The gender-bending eagle

According to one of my recent postings, nouns ending in 'A', apart from some exceptions, are feminine and, if you look up águila (eagle), in a Spanish-English dictionary, it will probably say 'NF' (noun, feminine)

So why, if you type 'eagle' into the dictionary at www.spanishdict.com , does it come back with 'EL águila'?
Stranger still, type in 'the eagles', and you will get 'LAS águilas'
Finally, just to completely confuse you, try 'the bald eagle' and you will get 'EL águila calvA' not 'calvO'

It all revolves around the fact that Spanish speakers don't like 'cacofonía', things which sound bad. So, while 'águila' IS indeed feminine, as is seen in the plural, and the agreement of adjectives, 'LA águila' sounds awful, and is awkward to say, so they just changed it!

That's not the only example, it also applies to 'EL hacha', a hatchet, or axe.

The same dislike of awkward sound combinations probably explains why the pronoun 'le' is changed to 'se' when it sits alongside the pronoun 'lo'
So,
I gave him a book = 'le dí un libro'
I brought it for him = 'lo traje para él'
BUT
I gave it to him = 'se lo dí' and NOT 'le lo dí'

But that's why we learn Spanish, rather than, say, German. It just SOUNDS better!

Are we there yet?

Here are a few little words which can cause some confusion, when you first come across them, especially in their negative forms.
Todavía, aún and ya.

First off, the easy bit. Todavía and aún are pretty much interchangeable.
Now the straightforward, positive, meanings.

ya = already or yet
ya hemos comido - we've already eaten
todavía = still
todavía vive con sus padres - he still lives with his parents

The negative versions are a little different, however.
ya no = no longer
ya no vive con sus padres - he no longer lives with his parents
todavía no = not yet
todavía no hemos comido - we haven't eaten yet.

You see, in the negative ya and todavía seem to swap places.
It takes a bit of getting used to, but it will be easier now you're aware of it.
Keep practising!

Guru? Maybe not.

Those of you who visit this Blog regularly ( and that's the odd thing about blogging . . you actually have NO idea if the same people ever come back, or what they think of your ramblings) may have noticed the new addition, below the Blog archive list.

Just before I began taking lessons with Ximena, in SecondLife, I signed up for an online course with Rocket Languages. As I had a limited amount of time available to use the PC, I didn't spend as much time on the course as I should, and concentrated instead on my virtual classwork.

Just recently, however, I've revisited the course and, while it's now much more basic than the level I'm currently studying, it includes some useful listening practise and some online tests, just to brush up on the basics. After all, I did pay for it, and it's a crime to waste my investment and, finally, I just took the Stage One exam.
I have now received, by email, a certificate ( I may even print it off) and have permission to use the logo you see on the page.

To be honest, completing Rocket Stage 1 definitely doesn't qualify me as a Guru but, if you're taking the Rocket course, and have worked down the seemingly never-ending list of multiple-choice questions, against the clock, you'll know that the occasional recognition of your hard work and achievement, by a third party, is a welcome boost.

The Future is now

The first option some courses will give you, for expressing the Future in Spanish, is to use the Present tense.
An example you will hear often is 'Nos vemos'
It translates literally as, 'we see ourselves', or 'we see each other', but is commonly used to mean 'we WILL see each other' or, put another way 'See you!'
Although that may sound 'foreign' to you, mixing tenses is not uncommon in English.

What if I told you that you may often use the Future tense to describe something that happened in the past?
No? look at this.
'Why didn't Pete come to my party?'
'He will have been working'
Now, unless I'm mistaken, 'He WILL' is the Future tense.
Funnily enough, this is actually one occasion where the exact same construction exists in Spanish.
'¿Porque no vino Pete a mi fiesta?'
'Habrá estado trabajando'

This isn't always the case. For example, there's a tense in English (even English teaching websites disagree on its name, so it may, or may not be called the Present or Future continuous) where we also use the Present tense to describe the future, but in a different way to the Spanish.
The construction 'what are we doing at the weekend?' is common enough in English, but does not exist in Spanish. In Spanish you would have to say 'what WILL WE DO at the weekend?' or 'what WILL WE BE DOING at the weekend?'
'¿que haremos el fin de semana?' or '¿que estaremos haciendo, el fin de semana?'
A little confusing, I know, but the point is to make you aware of some of the habits we practise in English, without thinking, and how some of them just don't translate into Spanish.
¡Hasta la proxima!

