Here is a fast way to learn “kiss” and variations on it in Spanish. It’s a common word English speakers want to know. If you’re already familiar with it we’ll also go into some variations of it.

“Beso” is the common word in Spanish for “kiss.” Unlike in English, Spanish nouns are categorized as masculine or feminine. Masculine nouns use “el” in place of “the.” Feminine nouns use “la” in place of “the.” “Beso” is a masculine noun so “the kiss” would be “el beso.”

The plural form of kiss (kisses) is “besos.” “The kisses” would translate to “los besos.”

The verb for the English translation of “to kiss” is “besar.”

I want to kiss you. Te quiero besar. the kee-ehr-oh beh-sahr.

Here’s two ways you can tell someone you want a kiss:

Kiss me. Bésame. bEH-sah-meh.

Give me a kiss. Dáme un beso. dAH-meh oon beh-soh.

Let’s go into some various versions of the word “kiss.” By changing the last part of the word you can change the meaning. Here are a couple examples.

When people are learning Spanish they find out the translation of “little” is “pequeño.” Natural thought would assume “little kiss” like you would use in the sentence “give me a little kiss” would be “beso pequeño.” This is not a common way to say that in Spanish.

In Spanish you don’t even need two words for this. By simply modifying the last part of the word you can change the meaning. “Little kiss” is translated to “besito.”

Another example of changing the meaning by modifying the end of the word is “Besotes.” This means big kisses or big sloppy kisses similar to the English word “smooches.”

The literal translation of “French kiss” is not used as much in Spanish. The literal translation of “French kiss” is “beso francés.” A few might know what you’re talking about and you’re saying it with finesse but the most natural way to say this is a literal translation of what a French kiss is. “Beso con lengua” which means “kiss with tongue” is the natural way of saying “French kiss” in Spanish.” Not as elegant but much more straight forward.

The translation of “to French kiss” is “besar con lengua.” The literal translation of that is “to kiss with the tongue.”

How about if you want to ask some one for a kiss good-bye? This is kind of a trickster. Even if you don’t know much Spanish you are probably aware that “adiós” means “good-bye.” However “beso adiós” is incorrect.

When you are parting ways with someone either permanently or temporarily Spanish has a word for the act of saying goodbye which is “despedida.” “Beso de despedida” is the normal way to say “good-bye kiss.” The literal translation of it is “kiss of good-bye.”

Give me a kiss goodbye. Dáme un beso de despedida. dAH-meh oon beh-soh deh dehs-peh-dee-dah.

If you are just starting out learning Spanish this should help you with the different forms of the word “kiss” in order to be more precise when you are speaking. You’ve learned some different ways to say “kiss” along a with few short phrases you’ll enjoy practicing.

We have thousands of words in our language that help us express our feelings, thoughts and needs. Some words express “action”, others “things” and others “join” words together. It depends on us to use them properly. We learned how to do it in school and now we have to use them to create great academic articles. Technology made it easier as now we can use grammar check software. This is what we should keep in mind when we start writing an article.

The eight parts of speech

The basic eight parts of speech in the English language are the verb, noun, pronoun, adjective, adverb, preposition, conjunction and interjection. Nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs and interjections are sub-grouped into content words. They provide the concepts and ideas underlying the sentence. Pronouns, prepositions and conjunctions are sub-grouped into structure words, whose number almost always stays constant in a language. They tie the content words together into a grammatically correct sentence.

Why are they important?

It is vital to be familiar with the parts of speech in order to be able to study and analyze your text and identify mistakes in writing. Moreover, a word can function as a different part of speech depending on its role in the sentence structure. This affects the word’s meaning and structure, making it important to confirm whether you are using the correct part of speech in the correct position in the sentence. It is also nice to know that we get help from grammar check software that corrects our sentences.

Nouns

Nouns are words which reside in the following categories: person, place, and thing. There are two main categories: proper nouns (which refer to a very specific person, place or thin) and common nouns. The trickiest are the common nouns and their plural or singular form. This is how you know that you need “some piece of information” and not “informations”.

