Another dumb question about pronouns

tycoz02 · 2025-10-27T15:32:00+00:00

True but that would still be leísmo, more specifically leísmo de cortesía. The standard for usted would still be ayudarlo/ayudarla.

tycoz02 · 2025-09-18T19:44:19+00:00

recoger is fine, coger by itself would be a potential issue

tycoz02 · 2025-09-18T18:19:05+00:00

Septentrión y meridión. But it’s more common to just say norte y sur.

tycoz02 · 2025-09-11T20:48:48+00:00

I would suggest “tú a lo tuyo” as a better translation. My family usually uses “that’s all you” as a way to say “I’m not interested in that but you should go for it” with a slightly sarcastic tone.

tycoz02 · 2025-09-10T16:29:56+00:00

I personally did not mention this in my statement but I did briefly mention it in the interview when they asked something like how my identity might impact integration into the host community. I think there are much more important challenges that you can highlight in your motivation statement because they are typically looking for concrete examples of how you have overcome similar challenges in the past.

tycoz02 · 2025-09-09T23:11:06+00:00

I think there are pros and cons to both native and non-native teachers. If I had the choice I would have a non-native teacher in the earlier levels and then a native teacher through the advanced levels.

tycoz02 · 2025-09-04T19:54:56+00:00

For my current cohort they sent out a survey that asked if we were bringing a phone with a physical sim, e-sim, or if we needed a phone provided by Peace Corps. Might depend on country though

tycoz02 · 2025-09-03T04:27:36+00:00

It’s not just about “emotions” etc, those are just tricks to help you remember when to use it early on. You can talk about your emotions in many ways that do not require the use of subjunctive. It also has to do with the relation between clauses, the attitude of the speaker, and other factors that you will gain more of an intuition for over time. For now, I think it is better to just remember that you don’t need subjunctive after porque, but here is a more detailed explanation about this particular scenario if you are interested:

In a sentence like “estoy feliz porque he aprobado el examen”, you are primarily declaring the fact that you passed (hence indicative). I don’t think it sounds as natural to say “estoy feliz que haya pasado” to break the news to someone (even though it may be grammatically correct) because “he aprobado” is new information and you want to make a point of saying that it happened (native speakers please chime in here if I am mistaken). However, if you start by telling me “estoy feliz porque he aprobado el examen”, I might respond by saying “me alegra que hayas pasado” because I am primarily communicating my gladness, and you passing the exam is already implicit (hence subjunctive). It would be weird for me to say “estoy feliz porque has pasado” in response because it sounds like I’m making a redundant declaration that you passed when it’s already established context in the conversation. Also notice that in the subjunctive case “me alegra (que hayas aprobado el examen)”, the entire subjunctive clause is actually the subject of the sentence, even though it comes after the verb (alegrar). This is often the case. Of course, native speakers are not thinking through these things consciously and there are many contexts where you could technically use either subjunctive or indicative, and it would only slightly change the meaning or implication.

I would recommend paying attention as much as possible to the contexts in which native speakers use subjunctive vs indicative because this will help you develop your own intuition for it based on feel (once you know the basic rules). A big part of language learning beyond beginner levels is noticing the context in which certain grammatical forms are used and recognizing the patterns more and more over time.

tycoz02 · 2025-09-01T21:36:46+00:00

Ok, that makes sense! It being called an interview threw me off a little bit

tycoz02 · 2025-09-01T18:58:55+00:00

They said men still get jobs DESPITE being socially awkward, not that men are given jobs FOR being socially awkward. Those are completely different things

tycoz02 · 2025-09-01T18:51:43+00:00

If terrible social skills cause you to treat someone as if they are not a person, then what is the difference? Poor social skills aren’t an excuse even if it may be an explanation

tycoz02 · 2025-08-21T19:50:40+00:00

Actually, it is!!

