Letter H in Spanish is silent, in contrast to English that sounds like letter ‘j’. When you encounter a word that contains the letter ‘h’ just read the vowel. E.g. Hola, huevo, almohada.
Letter ‘ll’ or double L sounds like letter ‘Y’ in English, not like letter ‘L’. Can you work out how to pronounce ‘paella’?, ‘llama’?, ‘Me llamo’?
In Spanish you will only see the letter ‘Q’ next to the letter ‘u’ followed by the letter ‘e’ or ‘i’. With these combinations, remember, the letter ‘u’ is silent! ‘Que’ (sounds like ‘keh’) and ‘Qui’ (sounds like ‘kih’) Can you read the following words or expressions?: ‘ ¿Qué tal?, queso, quiero, alquilar, quince.’
‘Mi nombre es …’ literally means ‘My name is…’ But there is another way to express that, which is ‘Me llamo’. But you won’t see the literal translation in the books. Whilst ‘Me llamo…’ literally means ‘ I am called…’ in English we don’t often use that expression, instead we say ‘My name is…’
Whilst in English you could say either ‘I like cooking’ or ‘I like to cook.’, and both mean the same thing, we don’t have those two options in Spanish. In the Spanish language, when we want to express a like or dislike as a statement, we only use the second form, with the second verb in infinitive (to cook) ‘Me gusta cocinar’. You should not say ‘ Me gusta cocinando.’ This is grammatically incorrect!
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