Hello everyone,
I am well aware that the course has been made for English native speakers and I am usually fine and don’t face any major troubles following it. I was a foreign exchange student in the US, so that helps a lot.
Today I have reached Lesson 18 of course 1. Where you start out talking about the plural.
I know that some of you including Aran also like and study Spanish. So I hope to be able to make myself clear.
I will use stereotypes in my examples, just to drive my point home.
In Spanish we have 2 plural forms. One male and one female.
English:
They (men) drink beer, we (women) drink wine.
Spanish:
Ellos toman cerveza, nosotras tomamos vino.
Or English:
They (women) eat salad, we (men) eat meat.
Spanish:
Ellas comen ensalada, nosotros comemos carne.
And when talking about a mixed group, made up of some women and some men, we use the masculine form.
English:
We (men and women) eat meat with salad.
Spanish:
Nosotros comemos carne con ensalada.
With the plural you “vosotros” you would find the same phenomenon in Spain. In Argentina vosotros is not commonly used.
You did not mention it in the audio, so do I have to assume that in Welsh like in English or German there is only one plural we, you or they? And as the course was made for English native speakers this topic wasn’t touched.
It is just for clarification.
Maybe sometimes the knowledge of different languages leads to confusions. I studied some basics of our indiginous languages and they have an even more complicated concept of we. But useful I think.
They call it including and excluding we.
Including: me, them and you, the person I am talking to
Vs excluding: me and them, but not you
Avoids confusions! Like when I say: we are going to the movies.
Do I want to tell you that I am going with some other friends to the movies or do I actually mean that you and I are going to the movies together?
Just as a useful side information, why I have such a strange question.
Sorry for bothering.
Greetings from the South!
Sibila
