This is such a well-written article about the human crisis of displaced people around the world. It's no surprise that the African continent has many displaced people due to civil war and unrest as well as poverty as evidenced by the number of people who risk their lives daily in small unsecure boats to reach the coast of Spain or Italy. Spain really has a crisis on its hands with the number of Africans who cross over daily and arrive in extreme conditions of suffering. It really makes the Cuban...

Lesley D

Reading is one of my primary past times. I would not be at ease with myself if I did not have the opportunity to read. Therefore, I make it part of my routine. I read exclusively in Spanish and have had many book discussions in the forum. My perception is that here on DR1 there are very few avid readers of Spanish books both fiction and non fiction (or least they don’t post their reviews and/or opinion). The threads I started are almost monologues however, I prefer that than frivolous conversation....

Lesley D

There are some posts in the Spanish forum that once again have inspired me to post my thoughts in my mini blog. Why do I resort to my blog? Well, I can clearly see from some of the posts that there's a large knowledge gap when it comes to certain aspects of the Spanish language specifically sociolinguistics.

The latest issue seems to be what's deemed as bad Spanish or uneducated Spanish based on the title of a song 'Tú me tiene amarrao'. Bad Spanish? How does one define bad Spanish?...

Lesley D

In addition to my post and blog commentaries about the pronoun SE in Spanish, I just wanted to remind those of you who want to understand the usage better that practice makes perfect. In addition to understanding the many facets of SE and not just its reflexive nature, one has to analyze and define what category it fits into. First of all reading in Spanish is required and every time the pronoun SE is used, try to define what category it is i.e. reflexive, impersonal, 'emotivo' etc.

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Lesley D

1) SE -reflexivo
-"Se" is a reflexive pronoun to indicate that the "agent" and "receiver" of an action is the same person.
Eg. Lavar (se). The verb "lavar" can be transitive which means and it takes a direct object OR it can be reflexive in meaning. The subject of the sentence is also the receiver of the action.

Lavo mi carro= I wash my car // Me lavo= I wash myself

2) SE- la voz pasiva (o el SE pasivo)
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Lesley D