Verbs

Verbs go along with nouns, and express the action. Verbs also convey actions that have already occurred, are occurring presently, occur on a regular basis, or will occur in the future. It is very important to use the right tense when you write your article in order to express your actions correctly. You may find it right to say that Shakespeare “wrote” the play that say that he “has been writing”. Keep in mind that your words are a matter of interpretation!

Pronouns

The pronoun’s role is to take an assumed meaning based on the placement in a paragraph. Without pronouns sentences would feel rather annoying and repetitive. For example: “Selena has a cat. Selena loves to play with her cat. Selena brushes Selena’s cat daily.” Imagine using such sentences in your academic articles!

Adjectives

Adjectives are important parts of speech which answer questions about the subject of the sentence. By using adjective you give more information about the noun. Taking the example of “Selena’s cat” you can say that it is “beautiful”; it has “a dark brown fur” or even “pink wet cute nose”. Adjectives fit well in descriptive articles.

Adverbs

Adverbs are parts of speech that play kind of the same role as adjectives; the difference is that they answer questions about a verb in a sentence. Adverbs are used to define how something was done. You can make the action you express more particular and your explanations are easier to understand and to imagine.

Prepositions

Prepositions are small parts of speech that link the words in a sentence. Without them, there would be no way we could make an understandable sentence. Imagine how it sounds “The book is the table” instead of “the book is on the table”. This is a good example of the saying that “strong essences are kept in small bottles”.

Conjunctions

Conjunctions are another type of “strong essences”. We use coordinating conjunctions like “and”, “but”, “or’, “yet”, “for”, “nor” and “so”.

Interjections

Interjections are used to show emotions. Thou they seem the least useful element, you could not express feelings without them. They are always punctuated with an exclamation mark, like “Wow!”, “Amazing!” and so on. It is great to use them when you want to emphasize something.

Conclusion

It is very important to know and understand these eight parts of speech in order to write good articles. The best part is that technology can help us. By using the appropriate grammar check software and your knowledge you get the correct sentences and high grades.

Do you have any pet peeves about writing? I do. I can be a downright militant when it comes to the proper spelling of the word, “Bible.” When I say Bible, I’m speaking of the holy writings of Christians and Jews, also known as the Scriptures. It seems that in recent years people have taken to referring to this sacred book as the “bible.” They put the name of the book in lower case letters.

I’m not sure why people do this, but I think it springs from two motivations— one is that posting to Internet sites and text messaging has led to a lot of sloppiness in writing. People are used to ignoring the shift key and they use keystroke shortcuts to create words and phrases that defy the grammar of any known language.

The second reason so many people spell Bible using lower case is a bit more sinister. It’s a way for them to make a social, political or theological statement signifying that they do not think the Bible is a holy book. Using the diminutive form of the word is a subtle way of denigrating all that the Bible stands for.

However, when it comes to writing with clarity, it’s good to play by the rules. The word “Bible,” when it refers to the sacred book, is a proper noun and it’s always capitalized. That writing rule is in all the grammar books and people seem to abide by it when referring to books—except when it comes to something as controversial as books connected with religious faith.

“Holy Bible” and “Scripture” are also proper nouns and should always be capitalized. The word “biblical” is not a proper noun and is not capitalized. Thus, you could have a sentence that looks like this — “She was a student of the Bible and so she had a biblical worldview.”

There are cases when the word Bible is not capitalized— when it is not used as a proper noun. For example, someone might write, “Gun safety is the first commandment in the shooters bible,” and that would be perfectly correct.

Christian writers will want to go the extra mile when it comes to the the proper usage of the word Bible and will always want to make sure they capitalized the word when it refers to the Scriptures, even in informal writing. Some may even want to become a grammar zealot like me, and when they see Bible spelled in lowercase, they can take a minute to help others understand the importance of the proper use of proper nouns.

