0 Vote

I was just thinking about how the question "¿Qué clase es tu favorita?" and the corresponding answer, "Mi clase favorita es..." seem a little bit lengthy and was wondering if there was a way to simplify this Q and A to something that is easier to say, and less of a tongue twister. The same goes for "¿Cuál es tu colore favorita?" ect. Help please! smile

5 Answers

2 Vote

I suspect that you're falling victim to the difference in perception that many/most people have when listening to a "foreign" language as opposed to listening to their own language. In ones native language, most people pay almost no attention to syllables and only slightly more to individual words. We listen to phrases (information theorists refer to this as "chunking"). This is also related to the way, in normal conversation, words are "run together" (within chunks) and there are brief (but quite audible) pauses between chunks. In the earlier stages of (foreign) language learning one is to able/accustomed to dealing with entire phrases as units and has to resort to "word by word" analysis (and in the case of unfamiliar words, perhaps, syllable by syllable).

This, however, is a result of being in the learning stage. To the best of my knowledge, there is no significant difference in the average length of utterances across languages. In a similar vein, one often hears of language X being spoken much more rapidly than language Y. While there is some variation in the syllable-per-minute speech in some languages the difference is not very great. However, reports of such difference are quite common from people who are unfamiliar with the ("faster") language. This is really the same problem; because they can't deal with the language in "chunks", they want to slow down the process to give themselves more time to analyze the components and, because they are not given that "extra" time, they have the sense that the speech is more rapid.

  • Thanks for the clarification, and I do agree that most of what you hear in a different language will sound longer/shorter just because of the infamiliarity. :) - Theet Aug 17, 2009 flag
1 Vote

If someone asked you "what is your favourite class ?"

You would not say " May favourite class is....."

You would say "it's....."

  • Oh yeah... I hadn't really thought of it that way... Thanks! Your answer is one of my favorites because it is brief, simple, and to the point. Thanks again! :) - Theet Aug 17, 2009 flag
  • Also, you should change may to my - Theet Aug 17, 2009 flag
0 Vote

Theet, please do not use abreviations in titles, I had to change the title as I did not understand.

However, please read the FORUM RULES for posting. Ask your question in the title directly. And be clear with it.

  • Oops! Sorry, and I will try to make my questions clearer in the future... - Theet Aug 17, 2009 flag
  • :-) - 00494d19 Aug 17, 2009 flag
0 Vote

In reference to your question:

Why do you say this is lengthy? You use exactly the same amount of words in English:

Which is your favourite class? My favourite class is....

How would you simplify the question in English?

  • I suppose that you can't really simplify the question in English, and my main reason for saying it was "lengthy" was that the syllables and pronunciation seems to be a little daunting at first, and that because of that it seems longer than it really is. - Theet Aug 17, 2009 flag
  • In American English the spelling would be 'favorite', for those who don't speak English as their native language and want to make the distinction. - Nathaniel Aug 17, 2009 flag
0 Vote

¿Qué es tu clase favorita?

La que más me gusta.

That's the correct answer. All other answers given in this thread are answering the question "¿Cuál es tu clase favorita?"

¿Qué es...? is used for DEFINITIONS.

  • Oops... Thanks for the correction! :) - Theet Aug 17, 2009 flag
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