www.CostaRicaTicas.com

Actually, "Ducharme" would be "To bathe myself", which is a prepositional phrase in English, and requires a root phrase first.

"Me Ducho" is a direct translation for "I bath myself", but is it correct Spanish? My girl says this when headed to the shower, but it always sounded like "me ducha". It could be that she isn't pronouncing the "o" strongly (and she has a bad lack of articulation in her speaking).

So, how exactly do you render (or rent as it were) the English phrase "I bathe myself", or "I am bathing"?

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bypassin' kinky, and usin' the whole chicken!!!

and another one.

"Yo les daré saludos de tu parte.". 'I will give them your greetings'.

How is the "de tu parte" used? It means "For/from your part", but is it a typical way to say "from you"?

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bypassin' kinky, and usin' the whole chicken!!!

Bañar is to bathe, Duchar is to shower.

" me Duchar" is equivalent to ducharme, just a less usual form.

I am going to have to check into this, that may require another fact finding trip to SJ

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I twitter:
(Travel With Interesting Toys)

Any reason to go to CR, I see.

Here I speak as an expert on the Spanish language:

"me" is the reflexive pronoun, and either goes before the conjugated verb, or at the end of the infinitive (which comes after the congugated verb). Therefore, "me bañar" or "me duchar" wouldn't be spoken as such, I don't think.

"Me baño ahora", "Me estoy bañando", "Voy a bañarme" are correct, methinks. Of course I could be mistaken about the placement before the conjugated verb, confusing it with DO and IO verbs.

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bypassin' kinky, and usin' the whole chicken!!!

I learned that asking "yo te gusto?" is heard as "did I make you happy?", after a session. It's not a typical phrase, and several chicas have understood it, and said that it's a sweet thing to ask your partner. So if you want to be remembered by the chica du jour, then ask her.

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bypassin' kinky, and usin' the whole chicken!!!

I also finally got the "Here versus There" words down, and wanted to share.

In English, we have two demonstrative adverbs: Here, There. In Spanish, they have 5: aquí, acá, ahí, allí, allá.

It was confusing to me, but I found a blog entry that straightened it out. (And forget the whole "it's related to distance" thing, which is BS).

In English, we actually have 4 modal terms: "right here", "right there", "around/near here", "around/near there". This is the key to understanding the Spanish words.

Look to the ending vowel. The í, (the strong EE sound) relates to the specific location: "right here, right there". The softer á sound relates to the generalized location "around/near/close to, etc.

aquí = right here (exactly where I am)
acá = over/near/around here (in this direction, to me)
allí = right there, exactly there
allá = over there somewhere

eg. "La luna es allí, pero saturno esta allá." The moon is there (and you can point to it), but Saturn is out there somewhere.

The 5th term, "ahí", relates to the speakers' 'there' but the listeners' 'here'. Think of it as meaning "there, by you.".

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bypassin' kinky, and usin' the whole chicken!!!

You have the part right about being reflexive verbs. However, as a general rule the body and its parts are referred to in the third person as part of the verb conjugation in Spanish.

Me ducha = I bath (the body) implied
Me duele la cabeza = It hurts me the head

In this way you refer to your head or arm as the head or the arm, and never my head or my arm.

I post almost never but this is a great theme. The girls could care less if you use and thing other than the present tense so I would not get too anal about the conjugations, deference in verbs, etc. I will say, getting a grasp on ser and estar is important, encontrar, encontrarse rather than another way to say "get together" or meet. In my experience, most of the people blow off have the sentence when speaking, as they figure you know what and when they are talking about. I live in DR so the Spanish is a bit different in CR, but I found it is not that much different.

I'll b at Zona 2 for some dental work from Nov. 28-Dec. 9. If anyone wants to try and communicate with the locals, let me know.

Have fun and thanks for the tread.

bump!

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bypassin' kinky, and usin' the whole chicken!!!

OK, you bumped. Agua is not masculine

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My English teacher said "I before E except after C". Then she told me to go to science class!

Indeed it is. El agua

Feminine nouns that begin with a stressed "a-" or "ha-" sound in Spanish use the definite article "el" in the singular.

Correct, however, adjectives are in the feminine *IF* the noun is indeed feminine.

El agua fria!

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bypassin' kinky, and usin' the whole chicken!!!

I stand corrected

From the RAE....

El sustantivo agua es de género femenino, pero tiene la particularidad de comenzar por /a/ tónica (la vocal tónica de una palabra es aquella en la que recae el acento de intensidad: [água]). Por razones de fonética histórica, este tipo de palabras seleccionan en singular la forma el del artículo, en lugar de la forma femenina normal la. Esta regla solo opera cuando el artículo antecede inmediatamente al sustantivo, de ahí que digamos el agua, el área, el hacha; pero si entre el artículo y el sustantivo se interpone otra palabra, la regla queda sin efecto, de ahí que digamos la misma agua, la extensa área, la afilada hacha. Puesto que estas palabras son femeninas, los adjetivos deben concordar siempre en femenino: el agua clara, el área extensa, el hacha afilada (y no el agua claro, el área extenso, el hacha afilado).
Por su parte, el indefinido una toma generalmente la forma un cuando antecede inmediatamente a sustantivos femeninos que comienzan por /a/ tónica: un área, un hacha, un águila (si bien no es incorrecto, aunque sí poco frecuente, utilizar la forma plena una: una área, una hacha, una águila). Asimismo, los indefinidos alguna y ninguna pueden adoptar en estos casos las formas apocopadas (algún alma, ningún alma) o mantener las formas plenas (alguna alma, ninguna alma).
Al tratarse de sustantivos femeninos, con los demostrativos este, ese, aquel o con cualquier otro adjetivo determinativo, como todo, mucho, poco, otro, etc., deben usarse las formas femeninas correspondientes: esta hacha, aquella misma arma, toda el agua, mucha hambre, etc. (y no este hacha, aquel mismo arma, todo el agua, mucho hambre, etc.)
- See more at: http://www.rae.es/consultas/el-agua-est ... l89nJ.dpuf

All I have to add is: No quiero agua, dame una cerveza por favor