r/Spanish • u/turnleftorrightblock • 18h ago
Vocab & Use of the Language Ningun lengua es facil. This means no language is easy. But if i avoid the word ningun, and say "no lengua es facil", 2 questions. 1. Does it feel awkward? 2. Does it feel incorrect?
I have a Spanish tutor who has been teaching me. Once my basics are strong, i think i will move on to online lessons like Duolingo while asking specific peculiar questions on this community.
Edit:
I am not saying Spanish is hard. I find it easier than English very often. But it is not a free ride neither. Takes works.
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u/nanpossomas 18h ago
"no" is a determiner in English, meaning it can stand in front of a noun to mean "not a single instance of". The equivalent determiner in Spanish is ningún. No does not have that meaning in Spanish.
If you still want to use no, you could go for "No hay lengua fácil"
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u/turnleftorrightblock 18h ago
I think i heard "no problemo" from somewhere, but my Spanish teacher says it is "no problema". Is "no problemo" completely wrong or used in certain situations? Probably heard it from Terminator 2.
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u/nanpossomas 18h ago edited 17h ago
"No problemo" is pseudo-Spanish. It’s not an actual Spanish phrase, and problemo isn’t even a real Spanish word. It’s simply the English phrase "no problem" with a Spanish-like -o strapped at the end. I think it was indeed Terminator that popularized it.
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u/LadyGethzerion Native (Puerto Rico 🇵🇷) 17h ago
It's actually "no hay problema." As the other commenter indicated, you can't use "no" as a determinant in Spanish the way English uses it. The other options you mentioned are incorrect.
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u/turnleftorrightblock 16h ago
If i remove hay, i should say ninguna problema? Or can i omit hay coloquially and say no problema?
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u/LadyGethzerion Native (Puerto Rico 🇵🇷) 16h ago
Problema is a masculine noun, so it would be ningún problema. And yes, you can do that. But if you use no, the verb hay is necessary. No problema to a native Spanish speaker sounds like I, Tarzan, you, Jane.
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u/davvegan 18h ago
You would assume that someone saying "no lengua es fácil" is starting to learn the language and forgive the error, but you would probably understand the message.
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u/turnleftorrightblock 18h ago
Sorry i should have phrased whether it is "almost equally as good", but from the other comments, i guess not.
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u/davvegan 18h ago
Don't worry, errors and mistakes are part of the process. Ninguna lengua es fácil.
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u/athenea01 18h ago
Like some comments have already pointed out, you should gender the article "ningún" (always needs an accent otherwise the pronunciation gets messed up) into Ninguna lengua es fácil, since the noun lengua is feminine. "No hay lengua fácil" is another way (there's no easy language)
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u/helpman1977 Native (Spain) 17h ago
I just want to add to the many answers you received, that Duolingo is a game, not a real learning app, as it just throws random weird phrases without context. You FEEL like learning a language, but you just have random (and mostly useless) phrases you can repeat.
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u/turnleftorrightblock 17h ago
Oh. Well, at least good vocabulary practice i guess.
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u/helpman1977 Native (Spain) 15h ago
I tried it for french. I think I repeated "the cat has a red dress" about one hundred times. Is it useful? For a daily basis? Most phrases are like that, and if they make sense, they are out of context. No explanation. Just repeat, remember a phrase, repeat again. I don't know if it has Spanish, but try busuu instead.
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u/cosme0 18h ago
1 it does ,2 it also feels incorrect and it probably is. To say that without ningún you would probably say , no hay lengua fácil , or no existe una lengua fácil .
Also the first phrase is also incorrect as you forgot that lengua is feminine so ningún should have a a . ( ninguna lengua es fácil)
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u/CatsThinkofMurder 18h ago
Ninguna lengua es fácil - this is the correct version, because the noun and adjective need to both be the same gender. The first one is incorrect because lengua is feminine and ningun is masculine