bilingual 3.8 yo doesnt conjugate the past properly - do they do this even if they aren't biingual..???

[Malaleche]

DD1 3.8 yo who I think is on a par with native English speakers of her age, has started saying things like 'I doed it' instead of 'I did it'. Is this normal? I don't know because we live in Spain and I don't hear other English-speaking kids.

Also, a question for parents of bilingual kids - when your child starts to favour the majority language even tho their minority language skills/level is better - how do you feel? What can i do to keep the minority language in the forefront? or should i just continue to do what i always did? Speak it, read in it, play story tapes etc.
The thing is i feel really annoyed when she speaks to me in the majority language, i feel she's rejecting me even tho i know that's not true, just need some pep-talking really from others who've been there...

bump

yes it's totally normal for a child that age to congugate irregular verbs as if they were regular. In fact it a good sign that they have really 'got' the concept of forming the past tense.
She knows that you add 'ed' to the end of word if you are talking about the past and is applying this rule.

Opinion differs over whether you should correct this or not. I personally think you should just model the correct form and wait till she picks it up.

Talking a language that's not the majority is really hard work and can be exhausting, keep it up - sounds like your dd is coping really well with it.

Thanks hellish!
She was born in Spain and we speak English at home, she didnt start nursery till a year and a half ago, when she was 2 and so English had been very strong till now. Now she re-plays conversations from school and talks to herself in Spanish alot, also slips Spanish words into English sentences. I know it's all normal and she'll sort the two out eventually but emotionally i find it hard hearing her speak Spanish. We're spending 6 weeks in Scotland this summer so that'll reinforce her English.

No experience here but I just wanted to say what a great gift you're giving your daughter. It must be fantastic to grow up bilingual!

Totally normal. Most children apply the -ed rule for all past participles until they've learnt the irregular ones.

As for feeling rejected, I know exactly how you feel. I have to remind mine (who are 9 and 7) daily to talk to me in English, otherwise they'd go for the "lazy" option and speak French all the time, and I hate the idea that they might lose their English.

For your DD I'd suggest you gently remind her that you speak English so she should speak to you in English too. It's important that she not only understands you, but continues to learn to speak it herself. Make it fun, if you can, and yes, carry on with the songs, books etc.

ds (just 2, me English, dh German, we live in Germany) has been speaking more German than English lately, including some whole sentences. I hate it tbh - for a long time he spoke more English, and it makes me feel sad and as if I don'tdo enough for/with him - but I have to accept it. He obviously hears more German than English in daily life (he isn't at nursery/kindergarten yet), and also dh and I speak German to each other, so he hears it from me too (I only speak English to him). If ds speaks to me in German, I often repeat the concept back in English as a question.

I agree with hellish - your dd is applying grammatical rules, which is a fab sign. These kinds of errors are 'natural', productive errors that most learners (incl first-language ones) make on the way to mastery of a language.

yup, ds still doing this, even still aged 6 & 7. 7 yr old worst tbh. ds2 constantly sighing and correcting him, I do sometimes, but don't want to jump constantly. the verb 'to eat' is the most outstanding example, It's so bad I even catch myself saying 'catched' occasionally

Seem to be better in german grammar than english, sigh

dd (4) is speaking English and German. "I didn't done it" is what she says - drives me up the blardy wall. I've started to correct her now because I think she is old enough to understand. She wants to get it right and does so when I gently remind her. Malaleche - we speak English at home and everything else for her is German (because we are in Germany ). Although her English is still very strong, for a while now she has been translating directly from German to English which I find amazing and alarming and can lead to some interesting sentence constructions. I think carry on as you are and if you feel strongly enough, just don't engage in conversation with her unless it is in English (not an issue for me as my German is so abysmal).

I hope you don't mind me jumping in and asking a question out of sheer curiosity. Do your children speak each language with the correct accent? Or, for example, do they speak English with a German/French accent or vice versa?

Forgive me if this is a silly question, but I always wondered.

Also, we're very tentatively talking about moving to France and wondered how it would affect DS.

dd speaks English like I do with a mild sarf london twang on certain words but with a fairly neutral accent generally, but certainly she sounds like a native English speaker. As far as I'm aware she speaks German like a German - actually she works hard at her pronunciation and often corrects me on the rare occasions when I venture to say something in Deutsch.

my children still do this with past participles - not sure if my 9 and 10 year olds have stopped yet, but they were certainly doing it until recently.

and yes, they have picked up the local accent.

perfectly normal i agree.

my kids still prefer English (but did go through a phase of speaking to each other/playing games in French) at a time when their French wasn't great. Now that they're fairly competent in French they've reverted to English at home and I hope it stays that way.

as for accents, it's funny how my dd1 has a definite dublin accent (which is different to my own irish one) because that's where we lived when she was born. dd2's accent is more like mine. And their French is with a southern accent which makes dh smile as he's from paris!

