Asking and answering questions in Esperanto

In addition to understanding the agglunative way vocabulary is formed in Esperanto, I'm also going to need to know how to ask and answer questions if I have any hope of becoming fluent in one week. So today, we'll look at Esperanto's table of correllatives.

I am writing this update at the close of my third day of Esperanto study, and I'm already making some good, if simple, sentences. Straightforward ideas and grammar are no sweat already. I have been through quite a bit of vocabulary, crossing... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Prepositions, prefixes and suffixes - the power of Esperanto!

Saluton esperantistoj! Today I will outline the concepts of prepositions, prefixes, and suffixes — essential concepts in the language of Esperanto.

Because Esperanto was designed to be easy to learn and remember, we find that many words are formed by simply attaching affixes to existing word stems. In my opinion, this falls short of the brilliance I find reflected in the construction of Russian words, but it's still much better than having to learn 5-10x the vocabulary.

Also a note about... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Fluent in one week? The Esperanto challenge!

While looking into the rudiments of Esperanto on a bit of a weekend whim, I tweeted, somewhat jestfully, that I could imagine someone being able to acheive fluency in Esperanto in one week. That remark was met with a friendly challenge and even a starting point, and so I've decided to give it a try.

I really don't see a downside, because even if I fall short, I expect that I will still come out of this being able to read and write and understand a new language in just one week. And if I succeed,... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Esperanto, a first look

Since choosing to become an active member of the language blogging community, I have started seing Esperanto mentioned a lot. While I have had some basic understanding of what Esperanto is, I didn't really know any details about it. After seeing it mentioned a few times in response to last week's post about reasons to learn Spanish, I decided to take a little time to discover what Esperanto is about.

What is Esperanto?
Esperanto is a constructed language, or conlang. It was invented by Lazar... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

My first impressions after learning the Arabic alphabet

Last weekend I decided to learn to read Arabic. I'm not talking about learning any words, building any vocabulary, or even being able to communicate or understand anything. I just wanted to learn how to read this strange-looking language.

I split my study into two sessions, about an hour on Saturday, and approximately the same on Sunday. It might be possible to do it all at once, but without a teacher here to show me the right way, I'm stumbling through this and probably making it a lot harder... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Changing the way you think

Perhaps one of the biggest sources of difficulty for English speakers when learning a foreign language is the fact that modern spoken English is rich with slang expressions — especially in the US, where our language is so heavily influenced by pop culture. Thinking in slang and hyperbole can be a steep impediment to overcome.


Just how bad is the English language?
What does the phrase like some mean? Those two words, mean one thing when I have a box of candy and ask if you would like some,... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Why should I learn a foreign language?

It seems I am constantly being asked why I learn foreign languages. Every time I chat with somone online in their language, their first question is why I learned it. Every time someone finds out about my web site, they want to know why I'm doing it.

If you think it's hard explaining one language, try explaining a new one every year! Although I have a feeling it will make a handy conversation starter at the holidays.

Well, the truth is, it's not hard. Without much effort, I can think of several... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Noun declension demystified

The declension of nouns is often a scary topic for native English speakers, but it doesn't have to be. Just because most of our nouns don't change (some still do!) it doesn't mean that we don't still have those grammatical parts in our sentences. Understanding these grammatical parts will be much more important — in some cases, absolutely essential — in other languages.

A noun case represents the grammatical role that a noun plays in a sentence. There are seven noun cases of which you... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Il futuro semplice - The simple future tense of Italian

After one month, I found I was already able to say a lot in Italian, but I lamented that it was all in the present tense! Last week, we started to fix that by learning il passato prossimo, the most common way to form the past tense in Italian. Now, it's probably time to learn how to use the future tense. As always, everything is easy to find on Google.

Il futuro semplice
The simple future tense is easy to form in Italian. As with everything, you start by dropping the verb's ending, and then... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

10 Reasons why Spanish is the best first choice of second language!

If you want to learn a foreign language, but you don't know which one to learn; or if you want to learn several languages and you don't know which one to start with; or, if you think learning a foreign language is too hard, and you want something that will be easier, the Spanish is definitely the best choice.


Spanish grammar is remarkably similar to English, so it's not difficult to learn. Yes, adjectives follow their nouns, and there are more verb conjugations, but putting together a sentence... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Finally understand those Russian prefixes!

Perhaps one of the most exciting facets of the Russian language — and one of the many reasons why it is my favorite language — is the logical construction of words using prefixes and stems.

When learning a new language (or anything else!) I think we learn best by creating a web of knowledge. Rather than spending hundreds of hours torturing myself by memorizing vocabulary, I prefer to learn how the language words and use that to build a "system of crutches", so that when I forget a word,... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Connect with the language in order to learn it better

I often insist that I'm not any more gifted than anyone else. It's easy to excuse away my success by just saying I'm gifted, because it takes the responsibility off of yourself when you fail. But it's self-delusion.

