Archive for 'Spanish Grammar'
Apócope Posted by Adir on Sep 4, 2009
Apócope is a kind of reduction that happens in some words in Spanish. When the words bueno (good), malo (bad), primero (first), alguno (some), ninguno (nobody, nothing) and tercero (third) come before a masculine singular noun, they lose their final –o. Este coche es muy bueno. – Este es un buen coche. Este coche es…
Describing People Posted by Adir on Aug 20, 2009
We use the verbs ser (to be), tener (to have) and llevar (here, to wear) to describe what people look like in Spanish. Take a look at these examples: Es alto (tall), bajo (short), feo (ugly), guapo (handsome), delgado (thin), gordo (fat), tonto (stupid), inteligente (intelligent), simpático (friendly), rubio (blond), pelirrojo (red-haired). Tiene los ojos…
El acento ortográfico en español Posted by Adir on Aug 13, 2009
Let’s review the use of accents in Spanish words, en español. 1 – Palabras esdrújulas – Son las que tienen como sílaba tónica la antepenúltima (la tercera contando desde el final de la palabra). Ejemplos: pájaro, fábrica, bolígrafo, plátano, música, hispánico … Llevan acento (´) TODAS las esdrújulas: cáscara, índice, plástico, séptimo, física 2 –…
El Imperativo … con música! Posted by Adir on Jun 24, 2009
I know how it feels to have to learn all those conjugation forms by heart… and there are so many exceptions to the rules… blah blah blah. So, dear reader, to help you learn about the imperative a little more pleasantly, I chose two videos: the first one is Thalia’s Regresa a Mí, where you…
Another ‘cuando’… Posted by Adir on Apr 23, 2009
The most common word for ‘when’ is ‘cuando’, but you can also use the contraction ‘al’ (a + el) to indicate when something happens. Check out some examples: Hay error al enviar los mensajes por Outlook. – There is an error when you send messages using Outlook. Al enterarse de lo que había sucedido, se…
The suffix -ado/-ada Posted by Adir on Apr 20, 2009
The suffix –ado/-ada can mean “-ful” or “-load”. So, a “cucharada” is a “spoonful (cuchara = spoon). Let’s see some more examples. la barcada – boatload (el barco – boat) la brazada – armful (el brazo – arm); stroke (in swimming) la calderada – cauldron full (la caldera – cauldron, boiler) la camionada – truckload…
You just have to learn them! Posted by Adir on Mar 24, 2009
OK, so your Spanish teacher taught you that basically words ending in -a take the article “la” and words ending in -o take the article “el”. Right? Not quite. There are words that defy categorization and there is no magic way to learn them other than study and remember their gender. Here’s a little list…