Sure, the word pronoun is used often, but in the end it’s a little more complicated than just being a word used to replace a noun. At its base, that’s what it is, but there are various types, and some of those are mentioned briefly in this article.

Let’s get a point out of the way first: I’m not a professional in this field (or any for that matter), so please don’t take the information on this page in that manner. If for some reason you need language assistance of that type, don’t use this as a replacement for talking with someone who is qualified.

A possessive pronoun is one type that is commonly used. It replaces both a noun (or noun phrase, which is another topic) and a possessive adjective. Let’s say you’re at Phil’s house and talking with him about the surrounding landscape. You ask him, “How old is that tree?” Since there is actually a group of trees in the area, he doesn’t know which one you’re referring to, and asks for clarification: “Which one?” You respond, simply, by stating: “Yours.” In this case, the word “yours” replaces what would have been “your tree.”

Other types of pronouns exist, one of them being the personal pronoun. These replace people or objects. For instance, when you starting a sentence off with yourself, if your name happened to be Ben you wouldn’t say, “Ben likes peanut butter.” That would be talking in the third-person! Instead, you use the pronoun “I” and tell the person to whom you’re speaking, “I like peanut butter. It tastes great even by itself!”

Can you name some examples of indefinite and reflexive pronouns? Do you know what they are? Before we look at examples, let’s have a little refresher.

Pronouns

Do you remember the eight parts of speech? Well, pronouns are one of the eight parts of speech. They are words that take the place of nouns. (Nouns name people, places, things, or ideas.) Pronouns can do all of the things that nouns can do.

There are many different types of pronouns. Let’s focus on two types, shall we?

Indefinite Pronouns

These are pronouns that don’t refer to a specific person or thing. The prefix “in” means “not.” That will help you to remember that these pronouns are not definite.

Here are a couple of example sentences with indefinite pronouns.

Everyone laughed at the joke.

Both of the boys brought her flowers.

Notice that in both of those sentences, we’re not sure which nouns the pronouns are replacing. They did not specify which nouns they replaced. They are not definite.

Examples of Indefinite Pronouns

Here is a list of indefinite pronouns:

each, everything, either, everyone, someone, anything, both, many, several, few, all, most, none, one, some, much

Reflexive Pronouns

Reflexive pronouns end in -self or -selves, and they always refer to the subject of the sentence.

Here are a couple of example sentences using reflexive pronouns:

The baby looked at herself in the mirror.

I bought myself a cupcake.

Notice that the pronouns herself and myself end in -self, and they both refer back to the subject of the sentence, baby and I.

Examples of Reflexive Pronouns

Here is a list of reflexive pronouns:

myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves

Tip: Don’t Confuse Reflexive Pronouns with Intensive Pronouns

Intensive pronouns are another type of pronoun that end in -self and -selves, but they are used differently than reflexive pronouns.

Remember that reflexive pronouns always refer to the subject, and they are a necessary part of the sentence. Intensive pronouns are only used to add emphasis to another noun or pronoun (not necessarily the subject), and they are not a necessary part of the sentence.

Here are two examples of intensive pronouns:

The trip itself was extremely fun, but some of the people on it were grouchy.

She asked me herself.

Do you see how we could take out both itself and herself from those sentences and they would still make sense? They aren’t a necessary part of the sentence, so they are intensive pronouns.

Does your child have difficulty expressing himself? Often children with delayed language development have a meager vocabulary to draw from when speaking. They may have a lot to say, but don’t know what words to use.

Being able to speak fluently requires numerous skills. Your child needs to have a rich vocabulary of words, as well as be able to recall those words quickly. He needs to be able to understand his listener’s point of view, so that he can add important information if necessary. And lastly, he also needs to know how to organize his thoughts so that what he says is coherent and makes sense.

In previous posts I’ve mentioned several ways your child can improve her expressive language skills: creating stories from a fun trip, playing the command card game, even creating a strategy guide for their favorite video game.

