What do we have in Spanish, but we don't have it in Slovene and English?
One of the hiccups we encounter in the early stages of learning Slovene and/or Spanish are the "I am..." phrases. Of course we can draw analogies between:
"I am + name/nationality/from + country/profession/physical description
"Jaz sem + ime/narodnost/iz + država (v rodilniku ednine)/poklic/fizični opis
"Yo soy + nombre/nacionalidad/de + país/profesión/descripción física...
There is another set of very useful phrases in Spanish that aren't formed with the verb"to be/biti/ser" but with the verb "to have/imeti/tener" which can be a bit confusing for fresh learners. To give my students a rough idea of this discrepancy I usually say that we express basic human needs and feelings in Spanish with the verb "tener" whereas in Slovene and English we stick at "to be".
Some of these phrases are:
"I am hungry."
"Jaz sem lačna/lačen."
"Tengo hambre."
"You are thirsty."
"Ti si žejna/žejen."
"Tienes sed."
"She/he is sleepy."
"Ona/on je zaspan(a)."
"Tiene sueño."
March 6, 2019
