Summary: Have you ever used a Spanish-English dictionary to look up a word only to discover later on that the meaning you found wasn’t quite accurate for the situation? In fact, it’s quite common for Spanish-English dictionaries to lead many language learners astray with definitions that are imprecise or misleading. The classic example are the verbs SER and ESTAR. Both mean “to be” in Spanish but with a difference. Using these two verbs interchangeably can change the meaning of a sentence even though the standard dictionary says that both verbs are the Spanish equivalent of “to be” in English. While SER and ESTAR are obvious examples, there are several other Spanish verbs which create similar problems, albeit on a smaller scale, for Spanish learners. For example, the verbs hacerse, ponerse, quedarse and volverse all mean “to become” in Spanish but they cannot be used interchangeably in Spanish. That’s because each one of these verbs has an additional layer of meaning that doesn’t always get explained properly in a typical dictionary. So, that’s what the ReVerb Spanish blog and podcast are going to focus on – the nuances, the variations in meaning for verbs that appear to synonyms. Neither the blog nor the podcast will teach you Spanish grammar. That’s not the point of this program. Instead it will be a supplement to your Spanish language studies. In addition to the blog entries, there are also audio Spanish verb drills available. Listening to these audio exercises are a good way to practice your Spanish verb conjugations. If you’ve ever second guessed yourself or gotten tongue tied when trying to remember the correct form of some basic verbs, listening to these audio drills might help. I’m only making a few basic verbs available initially. But if I get feedback indicating that there is strong demand for more audio verb drills, I will add more audio verb drills to the current collection. Would you like to make a suggestion or give feedback? Send me a message. Tell me what you think so that I can improve this site. ¡Gracias!