Is it a flying bird, or a bird, flying?

Remember how I previously mentioned going back over your early notes and tests, just to prove to yourself how far you've come?
Well, there's another reason to do it. You may just see, or hear, things you missed the first time around.
I've been listening to some of the 'advanced' lessons in the Pimsleur course and, just today, came across something which set me thinking (apart from recognising at least one use of the Subjunctive - which is not dealt with anywhere in the Pimsleur system)

The lesson uses the phrase 'él está parado, allí' (he's standing, over there) and 'su esposa, tambien, está parada, alli' (his wife is also standing over there) and, later in the lesson, a male characters says 'estoy hablando el libro' (I'm reading the book), which is repeated 'estoy hablando el libro', by a female character.

Spot the difference?

The man 'está paradO' and his wife 'está paradA', whereas both the male and female characters 'está leyendO' the book. Hmm. Something's not right.

Actually it's all correct. The difference is that 'parado/a' is an adjective, describing the state of the people, whereas, 'leyendo' is a 'Gerund', or 'present participle' describing what someone is doing, at that moment.

I've mentioned Gerunds in passing, when talking about verb conjugation apps for mobile phones, but didn't explain what they are.
Short version =  infinitive +ing.
Explanation for humans = it's the conjugation of a verb, ending in -ando, or -iendo, used in the formation of the progressive present tense, e.g. I am typ-ING = estoy tecl-ANDO.

The most difficult task, for a student of Spanish, is to decide which -ing they are using  in English, adjective or gerund.
I don't pretend to be an expert (in fact, instead of posting this, I should be doing my tarea [homework] for my next lesson, on Saturday) but I just thought it worth pointing out this interesting anomaly, and adding a link to a page which might just offer a little more guidance
http://spanish.about.com/od/verbs/a/english_ing.htm

Finally, the bird.
This is where translation sites disagree, but I reckon a bird flying is 'un ave volando' and a flying bird is 'un ave volador'

¡Nos vemos!

Are we having fun yet?

The simplest way to express enjoyment in Spanish might be to use the verb 'divertirse', but there are other options available, many of which employ the verb/noun combination 'pasarlo', with an adjective.
Sure, you can say 'me divertí', but won't it sound so much better to say 'lo pasé fenomenal!'
Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm guessing that the 'lo' refers to the time (el tiempo) I passed (yo pasé), and that it was phenomenal!

Other expressions using the same construction include . .
pasarlo bomba
pasarlo genial
pasarlo en grande
pasarlo de película (just like the movies ;¬)
pasarlo de miedo (honest!)
pasarlo de maravilla

Just to cover the technical side of things, while we're enjoying ourselves (lo pasamos genial), the verb 'pasar' should be conjugated to suit the person who is having the good time, and can be in various tenses.
Lo pasaré bomba - I will have a great time
Espero que lo pases genial - I hope (that) you have a good time.

For anyone wondering why that's 'pases', instead of 'pasas', welcome to the Subjunctive!
I've been working on it now for a couple of months. Don't let anyone ever tell you that it's easy. It's not, and an awful lot of mastering it involves learning things by heart (e.g. which verbs force you to use it)
Having said that, it's not impossible but I wasn't expecting, after 3 years of learning Spanish, to hit such a stumbling block.
Don't worry about it. By the time you get around to having to deal with it, you'll be far enough along with your Spanish that you won't be easily put off. Just get your head down and charge right in.
I'll probably write a posting on the Subjunctive, some time soon, once I'm a little more comfortable with it myself.
It helps to have a good teacher (Quick plug for mi profesora XimenaModotti Carami, in Secondlife - visit the schoolhouse at http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Sede%20di%20Marte/214/71/39)

Finally, just a note that 'pasarlo' can also be used in a negative sense, so you can use 'pasarlo mal' if you didn't have such a good time. But hopefully not here.
¡Hasta pronto!

