Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $9.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Sounds and Things: Why Does Spanish Do That?, #1
    Sounds and Things: Why Does Spanish Do That?, #1
    Sounds and Things: Why Does Spanish Do That?, #1
    Ebook30 pages17 minutes

    Sounds and Things: Why Does Spanish Do That?, #1

    By Melissa A. Corbett

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Do your whiny Spanish students ask you "But why-yyyy?" whenever you start teaching about stem changing verbs? 

    Do they ask you why Spanish sounds so fast? 

    Do you want to know what to say when they tell you about the king of Spain's lisp? You know they're wrong, but can't say why exactly? 

    Want to know what to tell your students about rolling their Rs?

    Then you're in the right place. You can shut those whiny students up, with a quick answer of "Because Latin" or, if you want ot be able to really answer their questions, you can pick up this book and get quick answers to all of these questions, with a healthy dose of snark.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMel Corbett
    Release dateMar 1, 2019
    ISBN9781386653455
    Sounds and Things: Why Does Spanish Do That?, #1
    Author

    Melissa A. Corbett

    Melissa A. Corbett studies Spanish phonology and how sounds work together like a puzzle, shifting ever so slightly. She is also interested how people learn languages. She received her MA in Spanish from UC Davis. And, if you've gotten this far, you probably noticed that she's a bit sarcastic with dash of snark. 

    Related to Sounds and Things

    Titles in the series (1)

    View More
    View More

    Related ebooks

    Linguistics For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Secret Military Test, Coming Soon to Your Spanish Class: A powerful, precise language aptitude test is entering civilian life.

      Apr 17, 2014

      Imagine a test that could tell you how good you can ultimately get in any foreign language, from Hindi to Welsh, from Igbo to Spanish, before you’ve even learned how to say “hello” or “please pass the butter.” Très alléchant, non?1 Most adults would

      9 min read

    • Article

      Magnolia Maven

      Aug 15, 2022

      Magnolia Maven
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Many LANGUAGES of Spain

      Feb 1, 2023

      The Many LANGUAGES of Spain
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Science Of Accents

      Apr 4, 2021

      The Science Of Accents
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Beauty Of LANGUAGE

      Feb 4, 2021

      What does a Jerusalem artichoke have to do with Jerusalem? Why do we fall head over heels when that’s the right way up? And doesn’t having your cake and eating it make total sense? If you’ve ever pondered any of these linguistic curiosities, the answ

      3 min read

    • Article

      KAN JAG LÄRA MIG SVENSKA?Can i Learn SWEDISH?

      Sep 1, 2022

      KAN JAG LÄRA MIG SVENSKA?Can i Learn SWEDISH?
      1 min read

    • Article

      Let’s Learn Japanese

      Sep 1, 2024

      In Japan, many dialects are spoken throughout the country, but everyone understands hyojungo, or standard Japanese. You might already know some Japanese words, such as sushi, tofu, and futon. Some people say that Japanese is most closely related to K

      1 min read

    • Article

      On The

      Aug 1, 2021

      On The
      4 min read

    • Article

      Girl Talk

      Apr 9, 2021

      Girl Talk
      2 min read

    • Article

      Learning Math Is Easier In Some Languages

      Mar 7, 2019

      I have been struck by how precisely Japanese encodes the base-10 number system used by most cultures around the world.

      2 min read

    • Article

      How To Talk Proper

      Mar 9, 2022

      How To Talk Proper
      3 min read

    • Article

      Figures Of speech

      Aug 4, 2021

      Figures Of speech
      2 min read

    • Article

      My View...

      Jul 21, 2022

      My View...
      2 min read

    • Article

      Things Can Only Get Worse

      Oct 16, 2024

      Things Can Only Get Worse
      3 min read

    • Article

      Lost In Translation

      May 3, 2019

      English has become the lingua franca of the world, something probably related to the spread of the British Empire, then with the American move to hegemony in a polarised postwar world. In racing there is no escaping English, as the sport’s official l

      4 min read

    • Article

      The Art of Translation

      Feb 13, 2019

      AFTER a recent translation conference, a young colleague brought up an interesting question: “I keep hearing people say that they translate from the Spanish, they translate from the French. Why the?” Why indeed. This was asked of a carful of people,

      12 min read

    • Article

      What’s a Language, Anyway?

      Jan 19, 2016

      What’s a Language, Anyway?
      7 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Sounds and Things

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Sounds and Things - Melissa A. Corbett

      But WHYYYYY Does Spanish Do That?

      IF THERE'S ANYTHING I can guarantee as a Spanish teacher, it's that your students will have asked you, But WHYYYY? Why does Spanish do that? 

      Why do stem changers exist? Why does Spanish sound so fast?

      You might have shrugged and wondered yourself or maybe you mumbled something incoherent about Latin. Maybe you told your students that one day, you would take a course on the history of Spanish and then you could tell them. 

      Either way, this question, being repeated in their whiniest voices whenever you present any of Spanish's little idiosyncrasies or anything that isn't super regular or the same as English, is probably getting to you. You just want to tell your students, shut their mouths, you don't know. 

      So, I'm here to tell you that most of the time, you can just tell your students, because Latin! and then you can watch their eyes glaze over as you tell them the actual technical answer, that usually does involve Latin. Your students probably don't really want a real answer so much as some rule or something that they can grasp onto and understand when and why things will be different than the regular verbs (or whatever) that they've been taught. Sometimes, there is a handy rule. Sometimes, if they knew Latin they could figure it out... but who's got time for Latin? 

      If that answer sounds a little too easy,

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1