Basic Spanish
The blurring of international lines in today’s globalized culture has spurred for many the need to develop language skills beyond the mastery of one’s native tongue. Audio training programmes have been around for years and offered self-study to international travelers and business professionals expanding their business pursuits into the world market. These internet and CD programmes teach broad scope conversational language skills in the privacy of one’s own home.
As with other Latin-based languages, Spanish sentence structure differs from English in one basic way: the noun precedes the verb. So instead of saying “I’ll buy that purse” the correct Spanish sentence is “That purse I’ll buy.” This rule also applies to the proper placement of adjectives. “I have a red purse” in Spanish reads “Red purse have I.”
Subject nouns are commonly absent from Spanish sentences unless the speaker wishes to emphasize the subject noun. “I am English” becomes “Am English” and the subject noun is implied to be the speaker. Therefore the literal “Yo soy Ingles” is more traditionally versed “Soy Ingles” and the audience understands that the “Ingles” is the speaker.
Questions are distinguished by punctuation in the written word or inflection in the spoken word, but rarely incorporate changes in the sentence structure. “You live in Spain” (“Vivas en Espa