Typing Spanish characters containing accents in browser

I have been writing this blog for few weeks now. But how do I type Spanish characters in my browser? Well thankfully Spanish script is roman and in addition there are a bunch of extra characters. These are all the extra characters I needed -

• é : e with accent. Used like in : él come queso - he eats cheese
• ñ : n with accent. Used like in : niña - girl
• ¿ : Inverted question mark. Used to enclose questions

So to type these accents I installed EaseAccent add-on on Firefox. It is pretty convenient to use. Once installed to type é just press and hold <Ctrl> and ', and then press e.

Words which are same in English and Spanish

Aren't you glad to hear that some words are written same in English and Spanish. Boy I am :)

• Pasta - Yeah that pasta that we eat!
• No - However in Spanish 'no' can mean more than just 'no'. Like in sentence 'ella no come pescado' (she does not eat fish) no means doesn't.

Opposites in spanish

Below I am listing some opposites in Spanish.

• negro : blanco - black : white
• grande : pequeño - large : small
• caro : barato - expensive : cheap

More to come ...

Numbers in Spanish (1 - 10)

Lets count some numbers!

• Uno - One
• Dos - Two
• Tres - Three
• Cuatro - Four
• Cinco - Five
• Seis - Six
• Siete - Seven
• Ocho - Eight
• Nueve - Nine
• Diez - Ten

Fruits and vegetables in Spanish

Here are some fruits and vegetables translated from Spanish to English.

• naranja - orange
• manzana - apple
• limón - lemon
• cebolla - onion
• papa - potato
• tomate - tomato

Name of animals in Spanish

This is sort of list post, as in I will keep adding more animals (name) as I learn them.

• Gato - cat
• Perro - dog
• Caballo - horse
• Pato - duck
• Elefante - elephant
• Oso - bear
• Pingüino - penguin
• Pájaro - bird
• Cangrejo - crab
• Araña - spider
• Tortuga - turtle
• Toro - bull
• Conejo - rabbit
• Ratón - mouse
• león - lion
• mono - monkey

Hope you enjoyed the jungle safari!

Using somos and son

I was confused between somos and son usage. Once I figured out, it is quite simple.

Both are used to say "are". "somos" is used for plural first person. And "son" is used for plural second/third person. See examples below.

Nosotras somos mujeres - We are women
Los niños son vegetarianos - The children are vegetarian

Some long Spanish words

I was amazed to see some rather long-ish Spanish words for beginners. Enjoy them -

• desafortunadamente - unfortunate
• seguramente - certainly
• especialmente - especially

More to be added ...

Colours in Spanish

I have listed Spanish words for some common colours.

• negro - black
• blanco - white
• rojo - red (pronounced as roho)
• azul - blue
• verde - green
• amarillo - yellow
• grises - gray 

When to use come, como and comes

Come (spelled "comey") is used to mean eats. Now I found the use of come, como and comes confusing. Where to use which one. Someone cleared this confusion for me, so I decided to share.

"They are all present tense. Difference lies in person. come is for third person, como is for first person and comes is for second person."

Spanish sentences for beginners

Learning words is the starting point, but ultimately we want to make sentences. So here are few sentences I grasped early on -

1. Hablo un poco de español - I speak a little Spanish. Notice this sentence is also this blog's description!
2. Es muy caro - It is very expensive. To be honest that doesn't sound like a complete sentence, but .. whatever :p
3. él come una manzana - he eats an apple
4. Yo bebo leche - I drink milk

More to come ...

Some favorite Spanish words

 Here are some of the words I really like speaking in Spanish, for no particular reason ;)

1. un poco - a little / some
2. gracias - thank you

Will add more as I learn them.
Adios!

First 10 spanish words I learnt

Listed below are the 10 Spanish words I learnt, not in any specific order.

1. hola - hello, hi
2. sì - yes
3. adiós - goodbye
4. gracias - thank you
5. amigo - friend
6. por favor - please
7. yo - I
8. leche - milk
9. café - coffee
10. buenas noches - good night, good evening

Hopefully these handful words, will serve as a good starting point for you too!
Adios!

Resources to learn Spanish

I am currently using following 3 resources to learn Spanish. .

1. Duolingo - Available as Website, Android app, iPhone App.
2. Memrise - Available as Website, Android app, iPhone App.
3. BBC Languages : Mi Vida Loca - Available as Website only.

All these 3 resources have a lot in common -

1. They offer not just Spanish, but other major languages to learn as well.
2. As you will notice, they are *casual* for a casual learner like me :)
3. They are Free to use.
3. And they are pretty fun way to learn some language.

There are several paid resources as well. I will mention Babel among them. But I will go with these 3 for now.

And finally there is http://spanish.stackexchange.com/ for asking and answering questions relating to Spanish.

¡Hola!

¡Hola! amigo
Hello friend. I am starting to learn Spanish, and I will jot down a blog along the way. Hope it will be interesting and informative to you.

By the way ¡Hola! is almost always the first word most people learn in Spanish. :)

Enjoy!