Language Comparison

Kathryn Gaugler ESL 502

Spanish vs. English

Language Origins and Features

Variances

Case Study

Language Origins

Spanish is a Romance language but English is a Germanic language

Spanish migrated across the Atlantic with the exploration and conquering of the “New World”

Spanish is currently 2nd most spoken language in US

Alphabet

Vowels are super easy in Spanish – no long or short vowels!

A (sounds like what you say to the Dr. when you stick out your tongue!)

E (sounds like a way to clarify something in Canadian English…eh?)

I (Say the English letter “E”, that’s all there is to it!)

O (not any different than the way we say the letter)

U (sounds like the double “o” sound you make when impressed. Oo!)

Spanish vowels never change their sound.

English “E” and Spanish “I” are phonetically the same, and create a lot of confusion.

Alphabet

Both languages use the Latin alphabet

BUT…. There are a few additional letters in Spanish:

CH LL RR Ñ

Dictionaries published after 1994 do not recognize them as distinct letters, but they do have a different sound than their counterparts: C, L, R and N respectively.

Variation

Formal vs. Informal

In Spanish, there exists a formal form to address some one you do not know well or someone of higher importance or of age. The informal is used to address a friend.

This distinction requires different pronouns (tú/usted, vosotros/ustedes) and verb forms

For example: How are you? Could be translated:

¿Cómo estás tú? Or ¿Cómo está usted?

(friendly) (formal)

Adjectives

In English, adjectives go before the noun they descirbe

I live in a red house.

Adjectives in Spanish go after the noun

Vivo en la casa roja.

Many adjectives will modify in gender and number to agree with the noun they describe.

Masculine Singular

Feminine Singular

Masc. Plural

Fem. Plural

Rojo Roja Rojos rojas

Pronoun Elimination

Spanish verb conjugation is similar to one particular English verb:

I am

You are

He is

Each of these verbs looks different….

Pronoun Elimination

Sample Spanish verb conjugation

Yo soy

Tú eres

Él es

Each of these verb forms also looks different….

Almost EVERY verb form (in most tenses) will look different than any other form. Because of this, the subject can be inferred from just the verb. While not appropriate to say just “Are tall.” with out a subject in English, Spanish speaker would drop the subject and simply say “Eres alto.” The subject ‘you’ is inferred from eres.

Word Order

Both languages follow SVO order.

Subject Verb Object

He rides a bike

Él monto en bicicleta.

Case Study

Lola

1st year ELL

Going into 2nd grade

Speaks Spanish fluently for age, does not have home English exposure

Analysis done through written work

Case Study

errors are a combination of developmental (like the omission of verbs)

interference of L1 like putting adjectives after nouns. (Some of her errors made sense knowing Spanish and the word arrangement and acceptable writing policies of that language.)

Spelling is developmental

mastery of L1 and knowledge base to apply rules and strategies to her English acquisition is not there.

Spelling in English can be difficult since there are so many ways to change vowels that do not exist in Spanish

Lola will need to work on English spelling, but doesn’t have a strong base in Spanish spelling

Verb tense errors – overgeneralization of the –ed rule