Spanish help

[blhowes]

My son's in junior high and is taking Spanish. The teacher pretty much only speaks Spanish in class, which is good, but he's totally lost. I took French, so I can't really help him - but would like to. Does anybody know of any good sites that define Spanish words, talk about conjugating verbs, etc.?

I'd like to go over his last test with him, which he did pretty poorly in. Here's the instruction at the top of the paper:

El verbo ser - formas plurales

The first fill-in-the blank is:

1. Mario y yo ______________ muy graciosos.

Soooo, we have to fill in the blank with some form of the verb ser. Are there any good sites that you know of that could help a totally Spanish illiterate like myself figure this out?

 

[~~Susita~~]

I guess just start memorizing those verbs. Like son = we are, soy = I am, etc. You can try sites like these for a little help: SpanishDICT.com - Dictionary of Spanish and English

Also, it's helpful to know stuff like this:

Yo (I, me) - just add an ''O'' on the end of the word
Tu (you) - add an "as" or "es" to the end of the word, depending on the ending. Example: Estudiar = to study, so if you want to say "you study," then say Estudias. Comer = to eat, so "comes" means "you eat."
el/ella (he/she) - add an "a" to the end of the word. El/ella estudia = he/she studies (I think? Mr. Zartman correct me if I'm wrong )
Nosotros (we) - add an "emos" or "amos" to the end of the word, depending on the ending like in the above example of "tu."

Yo tengo = I have
Tu tienes = you have
El/ella tiene = he/she has
Nosotros tenemos = we have

 

[VictorBravo]

There are online conjugators, but sometimes they are inaccurate. Here are some places to start with basic conjugation info:

Spanish conjugation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Spanish/How To Conjugate Verbs - Wikibooks, collection of open-content textbooks

But it has the same information as any decent Spanish grammar textbook. I'd look for a conjugation table in his text, too.

 

[Zenas]

If you have a lot of spare time, I have heard good things about the Rosetta Stone software, but I have not used it myself. I plan on buying and using it over the summer to learn either French or Spanish. Spanish would definately have more utility.

 

[RamistThomist]

Mario y yo somos muy graciosos.

yo soy
tu eres
ella es
nosotros somos
vosotros sois
ellos son

 

[Davidius]

When I was taking German 101 as a freshman we were assigned a book called "English Grammar for Students of German." It provided short, easy-to-understand explanations of English grammar and explained concepts like parts of speech, what it means to conjugate a verb, and many more basic and complex elements (with practice exercises). After explaining the concepts in English, the book gave the German equivalents. I found it to be a very helpful book, even though I already understood most grammatical concepts anyway, having already studied Latin for a couple years, and highly recommend the series.

The Spanish version:

English Grammar for Students of Spanish


Cheaper used copies of the 5th (2002) are also available.

 

[Anton Bruckner]

Mario y yo somos muy graciosos.

yo soy
tu eres
ella es
nosotros somos
vosotros sois
ellos son

I don't think they use vosotros any more.

 

[py3ak]

Vosotros is Spain Spanish, not South American. Bob, I had a chart but I left it in Mexico. It's too bad as I could have sent it to you.

 

[blhowes]

Thank-you very much for all your links and advice. That's very helpful.

I asked my son to bring home his Spanish textbook(s), and any handouts he's been given, just so I can see what he has to work with. That'll help me know if its a matter of just helping him use the tools he already has and/or what supplemental sources might be helpful.

I did check into "English Grammar for Students of Spanish" and found out its available at the local library. I may pick that up and see if I can start learning some, so I can at least provide some minimal help if need be (and, it'd be fun to learn a new language)

 

[RamistThomist]

Mario y yo somos muy graciosos.

yo soy
tu eres
ella es
nosotros somos
vosotros sois
ellos son

I don't think they use vosotros any more.

I know, but it sounds cool.