Tag Archives: Spanish Grammar
Want to Test your Reading in Spanish? Posted by Adir on Jun 14, 2013
Hello, everybody! In Brazil we have a college entrance examination called Vestibular and in its foreign language part you can choose to take English, Spanish or French, depending on the university or college you want to go to. The test assesses students’ reading skills and also reading-based grammar. I am going to share PUC Rio…
How to say “I was going to do it” in Spanish Posted by Adir on Jun 7, 2013
¡Hola! ¿Cómo te va todo? Espero que estés bien. Let’s finish the week with a very useful verb form in Spanish: I was going to do something. We use the imperfecto of verb ir (iba, ibas, iba, íbamos, íban, íban) + a + the infinitive of the main verb. Learning tip: try making some sentences…
Impersonal verbal structures in Spanish: how to use the verbs “haber” and “hacer” properly Posted by Magda on May 24, 2013
Today we are going to review the different impersonal structures we can find in Spanish with the verbs “haber” and “hacer”, doing some easy exercises. