Sounds and Things: Why Does Spanish Do That?, #1

By Melissa A. Corbett

Do your whiny Spanish students ask you "But why-yyyy?" whenever you start teaching about stem changing verbs? 

Do they ask you why Spanish sounds so fast? 

Do you want to know what to say when they tell you about the king of Spain's lisp? You know they're wrong, but can't say why exactly? 

Want to know what to tell your students about rolling their Rs?

Then you're in the right place. You can shut those whiny students up, with a quick answer of "Because Latin" or, if you want ot be able to really answer their questions, you can pick up this book and get quick answers to all of these questions, with a healthy dose of snark.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mel Corbett
• Release date: Mar 1, 2019
• ISBN: 9781386653455

Melissa A. Corbett

Melissa A. Corbett studies Spanish phonology and how sounds work together like a puzzle, shifting ever so slightly. She is also interested how people learn languages. She received her MA in Spanish from UC Davis. And, if you've gotten this far, you probably noticed that she's a bit sarcastic with dash of snark. 

Book preview

But WHYYYYY Does Spanish Do That?

IF THERE'S ANYTHING I can guarantee as a Spanish teacher, it's that your students will have asked you, But WHYYYY? Why does Spanish do that? 

Why do stem changers exist? Why does Spanish sound so fast?

You might have shrugged and wondered yourself or maybe you mumbled something incoherent about Latin. Maybe you told your students that one day, you would take a course on the history of Spanish and then you could tell them. 

Either way, this question, being repeated in their whiniest voices whenever you present any of Spanish's little idiosyncrasies or anything that isn't super regular or the same as English, is probably getting to you. You just want to tell your students, shut their mouths, you don't know. 

So, I'm here to tell you that most of the time, you can just tell your students, because Latin! and then you can watch their eyes glaze over as you tell them the actual technical answer, that usually does involve Latin. Your students probably don't really want a real answer so much as some rule or something that they can grasp onto and understand when and why things will be different than the regular verbs (or whatever) that they've been taught. Sometimes, there is a handy rule. Sometimes, if they knew Latin they could figure it out... but who's got time for Latin? 

If that answer sounds a little too easy,