How to Master 1200 Spanish Verbs?

[Looking4Wife]

UtopiaCowboy:

I have seen you post more than once that you know 1200 Spanish Verbs.

How did you arrive at this "particular" number... did you take a specific course or study system that covered this number of verbs?

Somehow I don't think that will be your answer, but I can't imagine what would be the answer...

I certainly can't tell you how many English verbs I know, so that seems like a peculiar statement to make...  

[utopiacowboy]

UtopiaCowboy:

I have seen you post more than once that you know 1200 Spanish Verbs.

How did you arrive at this "particular" number... did you take a specific course or study system that covered this number of verbs?

Somehow I don't think that will be your answer, but I can't imagine what would be the answer...

I certainly can't tell you how many English verbs I know, so that seems like a peculiar statement to make...  

Here is what happened. I was feeling kind of frustrated with my Spanish because even though I have a certain degree of "fluency" it's limited in scope. It's like my "world" in Spanish is much smaller than my "world" in English. For example I have no idea what the words are for bulldozer or backhoe or grader but I know three different words for snake. So I asked on PBH what people would consider fluency to be. I also looked on the internet to see possible definitions of fluency and one expert stated command of 2000 verbs. I did a random sampling of Spanish verbs in my Spanish-English dictionary to see how many I knew and I extrapolated from my sample and came up with a ballpark estimate of 1200. Actually I was surprised that I knew that many.

[Looking4Wife]

Muy interesante, gracias mi amigo

[Ken]

Fine but can you conjugate all fourteen tenses of your 1200 verbs? Unfortunately the word for buldozer in common parlance is "buldoser" (with emphasis on the "o"). El Pais used the correct word for backhoe in it's story day before yesterday about the gang who stole one and tried to smash it's way into an armored car holding site but I can't remember the word. Most people I know would just call it "la maquina". I've only ever seen one road grader in Colombia and I doubt  anybody here abouts knows it's correct name. Besides Spanish is pretty imprecise when it comes to technical description. If you go to a ferreteria and ask for "tornillos" you'll have to explain whether you mean screws or bolts. Here's a fun verb: "clavar". You might go to Chipichape and go about "clavando". The employees would see you enter their store and say to each other oh no here come some "clavos" meaning you're going to try on ten pairs of jeans/shoes/shirts and leave without buying anything. The correct, non jerga meaning of "clavo" of course is nail.

[Gator]

Best Bet?  Just grab a verb and shoot from the hip.  Practice makes perfect.  The "Out There hold your nose and dive in survival school of spanish" will accomplish more than all the tapes and books combined.
 :wink:  :wink:

[zapata]

no way Utopia Cowboy has mastered 1200 spanish verbs...I doubt if he knows 1200 english verbs...get real!!!!!!!!

[Ken]

Well whadyamean by mastered? Me I'm holding out for all fourteen tenses.

[utopiacowboy]

My Spanish is far from perfect but I've lived with a woman for the past three years who speaks nothing but Spanish so I think my comprehension must be pretty good. We rarely have a miscommunication. As for the 14 tenses, many of them are literary and rarely used in normal conversation. When I started I spoke like a three year old - everything in the present tense until I had built up enough of a vocabulary to say nearly anything I wanted to say. I moved on to the future, imperative, past imperfect, subjunctive and preterite later and then on to the rest of the tenses after that. Of course I still make mistakes but then I've noticed that even native speakers make mistakes too. Their use of the subjunctive drives me crazy along with the use (and overuse) of reflexive verbs.

[zapata]

again Utopia, there's now way you've mastered 1200 spanish verbs...hell you just started learning spanish a few years back...just admit you're pulling everyone's leg here...again, some guys need to get REAL on these forums!!!!!!

[Ken]

Agree completely with comment about overuse of reflexive verbs. Yes I know most of the tenses are mostly literery. Have to dig 'em up when trying to read Garcia Marquez. You think anybody besides Marquez actually knows them? Hands down the most important Spanish to learn in order to communicate with Colombians is the jerga.

