03/22/99

Learning Spanish on the 'Net

Learning Spanish Verbs Spanish verbs always end in either "-ar," "-er," or "-ir." And when they are good, they are very, very good, for they follow the rules and are easy to conjugate. But when they are bad, they are horrid — and you just need to grit your teeth and memorize them. I found these sites to be quite helpful for both learning and practicing the conjugation of Spanish verbs. Vamanos! Vamos al Internet.

Comp-jugador

Comp-jugador can conjugate nearly 10,000 Spanish verbs. Simply type in a verb, and press Conjuga. Your single page response will include conjugations for all tenses. For example, try the verb tener -- to have. The irregular conjugations (those that do not follow the rules such as tengo, tienes, tiene, tienen) are marked in bold, while all regular forms (those that do follow the rules such as tenemos and tenéis) are italicized. I think it's time to replace my thirty-year-old cardboard Cuthbertson verb wheel.

Conjugation Trainer

Now that you've learned the basic rules of conjugation, it's quiz time. Starting with basic verbs in present tense, you'll be presented with an infinitive (such as leer -- to read) and a pronoun (yo -- I). Enter the conjugation (leo -- I read) and press "Correct?" Use "Next Word" to move to the next problem. Check your percentage score at any time with the "My Result" key. To progress to another quiz, click "Other conjugation sets" and select from six different tests.

Electronic Flash Cards

"The idea behind this project is to mimic, in an electronic format, flash cards as they are used to learn Spanish. The idea with flash cards, is that you look at one side of the card, think of the answer, then flip the card over to see if you were right. On this Web page, this takes the form of displaying one side of the card in one frame and then the answer in an adjacent frame." To practice verb conjugations, first choose a tense then click the verb to flip the virtual flash card.

Los Diablos

Los Diablos (The Devils) are those pesky irregular verbs that must be memorized to master the basics of conversational Spanish. "In Spanish, as in English, some of the most important and most frequently used verbs are irregular. Hence it is necessary to learn how they are conjugated, primarily in the most common verb tenses -- the simple present and the simple past (preterit). Once these irregular Spanish verbs have been memorized, the rest of your Spanish study will be a relative cakewalk." The devils are presented as virtual flash cards, simply click to flip the card.

Vocabulary Training

This interactive quiz site isn't limited to Spanish, it also includes German and French. Start by selecting English as your mother tongue and Spanish as the language to be tested. First problem: translate "she gives"; you enter "ella da." You can progress through a variety of verb quizzes, as well as general vocabulary tests. And don't forget to try the quizzes in reverse. To be tested on translating Spanish into English, just choose Spanish as your mother tongue, and English as the language to be tested.

Please send questions or comments to feldman@surfnetkids.com.