Are you learning French, Spanish, Italian or Portuguese? If and that are easy and hard to remember in these languages

French -If -Si?

 I learned French at school. The English word if, in French is si. 

That, as in I know that (not that one over there) is que. After a verb, que or that is an adverb. That when pointing to something can be a pronoun, or determiner.

French & Spanish Links

French and Spanish are nearby languages, physically as well as metaphorically. Think of the southern border of France being next to Spain. When it comes to learning Spanish, the same words are used for if and that, si for if, que for that (after a verb such as know that).

Italian - Se and Che

However, when learning Italian on Duolingo I kept making mistakes. I kept typing si for if. But the Italian for if is se. The Italian for that is not que but che. It sounds the same, but is written differently. I am now trying to remember the right word using the words of the hit song che sera sera, whatever will be will be.

Italian and Portuguese

I thought I would check on two similar languages, Italian and Portugese. It turns out that in both the constructions, using if or that, French and Spanish are a pair. The other two romance languages, Italian and Portugese, are different, but paired with each other.

So for me it is easier to learn French and then Spanish. Then Italian and Portuguese. Or if I learned French or Spanish first, just remember that Italian and Portugese are different.

I checked the two versions of Portuguese, used in Portugal in Europe, and Brazil in South America. They are a match with each other.

Yes - Si

Yes in French is si. Yes in Spanish is si. Yes in Portuguese is sim. Yes in italian is si.

I was using Translate google. 

To make it clear, here is a list

English - French - Spanish - Italian - Portuguese

if - si - si - se - se

that - que - que  - che - che

yes - oui/si (emphastic) - si - si - sim 

Useful Websites

Duolingo (to learn online, for free, French, Spanish, Italian and Brazilian Portugese)

Translate Google (to translate words, phrases and short paragraphs) French, Spanish, Italian, Portugese used in Portugal and Portuguese used in Brazil)

Please share with friends the links to useful posts on my blogs.

Tiny cards - got a minute? Spanish verbs

Problem
I've got a minute, waiting for somebody else. too short a time to do anything major. I recall the saying, If you can fill the unforgiving minute - that's from the poem If by Rudyard Kipling.

Two things I can do in my unforgiving minute:
1 Write a motivational poem.
2 Learn a few words of Spanish or Portuguese.

The Spanish tiny cards pops up first. I could go searching for Portuguese, which I am learning, having dropped Spanish in favour of Portuguese because I am planning a trip to Madeira.

Why not search for the Portuguese? Because that wastes time. I may be called away. I've only got a minute.

But won't the Portuguese and Spanish get muddled up?

I would only muddle up going from English. When recognizing the other language it doesn't matter.
So never mind. Better to know and read and recognize word which is one or the other - and recognize it on a sign or poster in Spain or Portugal. I am one step ahead of anybody else and myself last week knowing neither language.

Spanish Verb Tiny Cards
https://tiny.cards/decks/38e806eb-2538-42cc-a850-beece5653acc

http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.co.uk/2018/02/polyglot-poem-by-angela-lansbury.html
http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/how-to-remember-23-portuguese-words-or.html

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, learner and teacher of languages.

Time quotations

Today the clocks went back.

Quotations on time listed in alphabetical order:

A stitch in time saves nine.

A thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday
Bible

If you can fill the unforgiving minute
Kipling poem If

Give me one minute more
Song
Give me five minutes more
Song by Frank Sinatra

Hickory, dickory, dock
The mouse ran up the clock
(Nursery rhyme)

How did it get so late so soon ...
Dr Seuss

Now is the hour
(Song)

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone
Poem Funeral Blues by W H Auden

There is a tide in the affairs of men which if taken at the flood leads on to victory.
William Shakespeare 1564-1616

Time and tide wait for no man.

Time heals all wounds.

Time is everything. Five minutes makes the difference between victory and defeat. (Horatio Nelson, 1758-1805), won the Battle of Trafalgar but died on his ship the Victory. Also said England expects every man to do his duty.)

Time is money.
Benjamin Franklin

Time you old gypsy man, will you not stay, put up your caravan, just for one day.
Ralph Hodgson (9 September 1871 – 3 November 1962 - see article in Wikipedia.)

A modern Greek proverb, 'Man raises but time weighs', is inscribed in the USA on the Thomas Jefferson building, Library of Congress, Washington DC.

Quotations are inscribed above eye level on a frieze around the outside of Bluewater giant shopping mall in the UK.

For more quotations online see brainy quote

GREENWICH MEAN TIME VISIT, LONDON

Greenwich Park, Greenwich, London, SE10 9NF

Find the time line and be photograph astride it.

In Belgium there is a sculpture of time.