Contents

The following Help Topics are available:

Introduction

The "Bienvenido" screen

The four level screens:

La Casa

Level 1 (green)

Level 2 (white)

Level 3 (red)

About

Vocabulary section (pink)

Verb section (blue)

Verb conjugation section (black)

Conversation section

Control panel

ABC

123

Verb tables

Troubleshooting

For Help on Help, Press F1


La Casa

This menu allows you to select each of the seven room of a house, click on objects, and find out what they are called in Spanish.  When you hear each word pronounced by a native Spanish speaker, repeat it until you are familiar with the way it sounds.

You can turn the English and Spanish subtitles on and off  by clicking on the black translation bar.  This is a toggle function so once you have turned the translations off you can always turn them back on again!

When you think you have mastered the vocabulary of each room, test yourself by guessing the object before you click it and seeing if you are right.


Level 1 (green)

At the Hotel - requesting a room

At the Beach - the weather conditions

In the Bar - describing people and places

On the Street Corner - asking for directions, interrogative phrases (questions)

The level 1 menu screen is green and contains these four scenes. Select a scene and three study sections will be presented.  Choose one of the sections by clicking on the word button or the pictures for each category. It is best to study the vocabulary section and the verb section first, because their information will assist you in the conversation section.


Level 2 (white)

At School - classroom objects, time frames

In the Restaurant  - ordering food

In the Café  - the seasons, going on vacation

At the Office  - looking for a job

This level features these four conversations.  You will be presented with a white screen which allows you to select one of the four. After you pick a conversation you will have three options, the vocabulary , verb , and conversation  sections,  which you can go to by clicking on the word button or the pictures for each category.  It is best to study the first two screens first, because they provide you with the information that will help you study the conversation  section.


Level 3 (red)

The House

Attic - objects, locations

Parents room - clothes, colors

Bathroom - use of reflexive verbs, mealtimes,  telling time

Kids's room - parts of the body

Kitchen - foods, mealtimes

Hallway - describing a person

Main room - family members

The Level 3 menu screen is red and contains these seven scenes. Each scene takes place in a room of the house from the "La Casa" section.  When you have chosen a

room/conversation, you have three options available by clicking on the word button or the pictures for each category.  Study the two screens on the left, the vocabulary section  and verb section  first--they will provide you with the information that will help you study the third section, conversation.


Vocabulary section (pink)

This menu gives you the characters appearing in the scenes conversation, along with the nouns, adjectives, and phrases used.  Click on each word to hear it pronounced by a native Spanish speaker. Repeat it aloud to become familiar with its pronunciation, and learn the words meaning.

In some cases the words are grouped to reflect a category or concept; otherwise, they are listed alphabetically.

NOTE:  The Spanish language is similar to other "romance" or Latin-based languages in that all its nouns are allocated a "gender".  This is purely a grammatical feature of nouns and does not mean that Spanish speakers perceive things or ideas as having male or female attributes. There is nothing inherently feminine about La mesa (the table) or macho about un libro (a book.)

The endings of nouns and adjectives often change depending on whether the object or description of the object is masculine, feminine, singular or plural. As a general rule, many masculine nouns end in o and feminine in a.  Many plurals end in s.  In this section, a generic "masculine, singular" form is listed even if it appears otherwise in the conversation section.

Just as in English there are many regional and national variations in pronunciation. This program includes a number of different speakers and you may note small differences in the way words are pronounced.  All the pronunciations you hear are correct.


Verb section (blue)

This menu gives you all the verbs that appear in the conversation section.  By clicking on the unmarked verbs you will hear a pronunciation of the "infinitive" (generic, unchanged form).  The marked verbs take you to a new menu where you can "conjugate" the present tense forms of the verb.

NOTE:  As in many languages, verbs can appear in many forms.  The verbs you see in this screen are all in the present perfect tense.  Occasionally, the conversations will contain variations on these forms in order to express actions in the past, future, etc.


Verb conjugation section (black)

This screen presents you with the six forms of a verb, as follows:

Yo - I

Tú - You (the familiar form used when addressing someone you know well, on a first name basis and in informal situations)

Usted - You (used with people who have a formal relationship - often written as Ud.)

Él - He/it (to a male person or object)

Ella - She/it (to a female person or object)

Nosotros - We

*Vosotros - You (the familiar plural form used when addressing someone you know well, on a first name basis and in informal situations)

Ellos - They (to a group of  people or objects)

Ellas - They (to a group of  exclusively female people or objects)

Ustedes - You (the plural of Usted, often written as Uds.)

* This form is only used in Spain and a few parts of the Latin American spanish-speaking world.  Although it is included here, it is not used in any of the conversations.  In this program and in the rest of Latin America, the plural of Usted is Ustedes.