[Pete E]

One of my friends  has been studing spanish very hard for a year or so.He is ahead of me in things like verbs but amazingly I am still better on some practical stuff.This guy will come home with a headache from  trying so hard to be correct in talking with a woman.He speaks slowly searching for verb tenses trying to be totally corect.You can just hear him struggling with it.
I am just the opposite,I just wing it and see if they understand which they usually do.I am sure my grammar sounds awfull .We were talking about verbs one time,I told him if you give them any form of the verb they will know what you are trying to say.He goes,NO,NO,NO!In his mind it needs to be perfect.

Pete

[utopiacowboy]

again Utopia, there's now way you've mastered 1200 spanish verbs...hell you just started learning spanish a few years back...just admit you're pulling everyone's leg here...again, some guys need to get REAL on these forums!!!!!!

What you don't seem to understand is that neither my wife nor anyone in her family (except her children now) speak English. This means that 24x7 everything is done in Spanish. This kind of immersion is the fastest way to learn. My Spanish is better than my daughter who graduated with a B.A. in Spanish and spent a year living in Spain. Also I grew up in Montreal and was fluent in French before this. I agree with Pete that just jumping in and speaking is the best way rather than trying to be "perfect". My wife wants to speak "perfect" English and as a result she doesn't say anything.

The other thing about this is 1200 is not really that many. By that one expert's opinion, that's only half way to fluency. So after three years, here I am halfway to fluency! That's not that big an accomplishment. Spanish is a very regular language and if you learn how to conjugate the regular verbs, you know how to conjugate any verb that belongs to one of the regular families. It's far easier to learn than French which is like English - they have rules but the rules have so many exceptions, the rules are nearly worthless.

[zapata]

sorry UC, but I STILL say you haven't mastered 1200 spanish verbs, just because your wife doesn't speak English, you MIGHT use 50-100 verbs in everyday conversation, if that, and it is still a far cry from 1200...THINK ABOUT IT!!...and Pete is HARDLY an expert on giving advice on speaking spanish...he MIGHT know 5 verbs...sorry!!!!!!!

[soltero]

sorry UC, but I STILL say you haven't mastered 1200 spanish verbs, just because your wife doesn't speak English, you MIGHT use 50-100 verbs in everyday conversation, if that, and it is still a far cry from 1200...THINK ABOUT IT!!...and Pete is HARDLY an expert on giving advice on speaking spanish...he MIGHT know 5 verbs...sorry!!!!!!!

Do you just enjoy being abrasive, or is a talent? Who cares how many verbs the guy knows? How's your Spanish?

[utopiacowboy]

You know what they say, arguing on the internet is like being in the special olympics, even if you win, you're still retarded.

[Ken]

Soltero who do you think you are, some kind of forum traffic cop? The topic of this thread is exactly how many Spanish verbs he knows. Can you read English? If you don't care then why don't you just sit this one out. Zapata has made some accurate if unvarnished observations here.

[soltero]

Soltero who do you think you are, some kind of forum traffic cop? The topic of this thread is exactly how many Spanish verbs he knows. Can you read English? If you don't care then why don't you just sit this one out. Zapata has made some accurate if unvarnished observations here.

Seems like you are just as much a cop as I am since you want to use that particular analogy. I find your friend Zapata to be kind of an [snip] in most of his posts, this one included. I find it rather arrogant that he believes he knows how many verbs someone else could learn and rather simple to keep going on about it. I am sorry if I voiced an opinion that may be contrary to your obvious devotion to his mocking candor. I guess you and he both are under the impression that making an issue about "1200 verbs" is all that interesting.

The man answered the question, if you don't agree with his answer, go spin. Who is your hero that he can make "some accurate if unvarnished observations here" about people he doesn't know? If he eats dinner with UC or Pete, or has spoken to them in Spanish, then I will graciously concede that his ignorant opinion isn't as ignorant as it seems, and you are right in your indignation and aid to such an obviously well thought of friend of yours...

[EbonyPrince]

UC wrote:

This kind of immersion is the fastest way to learn.

My Spanish is far from perfect but I've lived with a woman for the past three years who speaks nothing but Spanish so I think my comprehension must be pretty good.

I am sure UC that your comprehension is very good, which is the most important aspect anyway.  I realized that the more that I would hear Spanish while in Colombia, the better I learned and comprehended.  I would nod and know what many of the women were saying prior to it being translated to me.  Even when I was alone with the women, we were communicating pretty good with each other.  So I wholeheartedly agree with the immersion principle.  I think perfection will come with practice, so I agree with Pete that you have to just wing it in the interim.  Trying to be perfect will drive you nuts.