Yes, it's a good sign when children start making past participles agree with the rules for regular verbs - it shows they are grasping the concept of grammar.

My daughter (2.6) isn't that advanced yet, but she is grasping the idea that adjectives come before the noun in English and after the noun in French. We do a lot of reading in both languages, and a lot of translation - for example, her father looks at a picture and asks her to describe everything she sees in it in French, and then I do the same exercise in English. She is very good at the moment at speaking English to me and French to him and long may it continue.

Hi Malaleche
I think the best way of ensuring that she keeps up her English (apart from what you're doing already) is to find her an English speaking friend, preferably one who knows no Spanish even if it means putting yourself out a great deal.

Other than that I think keep reading to her in English as much as you can, not just at night but if you have time maybe at breakfast and in the afternoon too. Once she's reading English fluently, I think those grammatical errors (which dd also has) will sort themselves out. Well I'm hoping so anyway!

Bristols - not a silly question! Some other Franco-British children we know (from 2 different families) speak English with a marked French accent. Both families have always lived in France, and both sets of parents speak French to each other and their native tongues to their children, so the children have learnt nearly all their English from their mothers, whom they also hear speaking French. But children of British parents who move abroad will hear nothing but English at home so are far more likely to speak it better. The challenge is keeping tabs on the new language they learn

frenchleave - I have exactly the situation/challenge you describe ahead of me. Though my daughter will be going to a bilingual French-English school, which I hope will mitigate the overemphasis on French in our situation.

I intend to spend lots of holidays in England, send her to English camps etc.

my DS2 (3.9) does this a lot - "he hurted me", "I winned" etc etc - perfectly normal (and quite cute I think )

Totally normal for our 3.8 dd too! "I catched it Mummy" being a prime example. As others have said, don't think it's related to bilinguilism. I don't correct as such, just reply enthusiastically/normally "Oh well done, you caught it!" and hope she'll twig eventually ...

We both speak English at home and she goes to school in French/Dutch (we live in Belgium). I'm not sure it's a question of keeping the minority language 'to the forefront' or not, even though I know it's an emotive issue and have sympathy with how you are feeling. (It took me quite a while to come to terms with the fact that my dd's education will be totally different from my own and will be from a totally different cultural viewpoint. However, the quality of the education she is receiving has outweighed any qualms! Still worried about doing maths homework in French though!!) As you acknowledge, at 3.8 she's too young to be deliberately rejecting you. I think it's more a question of how long you are intending to live in Spain? If you are there for the long-term, then surely it'll be good for yr child to blend with the majority, whilst keeping a good level of English at home (continue to speak to her in English and play and read as you are already doing). Personally, I'm very proud when my dd addresses me in French or says something in Dutch, as she still prefers to speak English where possible. Obviously, your child is further on, so don't know how I'll feel when my dd starts favouring another language but can you explain a bit more why you feel annoyed? Don't want to pry or sound unsympathetic - just genuinely wondering - is it because you might feel still feel a bit unhappy/unsettled about living abroad? I know from personal experience how stressful it is; from feeling that you are not able to communicate with other mothers/teachers/children's friends adequately. It's a tough call but it does get better I promise xx

making this sort of mistake as is a sign that they do understand how to make the past tense. the mistake confirms that she has absorbed the rule of how to make the past tense because she is applying it to the exception, iyswim. it won't take long for her to apply the exception to this rule.

here is another example of what i mean from a rl situation:
mum:quickly, quickly.
cousin: i'm quicklying mummy.

translate: hurry, hurry.
i'm hurrying mummy.

yes, mine make their own verbs based on logical grammatical rules, eg cigaretting - look mummy he's cigaretting etc. despite the fact I have North East accent, my ds's have got hideous estury accent, but speak Swiss German I think with local accent. I do know several bi lingual children with eg swiss or german parent and an irish or scottish or english one who have reall weird sort of american/swiss sort of foreign sounding accent, even tho they are essentially mother-tongue english

thanks for all your feedback!
countingthegreyhairs - yes, i do still feel a bit unsettled/unhappy about living abroad but since we've been here 16 years i should really pull myself together

Know the feeling Malache! (For me, it's been a 14-yr love/hate thing!)

where do you live, counting?