Category Archives: Grammar

Grammatical terms

Before you start to learn Spanish grammar you ,need to familiarise yourself with some grammatical terms.

Look at this sentence:

The boy reads an interesting book at home.

He reads an interesting book at home.

Each word has a grammatical term :

The – definitive article

boy – noun (it is the subject of the sentence)

reads – verb

a – preposition

interesting – adjective

book – noun (it is a direct object in the sentence)

at – preposition

home – noun.

He – pronoum

Articles always go in front of the noun and agrees with it in gender and number. Grammatical name given to the word “THE”.

In many circumstances where the definite article is necessary in Spanish , it is omitted in English.

Las mujeres están en el partido – Women are present in the party.

Using Spanish articles will take practise , since quite a few situations require their use in Spanish but not in English.

Nouns designate people, places, actions, things, events and concrete or abstract ideas, and so on. Example: Tom, boy, London, chair, cat…

In Spanish nouns are either feminine or masculine, grammatically speaking. Sometimes this classification will not make sense to the English-speaking learner of Spanish.

A verb is a word that describes an action ( example: eats, slept, is going).

An adjetive can have two functions:

It can complement the noun it follows , completing its meaning with various characteristics and qualities.

Example: Don’t you want that big , inexpensive bag?

The can also limit or determine a noun.

Example: My watch is not working. / This rose has a strong fragance.

Adjectives must agree in gender and number with the noun. Therefore djetives are either feminine or masculine, singular or plural, acording to the noun they modify.

A Preposition is a connector. It links a noun, a pronoun, or a phrase to other words in a phrase or sentence.

Example: They work for me. / They are travelling through Spain.

Spanish prepositions can present a challenge to English speakers .You will need to acquire them gradually.

A pronoun is a word that stands in place of a noun.

Example: I, you, he , she…..

A conjunction is a word that links parts of a sentence . The most common conjunctions in English are “and” and “but”.

The subject is the name given to the person or things doing the action.

Relative pronoun is a word that links one part of the sentence to another. In English the relative pronouns are “ who”, “whom”, “which”, “where” and “that”

Example: I gave him all the money that I earned.

SER-ESTAR exercise

Use the present simple of the verbs Ser and Estar and fill up the gaps:

  1. Yo …. española.
  2. Él …. en Portugal.
  3. Ellas …. profesoras y nosotros …. pintores.
  4. Esta pelicula …. muy larga.
  5. Marta …. alta y su pelo …. de color marrón.
  6. El perro …. en el jardín.
  7. Ellos … ingleses y ellas …. italianas.
  8. Él … viajando por Cánada.
  9. Celia y Sonia …. cansadas.
  10. Luis … un chico muy alegre.
  11. Mi madre …. contenta por que ha ganado la loteria.
  12. El castillo …. muy grande.
  13. Madrid …. en España.
  14. Los niños …. de excursión.
  15. La sopa …. muy caliente.
  16. Mi padre …. enfermo.
  17. Hoy …. lunes
  18. Hoy ….miércoles.
  19. Mi padre …. preocupado.
  20. ¿ Dónde …. mi libro? Tu libro… en mi cuarto.

 

1.es 2.está 3.son, somos 4. es 5. es, es 6. está 7. son, son 8. está 9. están 10. es 11. está 12. es 13. está 14. están 15. está 16. está 17. es 18. es 19. está 20 está, está

To Be: Verb SER and verb Estar, uses.

Using the verb To be is Spanish might be a bit hard for some English speakers, basically because Spanish uses two different verbs to express To Be:  SER- ESTAR

It is important to know the different situations when you should use one or the other.

SER

  • To identify: Esta es mi novia. (This is my girlfriend)
  • To talk about nationality: Olga es rusa. (Olga is Russian)
  • To say your profession: Roberto es peluquero. (Roberto is a hairdresser)
  • To describe: Este libro es aburrido. (This book is boring)
  • To express property: Este es mi libro. (This is my book)
  • To talk about the time: Hoy es jueves. (Today is Thrusday) / Vámonos, ya son las tres. (Let’s go, it’s three oclock already!)
  • Place in time and space specific events: La conferencia será en el salón de actos. (The conference will be at the conference room) 
ESTAR
  • To talk about the location of things or people: Celia está en clase. (Celia is in the classroom).
  • To express how you feel: Nuria está preocupada. (Nuria is borried)/ Carlos parece que está enfermo. (Carlos is ill)
  • To make staments about things: Tu habitación está muy desordenada. (Your room is very untidy)/ Tu falda está sucia.(Your skirt is dirty).
Some adjetive can be used with both verbs but then their meaning changes. 

  • If we use SER then we describe the subject of the sentence: Joaquín es alegre.
  • If we use ESTAR then we talk about a temporal stament (estado pasajero, temporal)Joaquín está tranquilo (maybe he had been very nervous before).María está contenta (maybe she was very sand before).

Ser and Estar can ve used either way with the following adjetives: soltero, casasdo, divorciado y viudo.

 

 

 

Definitive and indefinite articles

DEFINITE ARTICLE (THE)

masculine:

singular   el

plural       los

femenine:

singular   la

plural       las

The definite article introduces the noun it precedes and it agrees with it in gender and number.
It’s important to learn that in many of the occasions where the definite article is needed in Spanish, it is omitted in English.
Exemple:
La paz es muy importante en el mundo.  (Peace is very important in the world).
La policia está buscando al ladrón. (Police is looking for the thief).

The definite article is used :
When referring to nouns in a general sense:
El tiempo es muy bueno en Andalucia. (The weather is good in Andalucia).

The days of the week. the English equivalent would be “on”.
Los lunes vamos al mercado. (On Mondays we go to the market).