The ease with which I learn a language is a direct result of my curiosity. I don't have a better memory than anyone else. But what I do have is a genuine curiosity about how language works — I am fascinated with how people communicate.

Rapid learning is a result of connected... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Conjugating reflexive verbs in Italian

Yesterday, we took a moment to understand reflexive verbs, and various ways in which they might be used. Today, we're going to figure out how to use them in Italian.

Reflexive Italian verbs
As we've already learned, Italian verbs have three endings: -are, -ere, and -ire. All three endings end on an e, and that's all we need to know.

To make any verb reflexive you simply drop that e and replace it with si. Thus, Italian reflexive verbs end in -arsi, -ersi, or -irsi.

Conjugating reflexive... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

What the heck is a reflexive verb?

While the concept of reflexive verbs is mostly unused in English, it is a vital concept in almost all other languages. If you dont understand it or have never heard of it before, then today is your lucky day because we're going to quickly look at what reflexive verbs are.

The name reflexive indicates that a verb reflects itself. Grammatically speaking, a reflexive verb is a verb whose subject and direct object are the same, though we will find that there are some kinds of reflexive verbs which... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Italian diminutives

In English, we often add the endings -let, -ie, or -y, onto a word or name to "diminish" it — that is, to make it cuter, smaller, or more personal. For example, the words pig, eye, boot, and horse become piglet, eyelet, bootie, and horsey, and the names Kate and Mike become Katie and Mikey.

Most languages have such mechanisms for diminutives, and in fact, most languages use them a lot more than we do in English.

Italian diminutives
There are several diminutive endings in Italian. These are... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

I was just about to...

As we covered in the last post, there are a few special cases in Italian where we use the verb stare. Today I just want to talk briefly about one of those cases.

Stare per ...
The phrase stare per [...] indicates action on the verge of happening. It is always followed by an infinitive verb.

For instance:Maria sta per andare al negozio.
Maria is just about to go to the store.

Questo gioco sta per finire.
This game is about to end.

Pronto? Ciao, Carlo. Stavo giusto per chiamarti.
Hello?... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

To be or not to be, in Spanish

Continuing along my "to be" theme, today I am going to discuss the difference in Spanish between ser and estar, both verbs with mean "to be".

After yesterday's extended discussion of the Russian way, today will be a piece of cake! In fact, in Spanish, the difference is even easier to remember than in Italian!

Ser
The Spanish verb ser indicated permanence. You choose this verb any time you want to discuss "being" something, somewhere, or someone that will not change for a long time, or ever.... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

To be or not to be, in Russian!

I'm going to try out something new, here. I've really only been working on this web site for a few weeks and I'm still finding out what is the best way to go about it. After looking over my web stats, so far, I noticed a trend in which my visits Monday through Friday are much higher than my visits on weekends, and my first thought was to just take a break and only write on weekdays. But instead, I think I will use the weekends to take a break from my target language (this year, Italian) and instead... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

To be or not to be, in Italian

One particular phenomenon I often encounter in foreign languages is their unusual treatments of the verb "to be". We tend to generalize things in English. But Spanish, for instance, differentiates between temporary states (like emotion or location) and permanent states (like a career, or a physical trait). Most language prefer "I have hunger" over our "I am hungry". And at least one language I know of (Russian) actually omits the verb "to be" completely from the sentence!

When in Rome...
In... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Find vocabulary inspiration at a restaurant

Here in the United States, clever marketing people have learned to attach foreign words to products in order to make them sound more appealing, to the point where we imagine grand meanings in each of these names. But in reality, these foreign words are often nothing more than boring kitchen terms.

For fun, grab your pocket dictionary, translator, or phrasebook, and go eat in an international restaurant! Since I am studying Italian, I am going to discuss the items found in a typical Italian restaurant.

Here... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Stop trying to learn a foreign language

I'm not kidding. Stop trying. If all you're willing to do is try, you'll be happier and better off if you just stop now.

There was a cute little muppet once, who famously said in his signature zen-like way, "Do, or do not. There is no try." No one has ever said it better.



Do, or do not.
That word "try" is loaded with meaning. Whether you tell people, "I'm trying to learn Spanish," or you tell them, "I'm trying to quit smoking," or "I'm trying to lose weight," you're really telling them... continue reading at Fluent Every Year

Updated goals for Italian

When I started this blog, I made a point that it is important it is to have clearly defined goals by which to measure success, and then I laid out some goals for this year.

Today, I came upon these comments over at 52 Languages, 52 Weeks:To his credit, he is aiming for absolute fluency and he lays out his definition for "fluent" quite clearly. His other goals, though, aren't very ambitious: by the end of the year he will start a chat session with someone in Italian, Skype with someone in Italian,... continue reading at Fluent Every Year