One that got away

Here's a curiousity, that had the promise of becoming a useful tool in my Spanish learning kit, but didn't quite make it.
It's a 3D environment, reminiscent of Secondlife, populated with 3D characters, who you engage in dialogues.
There are a couple of difficulty levels, and the program allegedly uses speech recognition to assess your proficiency.
The character voices are obviously computer-generated but, for the most part, fairly clear, although there were some sentences that got cut short  once or twice.
It's an interesting concept, that uses on screen text boxes to prompt you what to say next, with translation to English, and a phonetic guide to pronunciation, along with the text in Spanish.
There's an option to remove the phonetics, and the English, but it would have more useful to leave the English, and remove the Spanish, so you would have to translate for yourself.
You can also click on various object to discover their names in Spanish, and some background or cultural information in English (I have to admit, I did learn a couple of things)
The download is a 60-minute limited version, and the link to 'Buy now' doesn't work, so I guess it was never a commercial success, which is a shame, as it's very easy to get drawn in and find yourself reading the Spanish, without fear of embarrasment, as you're only talking to your PC.
You can download it at http://games.softpedia.com/get/Shareware-Games/3D-Language-Spain.shtml

Waiter, there's a dictionary in my newspaper. . .

I know, I've mentioned Spanish and Mexican newspapers before, but how about an online newspaper, with a dictionary which is only a double-click away.
Imagine how useful it would be, for anyone doing the Times crossword, or a Sun reader struggling with more than two syllables (sorry, Lads. Chanting 'In-ger-land' , at a footie match doesn't count as three!)

I often find, when I'm perusing the foreign press, over breakfast, thats it's just too much hassle to pick up a dictionary, or go to SpanishDict.com and type in a word I don't know, and will simply pass on to another article.
Until, that was, profesora Ximena (my teacher in SecondLife) asked me to prepare a presentation on an article from the Mexican paper La Jornada.(http://www.jornada.unam.mx/ ) and I made this discovery.

La Jornada has a simply brilliant app, built into the page, which allows you to just highlight a word (click and drag) then double-click to open up a dictionary definition in a pop-up window. Even better, if you don't understand the explanation (did I mention it was in Español?), you can highlight any word INSIDE the pop-up , and double-click again, for ITS definition! Brilliant! ¡Cojonudo!

Looks as if, thanks to 'Dixio technology', I'll be forsaking El Universal, in favour of La Jornada.
Oh, one other thing. If you just fancy a quick read, La Jornada has a regular column called 'Mar de Historias', written by Cristina Pacheco. They're short stories, not too taxing, and make a break from 'hard news' , or harder novels ;¬)

Enjoy.

Addendum:
Written the morning after.
Just noticed that the Dixio dictionary doesn't seem to be enabled on the Site's Homepage, but don't be put off, it appears to work on all the other pages I've tried.

Pussy Galore.In Spanish, of course.

If you listen to the 'News in slow Spanish' podcasts, you'll be familiar with the phrase 'Expresiones, la salsa del idioma', and it's true, Spanish has its fair share of colourful sayings.
I decided to do a little research, based on a few sayings I'd come across, referring to El Tigre's domestic cousin, the Cat, and found there were a good many more than I expected.
Here's a selection – there are more but, to be honest I didn't understand some of them! ;¬)

Aquí hay Gato encerrado
There's something fishy going on here. (There's a cat locked up here)

El hijo de la gata, ratones mata
Like father (mother), like son. (The son of the cat kills mice)

De noche, todos los gatos son pardos
All cats are grey in the dark (at night)

Cuando el gato sale, los ratones bailan
While the cat's away, the mice will play (dance)

Hasta los gatos quieren zapatos
Everybody's after something (even the cats want shoes)

La curiosidad mató al gato
Curiosity killed the cat

A gato satisfecho no le preocupa ratón
A satisifed cat doen't care about a mouse.(Interpret that however you like ;¬)

Con ladrones y gatos pocos tratos
Be careful who you do business with (certainly not thieves or cats!)

