o
p = pe (pay)
q = cu (cool without the l)
r = ere (Air Ray)
rr = erre (delay the r or purr like a cat when using the r)
s = ese (S.A.)
t = te (tay)
u = u (ooh)/small u in English
v = ve (vay)
w = doble ve (do blay vay)
x = equis (A kiss)
y = i griega (E gre A gah
z = zeta (zay tah)

Stuff of note: j's and sometimes g's and rarely x's are treated like h's. Like for g's if it has a j sound in English then it will have an H sound in Spanish.
H's themselves have no sound but if you put it or a j before a u, you get a W sound. Y's are treated like I when by itself but treated the same otherwise.

Next lesson: Numbers

[Night]

Will you be teaching ancient ruin hieroglyphics?

[Helada Quemadura]

H: If we get a whiff of it we can.

[Sakura Leic]

If you need a little help teaching Spanish I'll try the best I can since I've been learning it for about 2 years.

[Shiki Tohno]

Allow me to supersede Sakura and say that if you need help with spanish, as a native spanish speaker, I can probably help you more than anyone else.

[Sakura Leic]

Yeah I probably still need to work on some things anyway.

[Solar]

What Shiki said.

[Flame]

What Taiyo said that Shiki said.

[Helada Quemadura]

H: That'll be great. More help means more knowledge to spread. In the meantime, here we are with...

Lesson 2: Numbers. Nah there is no need to count all the way up to infinity. All there is to do is count to a certain point where it's easy to catch on.

0: Cero
1: Uno
2: Dos
3: Tres
4. Cuatro
5. Cinco
6. Seis
7. Siete
8. Ocho
9. Nueve
10. Diez
11. Once
12. Doce
13. Trece
14. Catorce
15. Quince

After Quince, a pattern ensues up to 25 then another pattern starts from here on. You pretty much put something divisible by 10 followed by y (y by itself means and) then finish it with a number from 1-9. But for 16-25 you can go ahead and put diez y seis or veinte y uno etc. but to make it easier (or harder) you can

16. dieciseis
17. diecisiete
18. dieciocho
19. diecinueve
20. veinte
21. veintiuno
22. veintidos
22. veintitres
24. veinticuatro
25. veinticinco

From here on it's divisible by ten followed by y then the number 1-9

Divisible by 10s

30. Treinta
40. Cuarenta
50. Cincuenta
60. Sesenta
70. Setenta
80. Ochenta
90. Noventa
100. Cien (this means 100 by itself but when adding to it it be comes ciento) Ex: ciento uno
1000. mil
1000000. millón (its pretty much the same as English in this pattern.)

Divisible by 100s are simple. After cien(to) you just take a number 2-9 and add cientos in a similar after that with a few exceptions


500. Quinientos
700. Setecientos
900. Novecientos

For the 1000s and above, the noun will stay the same like 2000 is dos mil up to anything that involves millions, etc. From there plural millions, etc. are called millones and it is all downhill from there.

Next lesson: Colors

[Shiki Tohno]

As soon as I'm done with the project I'm working on, I'll start preparing basic lessons for japanese. Believe it or not, japanese by itself is rather easy, the problem comes when reading kanji.


I corrected a few things in your post, Hela-chan. Mainly minor mistranslations and mistypings. And for the record, in case it wasn't clear enough, what Taiyo meant is that he's also a hispanic latin-american, so he can also help with the spanish lessons if I'm not available.

[Flame]

Hmmm... Im actually not too great writing in spanish. I learned to speak spanish since I was little, since both my folks speak it, but I taught myself how to read and write in it...

[Dr. Wily II]

Chinese too?
Oh boy... The hanyu Pinyin will be dreadful...
(I know the true horrors... Native Chinese speaker afterall...)

[Night]

Chinese too?
Oh boy... The hanyu Pinyin will be dreadful...
(I know the true horrors... Native Chinese speaker afterall...)

Your chinese?

[Dr. Wily II]

Yep, I'm Chinese.

[Solar]

Well, this looks good so far.

As soon as I'm done with the project I'm working on, I'll start preparing basic lessons for japanese. Believe it or not, japanese by itself is rather easy, the problem comes when reading kanji.

Oh god, don't remind me. The horror...>__<

[Night]

Yep, I'm Chinese.

Say that in chinese!

[Dr. Wily II]

Yep, I'm Chinese.

是的，我是华人。

In Hanyu Pinyin...
shì de，wǒ shì huá rén。

Say that in chinese!

用华语来说！

In Hanyu Pinyin...
yòng huá yǔ lái shuō！

[keiang]

I'm Taiwanese, but I know nothing in Mandarin except for a few insults, hello, thank you, and you're welcome. So everything that I'll ever really need to know. Only pronounciation though, I don't know the symbols.

[Dr. Wily II]

From Taiwan? Awesome.

[Cpie]

是的，我是华人。

In Hanyu Pinyin...
shì de，wǒ shì huá rén。

用华语来说！

In Hanyu Pinyin...
yòng huá yǔ lái shuō！

 Must record pronouciation

[Night]

是的，我是华人。

In Hanyu Pinyin...
shì de，wǒ shì huá rén。

用华语来说！

In Hanyu Pinyin...
yòng huá yǔ lái shuō！

[Dr. Wily II]

Now you know the horrors of Chinese characters and their Hanyu Pinyin pronounciations...

[Gotham Ranger]

This is an awesome topic. I've been needing to learn tacochat for awhile now and this will help!

Now someone go make a russian topic

[RMX]

Seconding Russian and Chinese

[CephiYumi]

I actually took two years of russian o.o

I don't remember much now though besides the alphabet, numbers, and few words ^^;