Personally I don't really think it matters how many verbs that you know, just as long as you can communicate effectively in Spanish.  If I am able to sit and communicate effectively with someone Spanish-speaking, and we both understand each other, I would consider that to be fluent enough.  I don't need to know 1200 or 2000 verbs if I am not going to use them.

For an analogy, any one that programs computers know that there are typically hundreds of commands and statements, if not thousands, in most programming languages.  You can use a small percentage of that language, maybe 25%, and still write effective, powerful applications.

So I think that the most important point is being able to communicate your meaning and understand the meaning of others communicating with you.  If you are successful at doing this, then you are by definition fluent.


flu·ent adj.

Able to express oneself readily and effortlessly: a fluent speaker; fluent in three languages.
Flowing effortlessly; polished: speaks fluent Russian; gave a fluent performance of the sonata.
Flowing or moving smoothly; graceful: a yacht with long, fluent curves.
Flowing or capable of flowing; fluid.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Latin fluns, fluent- present participle of fluere, to flow. See bhleu- in Indo-European Roots.]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
fluen·cy n.
fluent·ly adv.

[Ken]

Well that's ok Soltero I find you to be pretty much an [snip] in most of your posts too.

[soltero]

Well that's ok Soltero I find you to be pretty much an [snip] in most of your posts too.

Thanks! I guess I am in good company since you are such a Zapata fan....

[zapata]

Sorry Soltero, but there has to be some accountability on this board.  Whether it be Kiltboy proclaiming that he is god's gift to latinas, when he is really just your typical gringo whore-monger preying on poor, hard-up Colombian girls, or Jamie who claims that this idiot from the GQ article, who knocked up a poor, mentally unstable girl from BAQ, is a "great" guy, or Utopia Cowboy, who here, and on other sites claims he has mastered over 1200 spanish verbs, when he has only been studying spanish a few short years.  Think about it Soltero...throw 1200 pennies on the ground and see if your boy UC can name a verb for each penny, use it in a sentence and conjugate it properly...I would venture to say that not that many native spanish speakers could do that, let alone a newbie spanish speaker.  I agree with Ebony Prince regarding fluency...you're fluent if you can hold a conversation "fluidly" about any topic.

Now, you guys can believe some of the "crap" the charlatans spew forth on this board, makes no difference to me.

[Malandro]

I say 1200 is not an unreasonable number at all.    Here is a link that shows verbs starting in "a".   there are several hundred.  A  cursory count and I knew 156 of them.    Given "a" is one of the most common letters but I would guess that I know between 1000 to 2000.  

the conjugation of most is regular, or if irregular follows the pattern of other more common irregular verbs so it really isn't all that difficult.  the only verb forms that are unnecessary are the future subjunctive and future perfect.  but they are still easy.   venga lo que viniere.  


that being said, you have to learn the subjunctive because you will not be able to say certain things without it.  


http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Index:List_of_Spanish_Verbs_A

[zapata]

so Malandro, do you mean to tell me and everyone else here that without ever seeing that list, you could sit down and write down 156 spanish verbs that start with "a"???...now, from what I've read on other forums, you're pretty fluent in spanish, but I doubt  that sitting down right now you could list 1200 verbs off the top of your head.  Anyone can look at a list and recognize words, but have you "mastered" them, that is, are they a part of your everyday vocabulary??  Utopia says he has "mastered" 1200 verbs, and I say I doubt it very much.

Again, it's time for guys on this board to get "real".

[Malandro]

yes, they are part of my vocabulary since my vocabulary is more vast and expansive than a Dominican whore's pussy.  

no, I could not sit down and rattle off 1200 Spanish verbs.  but if I were having a conversation I would be able to speak those words without having to think about it or referring to the dictionary.  The context of the conversation would trigger the proper use of these words from my knowledge base.   or if I had to translate the word from English, I would know the Spanish word without having to look it up.  

this is much more meaningful than simply being able to recite 1200 words like a parrot and does in fact represent mastery.

[zapata]

Congrats...good, now that we know your vocabulary is so vast (I'm not familiar with Domincan whores but I'm sure Kiltboy is)...let's get back to the guy I was talking about, not YOU Malandro, but Utpopia Cowboy.