LANGUAGE

1. Alphabet:

The Spanish alphabet consists of 27 letters and 5 digraphs or combinations of two letters, according to the official grammar of the Spanish language. The letters of the alphabet or alphabet are 27 since 2010 and the number is the same for all Spanish-speaking countries.

That is, the Spaniards speak in words with 27 letters and 5 two-letter compositions (or digraphs).

The digraphs are: ch / ll / gu / qu / rr

PEOPLE:

The use of genres in Spanish and their differences in English:

Grammatical genres are referred to specific characteristics that people, animals and / or things have in different languages. These elements are classified within several classes, for which there are some rules regarding coherence or concordance.
Simply put, it refers to the grammatical way of referring to the male and female sex of people, animals and / or things

Genres in English and their importance to speak correctly.

The differences that exist in the use of grammatical genres between English and Spanish are many, and it is essential to know them, in order to learn English, because it depends on the sentences we write or say coherently.

The use of grammatical genres, main differences between English and Spanish

The main differences that exist between the use of genders between English and Spanish, are due to the fact that in Spanish we find male and female genders, both for people, for animals and things; unlike English where there are less marked or neutral genera for people, animals or things.

Below we will mention some of the most common terms and use of genres:

The male gender in English:

• People and animals: they are usually the same as in the case of the female sex, with some exceptions as men / men (man / men).
• All months of the year.
• Every day of the week
• Names: The names of rivers, lakes, mountains, oceans and seas are mostly pronounced as male.
• The names of fruit trees. The female gender in English:
• People and animals are usually the same as in the case of the male sex, with some exceptions such as women / women.

There are also some nouns with double gender that have different meanings depending on the context, such is the case we will mention below:

◾The bag (handbag) – the bag (bag).

◾ Capital (money) – the capital (capital).

◾The front (front) – the forehead (forehead).

◾The guide (guide) – the guide (guidebook).

◾The order (tidiness) – the order (command). In the same way that there is a double gender with different meanings, there are people and animals that change their shape, according to gender, as mentioned below:

In the case of people, we have the following:

1. Father – mother (Padre – madre)
2. Nephew – niece (Sobrino – sobrina)
3. Bachelor – spinster (soltero – soltera)
4. Actor- actress (Actor – actriz)
5. Hero – heroine (héroe – heroína)
6. Gentleman – lady (señor – señora)
7. Son – daughter (hijo – hija)
8. King – queen (rey -reina)
9. Waiter – waitress (camarero – camarera)
10. Husband – wife (Esposo – esposa)
11. Uncle – aunt (tío -tía)
12. Prince – Princess (príncipe – princesa)
13. Manager – manageress (director – directora)
14. En casos en lo que se requiera ser más específico, se usan dos palabras para delimitar el género, por ejemplo: a female dog, a baby boy.

PEOPLE: family members in Spanish

• Note: there are other people who, regardless of their gender, do not change their form, it is like this with: baby (baby), child (boy – girl), cousin (cousin – cousin), teenager (teenager), artist (artist) , driver (driver – driver), doctor (doctor – doctor), friend (friend – friend), teacher (the teacher), cat (cat or cat).

Animals:

The animals that we will mention next are the only ones that change their form according to their gender, the use of genera in the rest of the animals, they have no variation:

• Cock – gen (gallo – gallina)
• Duck – drake (Pato – pata)
• Bull – Cow (toro – vaca)
• Tiger – Tigress (Tigre – tigresa)
• Gander – goose (ganso – gansa)
• Lion – lioness (león – leona)
• Ram – ewe (carnero – oveja)

The differences in the use of genres is one of the grammatical elements that you must keep in mind when learning English. However, you should keep in mind other differences, such as those in articles, nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, verbs, propositions, conjunctions and interjections.

Finally, with respect to the use of genres in a sentence, it is important to keep in mind that articles, names, pronouns, verbs and adjectives, are the parts of the sentence where variations can be found, according to gender and also according to number (singular / plural), while remaining the same word or meaning; except in the case of verbs, which even when they do not vary in gender, if they do in number, person, time, voice, aspect and mode.