In this hands-on learning game, your child will use wordless picture books to build her vocabulary, improve her memory, and practice her sequencing skills.

Materials:

Your favorite wordless picture book. There are plenty to choose from, but here’s a list of great wordless picture books to browse.

How to Play:

1) Flip through the book and decide whether or not you will focus on nouns or verbs. This depends on what you want to accomplish with your child, as well as which the book lends itself.

If the book has a different character for each page (similar to “The Farmer in the Dell” or “Brown Bear” which is not wordless but still a great choice) then you would choose to focus on nouns. If the book has one main character, then you would choose verbs.

2) Assign one word to each page. You can ask your child to think of the word by saying, “What is that?” or “What are they doing?” When your child answers, condense that answer to one word, and repeat it as you point to the picture. If your child has difficulty naming the picture, tell them the correct word.

3) After 2 to 3 pictures, ask your child to name the noun or verb for each page. You can choose to use the pictures as a clue if your child is younger or has moderate to severe language delays. Otherwise, you can simply close the book and ask them to name the words that they heard.

Don’t worry if this is difficult for them in the beginning; help them out if necessary by giving a hint (first letter, first few sounds in the word). It’s better for your child to be successful with hints than fail with no help at all.

TIP: You can have your child name and remember pictures in groups of 3, so that they never have to remember more than three pages at a time. If this is too easy for your child, you can have your child

For most English speakers, German is more difficult to translate than Spanish or French.  Why?  It has all those endings, and the sentences are longer. They’re also more convoluted — really.  This is what makes it a big challenge for Art History graduate students who need to pass their German translation exam, often in a big hurry.  Still, they approach German the right way, they can get access to its secret code fairly quickly.

At the heart of cracking the German translation code is something called “case.”  Case is basically a tool that marks each noun or noun phrase in a sentence with respect to the role it plays in that sentence.

For example, there’s a case marker that signals “subject.”  Another signals “object.”  And so on.

English no longer has case endings, so it must rely on word order to signal the functions of the nouns in a sentence.

For example, the following two English sentences mean very different things:

1) The dog chased the canary.

2) The canary chased the dog.

That’s because word order tells us who is doing the chasing and who is being chased. In languages with extensive case endings, things are different.  In German, for example, the sentences could read as follows:

3) Der Hund jagte den Kanarienvogel.

4) Den Kanarienvogel jagte der Hund.

5) Den Hund jagte der Kanarienvogel.

6) Der Kanarienvogel jagte den Hund.

Notice the articles.  “Der” signals that the noun phrase with that marker is the subject, while “den” signals that it is the object.  And in our examples 3) and 4), “der” is matched up with the dog (Hund), and “den” is matched up with the canary (Kanarienvogel).  This means the dog is doing the chasing and the canary is doing the escaping.

In examples 5) and 6), however, the articles have been swapped.  This results in a very different picture: the canary is now chasing the dog,

Once again, both versions mean the same thing.  Note how now the object case goes with the dog and so the dog is the one getting chased.  Why chose one over the other?  Whichever noun phrase the sentence starts with usually is seen as the known entity, or thing the sentence is about.  The rest of the sentence tells us what is going on with the thing (or person, or animal) the sentence is about.  Something like this:  sentence 5) is about the dog and what the dog is doing.  Sentence 6) is about the canary and what is going on with the canary.  If you want to do this kind of highlighting in English, you have to resort to passive:

7) The canary was chased by the dog.

Or worse:

8) It was the canary that the dog chased.

So far, so good.  You think you can handle that.  But what makes this really challenging is the fact that there are three different genders in German, and so there are three different sets of case endings.  Not only that, but the three genders are fairly randomly assigned to words.

So the only way to get a handle on what’s what is to memorize the words WITH their matching articles. Either that, or you have to look up a lot of words.  That’s because you must know the gender of the word in order to be sure of the case.  And you must know the case to be sure who is doing what in the sentence.