With the name of a language, except when it comes directly after aprender, hablar  or saber:
El español es una lengua muy interesante. (Spanish is a very interesting language)
Yo aprendo español en el colegio. (I am learning Spanish at the school)
Él no sabe italiano pero si que habla portugués. ( He doesn´t know Italian but he knows Portuguese).

With parts of the body, personal hygiene objects and clothing:
La cabeza-  head
Los pantalones – trousers
El cepillo de dientes –  toothbrush

To tell the time:
Es la una en punto. (It is one o´clock)
Son las dos y media (It is half past two)

INDEFINITE ARTICLE (A, AN, SOME)

masculine:

singular   un

plural       unos

femenine:

singular   una

plural       unas

The indefinite article is used  to refer to one individual out of a general group. In English this articles ar “A”, “AN”.

Example: Voy a comprar un coche en este taller. I´m going to buy a car from this garage.

To express personal characteristic of a person using a noun.
Eres un sol.  You are so nice.
Los ladrones fueron unos cobardes. The thieves were cowards.

To express approximate amounts.
Tengo en el banco unos dos mil euros. I have about two thousand euros in the bank.

 

PRACTICE  EXERCISES

Write the definite article:

problema

mapa

pijama

paraguas

camisa

falda

vaso

tres en punto

cuatro y cuarto

ascensor

lunes

martes

caja

cámara

zapatillas.

Write the indefinite article in these sentences:

Estoy buscando                       libro y no lo encuentro.
Solo         niño en la clase contestó correctamente a la profesora.
Tengo solo                 hora para limpiar la casa.
Mi madre es un              ángel, la quiero un montón.
En la caja había                  cinco pares de calcetines.
Vimos mucha gente en la manifestación. Habría                  dos mil personas.

Choose which article is best. It might be that you don´t need any, be careful!

Mi hernana habla                español muy bien. Yo también.
Tengo        coche en el taller. Es               taller muy caro así que espero que me lo arrglen bien.
A               dos y media tengo que irme al médico.
Vamos a comprar                   lavadora nueva por que esta está rota.
Vimos           cinco modelos en la tienda pero no nos gustó ninguno.


Regular and Irregular Verbs

As you already know, there are three verbs conjugations in Spanish (1st -ar, 2nd -er, 3rd -ir) and looking at the ending of each verb will help you know what person is doing the action and in which tense.
Some verbs follow all the same pattern, they keep the same root or stem and  add the same ending for the different persons and tenses.
These type of verbs are called “REGULAR VERBS”

Here you have some examples in Present Simpre:

COMPRAR, infinitive form:   Compr (root or stem) – ar (ending)     1st conjugation.
yo compro
tú compras
él, ella compra
nosotros compramos
vosotros compráis
ellos, ellas compran.

BEBER, infinitive form:  Beb (root or stem) – er(ending)     2nd conjugation
yo bebo
tú  bebes
él, ella bebe
nosotros bebemos
vosotros bebéis
ellos, ellas beben

SUBIR, infinitive form: Sub (root or stem) -ir (ending)    3rd conjugation
yo subo
tú  subes
él, ella sube
nosotros subimos
vosotros subís
ellos, ellas suben

These is a list of very common regular verbs:

  • bajar (to step down), sumar (to add up), trabajar (to work), escuchar (to listen)….
  • aprender (to learn), correr (to run), leer (to read), vender (to sell)….
  • abrir (to open), recibir (to received), escribir (to write), vivir (to live)….

There are other type of verbs that  don´t follow these patterns. They either change the root, the endings or both. These kind of verbs are called “IRREGULAR VERBS”.
You´ll find lots of tips to learn the irregular verbs on different grammar books and you might feel confused at the beginning. My advice is “don’t get too stressed about it”. Use them, go over them everyday, do your exercises and slowly, slowly you’ll learn them.

In my next posts I’ll talk about some very important irregular verbs: ser, estar, hacer.


Spanish verbs: conjugations, moods and tenses

There are three types of conjugations in Spanish and we recognised them looking at the  infinitive ending:
1st conjugation: -ar     Examples: comprar, bajar, limpiar, trabajar….
2nd conjugation: -er    Examples: aprender, beber, correr, vender….
3rd conjugation: -ir      Examples: recibir, abrir, subir, vivir, repartir….
When we want to conjugate a verb in any of  its  tenses  we take the conjugation ending (ar,er,ir) and we add to the “root” of the verb the corresponding ending of the person doing the verb action.
There are three persons for the singular and three persons for the plural:

Singular
I – Yo
You – Tú
He – Él, She – Ella. There is no “it” in Spanish, you refer to things in masculine or feminine.
Plural
We – Nosotros, nosotras
You – Vosotros, vosotras
They – Ellos, ellas.

It’s very important to know the endings of the verbs because most of the time we omit  the subject pronom in Spanish so, by knowing the endings, you will be able to tell what person is doing the action and in what tense is the action taking place (present, past, future).

Depending on the attitude of the person doing the action, the Spanish verbs are structured in different moods. The most common one is the Indicative, but there are three more subjunctive, conditional and imperative.

Spanish Verb tenses:
INDICATIVE MOOD

Simple tenses

Present –  Present simple
Imperfect – Pretérito imperfecto.
Preterit – Pretérito perfecto simple o indefinido.
Future –  Futuro.
Conditional – Condicional.
Compound tenses

Present perfect – Pretérito perfecto compuesto.
Pluperfect – Pretérito pluscuamperfecto.
Preterit Perfect – Pretérito anterior.
Future Perfect – Futuro perfecto.
Conditional Perfect – Condicional compuesto.
SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD

Simple tenses
Present – Present simple.
Imperfect – Pretérito imperfecto.
Compound tenses
Present perfect – Pretérito perfecto compuesto.
Pluperfect – Pretérito pluscuamperfecto.