Phrases: common everyday phrases – words in Spanish

Language Certification Procedure

Learn Spanish or for Catalan Language:

• In order to obtain the official certification, you need go to DELE Spanish Diplomas, the Cervantes Institute, on behalf of the Spanish Ministry of Education, awards the DELE Spanish diplomas. These are official titles, accrediting the degree of competence and mastery of the Spanish language.
• Levels and certificatesThe DELE Spanish diplomas accredit the mastery of the language in six levels, denominated according to the terminology used in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Teaching, Learning and Evaluation (MCER). The description of the linguistic ability of the users in each of the levels is articulated as follows:

◾ The Level A1 Spanish diploma accredits sufficient linguistic competence to understand and use everyday expressions that are frequently used anywhere in the Spanish-speaking world, aimed at satisfying immediate needs; to request and give basic personal information about himself and about daily life and to interact elementally with speakers, provided they speak slowly and clearly and are willing to cooperate.

◾The Level A2 Spanish diploma proves that the candidate is able to understand frequently used phrases and everyday expressions related to areas of expertise that are especially relevant (basic information about himself and his family, shopping, places of interest, occupations, etc.).

◾The Level B1 Spanish diploma accredits sufficient linguistic competence to understand and react adequately to the most common situations of daily life and to communicate wishes and needs in a basic way.

◾The Level B2 Spanish diploma accredits sufficient linguistic competence to function in ordinary situations of everyday life, in normal communication circumstances that do not require specialized use of the language.

◾ The Level C1 Spanish diploma proves the ability of the language user to cope with ease when processing a wide variety of oral and written texts of a certain length in any variant of the language, even recognizing in them implicit meanings, attitudes or intentions.

◾The Level C2 Spanish diploma accredits the linguistic competence necessary to function in situations that require a high use of the language and a knowledge of the cultural habits manifested through it.In order to obtain the DELE, it is mandatory to pass a series of DELE exams, which are administered worldwide in several annual calls through a network of more than 800 test centers. The tests are designed, following the methodological approach proposed by the Common European Framework of Reference MCER, to measure different language skills and abilities through practical tasks of language use and the methodology proposed by the Council of Europe for linking exams of linguistic competence to the MCER.

• The information is available here:

https://www.cervantes.es/lengua_y_ensenanza/portales_espanol/diplomas_espanol.htm

For Catalan language:

Official Catalan language certificatesCatalan universities grant certificates of Catalan language to students of language services that prove they have the knowledge required for each level (initial, basic, elementary, intermediate, proficiency, proficiency for PDI, higher).The CIFALC is an interuniversity commission that groups the linguistic services of the twelve Catalan universities: Autonomous University of Barcelona, ​​University of Barcelona, ​​University of Girona, University of Lleida, Open University of Catalonia, Polytechnic University of Catalonia, Pompeu Fabra University, Rovira University i Virgili, Vic University, Ramon Llull University, International University of Catalonia and Abat Oliba CEU University. The function of the CIFALC is to coordinate these linguistic services in the aspects related to the teaching and learning of the Catalan language in the university.The CIFALC processes the certificates of knowledge of Catalan language issued by the universities of Catalonia and that are approved with the reference certificates of the General Directorate of Language Policy of the Generalitat de Catalunya. Following the links below you will find detailed information on the structure of each of the tests, as well as an exam model.

REFERENCES 

• Instituto Cervantes: https://www.cervantes.es/lengua_y_ensenanza/portales_espanol/diplomas_espanol.htm

https://www.cervantes.es/sobre_instituto_cervantes/publicaciones_espanol/espanol_lengua_extranjera/marco_comun_europeo.htm

• For catalán language: CNL:
• http://www.intercat.cat/es/info/certificats-oficials-catala.jsp
• https://llengua.gencat.cat/ca/serveis/acreditacio_coneixements/certificats_de_catala