Al ratón que no sabe más que un agujero, el gato lo pilla presto.
Always have a plan 'B' (the cat will soon catch the mouse that only knows one hole)

Cara de beato, y uñas de gato
Every rose has its (her) thorn (a beautiful face but claws like a cat)

Casose con gata por amor a la plata, gastose la plata, quedose la gata
Marry in haste, repent at leisure (marry the cat, for love on a plate, enjoy the meal, but the cat remains)

Como me tratan de gato salvage, me pongo a robar gallinas
Treat me like a human being, and I'll act like one (treat me like a wild cat, and I'll steal your chickens)

Dar gato por lievre
To pull a fast one, con someone (to serve cat as hare)

Donde hay chorizos colgando, no faltan gatos husmeando.
The nearest I could get to this is the rather unsavoury 'they're like flies around sh*t'
(where sausages hang, cats will come sniffing)

El gato gruñón no caza raton
Softly, softly, catchee monkey (the grunting cat can't hunt mice)

Como los gatos siempre cae parado
He always lands on his feet (like a cat, he falls standing)

Hermanos (or reyes) y gatos, todos son ingratos
Brothers (or kings) and cats are all ungrateful

Más come en una semana un gato que cien ratones en todo un año
The cure is worse than the disease ( a cat eats more in a week than a hundred mice in a year)

No importa el color del gato, lo importante es que se coma a los ratones
Any port in a storm (it doesn't matter what colour the cat is, so long as it eats mice)

Pajaro que dice pio pio se le come el gato
If you stick your head up, someone will blow it off. Know when to keep quiet (the cat will eat the bird that tweets) Hmm, better lay off Twitter for a while.

Si no es gato, es gata, y si no, gatito.
Whichever way you look at it, it's still a cat!!


I've included English sayings with the same sentiment, where possible, otherwise the translation shows the meaning pretty well.
If you want to wallow in even more Spanish colloquialisms, on all types of subject, head on over to http://www.languagerealm.com/spanish/spanishproverbs.php and have a party.

Spanish Eyes (and Greek ones, too)

One of the things I like most about Spanish, and I have mentioned this before, is that each letter in the alphabet has only one pronunciation, making reading aloud, and learning new words by reading, so much easier than in English.
There are, however, a couple of letter which have very similar sounds, and, if you're trying to learn the Spanish alphabet, one of them has a peculiar name, which I used to find very easy to forget.
The letters are I and Y.
So, here's an explanation of why Y is called 'igriega' and why you're never going to forget it again.
In Maths, we use a lot of Greek letters as symbols, alpha, delta etc and, in the same way, what was originally a Greek letter was imported into the Spanish language.
Who knows why they decided that they needed two letters that both made the 'i' sound, but there had to be a way to distinguish one from the other.
If I tell you that another name for the humble letter 'I' is 'i latina' and that the Spanish (female) adjective for 'Greek' is 'Griega'. then you're never going to forget that 'Y' is just a Greek 'I', which makes it 'igriega'.

¡Saludos!

More free Spanish eBooks.

I'm really going to have to get myself an ebook reader.
There are just SO many books, just waiting to be read, and so little space left on my bookshelves.
Now the situation has been made worse, by my discovery of http://www.epubbud.com/.
Worse yet is the fact that you can type l:es into the search field on epub, and it returns titles for which the language tag is set to Spanish.(or you can just click here and save a little typing http://www.epubbud.com/search.php?q=l%3Aes :¬)
We're not just talking crusty old Classics here, either (not that there's anything wrong with don Quixote). Fancy Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, or the True Blood series?
All there, in Spanish, along with literally hundreds of others, free to download, at least until somebody hits them with a copyright suit, and closes them down.
So, be quick, get them while they're still available, and enjoy some modern novels,en Español.

