Portfolio Five
There are a few ways to type the Spanish “enye” (ñ or Ñ) on the keyboard:
1. Copy and paste the ñ or Ñ
2. For a lowercase ñ Press “alt” and then 164 or “alt” 0241
3. To make an uppercase Ñ, press “alt” 165 or “alt” 0209
4. Add the Spanish language keyboard to Microsoft Word: www.spanishsmalltalk.com/2014/03/12/how-to-add-spanish-spell-check-for-word-2011-and-word-2013/
A few fun facts:
- The weird squiggly above the n is called a tilde.
- It’s pronounced “en-yay”
- Español contains the enye, so learn how to say it!
- Wikipedia: “Historically, “ñ” arose as a ligature of “nn”: the tilde was shorthand for the second “n”, written over the first.[1] This is a letter in the Spanish alphabet which is used for many words, for example, the Spanish word año (anno in Old Spanish) “year” is derived from Latin ANNVS.” (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%91)
Ok, so the guy who speaks nine languages is not me. Haha. I only speak Spanish. But here’s a really good post on www.babbel.com/magazine/10-tips-from-an-expert on how to increase your Spanish language ability, here’s a quote and some of my favorites:
” . . . It’s crucial to practice your new language every single day:
“I tend to want to absorb as much as possible right from the start. So if I learn something I really, really go for it and try to use it throughout the day. As the week progresses I try to think in it, try to write in it, try to speak to myself even in that language. For me it’s about actually putting what you’re learning into practice – be that writing an email, speaking to yourself, listening to music, listening to the radio. Surrounding yourself, submerging yourself in the new language culture is extremely important.”
That was number #2 listed “Dive In.” My other two favorites from the list are these and my personal commentary.
#5. Have Fun With it
– My greatest gains in Spanish have been the times when I’ve been having fun with friends watching a baseball or soccer game, or going to a concert, or checking out a new restaurant. I’ve found that it’s way easier to continue doing something if I’m actually enjoying it. It’s a natural motivator and when you start having fun it gets addicting, you all of a sudden want to know more, and more and you start checking dictionaries and asking your friends to help you. This is a healthy addiction!
#10 Talk to Yourself
– Early on in my Spanish language adventure someone told me that I should out loud to myself. The reality is that we all need practice forming these words with their accents and their unique pronunciations. If you think these will naturally come up in conversation, you’re wrong. You’ve got to practice it on your own time, before it comes up in a conversation! Practice it before you need to use it. That’s great advice in life, but especially with language, you’ve got to get used to saying these words. Yeah, you’re going to look a bit silly looking like you’re having a conversation with yourself, but it’s totally worth it!
Most readers of the Spanish Small Talk “daily email” usually ask me where to go to find more resources, or a Spanish learning program that they can practice with daily. There’s are really three key resources that I can recommend to anyone who’s looking to learn more Spanish.
Spanish Learning Program:
SpanishPod101.com – Learn Spanish from over 1,030+ Spanish Audio and Video lessons from beginner to advanced. Also contains the 2,000 Must-Know Words.
Spanish Learning Communities:
LingQ is a FREE online community where you can choose to learn one of 9 languages: www.LingQ.com
Are you looking for an easy way to type in Spanish inside Microsoft Word? It’s super easy to add Spanish into Word, and as soon as
you do, you’ll be able to type with all the Spanish accents and punctuation. What’s more, you’ll be able to use the Spanish Spell Check and Grammar option. Which is awesome. I put together a small guide to assist you in adding the Spanish language pack to Microsoft Word 2011 or Microsoft Word 2013.
How to Type in Spanish for Word 2011 and Word 2013
Step 1. First open up Word and go to the Review Tab
Step 2. Select “Language Preferences”
Step 3. Go to “Add Additional Editing Languages”
Step 4. Select “Spanish (Mexico)” from the list.
Step 5. Word will add the Spanish language pack into the list of editing languages, and you may have to enable it. Click on “not enabled” to add it.
Step 6. Windows should open up your control panel and the “clock, language and region” settings where you can add a language. Click on this button.
Step 7. Scroll down until you find the Spanish category
Step 8. Select the Español (Mexico) setting.
Step 9. You should see this added to the list of languages.
Step 10. Go back into Word and type some Spanish words
Step 11. Now click on the language bar “English (United States)” Choose “Spanish (Mexico)” from the list.
Step 12. When you type some more Spanish words you’ll be able to “Right-Click” and fix the words if they are spelled incorrectly or are missing an accent.
Step 13. You can even go back to the Review Tab and choose Spelling and Grammar to run the spell check on the entire document.
Step 14. Here’s an example of the dialogue box it will bring up.
Step 15. And it’ll even catch missing punctuation.
Here’s a “quick copy and paste” option if you want to make some quick edits:
http://www.spanishsmalltalk.com/2012/01/15/copy-and-paste-spanish-letters/
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I have been learning a lot about this Spanish lessons site called: Spanishpod101.com
Here’s what they say about themselves:
“Why Study with SpanishPod101?
Learn Spanish with SpanishPod101! No more dry, out of date textbook story lines! Here at SpanishPod101, you’ll learn Spanish with fun, interesting and culturally relevant lessons that are easy to listen to. But not only are they fun – they’re effective too! Join the hundreds of thousands of people already learning Spanish through the power of our mobile apps, desktop software and website with free Spanish lessons released every week!”
