OmniHead

Catsup vs ketchup – Who wins the battle? I remember myself being a kid; all bottles of that tomato sauce used to read as "Catsup" and this was the way they were for the years while growing up and turning into a teenager. By that time I realized that some people used to call "ketchup" the catsup sauce, and still bottles were labeled as "catsup." Later in time, I was already an adult and found myself making a choice when buying a bottle of "Catsup" versus buying a bottle of "Ketchup." This was the time when I realized the "Ketchup" is simply the way "Catsup" is pronounced, and used literally as a part of the brand label By the way, even I started learning English when I was 12, I always pronoucend "catsup" as it reads in Spanish, and yet today, unless I'm talking about it with an English speaker

¡Totalmente de acuerdo contigo Trellum! Actualmente la mayoría de música en español es un "refrito" (cover) de canciones que fueron hit en los 80s y los 90s. Lo peor es que hay artistas que grabaron las canciones originalmente, como Juan Gabriel, Miguel Bosé y Diego Verdaguer, que este año volvieron a regrabar sus mismas canciones pero con diferent ritmo, y algunas suenas infames. Sin embargo, la música en inglés es similarmente mala en estos días y yo prefiero escuchar "viejitas" (oldies) de los 80s y 90s tanto en inglés como en español.

You were close to correct @czarina84 The right way to say "I ate pizza and chips for supper" is this; Comí pizza y papas en la cena. In Spanish is not necessary to add the article "las" before papas (potatoes) and while in English we use "for supper," in Spanish the right word is "en" (in) Moreover, it's more common talk about last night supper this way; "Anoche cené (dined) pizza y papas" which translates as "last night I dined pizza and potatoes" One more insight; most Spanish countries have adopted a mix of English vocabulary into its context to when you refer to have eaten potatoes, you are not specifying which type of preparation. For chips, you may probably say to have eaten chips without need to translate this specific item because people already knows what kind of potatoes you got

No, you shouldn't use "lo siento tu pérdida" because is grammatically incorrect, but it should be "lo siento por tu perdida" (if addressed to someone you are familiar with) or "lo siento por su pérdida", when you are talking to someone who is not in you close relationship circle, or someone with an authority or elderly rank. Nonetheless, it is more common in a native speaking context to say, "lamento (to be sorrow) mucho su muerte (o su pérdida)" or "le ofrezco mis más sinceras condolencias" (my deepest condolence if not simply "lo siento mucho" (I'm so sorry about) "Lo siento" (I'm sorry), "Lamento" (I'm sorrow), and "Me Apena" (it saddens me) are usually exchangeable starting words to express condolences.

Sometimes parents have a reason to refuse teaching a foreign language; my father was Greek and he never wanted to teach me his language because he was proud of his newly then acquired citizenship and wanted to break with his roots in a different country. However I must agree that language immersion helps, whether you do it voluntarily or you are exposed to other languages that eventually do not only turn familiar to you, but also understandable, particularly with the aid of someone helping to get them integrated into your life, as when you discuss about your new language findings with someone else that reinforces such knowledge.

While I must agree with most of you in regards choosing a native speaker of a given target language, there is something to keep in mind when it comes to getting accurate translations, and this is your former knowledge on such language. When at a language school, training center or course, your teachers are going to teach you the basics of formal writing and speaking the language. Depending on the type of learning program you are in, your teacher may later give you the basics of colloquial language, jargon, slang, and even how to curse and blame. This makes a whole for you to understanding the language regardless how the native speaker handles it. So that, if you want an accurate translation, you do not only need to ask a native speaker, but making sure he or she is going to use formal language to help you out. "U cant get a accurate translation from some1 U know that being an natibe speeker writeZ like thiz cuz Ure gonna B wrong"

I have three suggested American legends for you to choose from: Negro Creation Legend by Chamberlain, A. F. Published October 1, 1890 "Negro Creation Legend" is an article from The Journal of American Folklore, Volume 3. https://archive.org/stream/jstor-534071/534071_djvu.txt Christmas Stories And Legends By Various Authors Compiled By Phebe A. Curtiss Copyright 1916 https://ia802708.us.archive.org/4/items/christmasstories17770gut/17770-h/17770-h.htm

Problem that most non-English speakers (and many times native speakers too) face is when it comes to use hyphens at the end of a line where a word doesn't fit and it's necessary to break it with a carriage return (in typing) but yet merged by the hyphen. When hyphen is used to combine two words, it's not so hard to understand the how to, or when it should or shouldn't be done. I don't know about other languages, but in Spanish a word an hyphen can only be place between full syllables when in need to separate the word. In example the word ESPERAR (to wait) which can be separated either as "es-perar" or "espe-rar" but never as "esp-era" Hyphen must not break a contiguous vowel and vocal, and neither a diphthong or triphthong, which are made with extra vowels but sounding like a unique syllable. As per my understanding, in English we can break the word at any point, but being honest, I remember to have learned about rules to do this, which I cannot remember, so I have to read the reference that @Trellum provided, LOL