Sky's the limit

Just a quickie, and I'm sorry, but this one is UK-specific.
In fact, it's even more specific than that.
Don't bother reading any further, unless you happen to have access to Sky Anytime+

Still reading?
Good news!
There are currently three Spanish films, all with English subtitles, available to download and view on Anytime+.
The first is 'Rec' (more info at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1038988/ )
Then there's the imaginatively titled 'Rec2' (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1245112/ )
 I've actually seen Rec2. Best decribed as a cross between Cloverfield, Crazies and The Exorcist.
Finally there's a crime thriller called 'The secret in their eyes' (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1305806/)

I don't know what the 'shelf life' is on Anytime+, but I seem to recall 'El Mariachi' was available for quite a while.

Enjoy.

Free Spanish books on your Kindle

The Amazon Kindle is everywhere, either as a physical device, or as an App.
I currently have the Kindle reader installed on my Android phone, my iPod touch and, most recently on my Windows Netbook.

Finding books for it in Spanish can be a bit of a challenge, especially if you don't want to spend much (or anything ;¬)

Well, here's a tip.
Go to http://www.amazon.com/Advanced-Search-Books/b?ie=UTF8&node=241582011&ref_=sv_b_0
and you'll find yourself on the Amazon.com Advanced Search page.
I have to admit, I found this link on a Kindlereader.blogspot.com page from 2009. I haven't been able to find the page via any of the menus on the Amazon.co or Amazon.co.uk sites.

Once on the page, you have the option to search for books in your chosen language.
It's much easier than using the normal search and typing in Spanish or Español.
If you're in the States, that's all there is to it. For us in the UK, it's a little more difficult.
Unlike hard copy books, Amazon.com won't let you buy from the UK. I'm afraid the only option is to make a note of the book's name and search on Amazon.co.uk Kindle Store.

Important Note!!
When searching for a book in Spanish, on the UK site, be sure to order the results by 'Price- low to high' or you might end up paying for a book which is listed as free on Amazon.com.

Reflexive verbs - a pain in the (d)arse?

There's a language learning site that I haven't mentioned before, called http://www.synergyspanish.com/ .
Quite some time ago, when I was still looking at courses, I signed up for free tips, and the site owner, Marcus Santamaria, is a persistent sort of bloke, and still sends me emails.
Unlike a lot of mailing lists, I don't have a rule which sends Marcus's emails to the Trash, as most of them usually contain a link to a page including a 'taster' lesson from the Synergy Spanish course.
Now, I can't begin to evaluate the course, as I've never taken it but, if all of the lessons are as good as the examples I've heard, it's got a lot going for it.

As an example, there's a lesson on the use of reflexive verbs. These can be a bit of a pain, which is probably why so many of them end in 'arse'
A lot of reflexive verbs are ordinary verbs, with the reflexive pronoun (don't get too hung up on the terminology) 'se' tacked on the end, which indicates that the verb acts on the do-er.

Quick Grammar refresh here.
In the sentence 'Sam washes the car', Sam is the 'Subject' of the verb (the one performing the action) and the car is the 'Object' of the verb (the thing on which the verb acts)
In the sentence 'Sam washes himself', Sam is both the Subject and the Object.
This is a typical example of a reflexive verb so, instead of using the verb 'lavar' on its own, as in 'Sam lava el coche', we would add 'se' and use 'lavarse', rearranged in the sentence as 'Sam se lava'.

