Re: New to the list

On Fri, 13 Oct 2000, Carlos Thompson wrote:

> Nik Taylor wrote:
>
> > Patrick Dunn wrote:
> > > I want tea:  "quiero te'."
> > > I love you:  "te quiero."
> >
> > Oh, so a problem with word-order, rather than a problem with
> articles.
> > He was responding to a remark about articles, so I thought he was
> > talking about an error arising from the use or non-use of _el_
>
> Well, not only word order:
>   "quiero tomar té."  I want to drink tea.
>   "quiero tomarte."  I want to take you.
>
> In spoken language there are prosodic features that help understand,
> but you probably have to be a native or a experienced speaker to
> master that... or just telegraph the sentences.
Even my Gringo ear can hear the difference, though.  In the first, the
accent is on te'.  In the second, it's on -mar-.

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                it has never been attempted before.