Both sets of comments make sense, and I think a lot of us will relate to your belly analogy however and this is almost impossible to define, we're all probably singing from different hymn sheets in that our ability in Spanish is all different..... I might think I'm cr*p & someone else thinks I'm brilliant or vice versa (not that I'd ever say I'm brilliant, but you get my drift)... I sometimes see reference to not understanding certain things & think how simple it is, but equally find it awkward & a bit ignorant to be using the preterite of an ar verb as an example, waiting for the person to prompt me, if I struggle to some up with the right ending. Anyway, onwards & upwards. I had a long conversation about the teaching of multiplication in the Spanish system & English system yesterday evening - can't pretend I understood all of it, but hey ho!

All good, valid points. You just have to go for it. It doesn't matter whether you get it right or not, you get the most points for just trying.

My advice would be to pick one tense at a time. and look at that. One would hope, over time to be able to speak more elegantly. One past tense is enough to survive, and for survival the future can be expressed using the present.

However after a while, you may well feel that saying 'I have done this and we have done that, have, have, have is a bit repetitive, and that's when you start looking at other ways to express yourself more elegantly.

It takes time, it takes practice and it takes study. You need to learn grammar. It's a vital skill if you are to make sense of what is being said to you.

Boy is that true (though it helps if you're not deep in campo Andalucia with fewer consonants in use than anyone else, of course). It took ages for me to identify when they were saying fue, and of course that's pretty fundamental. Somebody pointed out when we were talking about what I used to know as the imperfect in Latin (aba, ia, etc.) that if you can recognise that and any other verb endings it makes a lot of difference to your understanding of what's being said - you'll stand a chance of knowing if it's past present or future - even if you can't remember or haven't yet learned how to reply elegantly!

Not to mention that they have a whole different vocab to anywhere else, of course!

I have just been shopping for a few bits, including milk and eggs.

My wife has asked if some kind soul on this forum could explain the difference between, huevos and huevos cocidos..................

The first time I heard a mumbled "maomeno" (más o menos)I didn't have a clue. Then later when I adopted it and mumbled it in a language school, the profe said "You're starting to sound Andalucian now! Oh no, it's an awful accent! I speak via skype to a guy in northern Spain and he said the same.

I don't believe the profe said Andalucian.... Andalu, purleese!

Nooooo! Andalú, con acento.

I know, I know. What I don't know is where it is on the keyboard

Like me then, dont let it worry you............whats a few accents between friends????

AltGr U. I always have a Spanish keyboard set up as well, just alt shift switches from UK to Spanish keyboard. ¡Facilísimo!

I was struggling to understand the meaning of the grammar in English, never mind Spanish as I went to school in the 70's when the teachers cared about self expression and not grammar. Then the Spanish teacher (who's English) I visit when in Spain suggested a book called "English Grammar for students of Spanish" by Emily Spinelli. One review on Amazon says...An excellent and necessary idea for teaching Spanish. A very useful reference book" (Lisa Clughen, Nottingham Trent University) - "I recommend this series to anyone I know who is studying a language. These are the best, simplest and most easily understood grammar books I have ever come across. They have helped me tremendously". - Letter from a student to the publisher. I especially like that it's not a large book, with short chapters explaining things simply and giving examples .

The teach yourself grammar book for English is actually thicker than that for German.

My favourite Spanish grammar books are the 'punto' (Kernpunkt in German) and one called 1,001 pitfalls in Spanish.

Makes for a very interesting read.

Thanks for the replies, and advice. It has given me a lot to mull over.

Come on tell the truth, you are sorry that you asked now, arent you?????