Update

I added a page! :) I love it you can add pages on blogspot now, it was the only thing that was missing really, but now it's better than wordpress I think.

So, what's going on? Since I have summer holidays, I have lots of time for languages. When I started this blog my plan was actually to start learning a new language in January and try to be fluent in a year... but I couldn't resist it and started learning Swedish! Tight schedules are really not for me. Well, to make sure I do actually do something, these are my goals for the end of the year:

1. Become conversational in Spanish. I can already easily have conversations in Spanish, but I keep constantly using google translate, and I cant say what I want to say.. and although I don't need to be fluent yet, I want to be at a level where I can make talking with friends my daily Spanish practice.

2. Learn German grammar and be able to have conversations. When I see German friends chatting on irc, or their facebook, etc, I understand pretty much everything. But when I try to speak some German - nothing! I don't know how to conjugate verbs, I don't know a lot of basic grammar rules, and I don't know a lot of basic words! So, I'm gonna find out what exactly is still keeping me from speaking German and then just speak it.

3. Learn some more Swedish, say... level A2. I'm trying to learn as little grammar as possible and figure things out by myself, and it's really much easier than I thought! When I've learned enough to form my own sentences and when I'm getting really curious, I'll buy a book and see how well I really did.

Oh and also, I'm gonna go to France in september! And although I won't be speaking French a lot there (I'm going with school) I'm definitely gonna take every chance I get! In September, I will have had no French class for 2 months (well, it's not like, I learn a lot in French class :P), so I'll try to learn some French on LingQ.

All of this sounds really fun to me actually! ^^

Dutch verbs (part 1?)

This is for Arty <3

Present			Step 1: remove –en from the infinitive (werken) Step 2: add the right ending That’s how easy it is :)
ik jij, u, hij, zij, het wij, jullie, zij		werk werkt werken
Some rules for the stem: ·         Long vowel infinitives require long vowel stems  (praten -> praat) ·         A stem never ends in two identical consonants (stoppen -> stop) ·         A stem never ends in v or z (schrijven -> schrijf, lezen -> lees) ·         The stem of an '-iën verb' ends in ie (also zien -> zie)
Irregular
ik jij, u hij, zij, het wij, jullie, zij	zijn (to be) ben bent is zijn			hebben (to have) heb hebt heeft hebben	gaan (to go) ga gaat gaat gaan

Past
Weak verbs						Step 1:remove –en from the infinitive to get the stem Step 2:check if the last letter is t, k, f, s, ch, p Step 3:add the right ending to the ik-form of the verb (not the stem!)
ik jij, u, hij, zij, het wij, jullie, zij		werkte werkte werkten		leerde leerde leerden
So, when do you use –te(n) and when do you use –de(n)? You use –te(n) when the last letter of the stem is t, k, f, s, ch (only this combination, not c or h), and p. There’s a word to remember this: ’t kofschip Only use the consonants! The word is a little hard to remember if you don’t speak Dutch I guess.
Strong verbs
Strong verbs are, unfotunately, a little harder. You can’t add –ed to every verb in English, and the same goes for Dutch. Strong verbs change a vowel in the past tense. For example, in English it’s: I drink -> I drank. In Dutch it’s: ik drink -> ik dronk. You’ll just need to learn what verbs are strong and what they change to. Some examples:
singular plural	lopen (to walk) liep liepen				eten (to eat) at aten			blijven (to stay) bleef bleven		liegen (to lie) loog logen
Irregular (although there are a lot of verbs that are irregular and don’t just change a vowel, these are the common ones, irregular in the present too)
singular plural			zijn (to be) was waren				hebben (to have) had hadden		gaan (to go) ging gingen

To be continued I guess! And I know this is incredibly boring, I don't know who is actually interested in this.... o_o

Regular Spanish verbs

I couldn't find a good, short, easy explanation about regular Spanish verbs. And as I never really took the time to learn them (after almost a year of learning Spanish xD) I decided to make a quick chart to study, and some pinpoints for when to use them.

Present			Preterite
habl o habl as habl a habl amos habl áis habl an	com o com es com e com emos com éis com en	viv o viv es viv e viv imos viv ís viv e	habl é habl aste habl ó habl amos habl asteis habl aron	com í com iste com ió com imos com isteis com ieron	viv í viv iste viv ió viv imos viv isteis viv ieron
Imperfect			Future
habl aba habl abas habl aba habl ábamos habl abais habl aban	com ía com ías com ía com íamos com íais com ían	viv ía viv ías viv ía viv íamos viv íais viv ían	hablar é hablar ás hablar á hablar emos hablar éis hablar án	comer é comer ás comer á comer emos comer éis comer én	vivir é vivir ás vivir á vivir emos vivir éis vivir én
Conditional			Subjunctive
hablar ía hablar ías hablar ía hablar íamos hablar íais hablar ían	comer ía comer ías comer ía comer íamos comer íais comer ían	vivir ía vivir ías vivir ía vivir íamos vivir íais vivir ían	habl e habl es habl e habl emos habl éis habl en	com a com as com a com amos com áis com an	viv a viv as viv a viv amos viv áis viv an
Gerund			Past participle
habl ando	com iendo	viv iendo	habl ado	com ido	viv ido

Present

Pretty obvious when to use this, same as in English

Preterite

Past tense.  You use this one when:

-          Something occurred at a fixed point in time

-          Something was done a specific number of times

-          Describing a chain of events

-          Something occurred in a specific enclosed period of time

-          Describing a sudden change of mood

(…in the past)

So, generally, you use the preterite when you know exactly when something happened.

Imperfect

Another past tense. This is used:

-          When talking about actions that occurred repeatedly

-          When something occurred over an extended period of time

-          To start off something you describe, like ‘we were going home when… ‘

-          When describing feelings and mental actions

(of course,  in the past)

Future

You use this when usually in English you would use will or shall. For things in the near future it’s usually better to use ‘ir a’, for things further in the future, use the future tense. It’s also used to express wonder or probability in the present tense (‘who could she be?’).

Note that in the future tense, the endings get added to the complete verb and not tot the stem.

Conditional

This is a very easy one as all you need to do is add the endings of the imperfect (in –er and –ir) to the complete verb (like in the future). This makes it basically a future in the past.

It’s often used wonder or probability in the past (‘who could she have been?’), but also just to describe the future from the perspecrtive of the past.

Subjunctive

The subjunctive is usually used to express doubt, hope, a wish, an opinion.. anything that’s not objective or a fact. It can be quite tricky. It is NOT used with these expression:

creer que ...
to believe that ...

no dudar que ...
to not doubt that ...

es cierto que ...
it is certain that ...

es claro que ...
it is clear that ...

es evidente que ...
it is certain that ...

es obvio que ...
it is obvious that ...

estar seguro que ...
to be sure that ...

es verdad que ...
it is true that ...

no cabe duda que ...
there's no doubt that ...

no es dudoso que ...
it is not doubtful that ...

no hay duda que ...
there is no doubt that ...

Credit goes to Study Spanish. All I did was make a summary.

First post!

So, I really suck at keeping a blog, especially one where I have to write. I am VERY bad at writing. Seriously. You’ll see. But as I’m trying to actually stick to a schedule and everything, language-wise, I think this could really help me stay motivated and organized. I’ll write about my progress here, and about useful tips and links. I doubt I’ve got anything new to tell about languages… But I’ll try ^^
I’ve never seen a 16 year old who likes languages as much as me, so that’s something ‘new’ already I guess. Thanks for reading, even though no one is reading yet!