And the reason why it’s so tricky to figure out the last bit is because Germans, having case to indicate who is doing what, do not rely on word order to do the same, as we have seen in the examples above.  This leaves word order to do a different job:  emphasizing, smoothening transitions, and indicating what’s the topic of the sentence and what’s the comment.

And that’s one of the keys that make German more challenging in a translation test, be it Art History, Physics, or Philosophy. Still, if you learn the articles as part of each noun, and you’ve got your case endings down, you’re way ahead of the game.

Learn Japanese easily! In English, “too” is a popular word. You probably say things like, “This is too big” or “I’m too tired to go” all the time. When speaking Japanese, you’ll need to express the same concepts just as frequently as you talk about your feelings and make requests.

This Beginner Japanese article will help you master the Japanese word sugiru to express “too.” Whether you need to request a larger shirt or tell your friends you’re too tired to shop, this Japanese Beginner article provides all the tools you need. You’ll be surprised just how much your Japanese speaking skills will grow thanks to the simple phrase in this Japanese article.

Vocabulary: In this article, you’ll learn the following words and phrases:

kekkonshiki – “marriage ceremony, wedding”

yoo – “used for, used by”

doresu – “dress”

mochiron – “of course, certainly”

gozaimasu – formal form of the verb which means “to have” or “to be”

choodo – “just, right, exactly”

pari – “Paris”

shichaku – “trying on clothes”

taihen – “very, greatly” (adverb)

ereganto (na) – “elegant” (-na adjective)

joohin (na) – “elegant, refined, polished” (-na adjective)

wakai – “young” (-i ending adjective)

kimono – “kimono” niau – “to suit, to match” (class 1 verb)

danna – “husband”

Grammar: In this article, you’ll learn the following words and phrases:

Useful Vocabulary and Phrases

————————————————————————

kekkon-shiki-yoo

————————————————————————

1. kekkon  “marriage”
2. shiki  “ceremony”
3. yoo  “used for”

When we attach yoo to a noun, it adds the meaning “used for” or “used by.” Review its usage in the following examples.

Examples:

1. kodomo-yoo no puuru

   “paddling pool”

2. kodomo-yoo no isu

   “childrens’ chair”

3. haikingu-yoo no kutsu

   “hiking shoes”

————————————————————————

haitte kuru

———————————————————————–

It’s a compound word of hairu (“to enter”) and kuru (“to come”), and it means “to come in.”

————————————————————————

Motto ookii no wa arimasu ka.

————————————————————————

motto – “more” (adverb of degree)

ookii – “big”

no – “one” (dependent indefinite pronoun)

wa – topic-marking particle

arimasu – masu form of a verb

aru (“to exist,” “to have”)

ka – question-marking particle

We use no in place of a noun to avoid repeating the same noun.

Examples:

1. Motto chiisai no wa arimasu ka.

   “Do you have smaller one?”

2. Motto yasui no wa arimasu ka.

   “Do you have cheaper one?”

3. Motto karui no wa arimasu ka.

   “Do you have lighter one?”

4. Motto kirei na no wa arimasu ka.

   “Do you have cleaner one?”

5. Motto benri na no wa arimasu ka.

   “Do you have a more convenient one?”

————————————————————————

Target Phrase

Kono doresu wa watashi ni wa chiisa sugimasu.

“This dress is too small for me.“

————————————————————————

The focus of this article is the “[adjective stem] + sugiru” construction. Sugiru means “to pass” or “to go beyond the limit.” When we attach sugiru to an adjective stem, it works as a helping verb and means “too much.”

————————————————————————

Formation

————————————————————————

i-adjective

1. Drop the final -i (often referred to as an adjective stem)
2. Add sugiru

“English” / Adjective / Adjective Stem / Too…

“big” / ookii / ooki / ooki sugiru

“small” / chiisai / chiisa / chiisa sugiru

Exception!!!

