desgraciadamente
unfortunately (not “desafortunadamente”)
Could you change it to:
unfortunately (not “desafortunadamente” or “lamentablemente”)
For me, long entries like that make speed review unusable. How about:
unfortunately = desafortunadamente
unhappily = desgraciadamente
regrettably = lamentablemente
Alternatively, using caps can emphasize a primary translation, such as:
desgraciadamente
unfortunately, UNHAPPILY, regretably
@VT22, @lurajane Currently, we’ve got:
Level 44:desgraciadamente = unfortunately (not “desafortunadamente”)
Level 52: lamentable = regrettable
Top Up #1, L8: desafortunadamente = unfortunately (not “desgraciadamente”)
I’m inclined to leave these as they are right now, as I don’t want to overdo the disambiguation or make changes that could trip up long-term users of this course (who might be used to the existing definitions for these items). But please let me know if you feel strongly about this and I’ll look again.
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The cause of my confusion was that Memrise official course has somewhere a lamentablemente = unfortunately item. But here none of the two “unfortunately” items has this translation.
Hi, right now this course contains the following item:
Level 60: lamentablemente = regrettably
For the same reasons I mentioned in my last post, I’m reluctant to change this item as there’s no ambiguity within this course. Perhaps you could ask contributors to the other course you mention to adjust their “lamentablemente” definition instead? Just an idea.
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Hi there!
Native spanish speaker here! Both translations for “lamentablemente” are correct.I personally think it is better that you learn both deffinitions in the different courses so you can really learn and fully understand the meaning of the word.
In fact, the word “lamentablemente” can also mean something like “really” (in the sense of “deplorably”) when preceding and adverb with a bad connotation. For example, “sentirse lamentablemente mal” means “to feel really bad” (to feel deploraby bad).
I hope this helps!
Sorry for any mistakes in this reply, english is not my mother language!
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Jone, thanks for looking at this, and your comments.
By the way your English appears to be perfect - and probably better than that of a typical native English speaker.
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Thanks mate! 
Hello @ian_mn,
writing (not “la redacción”) = la escritura
I always type “el escrito” here.
Seems like there is a difference in meaning between “el escrito” and “la escritura”. My dictionaries say “writing” for both, but as I look at google image results “el escrito” is more like a synonym to “la redacción” (~ individual documents/essays) while “la escritura” means the writing process itself.
This seems to be quite subtle.
I’m thinking that “la escritura” is a general term for “writing”, while “el escrito” normally refers to a document.
http://www.spanishcentral.com/translate/escrito
http://www.spanishcentral.com/translate/escritura
So I’m not sure it makes sense to change the existing definitions of these items?
I learned la redacción as a synonym for el escrito (= essay, a piece of written paper) so I associated to el escrito first. Now I checked the dictionaries and redacción means the process of editing text /writing, wording, drafting, composition etc/ so yes, also close to la escritura
If you could add some remark that it item refers to the general term (and not to a document), that would be great. But I think after this little research I won’t confuse this item anymore.
Hi, I took a look at these again, and we’ve currently got:
Level 44: el escrito = document (not documento)
Level 27: la escritura = writing (not “la redacción”)
Level 53: la redacción = writing (not “la escritura”), editing; editorial office/team; essay
I’m thinking that although there’s some overlap that’s not reflected in the current definitions, expanding the definitions would probably degrade the learning process for typical learners. So, I’m inclined to leave these as they are for now.
Hi!
Redacción means “essay” . It can also mean essay writing manner (you´ll see an example below).
(by the way, “Essay”, depending on which type of essay it is, can be translated to spanish as redacción or ensayo. Ensayo is used for realy well documented and reliable essays, specially the long ones, like books. Redacción ´s meaning is wider.)
Escritura means “writing” in the sense of a writting manner. It reffers to stuff like writing style, composition, and also to the handwriting and stuff like caligraphic style.
It may also reffer to the physical act of writing. In this sense you usually can replace it for escribir in infinitive, and the meaning will remain the same.
(El) Esrito means “writing” in the sense of a text somebody has written. It may reffer to a document, a composition, an essay, a letter… any kind of text. So it is different from essay: a redacción (essay) is a type of escrito, but any other kind of written text could be an escrito.
Some examples:
Hoy he escrito una redacción sobre los volcanes en clase.
I wrote an essay about volcanoes today in class.
Sus dotes de redacción son impresionantes.
His/Her (essay) writing skills are impressive.
Carl Jung escribió numerosos ensayos sobre psicología.
Carl Jung wrote several essays on psychology.
Sus dotes de escritura son impresionantes.
His writing skills are impressive.
***(In this case, unlike with dotes de redacción, there´s a wider meaning that may reffer to different writing skills other than just essay writing skills).
Creo que la escritura es una actividad muy relajante. = Creo que escribir es una actividad muy relajante.
I think that writing is a very relaxing activity.
He dejado el escrito sobre tu mesa.
I left the writing on your table
English is not my mother tongue, so sorry if there´s any mistake…
Well, I hope this helps!
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Hello,
I have now nearly finished this course and I am very happy with it.
Thanks to xoviat and ian_mm for your hard work!
@ian_mn: I will continue learning with your First 5000 Words of Spanish: Top Ups
Where did you get the words for these from?
A good question - @neaz333 asked a similar question about a year ago - please let me know if you’d like more detail.
The list of source materials is here:
*[Course Forum] First 5000 Words of Spanish: Top Up #2 by ian_mn
Hi,
A technical question. This First 5000 words of Spanish course shares levels with the Introductory/Intermediate/Advanced Spanish 1-2. Is it still possible to create such courses? (I couldn’t find the functionality.) It would be good to have a course that aggregates the official Memrise 1-7 courses as it is quite annoying to review them one by one. Also a unified Top-up course would be handy, although I haven’t even finished the 1st one yet.
I believe that you can still create new courses - there’s a clickable green “Create a course” link at the top of the following page, for example:
Good luck with whatever you decide to do.
Yes I know that button is there, but I don’t want to create new courses from scratch, rather link together existing courses like this course does.
So if I completed this course, I also completed the Introductory/Intermediate/Advanced Spanish 1/2, because they share the same database, so all my learned and ignored words, and review periods, etc. in the big course appear in the smaller courses and vice versa, doesn’t matter which one I use.
I would like to make a similar big course from Memrise official 1-7 courses, and manual copy is not an option because I don’t want to lose my learning history in these courses. However I couldn’t find an option to link whole levels from the existing courses to a new course while keeping the database link to the items, but this course (or the smaller ones) did it somehow. Is there still a possibility?
Hi, I think you may have to suggest your idea to the Memrise staff.
I believe that the relevant course forum for the courses is: