Foreign Languages

[bc grinner]

Perhaps one for Davy or MW (more than happy to receive help from others )

On Duolingo, in the past I would simply put the name of someone before whatever it is they did, but Duolingo has now started putting an ‘A’ in front of the name, and then a ‘te’ or ‘le’ before whatever it is. For example...........

Previously... Howard encanta futbol

Now... A Howard te encanta futbol

Also, sometimes, ‘al’ is put before football.

Any ideas gents ?

I ran your question by our shop mechanic. He said "Howard encanta futbol" would be like "Howard loves football". "A Howard te encanta futbol" would be "Howard, you love football". On "al", he started talking about contraction of "a + el" for a masculine noun and then my eyes glazed over.

He also seemed tickled because he thought that "encanta" was too passionate of a term of love for football. I told him that he didn't know the people on this forum.

[Davycc]

Perhaps one for Davy or MW (more than happy to receive help from others )

On Duolingo, in the past I would simply put the name of someone before whatever it is they did, but Duolingo has now started putting an ‘A’ in front of the name, and then a ‘te’ or ‘le’ before whatever it is. For example...........

Previously... Howard encanta futbol

Now... A Howard te encanta futbol

Also, sometimes, ‘al’ is put before football.

Any ideas gents ?

Beats me BB, don't know why A would be placed there, for me it would always be Howard encanta futbol the other may be a Spanish thing, some local dialects here would say Howard loves the football.

Over to you Howard (or anyone !)

[mapperleywhite]

Perhaps one for Davy or MW (more than happy to receive help from others )

On Duolingo, in the past I would simply put the name of someone before whatever it is they did, but Duolingo has now started putting an ‘A’ in front of the name, and then a ‘te’ or ‘le’ before whatever it is. For example...........

Previously... Howard encanta futbol

Now... A Howard te encanta futbol

Also, sometimes, ‘al’ is put before football.

Any ideas gents ?

Beats me BB, don't know why A would be placed there, for me it would always be Howard encanta futbol the other may be a Spanish thing, some local dialects here would say Howard loves the football.

Over to you Howard (or anyone !)

Scratching my head a bit on this one BB TBH, so called in Mrs MW and I learnt something

But firstly I agree 'encantar' is not the correct verb, I would use 'gustar'. The former is more like saying 'football charms me', whereas the latter is 'xyz enjoys football', entonces...if you are talking to someone about someone else who is not present it's correct to say 'a Howard le gusta futbol'. Can't say I fully get the rationale behind this construction (probably a result of having minimal formal Spanish lessons), but at the end of the day I'd have to say Spanish is a lot more consistent in its grammar and pronunciation than English!

Hope this helps, but, if not, let us know BB

[Sniffer]

Perhaps one for Davy or MW (more than happy to receive help from others )

On Duolingo, in the past I would simply put the name of someone before whatever it is they did, but Duolingo has now started putting an ‘A’ in front of the name, and then a ‘te’ or ‘le’ before whatever it is. For example...........

Previously... Howard encanta futbol

Now... A Howard te encanta futbol

Also, sometimes, ‘al’ is put before football.

Any ideas gents ?

Beats me BB, don't know why A would be placed there, for me it would always be Howard encanta futbol the other may be a Spanish thing, some local dialects here would say Howard loves the football.

Over to you Howard (or anyone !)

Scratching my head a bit on this one BB TBH, so called in Mrs MW and I learnt something

But firstly I agree 'encantar' is not the correct verb, I would use 'gustar'. The former is more like saying 'football charms me', whereas the latter is 'xyz enjoys football', entonces...if you are talking to someone about someone else who is not present it's correct to say 'a Howard le gusta futbol'. Can't say I fully get the rationale behind this construction (probably a result of having minimal formal Spanish lessons), but at the end of the day I'd have to say Spanish is a lot more consistent in its grammar and pronunciation than English!

Hope this helps, but, if not, let us know BB

Firstly let me say that I do not speak Spanish and know very few words in Spanish, but I am interested in language generally.

Presumably "encantar" comes from the same root word that we get "enchanted" therefore implying a more romantic, rather than passionate, love - as MW points out by using the word "charm".
The use of the word "a" before the name emphasises that you are talking about Howard. I'm guessing it means "to" or "at", similar to French, or as we might say in English "That Howard, he loves football".

[Davycc]

Yes Sniffer, you are right English and Spanish have hundreds of words that have the same meaning with similar spelling. Iike yourself I know very little Spanish (I get by in Spain with a combination of really bad Spanish, hand gestures and a lot of smiling.) I find lots of time the slight changes in the spelling changes the meaning quite a bit just like "encanta" means love and "encantar" means enchant. I get confused all the time.

[Barlow Boy]

I ran your question by our shop mechanic. He said "Howard encanta futbol" would be like "Howard loves football". "A Howard te encanta futbol" would be "Howard, you love football". On "al", he started talking about contraction of "a + el" for a masculine noun and then my eyes glazed over.

He also seemed tickled because he thought that "encanta" was too passionate of a term of love for football. I told him that he didn't know the people on this forum.

Many thanks for your help bcg, and your shop mechanic

I took the encanta bit from Duolingo, who seem to place that word before baseball or basketball, but as I’m not bothered about either, I put football instead (oh, and we all love football on this forum )

Thanks again mate

[Barlow Boy]

Thanks to Davy, MW and Sniffer on this one, and it is starting to make sense now that you’re talking about someone who is not present when putting the ‘A’ in front of the name. As Sniffer says, I’m going to imagine it as ‘That Howard he likes football’, when Howard wasn’t present at the conversation.

I like Duolingo, it’s got me interested, and I’ve kept going which is a feat in itself as it’s very frustrating, but it is difficult not being able to ask questions. I’m hoping my CD’s will clarify certain things, although I’m only up to CD3 out of 12 .

Thanks again gents

[Saxon]

Just thinking about the massive Spanish speaking population here in the States,most of them will be celebrating this Wednesday, the 'Cinco de Mayo'.
It's a celebration of the Mexican army defeating a much larger French force back in 1862. It was a huge morale boosting victory for the Mexicans, as France looking for repayment for foreign debt was also trying to expand it's territories in the Americas. It's even been said that if the French had won, they would then have supported the South in the US civil war, the outcome would be different, and we would be living in a very different USA from today's culture.
Cinco de Mayo, a celebration of Mexican heritage and culture, sees parades, parties, foreworks, events, in normal times restaurants and bars having special nights and packed.More beer is sold than on Superbowl, St Patrick's Day, or Halloween. Most of the Spanish speaking guys I work with come in hungover next day, if they get there at all.
When I was at school in UK, French was the primary foreign language taught, with Spanish an option depending on the other courses you were taking.
I would say these days, not talking about communicating on holidays, but more career orientated, that Spanish should be the primary foreign language taught followed by an Asian language. It's a changing World.