This edition we have 3 winners of the draw for the ‘200 Words a Day CD-Rom’, because I was overloaded in January and did not issue a newsletter. So sorry.

Anyway the winners are: Janell, Matthew & Olga. (The only info we get for these is a 'name' or nickname and an email address (which we cannot print or the spam-bots will bombard them with "offers").

An email is on its way to each of you, and you will need to tell us which language CD-Rom you’d like, and the address for shipping.

To enter the monthly draw for a CD-Rom of your choice, click on the link Enter the Draw.

You'll need to answer some easy questions (we even give you the answers...!). You can re-enter every month if you want to!

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Forthcoming Releases.... French #2 Release Imminent
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French Course #2 should release in the next 3-4 weeks.

Our Welsh #1 Course is being beta-tested by our colleagues in Denbigh, North Wales at the Popeth Cymraeg.

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Work Advanced.... on a number of specialised Spanish Courses for intermediate to advanced learners
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Work is advanced on a number of Spanish Courses, including:

- Exceltra's 'Excelerated Spanish Verbs' which cover the verb families with lots of friendly cartoony characters based on people like Hercules, Emperor Hadrian, Mr Bean, and many others;

- we are well advanced into a course on understanding the tricky (for anglophones) concepts of the two vitally important

verbs - 'ser' and 'estar'. It is called 'To Be or Not to Be - the Ser - Estar Question; Understanding Ser and Estar.'

Intermediate (...and even advanced Spanish learners), will appreciate the difficulty of these two verbs which appear all the time in Spanish!

Ask a native Spanish speaker when to use one or the other, and most will not be able to explain it, because to them it is totally intuitive.

We are including loads of pics and cartoons that will allow the learner to remember the situations with a pic... because the brain never forgets a pic. We have several cartoon characters that will give you simple memory tools.

- likewise we are well advanced with a course on the uses of 'Por' and 'Para', which are the two words used for the English word 'for'. There are 28 occasions on which 'por' is used, and 11 occasions that 'para' is used. Also included are hundreds of examples of their common uses.

Again cartoon pics will remind the learner of the situation in which one of the other is used. I have not seen a simpler method.... but if you do please let us know!

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Spanish Tip - a bit of PAIN!
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Because I am in pain I am going to talk about pain...

The reason for using this word is that I am in PAIN from playing 6-a-side football (soccer) a night ago in the snow, and my body is creaking.

The word for 'to hurt' is doler, which sounds like a 'DOLLER' bill. We have a pic of a man inflicting pain by hitting another with a 'DOLLER' bill.

Hence it is a pertinent time to look at some of the words and phrases derived from 'doler'.

Me duele la pierna. . . . means my leg hurts . . . or more literally - it pains me the leg. (Because the me is in there - and it is reflexive - this tells you it is my leg, but the Spanish refer to the leg, and the reflexive verb tells you it is 'my').

Me duele la cabeza. . . . means I have a headache . . . or translated literally - It pains me the head!

Me duele is reflexive. And notice also that duele is an irregular conjugation of doler. It is irregular because it does not follow the normal rules of conjugating a verb ending in the letters '-er'. (....if it did it would be 'dole' rather than duele ).

. . .but notice that when we talk about both legs (as in my current state...) the Spanish use duelen , the plural.

Me duelen las piernas . The plural is used because they are relating to the (plural) legs.

- - - and here are a couple more little subtle differences of feeling pain and hurt

the difference between - - - dolorido and dolido - - -

estoy dolorido means I feel PHYSICAL pain. . . . which again reflects my sorry (unfit) physical state.

estoy dolido means I am hurt EMOTIONALLY. i.e. the opposition team hurt my feelings by thrashing us 9-2, and my ego is bruised by the humiliation.

Remember this one by imagining a man is hurt emotionally about the cheating that his girlfriend DOLLY DO....

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French Tip - PEAS on your POLKA DOT TIE??
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Many of you will know the word in French for pea is le 'pois' or 'petit pois' . . . . which sounds like 'PWA'.

The same word is used for 'dot' in the sense of dots on a tie. So a yellow tie with green spots is Cravate jaune à pois verts.

So if you imagine your yellow tie covered in green peas, you'll never forget the connection between French peas and dots.

This pois sounds exactly the same as the word 'poids' which is the word for weight, or heaviness. Vendre au poids means to sell by weight;

. . . and il ne fait pas le poids means 'he doesn't make the grade'.

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German Tip -
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The future tense in German is made by using the base construction of 'werde', which translates as WILL.

Remember this by imagining that one WILL get WEIRD as one gets older. After the 'werde' derivative, one adds the infinitive of the verb.

So I shall talk or I will talk is ich werde sprechen.
You will talk is: du wirst sprechen.
He will talk is: er wird sprechen.
We will talk is: wir wirden sprechen.
You (plural familiar) will talk is: ihr werdet sprechen.
They will talk is: sie werden sprechen.

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Here's another one:

The German word for cushion is KISSEN. So to remember this we imagine a couple of smoking monkeys KISSING on a cushion.

Remember the smoking monkeys reminds you the noun is NEUTER!

Don't forget to enrol for the monthly competition and be in for the draw to win a CD-Rom of your choice.

Enter the Draw for a 200 Words a Day! CD-Rom of your Choice.

That is it for this newsletter. See you next time.

Hasta la vista...À bientôt...Bis bald.

Kevin Crocombe & the 200 Words a Day Team
www.200words-a-day.com
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The Team
Tom White; Odette; Nigel; Dominic; Caroline Giraud; Albin Vidal; Maud Wojcik; Germain Tottet; Mariana Averza; Julia Watson; Eduardo Aceto; Maria Llorente; Chris White; Alan White, Sandrine Benoit, Welsh: Ioan Telfryn, Howard Edwards.

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School Programmes are available worldwide. Words in our courses cover the syllabus in most English-speaking countries.

UK Schools qualify for e-Learning Credits.

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Trade enquiries are welcome.

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200 Words a Day!
32 Alverton, Great Linford, Milton Keynes, Bucks, MK14 5EF, United Kingdom.
Tel: (+44) 1908 676 873