Archive for April, 2010
Apr
Apr
A top-notch online German dictionary!
Category: General, German · Tags: dictionaries,learning materials,using the web,vocabulary
I am a big fan of WordReference, as most of you already know, but I saw this web site mentioned in a post by Benny after the first week of his three-month mission in Germany. After having a look, I thought it was a great tool to add to the language-learning arsenal, and worth a mention here.
Apr
Apr
Making mountains out of molehills
I said recently that you can do more with a 100% comprehension of half the vocabulary, than you’ll ever do with 50% comprehension of all of it. Today, I want to give some real life examples of how you can be creative, and make yourself understood with a solid understanding of essential vocabulary.
Apr
Apr
What a difference one little "S" makes
I recently discussed the meanings of some common Italian prefixes, but I intentionally left out perhaps the most common of them all. (And that was promptly pointed out in a comment!) Rest assured, I did that intentionally, because I felt it was important enough to have its own post.
Apr
Apr
Language is a means, not an end
As the saying goes, life is a journey, not a destination. What’s important is not where you’re going, but what you do along the way. And the same thing goes for learning a language. There will always be more to learn, you can never know it all.
Apr
Apr
Perfective and Imperfective – verb aspects demystified
I’ve already talked about several language concepts which seem to give English-speakers trouble when learning a foreign language, but there are still more to discuss! Today, I would like to discuss the difference between perfective and imperfective verbs.
Apr
Apr
Interesting facts about the Italian language
When you begin a goal — especially one with a defined time constraint — the first priority is always getting straight to work, which is exactly what I did with Italian. Once I had clearly defined my goal, I set my self out toward doing it. Now here I am, more than two months into learning the Italian language, and I haven’t really even taken the time to smell the roses. So today, we’ll just look at some interesting facts about Italian, and we’ll get back to the details of speaking it later.
Apr
Apr
The magical aspects of Russian verb construction
Last week, I took a moment to discuss verb aspects, in hopes of clearing up those scary words perfective and imperfective. Today I want to share the amazing formula with which Russian verb become perfective or imperfective.
Apr
Apr
Some additional thoughts on Esperanto
My recent challenge to become fluent in Esperanto in one week seems to have drawn a lot of attention. What’s most interesting to me, though, is that the majority of the feedback I’ve received has been in regard to my disappointment in the language and its community, rather than my learning style or my results.
Apr
Apr
What exactly is the subjunctive mood?
The subjunctive is one of the many grammatical features that has mostly disappeared from English, but which still comes up in just about every other language you’ll encounter. Today, I’d like to start by talking about what the subjunctive mood is, and where and how it is used.
Apr
Apr
Congiuntivo presente – the present subjunctive in Italian
It’s subjunctive week. Yesterday we looked at exactly what the subjunctive mood is, and how it is used. Today, we’re going to take our first look at how the subjunctive mood is used in Italian, with the congiuntivo presente.