Underneath are the six conjugated verb forms in the perfect present tense.  Drag each of these forms to a black square by holding down the mouse.  When you are correct, you will hear the verb form spoken, and it will remain in the postition you've placed it.  (To hear the correct answer again,  just click on it.)  If you are incorrect; however, the verb form will slide back to where you dragged it from, so you may try again.

When you have all of the verb forms correct,  you can go back or press the [image] button to return the verbs to their original position and start over.

Some verbs have irregular forms.  Any verb that does not use regular endings for -ar, -er or -ir has been marked in red. These changes are extremely important and should be studied very carefully.

NOTE:  The ending for El, Ella, Ud and for Ellos, Ellas, Uds, are always the same.  Also, when a group of  people or objects are referred to, the male plural verb is always applied--even if the group consists of many women and only one man.


Conversation section

Clicking on this button or the picture below it will activate the animated cartoon scene, which will then play all the way through to the end and then return to the beginning.  You may also click on the red play button on the left below the picture.  If you want to move through the conversation sentence by sentence instead, click on the yellow button play button below the picture on the right.


Control panel

When you start up a conversation screen by clicking on the picture of the scene, the conversation button, or the red play button below the picture on the left, it will play all the way through without stopping.  You can click on the remote control icon [image] in the bottom left-hand corner of the screen to activate a number of controls allowing you to switch the English translations and Spanish speech balloons on and off .

The default for each level is as follows:

Level 1 - Shows the cartoon's speech balloons (in Spanish) with  the English 	    	   	   translation at the top of the screen.

Level 2 - Shows the cartoon's speech balloons (in Spanish).

Level 3 - Features only the voices of the cartoon characters (in Spanish).

The control panel also features a "study mode" option, which is also available from the scene menu.   Instead of playing the scene continuously, it stops at each sentence and allows you to replay it until you're ready to continue. You can review a particular sentence, or go back and forth between them as many times as you like. To continue with the next sentence, press the Step Forward button (see below).

The controls:

REMOTE CONTROL opens control panel options:

    Click on this icon to display the control panel.

      Click on this icon to hide the control panel.

CARTOON SPEECH BUBBLES (on/off) :

  Click on this icon to turn the cartoon characters speech balloons on.

 Click on this icon to turn the cartoon characters speech balloons off.

ENGLISH TRANSLATION at the top of the screen (on/off)

GO BACK takes you to the levels menu screen

STEP - PLAY MODE      [image]    stops after each sentence for Study Mode

and displays the following 6 buttons:

REWIND moves backward through the cartoon

MUSIC NOTE allows you to hear the sentence again

STEP BACK moves back to the previous sentence

STEP FORWARD moves ahead to the next sentence

RESTART plays the conversation from the beginning, in continous play mode

FAST FORWARD -moves forward quickly through the cartoon


ABC

There are 30 letters in the Spanish alphabet.  The extra letters are "ch," "ll," "rr," which are considered as single letters, and "ñ".  The letters "k" and "w" are included even though they appear only in words of foreign origin.

Click on each letter to hear its name.  Click on "Play" to hear an example of  how this letter sounds in a word, and to see an example of a place or country name in the cartoon's speech balloon.  The letter in the word is highlighted in red.

NOTE:  Spanish is a very phonetic language; most letters are pronounced the same way  whenever they appear in a word.  There are a few cases, however, when a letter's pronunciation depends on the letter preceding it.  Also, note that the letter "h" is never pronounced.


123

Click on each number and press "Play" to hear its pronunciation.  View the word's spelling in the cartoon's speech bubble.  Any irregularities are marked in red.

NOTE :  The number "one" has several forms in Spanish.   Uno is the form used in counting, Un is the form used before a male noun, and Una is the form used before a feminine noun.  Similarly, Vientiuno becomes Vientiún before masculine nouns, Vientiuna before feminine nouns, etc.


Verb tables

All the verbs contained in the conversation sections are included here. You can conjugate all the verbs that are marked with a button that looks like this:  . You can use these tables as a reference section, or to conjugate each verb individually. All verbs are listed in alphabetical order.


Troubleshooting

For any technical questions or comments, call Cosmi at (310) 833-2000.


Introduction

¡Bienvenido!

Welcome to Swift Spanish

Your software hosts are the multimedia family--a mother, a father, a teenage daughter and her little brother.  They also have a dog who will be helping you learn Spanish.

The program contains 15 different animated cartoon scenes arranged in three progressive skill levels. All feature the family in their house, at the beach, on vacation, etc.  You begin each scene by learning the Spanish vocabulary and verbs associated with the conversations contained in each scene and then watching and exploring the scenes.


The "Bienvenido" screen

The "Bienvenido" screen

After the introductory title sequence, this is the first screen you will see.  It is the main screen for accessing all parts of the program.  You can return to this screen from any section of the program by clicking on the small Mexican flag situated in the top left hand corner of each screen.

If you ever find yourself lost, click on the flag and you will be brought back to this page.


About

The About screen gives information about Swift Spanish, the people who created it, and the software they used to do so.


Word Button