h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Lo siento, estoy nuevo! (yo penso )

Sorry, I'm new! (I think )


Hola, me llamo Ricardo. Soy de inglaterra. Tengo viente ocho anos. Y trabajo en un hotel (???)

Hello, I'm Richard. I'm from England. I'm 28. I work in a hotel (???)

Bien! Pienso que lo aprenden!

Good! I think you all have learned this!

Now... have we done parties and holidays yet?

bailar- to dance
beber- to drink
cantar- to sing
charlar- to chat, to talk
el día de fiesta- holiday
disfrutar (de), gozar (de)- to enjoy
escuchar- to listen to
la fiesta- party
saludar a- to greet
tocar- to play
tomar- to take, to drink
los ratos libres- free time
Te gusta? Te gustan?- Do you like it? Do you like them? (Litterally: Does it please you? Do they please you?)
tengo que... - I have to
cintas- tapes
discos compactos- cds
música- music
los amigos- friends
la gente- people
una copa- a drink
un vino- a glass of wine
una cerveza- a beer
estudiar- to study
manejar- to drive
trabajar- to work
asistir a- to attend- not to be confused with
ayudar- to help, assist
saber- to know
conocer- to be acquainted with - as in a person. When you conjugate the first person of this veb, you have to change the c to cz.
jugar- to play (a sport or game, to gamble)- the u changes to ue when you conjugate!
tocar- to play (music), to touch

Podemos bailar?- Can we dance?
Bebo una cerveza- I'm drinking a beer
Tomas toca la guitarra- Tomas plays the guitar
Ana y Andrea juegan el basquétbol- Ana and Andrea play basketball.
Asiste la fiesta?- Are you coing to the party?

Tengo que trabajo (trabajar?) en diez minutos. No me gusto el trabajo!

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I have to go to work in ten minutes. I don't like work!


Should it be trabajo or trabajar? I never got this sorted while I was in Spain....

It should be trabajar, in this case. I'll explain in a bit...

When there's a 'que' in it, I get confused

As I understand it your sentence doesn't start with soy because the word tengo means 'I have'. You would say tenemos for we have, tienes for you have etc so if it's clear from the verb who 'owns or has' you don't need to say I or you except for emphasis.

But what does the 'que' say that the 'trabajar' doesn't? Am I talking rubbish?

Well, the que in this case goes more with the verb "tener"- "tener" is to have, "tener que" is to have to. It's one of the weird little idiosyncracies of the Spanish language. English has a lot more of them, believe me!

Well, that's a few years of puzzling sorted in one foul swoop....

A small joke for the ladies;

Por que los hombres se ponen tan contentos cuando terminanun un puzzle en dos meses?

Porque en la caja ponia de tres a cinco anos.

Why are men so pleased when they finish a jigsaw in two months?

Because on the box it says "from three to five years"

I forget what it's called but the little squiggle on top of the n can be important. Without it I've just said something rude.

The squiggle is called a tilde.

And I can tell you how to put it in on a mac, anyway- option-n, then type n again.

años- years

As for windows... don't have a clue. I think it's alt-Fsomething. Anyone else on here know?

It's [alt]+ a four fig number in ASCI but I don't know it.

Que paseo?

What's happening? (I think)

Qué pasa?
---
What's up? What's happening?

To get a tilde (ñ) in Windows, you supposedly type Alt+0241, but on h2g2 it just seems to give ± instead, so it might be easier to go to Character Map (Click Start, Run, and type charmap) and select it from there - then you can copy it into your postings. There's probably a much easier way, but I don't know what it is.

And the words anos/años - the latter means years. The former... well, substitue the 'o' for a 'u' and you'll discover its translation

Hola, me llamo Fuathas. Soy de America.

That's about it.

?Cuantos personas están todavía aquí? ?Es que alguien quiere apredener más español?

Fuathas - ?de dónde es en America? ?Habla mucho español?

***

How many people are still here? Does anyone want to learn more Spanish?

Fuathas - where in America are you from? Do you speak much Spanish?

Can everyone please remember to post a translation. If anyone misses it than can someone else do it please? This makes it easier to moderate. Thanks

Kats

I definetly want to learn it, that's why I'm here

I live in the Southeast and don't speak Spanish. I can read some and can even catch one or the other word and phrase.

Would you like me to teach you some basics, from scratch? Or is there anything specific you'd like?

Basics please!