That's one thing that always confused me. The 'se' is only tacked on the end when using the infinitive (that's the verb in its 'to' form - TO be, TO wash, TO wash one's-self etc)

Anyhow, the point Marcus makes is that the 'one's-self' interpretation works for certain verbs, like 'lavarse' - to wash one's-self, but for others, it just doesn't seem to make sense, or translates into rather stilted English, like 'levantarse' - 'to raise one's-self' or 'irse' - 'to go one's-self'
He offers a much more appropriate translation, comparing the pronoun 'se' to the English word 'get', so 'irse' becomes 'to GET going' and 'levantarse' becomes 'to GET up'.
It's not a literal translation, but it's the closest I've seen to the correct sense of the phrase, which is easy to remember, and makes sense of those reflexives which don't really work with 'one's-self'.

Click on over to http://www.synergyspanish.com/ and see what else you can pick up.

And the reference to 'darse' in the Post title?
'darse cuenta de que . . . ' means 'to realise that . . .'

You're having a laugh . . . . !

Well, you could be.
I previously recommended reading books and newspapers (or newspaper websites, at least. Did you read about the 'Fairy of Guadalajara' in El Universal? and I thought UK journalists were desperate;-) and still think they're a good way to pick up new vocabulary and, especially with books, get a feel for dialogue, and how the language is used in conversation.
But, if you want just a quick dip into something a little lighter, which only takes a few minutes, but still qualifies as 'practise', click on over to http://www.gocomics.com/explore/espanol and read some of the funnies in Español.
They have quite a few well-known cartoons, from Garfield and Heathcliffe, to Calvin and Hobbes, B.C. and the Wizard of ID, right through to Modesty Blaise. There are also some I've never heard of, but that's probably because they originate from the States.
Incidentally, just browsing one or two, I came across a word which I couldn't find in any of my electronic or online dictionaries, which eventually led me to http://www.wordmagicsoft.com/dictionary/tools/index.php
Word Magic is yet another online Spanish dictionary which seems to do quite a good line in colloquial expressions, in both English and Spanish.
The word ? Nalguitas . Look it up ;¬)

Men are from Madrid. Women are from Valencia

Or should that be Mars and Venus?
Whatever the case, one of the big stumbling blocks for new Spanish students is the idea of Gender.
How, exactly, do you remember whether a specific object is 'el' or 'la' ?
What about new words?

Often, hearing someone else using a word doesn't help. They might say 'voy a recoger mi traje' (I'm going to collect my suit) but that doesn't tell you whether the suit is masculine or feminine (it's 'el traje' by the way)

Well, there are some guidelines that can help. I'm not going to call them Rules because, to be honest, there are a lot of exceptions, but they can help.

First, good news Guys. U is N O R MA L
It might not look much, but this is a quick way to determine which objects are masculine (el, un) based on the last letter (or two). So, we get EL impetU (impetus),EL cinturóN (belt), EL gatO (cat), EL prograMA (program), and so  on.

Sorry, I couldn't come up with a handy mnemonic for the feminine nouns, but here's a list of endings for objects which are normally LA, or UNA.
a,d,cíon,síon,umbre,sis. So LA tapA (lid), LA ciudaD (city), LA naCION (nation), LA incertidUMBRE (uncertainty) etc.

Note: don't confuse masculine words, ending in MA, with feminine words ending in A. The MA ending usually indicates a word which has been 'imported' from Greek. There is, however, one notable exception - LA caMA (bed).

Well I did say these were not hard and fast rules!
Hopefully, though, you will still find them useful.

verBLING!!

The first thing that impressed me about Verbling (www.verbling.com) was how easy it was to sign up and get started.
The site checked my WebCam and microphone and, within minutes, I had a ringtone, indicating that I was about to start my first intercambio.
Firstly, I'll correct an error in my previous post, you actually begin by speaking Spanish then, after 5 minutes, a flashing bar across the screen announces 'Speak English now'
I was greeted with a cheerful 'Hola, David', which surprised me a little, as there was no indication of who I was speaking to, but they could obviously see my username.
My chat partner was a very nice lady, from Mexico City, whose name, I found out, was Lucia.
The sound quality was pretty good, although because I could hear my voice repeating from her speakers, I could tell there was a significant lag (up to 2 secs) which did make it rather too easy to talk over each other.

