This one is from BBC.  

This one is from telegraph.  

from football.co.uk.   

from timesonline.  

and finally from gaurdian.  

I am sorry if you misunderstood the title for something else ( Too bad mate ).

Bits of Halley’s Comet streaked into the Earth’s atmosphere before dawn on Sunday during the peak of the eta Aquarid meteor shower. Their trails appear to originate near the star eta Aquarii in the constellation Aquarius, the water bearer, which gives the shower its name. I slept at 0300 hrs last night(?) [should have waited! but forgot]

more about the Eta Aquarid

source: http://newscientist.com/

Finished the last 12 today. Quite easy. Almost like English.

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‘p’ ( peh ) – similar to the English one, but a little softer.

p para papa ( potato )

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‘q’ ( Coo ) – is used only before ‘u’. Pronunciation is same as English ‘k’ with out the puff of air.

q para que ( that )

‘r’ ( ereh ) — The Spanish “r” has two separate sounds, depending on whether or not it is the first letter of a word. Neither one of these sounds even remotely resembles the English “r” sound. When the “r” is the first letter of the word, it is trilled like the “rr”, which comes next. Otherwise, the “r” sounds much like the “dd” of the word “ladder.” (It’s not exactly the same, but it’s much closer to this “dd” sound than to the English “r” sound.)

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‘r’ para reina ( queen )

‘r’ – barco ( do you remember the English translation ? It’s in here )

[ here it is pronounced as a strong r or ‘rr’ ]

‘rr’ ( Doble ereh ) – the Spanish ‘rr’ is more vibrating or thrilling.

‘rr’ – Perro ( dog )

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‘s’ ( ehsesh ) – similar to English ‘s’

‘s’ para sandía ( watermelon )

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‘t’ ( the ) – When making the “t” sound in English, the tongue touches the gum ridge behind the upper front teeth. The Spanish “t” is produced quite differently, with the tongue actually touching the back of the front teeth, and without the puff of air that characterizes the English “t”. Telugu and Hindi have this sound.

‘t’ para total ( total )

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‘u’ ( oo ) – similar to ‘oo’ in the English ‘food’.

‘u’ para usa ( use )

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‘v’ ( oobeh ) – similar to the Spanish ‘b’. All the rules apply.

‘v’ para vector ( vector )

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‘w’ ( doble beh ) – In Spanish, the letters “k” and “w” are found only in foreign words. The “k” is pronounced like an English “k” without the puff of air. The “w” is pronounced like the “b/v” when it occurs between vowels.

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‘x’ ( Eh-kiss ) – The Spanish “x” has three separate sounds. The first is like the “ks” in the word “talks” (examen). The second is pronounced like the English letter “h” and is reserved for certain proper nouns and words that are derived from them (México, mexicano). The third is pronounced like the English “ch” and it, too is reserved for certain proper nouns (Xitle, Xela).

‘x’ – examen ( examination ). The sound is ‘ks’. The rest are usually names.

‘x’ – México. The sound is like an English ‘h’ as in ‘house’

‘x’ – Xabi. A proper noun. The sound is like a ‘ch’ as in Spanish ‘Chico’ meaning _______ [ Do you remember ? ]

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‘y’ ( eegreeehga ) – has two different sounds. When it occurs alone it is pronounced as ‘ee’ in ‘eel’. Otherwise it sounds just like the English ‘y’.

‘y’ para y ( and ). Pronounced as ‘ee’.

‘y’ para Yo ( I ).

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‘z’ ( sehtah ) – The Spanish “z” is pronounced differently in Spain than in Latin America. In Spain, it is pronounced like the “th” in the English word “think.” In Latin America, it is pronounced like the letter “s”.

‘z’ para ‘zapato’ ( Shoe )

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What next ??. May be numbers or build up some vocabulary. ( couldn’t decide upon which one )

Uno,Dos,Tres …

Previously on my blog …

a para arco

b para barco

c para cerco

ch para chico

d para dedo

[ Try to recollect the English translations with out looking at the previous post ]

and now the blog continues …

The Spanish ‘e’ ( eh ) is like the French ‘é’ in ‘déjà vu’ or like the ‘a’ in the English ‘day’
e para elefante ( Elephant )
The ‘f’ in Spanish when isolated is pronounced as ‘ éfé ’. But when it occurs in a word it is just like an English ‘f’.
f para fuego ( fire )

The ‘g in Spanish has three variants. One is similar to the English ‘g’ sound as in ‘got’. This is only if the incidence of ‘g’ is followed by “a”, “o”, “u”, and when following the letter “n” or after a pause in a sentence.

