Customer Reviews

My Clothes/ Mi Ropa

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have been using this entire series with my son since he was born, and he is now 14 months. He loves the pictures and turning the pages. The books use the format of one word per page and it gives both the English and Spanish form of the word. This is a great series for early language acquisition.

Another reviewer had commented on a myriad of errors in this series of board books. He did not comment on this one specifically, so I purchased it. There are several errors, which can be considered minor compared to all the errors in the "My toys, Mis jugetes" board book. Again, there seems to be a lack of quality control in checking the correctness of the Spanish words before going to print, hence my rating.

For those people who would like to teach their children correct Spanish, here are the corrections.

Front Cover & Spine: In Spanish only the first word is capitalized in a title. Therefore, the correct title for the Spanish portion is "Mi ropa". It is possible this is changing in practice because of the influence of English, but the Spanish Royal Academy guide on grammar and spelling still lists this as the rule.

Inside: Pants is "los pantalones", not "los pantal?nes". Socks is "los calcetines", not "los calcet?nes". There is no accent on either word. At least these are two corrections that only need white-out. *See the end for explanation on accentuation rules.*

Back Cover: "Colectar" in Spanish is used for the collection of money or debts. To collect, as in amass in a collection, is "coleccionar". The phrase, correcting the verb and the preposition, should be "?Coleccione todos los libros de la serie!"

Not a correction per se:
Las pyjamas: When I saw this spelling I scratched my head since I was only familiar with "las pijamas". After searching, I discovered that this is a tough word because the word in Spanish derives from the word in English. Thus, it can take various forms, either faithful to the English pronunciation with changed spelling, or faithful to the English spelling with Spanish pronunciation. If you don't want to use the Spanish phrase "la ropa de dormir" and want to use the word that comes from the English, all of the following are OK:
"las pyjamas" (derived from the British English spelling)
"las pijamas"
"las piyamas"
"las payamas" (derived from the American English spelling)
If you are a Spanish speaker, use the version you are familiar with. Or else using the spelling in this book is OK.

* Note 1: The word "pantal?n" takes an accent because it follows the rule for a word that is "aguda", having the stress on the last syllable. The "aguda" rule is that the word is accentuated on the last syllable, which is stressed, if it ends in a vowel, an s, or an n. But when an "es" is added to make the word plural ("los pantalones"), a syllable is added and the word becomes "llana" or "grave". The "llana" rule for words that have the stress on the next to last syllable is that the stressed syllable is accentuated if the word ends in a consonant other than n or s. The word "pantalones" has the stress on the next to last syllable and it ends in s. Therefore, it doesn't get an accent. The same explanation is the reason why "los calcetines" also doesn't have an accent either.

* Note 2: The Spanish Royal Academy lists "el pijama" in the singular as the proper form, though probably no one outside of Spain uses it that way.

This is a nice sturdy book that my boys go back to right after we get dressed in the morning and repeat the words in Spanish and English (They are 2 and 3 1/2 years.)

It also is a great review and supplement to the Lessons on clothing in their Flip Flop Spanish Workbooks - they look at the pictures in this sweet little book when we listen to the Spanish CD that comes with the workbook.