“English” / Adjective / Too…

“good” / ii or yoi / yo sugiru

na-adjective

1. Drop the final -na (often referred to as an adjective stem or dictionary form )
2. Add sugiru

“English” / Adjective / Adjective Stem / Too…

“convenient” / benri (na) / benri / benri sugiru

“quiet” / shizuka (na) / shizuka / shizuka sugiru

————————————————————————

Politeness and Tenses

————————————————————————

Please note that sugiru conjugates as a class 2 verb.

Non-past

Formal: Kore wa chiisa sugimasu.

Informal: Kore wa chiisa sugiru.

Past

Formal: Kore wa chiisa sugimashita.

Informal: Kore wa chiisa sugita.

————————————————————————

Particle ni wa

————————————————————————

[noun] + ni wa + [adjective stem] sugiru = “be too [adjective] for [noun]”

For Example:

1. Kono uchi wa futari ni wa hirosugiru.

   “This house is too large for two people.”

2. Kono uchi wa watashi ni wa rippasugiru.

   “This house is too good for me.”

*rippa (na) = “splendid, elegant”

————————————————————————

Practice

————————————————————————

You’re shopping at a clothing store. What would you say in the following situations?

Use “___ sugimasu.” and ” ___ no wa arimasu ka.” sentence patterns.

For Example:

You want a bigger size…?

Kore wa chiisasugimasu. Motto ookii no wa arimasu ka.

1. You want a cheaper one… (takai means, “expensive.” yasui means, “cheap.”)
2. You want a cleaner one… (kitanai means, “dirty.” kirei(na) means, “clean.”)
3. You want a newer one… (furui means, “old.” atarashii means, “new.”

There are only 3 main uses for the apostrophe, yet using the apostrophe properly is a confusing task. This article describes the proper uses and improper uses, to help people improve their writing.

The beloved apostrophe is intended to do three main things: to show possession, to show omission, and to make plurals in rare, special cases.

Apostrophe’s purpose number one: apostrophes are excellent indicators of possession. There is an example of this at the beginning of this sentence. If I want to say I own the shoes, while my husband pays the bill, I would call them Angela’s shoes and Joe’s Manolo Blahnik bill.

In most cases, the apostrophe is placed right after the name of the person, place, or thing (a.k.a. noun) that owns it, and before the “s” that shows possession. Because the English language can describe various types of possession in glorious profusion, here are some helpful tips for common possession scenarios:

Your word already ends in “s”. Don’t add another ‘s’! Just let the apostrophe hang out there at the end of the word. For example: the horses’ bridles, a party at the Edwards’.

Two nouns own one thing. Give the apostrophe to the last noun. For example: Joe and Angela’s herb garden.

Two nouns own two things. Give each noun an apostrophe. For example: Jenny’s and Jessie’s dresses.

You use a pronoun that owns something. Please, don’t add an apostrophe. Just leave it alone. For example: We gave the cat its shots; the idea was yours.

Apostrophe’s second use: apostrophes show where letters have been removed in a word or words. This is the easiest part to remember – if you’ve lost letters, put an apostrophe where the letters should have been! For example: Cannot becomes can’t; Four of the clock becomes four o’clock; 2007 becomes ’07.

Apostrophe’s third use: in some rare, very special cases, the apostrophe can show a plural. Use an apostrophe if you are talking about plurals of numbers or letters. For example: 1990’s; Ph.D.’s.

You can also add an apostrophe if you’re using words as words, where leaving out an apostrophe would cause confusion. For example: Rules are a list of do’s and don’ts (if there was no apostrophe after “do’s”, people might confuse it with the disk operating system acronym DOS).

Other apostrophe uses: apostrophes can also be used as a symbol for measurement in feet. Also, the apostrophe can be used to indicate a quote inside a quote. For example: She said, “The pastor told me, ‘Jesus wasn’t white’, and I was surprised!”

Understanding the proper rules for using the apostrophe will add a level of professionalism to your communications. Proper punctuation is a must for all writers. Still confused? Pearl Writing Services is a freelance writing business that can polish your writing and get your communications noticed!