An example for this kind of ‘g’ is

g para gato ( cat )

The soft version of this ‘g’ comes when it occurs between vowels (a,e,i,o,u). There sees to be an ambiguity whether to use the soft ‘g’ or the hard ‘g’ ( as in English ‘got’) if ‘g’ occurs between vowels but is followed by an ‘a’, ’o’ or ‘u’. The correct pronunciation is the soft ‘g’. It is just softer. Like mixing an ‘h’ with a ‘g’. Almost similar to the difference between the Hindi/Telugu versions of ‘gha’ (hard) and ‘ga’(soft).

The example is agua ( water ).

[ Notice that the ‘g’ in agua, though followed by a ‘u’, is pronounced in a softer way overriding the first rule which says ‘g’ has to be harder when followed by a ‘u’/’a’/’o’. The second rule takes precedence over the first one ]

The third pronunciation of ‘g’ is similar to an English ‘h’ as in ‘hot’ but with more air puffing out of your mouth. This is pronounced if ‘g’ comes before ‘e’ or ‘i’.

g para general ( general ).

[ pronounced as hé-né-ràl. Here, pronounce the é and à as in French. It is really difficult to explain the pronunciation in writing ]

The Spanish ‘h’ ( acheh ) has no sound when used in words. It is silent.

h para huevo ( egg )

The Spanish ‘I’ ( ee ) is similar to the English ‘ee’ in ‘teeth’.

i para inglés ( English ).

[ The ‘é’ in ingles means that the ‘e’ has to stressed and has to be a little longer than the original ‘e’. I shall come back to this later. The small symbol on ‘e’ can be used over all vowels and all of them have to be stressed and prolonged when the symbol is used ]

The ‘j’ ( jotah ) is like an ‘h’ in ‘hot’. Notice the difference between the ‘g’ in general ( Spanish general ) and this ‘j’ are different. As mentioned above, there has to be more air coming out of your mouth in case of ‘g’, than that of a ‘j’.

j para justicia ( justice ).

Spanish ‘k’ ( kah ) and its English foil differ in the fact that the Spanish ‘k’ is a little softer than the English ‘k’.

k para kilo ( kilo )

‘l’ (eleh ) in Spanish is the same as an English ‘l’.

l para lupa ( magnifying glass)

‘ll’ ( ehjeh ) sounds like a ‘y’ in yatch.

ll para llolar ( weep )

The Spanish ‘m’ ( ehmeh ) and ‘n’ ( ehneh ) are similar to their English sounds.

m para mamá ( mother ).

n para nombre. ( name )

ñ ( enieh ) sounds like an ‘ny’ in ‘Canyon’.

ñ para español ( Spanish ).

‘o’ sounds similar to the English ‘o’.

o para ocho ( eight )

Shall post the remaining set in the next post.

Previously on my blog …

Tried to learn Russian, Greek, Japanese. Realized  that   it is really difficult with out a plan. Now starting with Spanish in an orderly fashion.

and the blog continues …

¡Advertencia!: Este artículo es “R” clasificado para un cierto humor del adulto.

WARNING: This article is rated ‘R’ for some adult humour.

Ok. I started off with the first few characters. Took a bit of time. Quite simple except for a few sounds. Took some time to grasp them.

Beginning with ‘a’.

‘a’ sounds like the ‘a’ in “father”.

a para arco ( arc )

–

[ Going along the traditional ‘A – for apple’ way ]

The Spanish ‘b’ ( when alone pronounced as `beh` ) has a notable difference from its English counterpart. When a word begins with a ‘b’ or a ‘b’ occurs after an ‘m or an ‘n’, the sound is made by tensely holding your lips. But when it appears in the middle of a sentence, your lips are not allowed to touch each other ( and of course not others’ lips ) . It is just like trying to say ‘b’ without your lips touching each other.

b para barco ( boat )

–

‘c’ ( seh ) has two different sounds. It sounds like an English ‘k’ antes ‘a’, ’o’, ’u’.

