Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Learning Spanish - dormir vs. dormirse

I've been studying Spanish for a few months now, using two main resources:  the free Duolingo site (reviewed here) and also with the paid podcasts from Coffee Break Spanish  (there are free podcasts also; the paid  offers extra material).

I have recently reached reflexive verbs.  As it happens, "me duermo" was one of the first examples presented and that immediately confused me because I remembered "yo duermo" from earlier.  Those of you who already know Spanish know that this is simply the difference between "I go to sleep" and "I sleep", but for a struggling student like me, pointing that out would have helped greatly.

That's one reason why I like Duolingo -  little misunderstandings like that often come up in the comments and are usually quickly straightened out by someone with more skill.  In this case I found what I needed to know at 123 Teach Me's verb conjugation for "dormir", which helpfully noted "For to go to sleep, use the reflexive form of this verb, dormirse", but at other times someone else's confusion has helped me a great deal.

However, Coffee Break Spanish is much more conversational, so I enjoy that too.

At some point Duolingo starts putting up little signposts as you complete a lesson. Mine has been saying that I can "now read 55.6% of all real Spanish articles".  I find that highly amusing.  I might recognize 55.6%  of the words, but I most definitely do not have even 15% comprehension yet.

Someday..

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