The beauty of Verbling is that the person you are talking to is also learning to speak a foreign language and understands, and shares the problems you might be having, with vocabulary, verb conjugations and confidence.

According to Lucia, although she is taking English classes, there are very few opportunities for her to actually practise conversation so there are, potentially, a lot of eager Spanish speakers just waiting for your call.

10 minutes passed surprisingly quickly, so much so that we exchanged Skype names, and switched to Skype to chat for another half-hour, mixing English and Spanish in fairly equal measure. I have to say that the sound quality, and lack of lag are much better on Skype.

Another small quibble I have with Verbling is that my call with Lucia had no sooner ended than there was half a second of ringtone, and a new face appeared in the Verbling window (Lucia had not had a webcam connected, so I had no video feed during her call) As I was about to initiate a Skype call with Lucia, I quickly closed the window. Apologies to the unknown student of English, it was nothing personal.
At the end of each call you are prompted to give the call a rating. Presumably this will allow Verbling classify users and perhaps create a list of 'preferred connections' or drop users who consistently upset others?

As far as doing what it sets out to do, Verbling is a success. It's the speed dating of intercambios. 10 minutes and you're done, unless you decide to exchange details and continue the chat elsewhere. I was just lucky ;¬)
As a no-commitment,anonymous and secure, way to have a quick chat with a new face, who understands that you are still learning too, I wholeheartedly recommend it.

Mo . . men . . . tum . . . .

The Oxford English dictionary defines it as 'the force or energy with which a body moves'.
However you describe it, it's all too easy to lose it, when studying Spanish, especially if you're doing it alone, with an Audio, Video or PC/Internet-based program.
There are countless distractions, and excuses not to do it Today.
You take a holiday, then come back and find you can't quite fit it back into your schedule.
You might begin to feel as if you're not making much progress, or you come across a subject which you're struggling with.
Whatever the reason, we all have times where we lose momentum and, if you don't take steps to correct it, you could end up never getting around to picking it up again, and all the work you've done will be wasted.
First, remind yourself why you decided to learn Spanish in the first place. If those reasons are still valid, you still have motivation to carry on.
Remind yourself of how much you're already learned. Dig out some of your old exercises, or redo some of the early tests and exams you completed when you were just beginning. How easy are they now?
Rather than having a break from Spanish, just have a break from the track you're currently following (before it becomes a rut ;¬)
Experiment with some other learning sources, try out some of the free online content I've mentioned in previous posts. Watch Dora the Explorer, or Handy Manny with your kids (or, if you're feeling adventurous, you can watch Dora in Spanish! Just search YouTube)
Speaking of kids, if yours are learning Spanish at school, and aren't yet at that age where any inetraction with Parents is taboo, why not join in when they're doing their homework, or try and engage them in a chat?
The best cure for a stall in your Spanish learning is to find opportunities to speak it.
SecondLife I've mentioned before, is a great place to meet Spanish speakers whether you're typing, or actually using voice.
You can find chat partners at busuu.com,there's a forum at spanishdict.com, and I've just heard about an 'intercambio' site at http://www.verbling.com/, where the idea is to speak 5 minutes in English with a native Spanish speaker, then switch to Spanish for another 5 minutes (thanks to Ben at http://www.notesinspanish.com/, for the link)
Of course the best boost would be a week or two on holiday in Spain (I wish)
If,after all that, you're still wondering whether it's worth pressing on, I can only draw on personal experience. I have always found that the Spanish are delighted to find out that you have taken the time to learn their language. They don't take it for granted like we English do, and will go out of their way to be supportive and patient.
I remember sitting in a beachside cafe in Corralejo, Fuerteventura, and I asked the waiter, in Spanish, if we could possibly have one serving of Tiramisu, with two spoons, as we weren't too hungry. He grinned, from ear to ear and said 'Hombre, por supuesto!' ('course you can, Mate!) and fetched us a portion that would have served three, but charged us for one!
A strange coincidence is that, sitting in the same restaurant were a couple who we had once met through mutual friends, who had been trying to decide whether to approach us but, when they heard me conversing in Spanish decided that they were mistaken, we must be locals, and didn't bother! We didn't find out until we were back in the UK.
Right, that's enough for tonight, I'm off to sign up for an intercambio, at verbling. I'll let you know how it goes. ¡Hasta pronto!