[ Antes means ‘before’ ]

and like a ‘th’ in ‘that’ before ‘e’ and ‘i’ and at the beginning of a word.

c para circo ( circus )

[ The word ‘circo’ has got both the variants of pronunciation of the letter ‘c’ ]

–

’ch’ ( cheh ) is similar to ‘ch’ in ‘chance’.

ch para chico ( boy )

[ ‘boy’ is actually ‘el chico’ and ‘girl’ is ‘la chica’. Just like in Hindi, every thing has a gender in Spanish. El is used before a male and La is used before a female ]

–

’d’ has again two different sounds. At the beginning of a word and after “n” or “l”, the hard Spanish “d” closely resembles the “d” in the word “dog.” The difference is that when pronouncing this Spanish “d”, the tongue touches the back of the front teeth (rather than the gum ridge, as in English). In other situations (particularly between vowels) the “d” is softer, like a ‘darshanam’ [ Telugu ] or ‘ darshan’ [ Hindi ].

d para deda ( finger )

[ Here, finger is not a “VERB” ]

Ok. The watch says that its time to sleep. Meet you tomorrow, same time, same place. Until then, bye bye.

Previously on my blog …

El primer artículo – My first article.

éste es mi primer artículo en español. 

     This is my first article in spanish.

Si deseas aprendir español, podrías seguir este blog

     If you like to learn Spanish, you could follow this blog.

Amarías esta lengua.

      You would love this language.

i Hola ! – This means “Hello!”.

[ The inverse exclamation before the word “Hola!” looking like the English alphabet ‘i’ is used to abide by a simple rule in español (Spanish). The punctuation mark that we use at the end of a statement in English is also put inversely at the beginning of the sentence in Spanish. I wish I had a tool to flip the text so that I could give a better example easily – An interrogative sentence, like this one – “how are you ?” written as ¿Cómo estás? I had to go to Wikipedia and copy this ] 

 I am beginning to realize that learning a language is difficult as I have been trying to learn a lengua (language) . Spanish.

Most of the people never even think about how we have learnt a language or a couple of them. If you ever thought about it, you might be of my kind. In fact, we were instructed to discuss about this while I was taking a course on Cognitive Sciences. To be honest, I am undeniably not among those inquisitive people for whom such ideas occur as-a-matter-of-factly.

It has been a continuous learning process for twenty years (short of three months approx). Now I know Telugu, English and Hindi (I just can comprehend most of it but cannot speak fluently). When I say “I know” I mean that I can write, communicate with people or use a desktop comfortably in those lenguaje (languages).Not that I can write a dictionary of course. And before my last breath, I wish to put a few more into my basket. I just initiated the process or may be I am laying the foundations for it or I have just started digging to lay the foundations or I might still be searching for tools to dig and then lay the foundations. I don’t know until I go a little further in this journey. The ambiguities are due to past experiences from my futile effort to learn another language. You don’t know what I did last summer. I probado (tried) to learn “日本語”.

[ 日本語 means Japanese in Japanese ]

My fruitless endeavours included learning Russian and Greek from “The Chambers Dictionary” during my school days. The alphabet set for both the languages were at the back of the dictionary along with the pronunciation.

By know you must be thinking that I belong to the species of freakus languageious. Who knows, may be you would also mutate into a freakus languageious once you start learning.

[ You don’t have to do a course on Taxonomy or search for it in Google or Wikipedia to know what ‘freakus languageious’ means ]

I learnt all the Japanese alphabet ( the script and the pronunciation ). Japanese is not as difficult as it appears. The pronunciation is not at all complicated. Indeed, it has got lesser number of sounds than Hindi/Telugu. Then came a long break. I never wrote a character for more or less three months. One fine day, I stumbled upon a Japanese advertisement and when I tried to read it, I came to know that I did not even sail through the diminutive waves of the ocean.

[ Lesson one : You will never be comfortable with a language if you don’t bring it into play regularly ]

The way I tried to learn Japanese was baffling. Most of the material online goes like this.

Chapter 1: Getting into a Taxi.

Chapter 2: Go to a Hotel.

Chapter 3: Meet new people.

Chapter 4: Regularly used words

. . .

. . .

. . .

After 30 days, you can speak the language. This is how the content typically goes. But can you speak the language well? If you are involved in a confrontation with a native speaker, can you understand it ? I guess not.

This is when I backtracked my path. We all learnt English etc. over years of time. First, learning alphabet and sounds. Small words, framing sentences, grammar, rules etc. I think this is the best way to learn any language. Teaching evolved over centuries and adopting the traditional method would be a good idea. And I got this idea to blog what ever I learn. It might help people like me. But still can’t promise if I would be successful.

I shall begin with the Spanish alphabet. Soon.