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 “associated” 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 doesn’t 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. Don’t want to make the same mistake!
I started using this course about three years ago, but I don’t know the original vocab source. I did OliviaZavala’s course “1500 word Spanish intro” 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. It’s 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 “Top Up” courses (3000 additional items) to learn the “missing” vocabulary - see:
http://www.memrise.com/user/ian_mn/courses/teaching/
If you work through this 5000 course plus the first four “Top Up” courses, you will have a very solid 7500 word vocabulary. But that’s a big project!
Another option would be to use eunoia’s “Pill Courses” that are in frequency order and split into parts of speech. They’re 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 “AQA GCSE Spanish Vocabulary” by Ellie Girgis (~2300 words). I’m 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 “introductory”, “intermediate” and “advanced” are not really meaningful as the vocabulary is in the same randomized order found in this course.
There’s 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 “agreement”.
So I’ve just changed this one to:
Level 38: el convenio = agreement (c…)
From experience, I’ve found that disambiguating with (not “X”, “Y”, etc.) only works well with two or fewer “not” 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 conformidad…
Edit: They have a badge for “First Emoji”.
Hi, yes - there is a fairly large group of Spanish nouns that can take the meaning “agreement” that also begin with the letter “c”. I guess you could add “el compromiso” and “el concierto” to the list.
In general, I’m 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 = commitment… ; el concierto = concert).
I’m wondering if you have alternative suggestions on handling this issue that would work well for learners using the course? Thanks.
I didn’t mean to come off as snarky.
I do think that either the © 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 didn’t 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, weird…
I’ve just fixed “el juguete” - it’s 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 “el huevo” but didn’t find any problems. Sometimes Memrise has a hiccup and doesn’t play audio when it should. That’s 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?
Hi, I think there is a mixture of Iberian and Latin American accents, and the course vocabulary is general purpose and not region specific.
Most of the audio was added by @zomlove about three years ago. Perhaps he may be able to comment also.
Hi, on level 25 of the course you have suave = soft. This could be confused with blando, at least to me. Do you mind adding a qualifier eg (not blando)
Hi George - I agree and made the changes - the items now read:
Level 25: suave = soft (not “blando”)
Level 43: blando = soft (not “suave”), weak, lenient
Ian.
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