So let’s start the weekend with a very cool Latin song, Amor Gitano (Gypsy Love) by Beyoncé and Alejandro Fernández. Mind you, along with Christina Aguilera I think Beyoncé has an incredible pronunciation and as you can see in the video after the lyrics, she worked hard to get it right.

Amor Gitano was also he intro theme for telenovela Zorro, la Espada y la Rosa. Check out the first chapter here!

Sin más preámbulos (without further ado), let’s have fun with the song! Tengan todos un muy bueno fin de semana.

Amor Gitano

Ven y quédate conmigo, dame el corazón
Vida mía estoy murriendo lento en mi prisión.

Anda, dime lo que sientes, quítate el pudor
Y deja de sufrir, escapa con mi amor.
Después te llevaré hasta a dónde quieras,
Sin temor y sin fronteras hasta dónde sale el sol.

Contigo soy capaz de lo que sea
No me importa lo que venga
Porque ya sé a donde voy.

Soy tu gitano
Tu peregrino
La única llave de tu destino
El que te cuida más que a su vida
Soy tu ladrón.

Soy tu gitana
Tu compañera
La que te sigue
La que te espera
Voy a quererte aunque me saquen el corazón.

Y aunque nos cueste la vida,
Y aunque duela lo que duela
Esta guerra la ha ganado nuestro amor.
Esta guerra la ha ganado nuestro amor.

Yo nací para tus ojos, para nadie más
Siempre voy a estar en tu camino

Alma de mi alma, corazón de tempestad
Dime por dónde ir.
Después te llevaré hasta a dónde quieras
Sin temor y sin fronteras
Hasta dónde sale el sol

Contigo soy capaz de lo que sea
No me importa lo que venga
Porque ya sé a dónde voy.

Soy tu gitano…

The Making of Amor Gitano

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

El premio se entrega cada 23 de Abril, fecha en que se conmemora la muerte de uno de los grandes escritores nacionales y universales, Miguel de Cervantes, en el Paraninfo de la Universidad de Alcalá de Henares, ciudad natal de dicho autor.

Este año el ganador del certamen ha sido el chileno Nicanor Parra, conocido creador de la “antipoesía”, forma de expresión que huye de la lírica tradicional y sus reglas. Quizá no sea este uno de sus poemas más representativos, pero me gustó, y quiero compartirlo con vosotros.

Este año el ganador del certamen ha sido el chileno Nicanor Parra, conocido creador de la “antipoesía”, forma de expresión que huye de la lírica tradicional y sus reglas. Quizá no sea este uno de sus poemas más representativos, pero me gustó, y quiero compartirlo con vosotros.

CAMBIOS DE NOMBRE

A los amantes de las bellas letras
Hago llegar mis mejores deseos
Voy a cambiar de nombre a algunas cosas.

Mi posición es ésta:
El poeta no cumple su palabra
Si no cambia los nombres de las cosas.

¿Con qué razón el sol
Ha de seguir llamándose sol?
¡Pido que se llame Micifuz
El de las botas de cuarenta leguas!

¿Mis zapatos parecen ataúdes?
Sepan que desde hoy en adelante
Los zapatos se llaman ataúdes.
Comuníquese, anótese y publíquese
Que los zapatos han cambiado de nombre:
Desde ahora se llaman ataúdes.

Bueno, la noche es larga
Todo poeta que se estime a sí mismo
Debe tener su propio diccionario
Y antes que se me olvide
Al propio dios hay que cambiarle nombre
Que cada cual lo llame como quiera:
Ese es un problema personal.

Nicanor Parra, awarded with Miguel de Cervantes Prize

There are many literary awards, but one of the most important for the Spanish letters is the Miguel de Cervantes Prize. It is not rewarded a book, as in some other prizes, but a whole professional path. Because of that it is usually granted to writers of slightly advanced age. One of the characteristics of this award is that it cannot be given posthumously, nor shared. The only exception was in 1978, when the juror granted the Cervantes Prize to Gerardo Diego and Jorge Luis Borges, both deserving it with no doubt. If you ever visit the old Alcala de Henares University, somebody will tell you why. As introduction I give you an image of the prize that is given to the writer.

The prize is awarded every April 23rd, day in which we commemorate the death of one of the most important national and universal writers, Miguel de Cervantes, in the Auditorium of the Alcala de Henares University, natal city of the above mentioned author.

This year the winner of the prize has been the Chilean Nicanor Parra, very well known creator of the “antipoetry”, a form of expression that goes away from the traditional poetry and its rules. Probably this is not one of his more representative poems, but I liked it, and I want to share it with you. (Poem above)

Learning how to pronounce a foreign language like a native speaker is difficult at first, but not impossible. The more you practice, the easier you will find it to understand a native speaker. With your ears tuned to the sounds and rhythms of your new language, you’ll find learning how to pronounce the language gets easier and easier.

If your language course includes a recorded pronunciation guide with exercises, listen to them but don’t try to learn everything in one go. Beware of pronunciation guides that compare the sounds of your new language with your native language. This can be misleading as the sounds, particularly the vowels, are often different.

Some language courses can help you learn the basics of pronunciation: when introducing new words they break them up and teach you how to pronounce each syllable. Rosetta Stone courses also help you learn basic pronunciation. Once you’ve got to grips with the pronunciation of your new language, you need to learn how to associate the sounds to the written letters or symbols of the language.

This is pretty easy for languages like Italian, Spanish and Japanese, which are consistent with their pronunciation schemes. Other languages, such as English, French and Danish, present more of a challenge since their spelling is more irregular and seemingly chaotic. Learning a language written with a different writing system can add to this difficulty.

