Spanish frustrations
What drives me crazy are the unexplained irregularities that pop up in the lessons, sans comment. E.g.,
undécimo = eleventh
once de enero = the eleventh of January
Why “once” instead of “undécimo”? No idea—and no explanation. I did figure out (through consulting other books) that “once” is the cardinal number (eleven) and not the ordinal (eleventh). And we do say “cinco de Mayo” and not “quinto de Mayo”, so perhaps in Spanish one uses the cardinal numbers when giving a date of the month. But the oddity is unexplained. Moreover, LiveMocha teaches the ordinals by circling the numbers on a calendar page, which would indicate that ordinals are used for dates of a month. Grrrrrr.
primero = first
octavo = eighth
Two examples from Spanish for Dummies:
Vivo en el octavo piso. = I live on the eighth floor.
En el primer piso hay un florería. = On the first floor there’s a flower shop.
In the first example, the terminal –o of the ordinal is retained, in the second it is dropped (without indication—i.e., it’s not “el primer’ piso”). So what sort of rule governs whether to drop the –o or not? No idea, and no comment in the book.
This is why having a live teacher is helpful. Maybe I’ll find one.
UPDATE: Okay, I found the info online. In stating the date, the cardinal number, not the ordinal is used, except sometimes for the first day, when primero can be used in place of uno.
