Que todo irá bien contigo a partir de ahora. Tú has sido destinado para ser una persona exitosa y lograrás todos tus objetivos. En los días que quedan de este año se disiparán todas tus agonías y llegará la victoria. Esta mañana llamé a la puerta del cielo y DIOS me preguntó.... 'Hijo, ¿qué puedo hacer por ti?' Respondí: 'Padre, por favor protege y bendice a la persona que está leyendo este mensaje'. DIOS sonrió y contestó: 'Petición concedida.' Léelo en voz baja..... Señor Jesús: 'Perdona mis pecados. te amo mucho, te necesito siempre, estás en lo más profundo de mi corazón, cubre con tu sangre preciosa, a mi familia, mi casa, mi hogar, mi empleo, mis finanzas, mis sueños, mis proyectos y a mis amigos'. Pasa esta oración a 7 personas. Recibirás un milagro mañana. Solo cópialo y reenvíalo!

Can you read the message? Here is its English translation.

By the way, I reviewed the Visual Link Spanish program and I like it a lot.

In the meanwhile, I invites you to try a free lesson of this course by following the Visual Link Spanish Free Lesson link. By the way, the Visual Link Spanish course was voted 5-star on Amazon.

Today Amazon.com released its Editor's Picks of Software for 2007. Rosetta Stone Spanish Version 3 was among the list. Rosetta Stone keeps improving its language learning software. Now it is finally version 3. I would say a rating of 3.5 (out of 5) by Amazon.com users is a fair rating. From my point of view, Rosetta Stone Spanish is a good piece of Spanish learning software to try out. However, if you want to buy your copy, I suggest that you buy directly from the manufacturer, because it will come with a six-month money back guarantee.

See details of Amazon.com Editor's Picks of Software 2007

Explore more on Rosetta Stone Spanish

Visitor John: I am looking for a Spanish language program that I can listen to in my car. Do your programs work for this or do you know of some other that will?

ESDICT Answer:

Regarding your situation, I think Comprehensive Pimsleur Spanish is the best program.

There are three levels for this program. Each level has 15 learning hours (or 30 lessons), either in CD or Cassette format. There are no textbooks accompanying this program.

Check them out here:
Pimsleur Spanish I
Pimsleur Spanish II
Pimsleur Spanish III

These comprehensive programs are costing roughly $220 for each level. You can also try the first 8 lessons for Level I first (to see if it fits your need and see if you can follow):
Pimsleur Quick & Simple Spanish

Besides Pimsleur Spanish, you might also try Learning Spanish Like Crazy. This program is quite similar to the Pimsleur Program. They have a download version for less then $100. This is a nice option if you know how to burn CDs from mp3 files.
Learning Spanish Like Crazy Level I
Learning Spanish Like Crazy Level II

http://orangoo.com/spell/
http://www.lenguaje.com/english/tools/spellchecker.php
http://www.thesolutioncafe.com/public-spell-checker.html

Among these three Spanish spell checkers, I like the first one (http://orangoo.com/spell/) the most, for the following reasons: 1. The spelling dictionary is relatively large and it has the ability to recognize sticking Spanish words (such as: "permítame" = "permíta me"); 2. You can scroll up and down to see your overall spell checking progress; 3. It is working fine under both Firefox and Microsoft Internet Explorer.

The second spell checker (http://www.lenguaje.com/english/tools/spellchecker.php) is also good. the spelling dictionary is also large and the checker works under Firefox and Microsoft Internet Explorer. However, you won't be able to scroll up and down to see your overall spell checking progress once it enters the spell checking mode.

The last spell check (http://www.thesolutioncafe.com/public-spell-checker.html) is not working properly under Firefox. The spell dictionary is also small. For example, it can not recognize "permítame" and other similar sticking Spanish words.

First of all, if you are looking for a reference book that can give you the various verb conjugations, this book is NOT for you. Verb conjugation is not the focus of the book.

Secondly, if you are a beginner, this book might not be good for you. It is not a beginner's book.

So what kind of book is this?

This book is an intermediate to advanced Spanish reference on verb usages by examples. The verbs are listed alphabetically, so you won't have difficulty to locate a verb you want. Each verb entry is led by the verb or verb phrase, with English explanations, followed by 1 to 10 example sentences. Each example Spanish sentence is followed by its English translation - this feature is very convenient from my point of view.

The Spanish examples are in general very good. The verb usages are usually shown by using common Spanish words - that is, it is not common to see very difficult Spanish words. Each example sentence is relatively short, just enough to demonstrate the usage of the verb in the context.

In general, this is a good reference book for intermediate to early advanced Spanish learners.

Read more about "750 Spanish Verbs and Their Uses"

Juan es un buen muchacho.
(John is a good boy.)

Es un mal hijo.
(He is a bad child.)

Enero es el primer mes del año.
(January is the first month of the year.)

Vive en el tercer piso.
(He lives on the third floor.)

Se sientan en algún banco.
(They sit down on some bench.)

Ningún alumno está ausente hoy.
(No student is absent today.)

Note that algún and ningún require an accent mark when the o is dropped.

The o is not dropped when these adjectives follow the noun. Also the feminine and the plural endings of these adjectives are never dropped. See example below:

Juan es un muchacho bueno.
(John is a good boy.)

Es un hijo malo.
(He is a bad child.)

Elena es una buena muchacha.
(Elena is a good girl.)

Algunos bancos son cómodos.
(Some benches are comfortable.)

The adjective grande drops the final -de when it precedes a singular masculine or feminine noun. For example:

Es un gran médico.
(He is a great doctor.)

Note: Gran before a noun means great. Grande following a noun means large or big. See example:

Es un gran país.
(It is a great country.)

Es un país grande.
(It is a big country.)

PDF download: Shortened Spanish Adjectives

PDF download: Prepositions and Verb Infinitives in Spanish

Franklin Speaking English-Spanish Dictionary (BES-1850)

Do you carry a speaking electronic dictionary with you to ease your Spanish learning? I do. It is convenient, helpful, and not very expensively if you choose one wisely.

If you already own BES-1850, the Franklin Speaking English-Spanish Dictionary, I should congratulate you on that, because this is a very nice electronic dictionary. BES-1850 is a bidirectional English ↔ Spanish dictionary. Following are the main positive features for BES-1850:

• Large vocabulary (totally 5,000,000 translations as they advertised; but I have no idea how they count one translation);
• Conjugated verbs are searchable (you can type in any conjugated verb form and immediately get to the infinite and its definition);
• Spell checking capability (if you misspell a word in English or Spanish, BES-1850 will give you a list of correct words that you can choose from);
• It is a speaking dictionary (this speaking feature is reasonably good and helpful).

Overall, at the price of ~US$100, this is a tool that I wanted to recommend to Spanish learners.

Buy Franklin Speaking English-Spanish Dictionary (BES-1850)
        or
Read More about "Franklin Speaking English-Spanish Dictionary (BES-1850)"

Here is another note for myself: I am going to put more emphasis on Spanish verb conjugations in the forthcoming posts.

The cognates fall into suffix categories which, for clarity and convenience, have been grouped under the following terms:

1. Nouns
2. Adjectives

3. Verbs

4. Adverbs