Hello all,

I am currently trying to learn and speak a few basic words and phrases and then move on to harder stuff but I have seemed to run into some issues. I thought the way to say sorry was Lo siento or does that only apply to mexican spanish? I went to a website that seems to be geared towards actual Spain spanish and it said that sorry is said Disculpe. I prefer to learn the Spain spanish and would appreciate anyone who could help point out the right one so that from now on I can make sure I am not mixing up mexican spanish and Spain spanish. Also next to the words and phrases show phonectics next to it and some of the letters are in capitals does that mean I should put a bigger emphasis(sp?) on the capital letters? Like the put Disculpe dees-KOOL-peh

Thanks

Lo siento would be correct for "I am sorry". Disculpe is more "Excuse me" like when you step on someone's toes.

You must memorize the rules for pronouncing Spanish words.

1) If a word ends in a vowel or an "N" or an "S"
accent the next to last syllable. eg disCULpe

2) If a word ends in a consonant other than "N" or "S" accent the last syllable. eg feLIZ

3) An accent mark takes precedence over the rules. eg cárcel

YOU MUST MEMORIZE THE RULES

Thankyou very much:) I will be sure to work real hard on learning the rules. The rules can surely be very helping and are very important. I will also make note of the different forms of saying sorry and when each one is to be used.

Thanks

p.s. any other very important essential grammer rules that I should learn? I rather learn the most important ones first like the rules you listed and then move to the harder stuff or any good website that I should check out

While we're on the subject, I have a question about the formation of adverbs. I was taught that in most of those words, you take the feminine form of the adjective, add the suffix "-mente" and then place an accent in proper location since it no longer falls on the penultimate syllable, but if the adjective contained one in the first place keep it where it was (like "rápido" becomes "rápidamente"). (I hope that wasn't confusing!!!)

I was chatting online with a friend of mine in Vitoria-Gasteiz, and he was telling me that a lot of the words don't need written accents.

For example, I wrote "complétamente," which comes from completo. He said it didn't need an accent. I noticed in reading some online Spanish news articles that the accents on adverbs are not widely used.

Is this something that is particular to continental Spanish or is it a uniformly-accepted style? If so, has Spanish has undergone a writing and usage reform like German did a few years ago, or was the way I was taught incorrect?

Adverbs created by adding the suffix -mente to an adjective, keep the same graphic accentuation the original adjetive had.

So, as 'fácil' has a tilde, 'fácilmente' has it, too. But as 'raro' doesn't have, 'raramente' doesn't have either.

Your Basque friend is right and 'completamente' hasn't got any tilde.

This rule has been so since I remember, what means the last thirtysomething years.

Thanks Torrales! I guess I am going to have to track down one of my Spanish teachers in high school and tell her this. LOL I can remember she marked a quiz I took incorrectly once when I didn't accent the new stressed syllables in adverbs, and since then it was something I have always done. But thanks for setting me straight!!

Oh, one more question . . . when speaking the adverb without an accent, the stress still falls on the penultimate syllable?

For example, is it "com/PLE/ta/men/te" or "com/ple/ta/MEN/te?"

Thanks!

It is com/PLE/ta/men/te

All adverbs in which the sufix -mente is added at the end are pronounce as the adjective (the word without -mente). Therefore in this case the adjective would be com/PLE/ta and the adverb is pronounce com/PLE/ta/men/te.

Another examples with the stress in the first and the last syllabes: fi/NAL/men/te, RÁ/pi/da/men/te.

Fernando

Yah it is a little confusing lol. Well atleast to me since I didn't always do well in English grammmer class since I was more the science type of person. But thankfully Spanish grammer looks like it will be a lot easier for me to get the hang of. I am not sure why that is though since english is my native language. I am still at the very basics and I am glad that you all are talking about different grammer rules it realy helps me out when I read everyones posts:) So the suffix -mente is used a lot kind of like english suffixes are? I hope I don't sound stupid lol. I can do well at writing when I realy feel like it but sometimes all of the graammer terms confuse the heck out me. What are the rules for making a spanish word plural and also any tips or rules on past, present and future tense? Even better would be a good website anyone can recommend for spanish grammer that is easy to understand. I guess I better learn the grammer first if I wanna get realy good at it:(

Adios

(off to the spanish sections of the forums to see if I can figure out any of the words)

p.s. I forgot something. What is the current/official Spain spanish alphabet? Websites online seem to have different variations. Some say rr is part of the alphabet while others say that rr is no longer included in it and a few others letters as well.

Mmmmm... if I recall well the 'rr' wasn't a part of the alphabet when I studied it... 25 years ago!
OMG! I'm getting old!
No, the 'rr' exists for ortographic reasons, it's the 'r' put between two vowels. I don't consider it part of the alphabet.
The 'ch' is other matter, it's a completely different sound. 'salchicha' sounds completely different if you pronounce 'ch' than if you pronounce 'c' and 'h'
Wow! It would sound funny if you pronounced it that way. 'salcica' LOL!