Learning and playing is always fun! That’s why I recommend you to play “Dominoes” if you want to practice numbers.
You’ll use the basic numbers from 1 to 6 plus you’ll practice higher numbers when adding up points at the end of each game.
Have fun everybody!
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.
¿ DÓNDE ESTÁ….? Where is…..?
This is the basic question you need to know to ask for directions. You just need to say “where is” and add at the end the place you are looking for.
For example:
¿ Dónde está la estación? Where is the station?
¿ Dónde está la biblioteca? Where is the library?
¿ Dónde está el banco? Where is the bank?
There are other type of questions that you could use, such as:
¿ HAY UN SUPERMERCADO POR AQUÍ? Is there a supermarket near here?
¿ ESTÁ LEJOS DE AQUÍ ? Is it far from here?
There is some basic vocabulary you´ll need to learn to understand any possible answer to these questions:
Siga todo recto Go straight on
Gire a la derecha Go right
Gire a la izquierda Go left
En la esquina On the corner
Justo a la vuelta de la esquina Just around the corner
Gire a la izquierda en el cruce de semáforos Turn left at the traffic lights
Todo recto, pasando el mercado Straight on, past the market.
Tome la primera a la derecha. take the first road on the left.
Example dialogue:
_ Buenos días señora, estoy buscando un supermercado ¿ hay alguno por aquí? ( Good morning madam. I´m looking for a supermarket. Is there one near by?)
_ Buenos días. Sí, tienes un supermercado muy cerca. Camina todo recto y en la primera esquina , gira a la derecha. Al final de la calle lo encontrarás. Enfrente de la iglesia. ( Good morning. Yes, there is a supermarket supermarket near by. Walk straight on. On the first corner turn to the right. You´ll find it at the end of the road, in front of the church)
_ Muchas gracias. Que tenga un buen día. (Thanks you very much. Have a nice day!)
_ De nada. ( Your welcome!)
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:
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.
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
Numbers are part of our everyday life so it´s good to learn them. On this post I added a little song that will help you to get the right pronunciation. Get on counting everybody! 🙂
“Hello” is one the first word you need to learn in Spanish, if you don’t already know it : Hola. It’s the most common word for greeting your friends.
There are other greetings you might want to learn. Use them depending on the time of the day:
Buenos días (Good morning. Have a good day)
Buenas tardes (Good afternoon)
Buenas noches (You say Buenas noches in the evening and at bedtime)
If you want to greet someone and ask how they are then you say:
Hola, ¿ cómo estás ? (Hello, how are you?)
Muy bien, gracias. (Very well, thanks!) ¡No muy bien! (This means that things aren´t too good).
If you want to say “Goodbye” then you say Adiós.
You can also say Hasta luego if you want to say “See you again”.