How do children learning two native languages at the same time distinguish them from each other?
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My niece speaks Spanish and English, both learned from birth. She did not distinguish them until she was about 3; she used a mix of the two (One of her classic first sentences was “What nosotros eat por cena?). At that point she realized that my parents (her grandparents) could not understand Spanish. She started referring to them as Grandparents speak and Dad speak named after the people who she used them with. Even today she seems to distinguish them more by who she can speak it with rather than the countries of origin or places that speak them.
Initially they don’t. Then after some time they learn that certain word combinations go together, just like how you did. “An apple” vs. “a apple.” “I tied my shoes” vs. “Me tied my shoes.”
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