My Turn 2

[Elexpatriado]

Its a little more correct with the "lo", as in the Daddy yankee song lo que paso, paso ( en pasado), but once again native speakers drop it too,. I think they do for a couple verses in the song too.

[Elexpatriado]

Hows my Quebecois and Newfie Grammar??

[Gavan]

How about "Vamos a ver lo que va a pasar."    Actually, I think the sentence  is correct with the "lo" or without it, just that adding it "sounds better", at least to me.

How about it, IV? You can confirm or correct all three of us

I would say "vamos a ver que pasa" (if what you are trying to say is "we'll see what happens").

Here are some random examples of it being used:

http://www.elperiodicoextremadura.com/noticias/opinion/vamos-ver-pasa_808684.html


http://www.cba24n.com.ar/content/candidatura-de-de-la-sota-vamos-ver-que-pasa


http://www.americatv.com.pe/noticias/espectaculos/guty-carrera-sobre-su-eliminacion-vamos-ver-que-pasa-mas-adelante-n132263

Its a little more correct with the "lo", as in the Daddy yankee song lo que paso, paso ( en pasado), but once again native speakers drop it too,. I think they do for a couple verses in the song too.

Nice, another Daddy Yankee fan    However, I don't think that using Puerto Rican reggaeton songs as an example of correct Spanish is a good idea...    They are full of slang and even most non-Boricua (Puerto Rican) Spanish speakers only understand half of what they are saying.

[michaelb]

Hmmm, come to think about it, they drop the "lo' out of this song too: "Que será será. The future's not ours to see, que será, será.", but then it's mostly a pop song in English with just a little Spanish thrown in, so maybe it shouldn't count. But then we're sitting here hijacking pchip's thread about his wife and kid arriving, maybe we should keep the grammar over in the other thread.[/font] [/font]

[whitey]

I said I wasnt gonna get into , but since you dont know whats gonna happen in the future, the subjuntivo "Vaya  a pasar" is more correct. But few people use subjuntivo, even netive speakers, other than for  ordenes"Tengas un Buen dia" o "Vengas aca". I took a whole week studying it in Peru. Its very complicated

For commands I believe you use imperativo ..


IF you want to command someone to have a good day or come here in the tu form would be "Ten" and "Ven".


The examples you have above are subjunctivo and would have a "que" in front of them ... wishing someone a good day for example ...

[michaelb]

Anybody else having trouble with the system changing the fonts (as in my post above) if you use spell checker? It's happened to me two or three times in the last couple of days.

[Gavan]

Anybody else having trouble with the system changing the fonts (as in my post above) if you use spell checker? It's happened to me two or three times in the last couple of days.

Yeah, this forum's software seems kind of buggy. I think the owner should change it to a different one, like phpBB https://www.phpbb.com/

[fathertime]

Anybody else having trouble with the system changing the fonts (as in my post above) if you use spell checker? It's happened to me two or three times in the last couple of days.

Hey Michaelb,


I have this problem all the time...I don't use the spell checker but still have issues...sometimes my posts show up in a font of about .0001...until I go back and modify them.


Fathertime! 

[pchip]

Wonder if there is a "One Semester of French French Love Song"?

Only place I've been in Canada is Vancouver Island. I thought Victoria was nice. I remember sitting in my (ex-)father-in-law's house talking with some of my (ex-)brother-in-laws. They had a jar of honey on the table and I looked at the label and noticed it was written all in English. I said "Hey, I thought there was a law here that everything had to be labeled in English and French." They said "There is. But BC don't give a damn about those %$#@ eating Frenchies".

Although I may be mistaken and there might be a Federal law about bilingual labels, my understanding is that the bilingual law (Loi 101) only applies in Quebec (as being a provincial law)...  Federal only requires Gouvernement services to be in both official languages (and even at that).

[pchip]

Pchip,

First of all, a very sincere congratulations!! I know how hard it is when they come here and then we have to go off to work, feeling (and it's actually true) that we're leaving them in an alien land, apart from us---even if for just a little while. It will most certainly get better!

There is some comfort in there already being people who speak Spanish there, including Colombians and local foods. We had that too in our city and were fortunate to have a few folks from my wife's country we felt were good company, without over doing it.

When I mentioned earlier this year we were planning a trip to Canada, you were gracious enough to invite my wife and I to visit--super nice of you, considering all the preparations you were going through. Thanks again. However Ontario, being closer to my parent's home, was the best scenario this time. We spent several days with my parents and sisters, then a few days in Toronto. Coming back, we stopped in London, Ontario and spent some time with Whitey and his lovely wife Nazly. Like you, words like 'gracious', 'good natured' and 'fun' just aren't adequate. Nazly and my wife really got along well--Nazly's English was quite good! Practice....practice..

One thing that really struck me as incredible was how nice almost every single Canadian person was to us, so I think your new family will be well received. In most areas, half or more were foreign born, but all were nice.

Funny (to me anyway) and a touching story was after we left Whitey and Nazly, we stopped by the high way to tank up with gas--our last stop in Canada. I wanted to spend the last of my Canadian currency and I had a big pocket full of one dollar coins 'Loons' (loonies) and two dollar coins-- 'Toons' (toonies), nickels and dimes, and some of the polymer larger denomination bills. I looked like a fool with them all laid out on the counter, trying to add them all up to figure how much gas (petrol) I could purchase.

A modestly dressed lady behind me, not the least bit impatient, observed me and thought perhaps I was short on cash. In a quiet way, with a sweet smile, she said to the cashier; "Whatever the balance this fellow needs, please put it on my credit card--that will be fine, thank you". We already felt wonderful about Canada--that blew my mind!

I'm sure not everyone by a long shot in Canada is like that, but wherever we went, tourist spots, restaurants--wherever, people were so nice, not as up tight as many 'south of the border' and I'm glad that's the kind of place you're at! Oh Canada!

