This is the discussion forum for the course First 5000 Words of Spanish by xoviat.
Please post your suggestions, comments, questions, and other course ideas here.
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Level 51: el cauce = river bank
This is defined as āriver bankā. Can I suggest āriver bedā instead?
In another course, I learnt āla riberaā for river bank and this seems to be supported by WordReference.
Thanks.
Hi, Youāre quite right (as usual) - I changed the item to:
Level 51: el cauce = riverbed; channel
http://www.spanishcentral.com/translate/cauce
http://www.wordreference.com/es/en/translation.asp?spen=cauce
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Level 36: asociado (adj) - associated or change it to el asociado (noun) - partner, affliate
The Adj. form is more common than the Noun form, so I added āassociatedā to the definition to clarify - so the item now reads:
Level 36: asociado = associate**, associated**
What is the source material for this course if I may ask? I notice the word order doesnāt follow frequency, which is fine, but just want to check that it comes from a good source (i.e. a frequency dictionary). Also how long as the course been going?
Made the mistake with German of starting a pretty poorly chosen 5000 word list, but was too far in when I realised. Donāt want to make the same mistake!
I started using this course about three years ago, but I donāt know the original vocab source. I did OliviaZavalaās course ā1500 word Spanish introā earlier and this xoviat 5000 course includes all the vocab in that 1500 word course. So I think someone added some more vocab to the 1500 word course to create this one, and at some point xoviat took on the role of course creator.
I think the vocab in this course is in random order. Itās also missing a lot of common vocabulary that should definitely be included in a 5000 word frequency list. Once I had completed this course, I created my first four āTop Upā courses (3000 additional items) to learn the āmissingā vocabulary - see:
http://www.memrise.com/user/ian_mn/courses/teaching/
If you work through this 5000 course plus the first four āTop Upā courses, you will have a very solid 7500 word vocabulary. But thatās a big project!
Another option would be to use eunoiaās āPill Coursesā that are in frequency order and split into parts of speech. Theyāre sourced from a reputable movie subtitles database. If I were starting from scratch, I would seriously consider doing this.
http://www.memrise.com/user/eunoia/courses/teaching/
Yet another good option would be to work through āAQA GCSE Spanish Vocabularyā by Ellie Girgis (~2300 words). Iām slowly adding audio clips to this one - and this process should be complete within a couple of months.
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By the way, an identical (but reformatted) copy of this xoviat 5000 course is available as a series of mobile-device-friendly smaller courses by BenWhately in which edits are synchronized with this course.
Note that the labels āintroductoryā, āintermediateā and āadvancedā are not really meaningful as the vocabulary is in the same randomized order found in this course.
Thereās also another reformatted version of this course with a large number of smaller Levels - see the thread below:
[Course Forum] First 5000 Words of Spanish by BenWhately
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Level 38:
el convenio = agreement
how about changing it to: el convenio = agreement (not trato, not acuerdo)
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Hi, thanks for the suggestion - I fully agree that disambiguation is required here - there are about half a dozen high-frequency Spanish words that can be translated as āagreementā.
So Iāve just changed this one to:
Level 38: el convenio = agreement (cā¦)
From experience, Iāve found that disambiguating with (not āXā, āYā, etc.) only works well with two or fewer ānotā items, but this is not set in stone and if you have views on this, please post again.
cc @RancidBeef
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el convenio, el contrato, la concordia, el conforme, la conformidadā¦
Edit: They have a badge for āFirst Emojiā.
Hi, yes - there is a fairly large group of Spanish nouns that can take the meaning āagreementā that also begin with the letter ācā. I guess you could add āel compromisoā and āel conciertoā to the list.
In general, Iām thinking that many of these words are probably insufficiently common to justify inclusion in this course, or are already in the course but have different primary definitions (e.g. el contrato = contract; el compromiso = commitmentā¦ ; el concierto = concert).
Iām wondering if you have alternative suggestions on handling this issue that would work well for learners using the course? Thanks.
I didnāt mean to come off as snarky.
I do think that either the Ā© clue or the (not_, not_) clue is an elegant solution. Either technique reduces frustration and creates a pleasant learning environment. I was just joking about how even with the best designed clues, the problem never goes away entirely.
Hey, I didnāt take your comment that way at all! And I appreciate the feedback.
in level 44: el juguete should be tagged as a noun, not a verb 
edit: in web app it is level 44, in android app it is 43, weirdā¦
Iāve just fixed āel jugueteā - itās now listed as a noun in Level 44
muy bien
Level 25: el huevo - egg
This has no sound.
Thanks for maintaining the course!
I checked the audio for āel huevoā but didnāt find any problems. Sometimes Memrise has a hiccup and doesnāt play audio when it should. Thatās probably what happened here but let us know if the problem persists.
I like the audio of this course. Which accents do the recordings use?