Lesson 6: Starting to use the Thinking Method Flashcards
what is the thinking method
Our aim is to find the Spanish for “I want to Celebrate”
Our first aim is to find the Spanish for “I want to Celebrate” so:
- Does Celebrate in English have a ‘tion’ version? Yes, celebration.
- So we drop the ‘tion’ and add ‘r’ to give us the to version of the Spanish verb celebrar (to celebrate)
- We know I want is Quiero so now we have the full sentence:
SpanishSpanish
Quiero celebrar
EnglishEnglish
I want to celebrate
what is the thinking method
Our aim is to find the Spanish for “I want to illustrate
Does Illustrate in English have a ‘tion’ version? Yes, Illustration.
So we drop the ‘tion’ and add ‘r’ to give us the to version of the Spanish verb ilustrar (to illustrate)
We know I want is Quiero so now we have the full sentence:
SpanishSpanish
Quiero ilustrar
EnglishEnglish
I want to illustrate
So if you were trying to say “I want to draw” but you don’t know “to draw” verb, what do you do?
What makes this method so effective is that even if you don’t know how to say a particular sentence you can often think yourself to a solution.
you might stumble across ‘illustrate’ as an alternative word. Following the Thinking Method steps you could then find the Spanish verb ‘to illustrate’ and make yourself understood.
what does the word Lus mean in spanish
Illustrate (or ilustrar) both contain the word ‘lus’. Luz (with a z) in Spanish means light so you can see the root of the verb illustrate comes from the idea of putting light on something to make it clearer.
So there you go. Now you know the Spanish word for light!
what is the thinking method
Our aim is to find the Spanish for “I want to find out”
We don’t know find but ‘inform’ is an alternative word which as a ‘tion’ version’ - information
Drop the ‘tion’ and add an ‘r’ and we have informar (to inform)
We need to make clear that we want to inform ourselves, not someone else, so we add ‘me’ to the end of the verb -
informarme
SpanishSpanish
Quiero informarme
EnglishEnglish
I want to find out / inform myself
what is one of of saying “you”
One of the ways to say ‘You’ in Spanish is ‘te’.
Te
You / Yourself
Te can be seen as an informal way to say ‘you’ but also of a way to say ‘yourself’.
I say one way because you’ll see other forms like ‘tu’ later but for now we’ll just concentrate on ‘te’.
“I don’t want to oblige you”
say this in Spanish
We’re very familiar now with No quiero (I don’t want)
Obligation exists in English so from there we can find the Spanish verb Obligar (to oblige).
We need to say who we don’t want to oblige so we add ‘te’ to the end of the verb to get obligarte
SpanishSpanish
No quiero obligarte
EnglishEnglish
I don’t want to oblige you
how do you say “it” in spanish
There are several ways to say ‘it’ in Spanish because words have genders (masculine, femenine) but the default word is lo so if in doubt use this.
Lo is also used when the it being described has no gender, such as when lo refers to a situation, experience, relationship, etc.
“I want to cancel it”
say this in Spanish
SpanishSpanish
Quiero cancelarlo
EnglishEnglish
I want to cancel it
Introducing ‘him’
what is it in spanish
lo refers to both ‘it’ and ‘him’ in Spanish
“I want to save him”?
say this in Spanish
We’re very familiar now with quiero (I want)
We don’t know save but there is a word in English “Salvation” which has a similar meaning so we’ll try that.
It ends ‘tion’ so we can take this off and add an r to get the Spanish verb ‘Salvar’ (to save)
We know the subject gets popped on the end of the verb so that gives us ‘Salvarlo’
SpanishSpanish
Quiero salvarlo
EnglishEnglish
I want to save him
what does the word Experimentar (To experiment) also mean
Experimentar also means to experience and that’s a great concept. We learn by experimenting, we learn by experience.
So “I want to experience it” is Quiero experimentarlo
when following this thinking method of words that end in -‘tion’, only what type of word does this apply to?
Stick with words that relate to actions (participation) rather than things (station) as things sometimes act slightly differently and it might be confusing at this point.
Remember these are general rules and they won’t work 100%
what are the three persons thing you learnt?
me
him
it
Me
Lo
Lo
words ending in ‘ence’ and ‘ance’
what are these in Spanish?
- difference
- influence
- inconsistency
Another quick rule relates to words ending ‘ence’ or ‘ance’ which simply need to have the last ‘e’ replaced with ‘ia’ to get the Spanish.
Diferencia
Difference
Influencia
Influence
Existencia
Existence
Consistencia
Consistence
Inconsistencia
Inconsistence
Incongruencia
Incongruence