What are you doing . . . right now?

Here's an exercise I find very useful, whether it's while I'm driving to work, wandering around the shops or waiting in a queue at a favourite takeaway.
Talk to yourself.
It doesn't have to out loud, but it's probably more effective that way.
Now, I'm not referring to tables of verb conjugations, or anything else that you might be trying to crowbar into your brain, ready for your next lesson.
I'm talking about description.
Think about what you're doing at this exact moment, and try and figure out how you would describe it in Spanish. Or if you're in a situation where you're not actually doing much, like sitting on a train, look out of the window, and try and describe what you can see. Alternatively, if you've progressed to where you're using the past tense, imagine you're telling someone what you did last night, last week, or during your holidays.

I find that, apart from the practise of composing sentences,it's a great diagnostic tool for identifying words that you might use in normal daily life, that you don't actually know the Spanish equivalents for, so have your dictionary ready, or at least a notepad, so you can look the words up later.

You'll probably also find that this encourages you to find ways around words you don't know. Some of your constructions might be a little clumsy, or outlandish, to begin with, but we're talking about communication,not works of literature, so don't be afraid to be creative ;¬)

The iPod strikes back

Well, it wouldn't be fair to heap praise on Android Spanish learning Apps, without mentioning a couple I also have on my iPod.
Ever bought a pocket Spanish dictionary. Be honest. Wasn't it a waste of money? How about the pocket electronic Spanish English dictionary? Never found a word I needed in mine.
I have a pretty good paperback dictionary but it's way too big to go in my pocket, and takes up too much of my luggage allowance, if I take it on holiday.
My solution was to buy the Collins Spanish-English translation dictionary by Ultralingua.
It claims over 100,000 words, translates from English to Spanish, or vice-versa, and has a superb conjugation section covering 19 tenses, plus Gerunds and Participles.
I use it more than you could imagine, simply because it's so quick to find the word you want.
As you begin to type, it offers potential words,based on what you've typed so far, so it's rare you have to type in a complete word.
My only gripe, and it's mentioned, by a number of posters on the website (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/collins-pro-spanish-english/id292239107?mt=8) is that reflexive verbs aren't handled seperately. If you wanted, say, 'equivocarse' (to be mistaken, which I frequently am) you'd need to select  'equivocar', then look at the entry below.
It's not cheap, either. I seem to remember paying about £12, but that's on a par with a physical dictionary with the same number of words, and I haven't regretted a penny.

If, however, you don't have a lot of cash to play with, might I recommend the iPod App from SpanishDict.com, a site I have mentioned before. This FREE app, features a Word Game (just a multi-choice vocabulary tester/builder), a list of useful phrases, grouped by type such as 'weather', 'shopping','restaurant','airport' etc. and a surprisingly useful dictionary.
Like the Collins, it translates both ways, attempts to autocomplete as you type, but doesn't feature verb conjugations. What do expect for nothing?  If connected to the Internet, you will also get an updated 'Word of the day'.
Like the Collins, again, it is totally portable and doesn't need a connection the SpanishDict website, once you've installed it. As a replacement for the pocket dictionary, it's certainly worth a look.
http://www.spanishdict.com/iphone
Hmm, it seems there's also an Android app, but I'm not able to download it on my little HTC Wildfire.
It's at http://www.spanishdict.com/android . If you manage to download it to your phone, let us know how well it works.