Feeling blue (sad) is the very first English idiom I remember to have heard ever in life, but there are many colorful idioms coming to mind; Being in the red (being in debt) Out of the blue (something coming unexpectedly) Having a green thumb (being skillful at gardening) Being at the silver screen (at the film industry) Being a blue collar (a worker doing a manual labor) Having a yellow streak (feeling cowardly) Turning as white as sheet (turning very pale) Having a white elephant (a useless possesion) Receiving a pink slip (being fired)

While I would say that the most advisable way to improve diction is practicing with a native speaker, one way to do it on your own is using Google. Yes! Go to http://translate.google.com and type in the words or full phrases or texts you found hard to pronounce, then click on the right-side sound icon and you will listen how the typed words are pronounced. Repeat after listening, and record yourself if possible. Google does not only provides instant translation but natural speaking speech engine that sounds exactly like a native American speaker talks. By repeating yourself the words (much in the way you do in school) your diction will improve with natural accent. I have never understood why English is taught in schools by no-native English speaking teachers, same as audio/video English courses are recorded by Puerto Ricans, which does not help to get you talking like a native English speakers does.

When you are already knowledgeable in a given language, you will release that subtitles while may help you learn the original language of the film, most of the times are inaccurate and reduced to the screen size to allow scenes keep going on with subtitles running at the same pace, Moreover, sometimes translations are done to meet local jokes, reference or slang, what makes subtitles go totally apart from the original language. Let's say you are watching an American movie in which a young man says to the lady; "Oh dear, I can't wait any longer to be with you and love you till dawn" This presumptive phrase should be translated this way; "Oh querida, no puedo esperar más para estar contigo y amarte hasta el amanecer" However the movie subtitle may read likes this "Oh mi amor, no aguanto más, amémonos hasta el amanecer" While the meaning is similar, the translation is not, so that whoever doesn't know that "dear" means "querida(o)" may believe that it means "amor" based on the subtitles read on screen. Even though, subtitles help you a lot to prove your knowledge on a given language because the more you learn, the easy you will find this type of on-screen inaccuracies

There is no occasion when I don't have to correct occasion, no matter how often I write it down; just know used here twice, and right clicking twice to get my browser fixing the misspell. Other words I'm conscious to misspell all the time is this, conscious, and subconscious, which are words I use continuously because many things we do or we don't are connected with our conscious/subconscious mind... and I was unable to write these words correctly in this paragraph, using again the same old trick of right clicking to get the browser fixing them

The first sentence is literal translation of the the English phrase into English. However in Mexico, and almost anywhere where Spanish is spoken, it's not necessary making use of personal pronounces for reading or speaking purposes. I live in Mexico City and if someone would ask "why don't your touch the turtle", this person would simply say; "por qué no tocas la tortuga" So the pronoun "you" is not really used when you are talking directly to someone, and notice that we don't say "a la tortuga" but "la tortuga" simply because is the only choice in this phrase. To say "por qué no tocas a la tortuga" would be necessary extra context, in example; "You are touching the lizard and the chameleon so, why don't you touch the turtle?" In this case we would ask say; "Estás tocando a la lagartija y al camaleón, entonces, ¿por qué no tocas a la tortuga?" In addition, depending to whom you are addressing the question, there is a variable for the former translation. If you are asking this to a young person or someone to whom you talk colloquially, you would ask "¿por qué no tocas la tortuga?" However if you are asking to a senior person or someone who deserves a respectful treatment, you would say "¿por que no toca la tortuga? If translated literally you would be exchanging you (tú) for you (usted) which is the formal way to treat people we don't know, senior/elder people, authority persons and else.

We all think in our mother language, this is why you call it "in-built" sense; there is nothing to worry about because thoughts flow automatically in such language that you fully understand because it's spoken at home and you used to listen to it even while being still into your mom's womb. However here is where the key factor to learn a second or third language lies on; new students tend to put into their mother language whatever they want to express in a second one. Let me elaborate a bit; If you tell a student to say in Spanish "how was the weather today?", his mind will probably ramble first to translate in his mind word by word the phrase before coming across with the literal translation; "¿Cómo estuvo el clima hoy?" However in Spanish people may ask for the same just saying "Que tal el clima de hoy". Nonetheless to understand what is the best approach used to translate a phrase, you need to think of Spanish rather than thinking of English to translate it. When you learn to think of the language you are studying, learning will be easier and translations more accurate.

Spanish literature has remarkable authors, and some of their works are translated to English for the avid student that wants to understand what the Spanish words means. I would recommend the reading of "The Works of Garcilaso de la Vega", known to as The King of Castillan Poets. Garcilaso de la Vega was a noble soldier and poet who was born it Toledo, Spain, sometime around 1494 and 1503, written mainly tragic love poetry. The Gutenberg Project has a downloadable book of his works translated to English, in different formats to choice from, http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/49410 There are also some samples of his poetry written in its original Spanish language available here, http://www.lcc.uma.es/~perez/sonetos/garcilaso.html

Don't worry means literally "no te preocupes" in Spanish. Spanish speaking people may say someone; "No te preocupes, todo va a salir bien" (Don't worry, everything is going to be okay") and this is the grammatically correct way to use the term.