I’ve noticed a couple of changes in the updated Spanish course; Intentar (already discussed on the forum) and Parar de hablar whereas it was (iirc) deja de hablar for “to stop talking”
Just idly wondering why?
I don’t know for sure, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s because you can use parar without anything after it, whereas dejar de is a bit more restricted.
They’re both used frequently in everyday Spanish, so tiene que dejar de hablar and tiene que parar de hablar mean the same thing, but you can say tiene que parar without anything after it, while tiene que dejar .. leaves you feeling like there’s something missing. You need to say tiene que dejarlo or tiene que dejar de hacerlo
One of the aims of the new courses is to give maximum flexibility as early as possible, so that you can get into conversations, and parar just gives that little bit more flexibility.
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Thanks Deborah, I thought that it might be something like that. I am finding the revised course a lot better than the now retired version. In fact I gave up on that one because I couldn’t honestly “trust the process”. I am in Fuerteventura at the moment but it isn’t easy to find any Spanish speakers, nor any Tosdada con tomate y aceite for that matter 
You’ll have to visit Vitoria-Gasteiz! Plenty of Spanish spoken in the streets here - with a bit of Basque, and a fair bit of Arabic 
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I would love to, but cold at the moment maybe but I would really like to see the musical parades that you have shared on-line. We were staying in Calella one year when there was a medieval fare being held, we really enjoyed it.
Our Medieval Market is amazing! I just love the atmosphere and the liveliness of it - last weekend in September: Website of the Vitoria-Gasteiz City Council - Medieval Market
Looks amazing, we’re away in Rodos at that time this year so we’ll have to look at 2027.
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Just come across “mañana en la mañana” in the revised course and I think that in the old retired course it was “mañana por la mañana”. Are they more or less interchangeable or is there a subtle difference between them?
Gracias
I’m not 100% sure, but my feeling is that “mañana por la mañana” is a little more common; however, they both have the same meaning. Where there is an acceptable alternative that is closer to the English, the new courses tend to go with that as it makes the learning that little bit easier, but it will still be something people say.
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Thanks Deborah, I’m going to stick with por la mañana because that’s what comes to mind when I’m saying the Spanish version.
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De nada! Definitely don’t change when something has become natural and the other is just an alternative.
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And my nightly question tonight is…..
The Spanish way to say “she wanted to put it here” is given as “Ella quería poner eso aquí” but I thought that “it” was “lo” so should it not be “Ella quería ponerlo aquí”?
Gracias
Sí, tienes razon. Yes, you’re right. The Spanish given says “she wanted to put that here” though one thing I’ve come to realise living in Spain is that the Spanish aren’t really fussed about precision. As long as they say something close to what they mean, that’s good enough
For learning purposes, I’ll see if I can hunt that phrase down and fix it for whenever there’s an update.
Gracias, Tony!
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De nada.
I don’t think that English speakers are that fussed about precision either!
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Also worth saying that “precision” in these things is often “false precision”. Other than international technical vocabulary, I doubt there is an exact 1-1 correspondence in meaning between any Spanish word and any English word.
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True, but I was thinking more of the use of the mother tongue; the use of the word “Literally” for example.
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That’s a complicated issue.
I personally think it’s legitimate for “literally” to change its meaning in this way, through a very common and normal process of semantic change. Personally, I find it every bit as awful as you do; but that’s just my subjective opinion.
Anyway, I guess my main point is that using it in this way was never about a lack of precision per se and more about sacrificing precision in one domain (the semantic domain) for precision in another (the discourse domain).
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I’ve made this thread so that if there are any queries about sentences in the Spanish course, they can be all together in one place - easier for us if we need to find an errant phrase that needs tweaking.
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Another question….
“He told me that she didn’t want to learn Spanish” is given as “Queria decir que ella no quería aprender español” which, I believe, means “He wanted to say that she didn’t want to learn Spanish” and that the answer should be something like “el me dijo que ella no quería aprender español”
Or am I wrong?
Gracias
Should i
Sí, tienes razón. You’re right. That looks like one we need to revise. Gracias, Tony!
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