Archive for 'Spanish Grammar'
The Subjunctive I – Forms and Meanings Posted by Adir on Nov 10, 2008
The subjunctive isn’t a tense: present, past, or future. It is a mood (or mode), because it indicates how the speaker feels about or perceives a situation rather than when an action occurred. The subjunctive expresses unreal, hypothetical, theoretical, imaginary, uncorroborated, or unconfirmed conditions or situations. These expressions come from the speaker’s doubts, emotions, wishes…
Greetings Posted by Adir on Sep 15, 2008
Hello, everybody! Let’s learn (or review) some of the most common greetings in Spanish: Hola – Hello, Hi Hola, aló, bueno, diga, dígame – Hello (on the telephone) Adiós – Goodbye/ Chao, Chau (informal, from italian “Ciao”) Hasta luego – See you later Hasta pronto – See you soon ¿Cómo estás? / ¿Cómo está? –…
Mi vida loca Posted by Adir on Sep 8, 2008
I’m a helpless internet addict and as a teacher I’m always looking for alternatives to supplement my classes. While surfing the web, I came across this course, by BBC Online, called Mi Vida Loca. It’s a mystery series and it has tons of audio, video and explanations both in English and in Spanish. There are…
The future… the future? Posted by Adir on Aug 18, 2008
Let’s talk a bit about the future in Spanish. There are two basic forms: the first one is a specific verb conjugation called the simple future (futuro simple). For example, the verb estar (estaré, estarás, estará, estaremos, estaréis, estarán) in the simple future tense is equivalent in English to the form “will” (I will be…
Irregular Past Participles Posted by Adir on Jul 30, 2008
Learning to use Spanish verbs correctly is a hassle, and we all know that. When we learn the Pretérito Perfecto, we come up with irregular past participles. Here’s a list of some common irregular past participles. * abrir (to open), abierto * absolver (to absolve), absuelto * cubrir (to cover), cubierto * decir (to say…
Verbs in -ducir Posted by Transparent Language on Jul 18, 2008
We know that a suffix is often added to a word stem to create new words, but that isn’t always the case. Let’s take the example of the suffix –ducir in Spanish and some verbs formed with it: conducir, reducir, deducir, etc. Such verbs are derived from Latin ducere, which meant “to lead”. The examples…
Para vs. Por Posted by Transparent Language on Jul 8, 2008
The prepositions por and para have very specific uses in Spanish. Here are some of them. PARA 1. Para is used to indicate destination or purpose. El barco salió para Francia. – The ship left for France. Este regalo es para María. – This gifit is for María. Estudia para abogado. – He studies (to…