Hi there! How is it going with you, ?

Today's Friday, time to relax after a hectic week. At least for some of us.

This week has been a challenge for me, especially on the personal level. My husband had to leave for Canada to take care of an ageing parent and I was left alone in my 'new' country. Switzerland, the nice chocolate 'kinder' place, with cows grazing in impeccable green fields. Yeah. But there are many things which are so different from Spain!

Just the weather can put you off. Rain, rain and more rain. That's how you get those green fields, anyhow ;))

Ok, so let's go to the anecdote. I'll jump to the juicy part.

On Wednesday the sun came up and my spirits lifted incredibly. So I went for a nice walk by the lake. When I came back, the home help had already finished work so, since I had a bit of time, we had a chat.

She's Portuguese but has been living for a while in Canton Vaud and speaks French quite fluently.

'We have a garden' she announced. (Fr. 'jardin potager')

Wow! And what vegetables are you growing now? I said.

There came the challenge. She looked at me blankly and shrugged. 'Oh! I know the names in Portuguese but I don't remember the French! It seemed the conversation was doomed to fail.

Let's try- I said. "Tell me the names in Portuguese and I'll look them up."

So, she gave me the names. "grelos" was one. The 'gr' sounds like in English 'grind' and the 's' is more like 'sh' in 'shoe'.

English pronunciation was more similar to Portuguese than Spanish.

So I could write the word down on my mobile. Fast checked with her. I had written it correctly.

Wordreference didn't give me the translation I wanted right away. I had to scroll down and see the word in context. And there I found it.

'Grelos frescos' is 'navet frais' in French. Yes! she said, exultantly. So, 'grelos'= 'navet' (Eng. 'turnip'.)

She was so happy I had understood her that we continued exploring more veggie words -she saying them in Portuguese -me processing how they sounded and how they could be spelled- and translating them into French.

That's how an understanding of Pronunciation can help you understand -and learn- many languages.

So, , are you with me on this?

Have a wonderful weekend.

More to come soon,

Anna.