Best wishes!

Rob

Nice story!!!  And as I PM'd, anytime you want to come, just give me a howl!

[pchip]

Felicidades! that is great news!
She won't get so homesick if there is colombianos around, it will give her time to decompress and adapt faster I think. Best wishes~

Muchas Gracias!!!

[pchip]

Congratuations Pchip.


This shall be an interesting time.  I can't recall another poster having his wife in French Classes.  I would think it wouldn't be too difficult a transition language wise.  Since I assume you speak French, Spanish, and English, would you say that French is closer to Spanish than English?


Well enjoy,


Fathertime!

Personally, I speak 4 languages: French, English, Haitian Creole & Spanish.  IMHO, I'd definitely say that for a Spanish native, that French is pretty easy as the grammar is similar, although the pronunciation is quite distinct.  At my old job where the Service Desk people needed to master 4 languages (French, English, Spanish & Portuguese), I had a lot of latin americans working with me and a lot told me that French was super easy.


On the flip side, French is a strange language in which every other and a half rule has half a dozen exceptions...  Furthermore, my wife is having fun on stuff that I'd never think about twice (as "el" in Spanish is masculine, but is pronunced the same way as "elle" in French which is feminine). 


So in the end, we take on turn having fun on each other for our mistakes...  Makes us laugh... then kiss... then...

[pchip]

They dont speak real French in Quebec.. just a kinda crude Creole...

I'd venture to say that we speak "Québécois" not French.  But hey, it's the same for every language.  Look at the Brits vs the Americans or the Spanish vs Latin America...

[pchip]

Congrats pchip - looks like you've got yourself an instant family!  Montreal is one of the most beautiful cities in Canada, so hopefully they will adjust soon and enjoy their new lives.  I've found that Colombians are generally speaking very adaptable.

Being of Haitian origin myself, I've looked at the social effects of immigrants meeting on foreign land for a long time.  I've found there's a love/hate relationship:  Spanish people unite and will open their arms for you real quick, however comes time to choose between a spaniard and a "native canadian" they'll go native most of the time

Living in Quebec and needing to learn both English and French adds a whole new level of complexity.  My wife has been self-studying French ... oddly enough she thinks it's more difficult than English, even though I think it's much closer in structure to Spanish than English.

Both have their challenges

Get ready to loosen the ole purse strings! You'll be spending a lot of time in the malls soon to get them geared up for fall and winter weather.

Oh mama, so right about that.. whew!!!

[gumble555]

   Hey kouman ou yé ? Mwen bien content pou ou !

[InnocentVixen]

Vamos a ver que vaya pasar. Buen Suerte. Tienes huevos mas grande que los mios!!!

I mentioned before I hate grammar, so would a few examples be enough?

• Vamos a ver que pasa, buena suerte. Sus huevos son mas grandes que los mios.
• Veremos que pasa, buena suerte. Tiene mas huevos que yo.
• A ver que pasa, buena suerte. Tienes muchos huevos.

lol it's so awkward for a girl to basically type testicles this much hahaha


The third one might be mexicanized, I used "tu" instead of usted and by saying you have plenty you are implying that more than most people you know including yourself.

[buencamino]

I would say "vamos a ver que pasa" (if what you are trying to say is "we'll see what happens").

Here are some random examples of it being used:

http://www.elperiodicoextremadura.com/noticias/opinion/vamos-ver-pasa_808684.html


http://www.cba24n.com.ar/content/candidatura-de-de-la-sota-vamos-ver-que-pasa


http://www.americatv.com.pe/noticias/espectaculos/guty-carrera-sobre-su-eliminacion-vamos-ver-que-pasa-mas-adelante-n132263


Nice, another Daddy Yankee fan    However, I don't think that using Puerto Rican reggaeton songs as an example of correct Spanish is a good idea...    They are full of slang and even most non-Boricua (Puerto Rican) Spanish speakers only understand half of what they are saying.

Also "a ver que pasara"

[whitey]

lol it's so awkward for a girl to basically type testicles this much hahaha

Thanks for the grammar lesson IV ... sorry, should have realized we were asking you to comment on something a little vulgar.  Actually, it was all an elaborate plot to get you to write huevos 3 times.


It's funny how a swear word or vulgarity doesn't carry the same impact when it's not your native language ... it's more or less just sounds unless you are really fluent both with the language and culture.


My wife has a few times repeated a swear word or vulgar phrase from a movie we're watching, just to try the sound or ask what it means ... always sounds a bit shocking to me as she never swears.  I've done the same thing in Spanish a few times with the same result on her.

[InnocentVixen]

Thanks for the grammar lesson IV ... sorry, should have realized we were asking you to comment on something a little vulgar.  Actually, it was all an elaborate plot to get you to write huevos 3 times.

Well it worked 


About using swear words or vulgarity in your second language, I think sometimes while exploring the language to express yourself better you get in trouble. So it wouldn't hurt you show your shock openly to Nazly so she doesn't embarrass herself later and suggest less shocking alternatives.


A funny situation with W was when he was practicing his spanish (thank god nobody was around) and said the word "culo" which is a perfectly normal word for spaniards to refer to buttocks but in Mexico it is considered a very low class and vulgar way to say specifically anus. I thought he was joking at first since I know in Colombia it is also considered vulgar and that is where he had practiced his spanish before, but nope, turns out he was completely unaware it was not a "normal" word.


Reminds me of a british guy I talked to that said "I really wish I could have a fag" you can imagine my shock, the guy was trying to quit smoking and was craving a cigarette or so he said hahaha

[raycjs]

congratulations and I hope all works out for the best, can she SKYPE with her family and friends back home? if so that will help her get adjusted...


best of luck to you

Ray