Singing a language

If you enjoy singing, try learning some songs in the language you’re learning. This is a fun way to improve your pronunciation. You could also try learning to recite poems and stories. Listening to songs in your new language is an enjoyable way to improve your listening comprehension, especially if you have the lyrics written out so that you can follow them as you listen.

Accents

Human speech can produce a total of over 800 different sounds. Babies and small children can hear all possible phonemes but soon develop a preference for the sounds they hear in their native language(s). Children tend to be very good mimics which enables them to learn foreign languages faster and with native sounding accents.

When learning foreign languages in later life, most people are used to the sounds of their native language(s) and find it difficult to hear and pronounce phonemes not present in their native language. This is why most adult language learners have a foreign accent.

In this Beginner level Spanish lesson we are going to learn all about the Present Perfect grammar tense in Spanish – El Pretérito Perfecto – that is used to describe things “we have done”.

The English Present Perfect and the Spanish Pretérito Perfecto are fundamental grammar tenses that we use a lot in everyday conversation. Example sentences of the Present Perfect in English are: “I have eaten a pizza” (In Spanish: “He comido una pizza”) and “She has worked in an office” (“Ella ha trabajado en una oficina”).

In Spanish we use the auxiliary verbs he/has/ha/hemos/habéis/han in a similar way to have/has in English and the main verb in both Spanish and English is always a past participle.

In this Spanish lesson we will see how to make regular past participles for Spanish verbs ending in -ar, -er and –ir, we will see some of the irregular Spanish past participles, we will practice conjugating the verb Trabajar (to work) for all of the different persons, we will see common key words that are always used with the Spanish Pretérito Perfecto, we will see examples of the Spanish Pretérito Perfecto in use and finally we will look at adverbs commonly used with the Spanish Pretérito Perfecto.

How to form Spanish past participles:

• AR verbs: -ado (trabajado)
• ER verbs: -ido (comido)
• IR verbs: -ido (vivido)

Example sentences using the verb “trabajar” with the Spanish Pretérito Perfecto:

• (Yo) he trabajado: I have worked
• (Tú) has trabajado: You have worked (friendly)
• (Usted) ha trabajado: You have worked (formal)
• (Él/ella) ha trabajado: He/She has worked
• (Nosotros/as) hemos trabajado: We have worked
• (Vosotros/as) habéis trabajado: You have worked (group/friendly)
• (Ustedes) han trabajado: You have worked (group/formal)
• (Ellos/as) han trabajado: They have worked
• (Yo) no he trabajado: I haven´t worked

Irregular verbs used with the Spanish Pretérito Perfecto:

• Abrir – abierto: Opened
• Resolver – resuelto: Resolved
• Poner – puesto: Put
• Hacer – hecho: Done
• Cubrir – cubierto: Covered
• Romper – roto: Broken
• Volver – vuelto: Returned
• Descubrir – descubierto: Discovered
• Escribir – escrito: Written
• Decir – dicho: Said
• Ver – visto: Seen

Vocabulary used with the Spanish Pretérito Perfecto:

• Hoy: Today
• Hace cinco minutos: 5 minutes ago
• Hace una hora: An hour ago
• Hace un rato: A while ago
• Esta mañana: This morning
• Esta tarde: This afternoon
• Esta noche: This evening
• Esta semana: This week
• Este mes: This month
• Este año: This year
• Este fin de semana: This weekend
• Este verano: This summer
• Este invierno: This winter

Examples of the Spanish Pretérito Perfecto describing what has been done today:

• Se ha levantado muy temprano: She got up very early
• Ha dejado al niño en el colegio: She took the child to school
• Ha desayunado con unas amigas: She had breakfast with some friends
• Ha abierto su correo electrónico: She opened her email
• Ha leído una novela: She read a novel
• Ha trabajado mucho en la oficina: She has worked a lot in the office
• Ha tenido una reunión importante: She had an important meeting
• Ha visto a su madre y han comido juntas: She met her mother and they had lunch together
• Ha llegado tarde a buscar a su hijo: She arrived late to pick up her son
• Ha ido en coche a la ciudad: She went to the city by car
• Ha acostado al niño: She put the child to bed
• Ha salido a cenar con unos amigos: She went out for dinner with some friends

Adverbs used with the Spanish Pretérito Perfecto:

• Ya: Already
• Aún no: Not yet
• Todavía no: Not yet

• ¿Has escrito la postal?: Have you written the postcard?
• Sí, ya la he escrito: I have already written it
• No, aún no la he escrito / No, todavía no la he escrito: I haven´t written it yet
• ¿Ha llegado Pedro?: Has Pedro arrived?
• Sí, ya ha llegado: Yes, he has arrived
• No, aún no ha llegado/ No, todavía no ha llegado: No, he hasn´t arrived yet

• Alguna vez: Ever
• Nunca: Never

• ¿Has esquiado alguna vez?: Have you ever skied before?
• No, nunca he esquiado: No, I have never skied

To start with, the Spanish Present Perfect may seem a little tricky, but with a bit of time and practice you will see that it is in fact quite straightforward to use and relatively easy to remember.

One of the trickiest things, as always, is remembering the irregularities: in this case the irregular past participles. There are always exceptions to every grammar rule and it is vital to be aware of all of the irregularities in addition to learning and remembering all of the main “regular” rules. There are never that many irregular Spanish verbs connected to any one specific grammar tense, so take your time, relax and look upon them as a challenge. If you make yourself aware of them and start practicing right from the start you will be amazed at how quickly you remember them.
Enjoy your Spanish studies and see you next time.

¡Hasta luego!

I hope you are enjoying my weekly Spanish lessons. Follow this link for many more great resources to help you learn Spanish.