Hablemos en español

[Cornflower MM]

*Stares at screen* Umm. .. . . I think all I got out of that was 'Si.' That means yes, right?

Well, my keyboard looks a bit different than that. And what's the accent key? I tried doing Control, plus the quotation mark key, and the A, but nothing happened.

[Luftwaffles]

*Stares at screen* Umm. .. . . I think all I got out of that was 'Si.' That means yes, right?

That's correct

Well, my keyboard looks a bit different than that. And what's the accent key? I tried doing Control, plus the quotation mark key, and the A, but nothing happened.

The accent key is the one that allows you write like this: àèìòù. You don't have to use Control nor Shift nor Alt, just press the key and the letter you want to punctuate What brand is your keyboard? Maybe I can look for a picture and point that key on it

[Cornflower MM]

It's a Dell keyboard - I can't tell you much more than.  Sorry.

[Luftwaffles]

It's a Dell keyboard - I can't tell you much more than.   Sorry.

Are you using a notebook or a desktop computer? The layout is a bit different depending of the model

[Cornflower MM]

Umm. . . . Laptop? (Sorry i cn't tell youmore than that - I'm a computer dummy. )

[Luftwaffles]

Umm. . . . Laptop? (Sorry i cn't tell youmore than that - I'm a computer dummy. )

Cool, this is your key then:



Remember, you need to press the accent key BEFORE of the letter you want to punctuate. You can only punctuate vowels, though

[Cornflower MM]

Umm. . . . . [a, nope not that one. 'a. Or that one. My keyboards looks a little more like this:



Eh, I 'll figure it out.

EDIT: Oh, I'm an idiot! Here we go: ``Now, to get it over the letters. . . (GAH! Do my ALT and CTROL keys not work now?!?!)

[Luftwaffles]

Cool, what else would you like to learn in meantime? *Stares at the picture and starts to look for the darn accent key*

[Cornflower MM]

I figured out how to get part of the accent: `! Just can't get it over the letters. But maybe some basic words?

[Luftwaffles]

I figured out how to get part of the accent: `! Just can't get it over the letters. But maybe some basic words?

Sure thing, let's start off with some basic courtesy and stuff (I know, pretty amateurish stuff, but I had to learn that too !).

Let's pretend that I just found you walking down the street and I want to greet you... in that case, I would say: ¡Hola! ¿Cómo estás?" which is a direct translation from: "Hello! How are you?".

Now, let's just pretend the exact opposite... if you are leaving and I want to give you a proper goodbye, then I would say something along the lines of "Nos vemos, cuidate". A direct translation from "Take care, good bye".

If you want to ask what time it is, then you should say "¿Qué hora es?" and if you want to ask where to find a bathroom (pretty epic question, I know) the right thing to say would be "Discúlpame, ¿Dónde está el baño?" (Excuse me, can you tell me where to find the bathroom?).

One more: you wouldn't believe how handy it is to know how to ask about the location of a nearby grocery store (seriously)... you can ask that as follows: "Dísculpeme, ¿dónde se encontraría el kiosco más cercano?" (Excuse me, can you tell me where to find a grocery store?).

Hope that helps .

[Cornflower MM]

Gracias! So, ¡Hola! ¿Cómo estás? Dísculpeme, ¿dónde se encontraría el kiosco más cercano?

[Luftwaffles]

Gracias! So, ¡Hola! ¿Cómo estás? Dísculpeme, ¿dónde se encontraría el kiosco más cercano?

Yo estoy muy bien, ¡gracias! (I'm fine, thank you). El Kisco más cercano está al final de la calle (the nearest grocery store is at the end of the street).

Very good use of the words there, Corny

[Cornflower MM]

Gracias! 
Any others? This is fun!

[Luftwaffles]

Gracias!  
Any others? This is fun!

Sure, let me think...

Ok. this one is important: to call the Police (let's hope that you would never have to), you can either ask where to find the department: "Disculpe, ¿donde podría encontrar la estación de Policia?" (Excuse me, can you tell me where to find the police station?) or you can try to ask an actual cop for help... that one should be something like: "Disculpe oficial necesito de su asitencia porque [describe your problem here]" (Excuse me officer, I need your help because []).

That's a pretty nasty scenario though, what situation would you want me to describe?

[Cornflower MM]

Eh. . . . Let's go with the first one. I think I have disculpe/disculpeme committed to memory now - They mean 'excuse me' right? (I might not be able to say it but I can write it! That's gotta to count for something.)