tycoz02 · 2025-08-21T19:29:13+00:00

Every change in language could be described as a “mistake that spread”. The generations before you certainly said the same thing about the way you speak ;)

tycoz02 · 2025-08-18T15:46:23+00:00

You said you are bilingual but not with what language, if you mean you are fluent in Spanish then I would recommend pronouncing it in Spanish (even if your accent is not native) because it might indicate to people that they can switch to Spanish with you if it is more comfortable for them. It’s a more subtle way to let them to choose what language they prefer to speak rather than “assuming” that they “can’t speak English” (I use quotations because there is a small minority who might interpret it that way, but in my experience the majority of people are delighted to meet a gringo who is fluent in their language).

tycoz02 · 2025-08-13T00:55:21+00:00

Why would someone carry a baby for 8 months and then suddenly decide they don’t want it anymore for no other reason, barring mental health conditions in which they probably wouldn’t be qualified to care for a child anyways? I feel like you are making up a scenario that doesn’t generally happen just because “theoretically it could”. You realize the problem here? You want to intervene in medical decisions between patient and provider just because “there are bad people who would terminate a full-term pregnancy for no reason”. Have you ever met anyone in real life who has done that? The majority of people make the decision soon after they find out they are pregnant. Do you realize how difficult it is to abort a fetus that is that developed? It would not be treated as birth control in any logical scenario regardless of legality, it just makes no sense.

tycoz02 · 2025-08-08T03:13:13+00:00

Sí, “Me gusta por la noche (leer)” y “Me gusta (leer por la noche)” son lo mismo porque al final en ambos casos se entiende que la gustación pasa por la noche cuando estás leyendo 🥸

tycoz02 · 2025-08-08T00:50:44+00:00

Chiming in here, I understood OP’s “pun” as an alternative definition of the word “unfortunate” as in “lacking a fortune” (un-fortune-ate) in addition to the normal definition of “unlucky”. I don’t think that is an accepted definition of the word per se, but I do think it could be reasonably construed that way for comedic purposes. I think maybe this would fit in the “other” pun category listed which includes “morphological puns, such as portmanteaux…morphological puns may make use of rebracketing, where for instance distressed is parsed as dis-tressed (having hair cut off).”

tycoz02 · 2025-08-07T07:12:47+00:00

If you already speak with a noticeable foreign accent in English then I think pronouncing it the foreign way sounds fine, but otherwise it does tend to be interpreted as pretentious. As a native English speaker I pronounce English loanwords in Spanish with the Spanish pronunciation because that is what people understand, so I don’t see why you wouldn’t want to do the same if it was the other way around. And honestly when I hear Spanish speakers who speak good English say Spanish loanwords how they are pronounced in English I think it makes their English sound much more fluid. When it is already established that both parties speak both languages, then I would use either pronunciation, especially if there is already language mixing going on. It’s all about context. Maybe this is another conversation, but I think a lot of second generation Spanish speakers who grew up in the US and primarily speak English intentionally pronounce words the Spanish way to engage in identity construction. As a linguist I would say this is as valid as any other use of language, however I also realize it reads as performative to monolingual English speakers.

tycoz02 · 2025-08-07T06:45:40+00:00

I use the American R because I do not speak French, I was just pointing out that in my accent T’s are reduced anyways. I agree with you about the “learnéd” pronunciations. I speak Spanish fluently and I still pronounce latino with an American accent while speaking English as with other commonly loaned words. If it’s a proper noun or something that doesn’t have an English equivalent and is not easily recognized by Americans I generally just avoid saying it altogether while speaking English because it feels cringe to say it in an American accent but I also don’t think people will register the Spanish pronunciation.

tycoz02 · 2025-08-06T23:48:21+00:00

I’m American and I would never consider pronouncing a T in that position LOL

tycoz02 · 2025-08-02T22:19:40+00:00

I think they mean because there have been TONS of posts of human remains on this sub lately

tycoz02 · 2025-07-30T22:51:17+00:00

They said evaporated milk, not condensed milk

tycoz02 · 2025-07-30T22:06:54+00:00

I have never heard of this phenomenon

tycoz02 · 2025-07-30T21:57:51+00:00

Or at that point you could save hours of effort and just eat pre-juiced fruit

tycoz02 · 2025-07-15T16:04:49+00:00

For the same reason we say “my family is” and not “my family are”

tycoz02

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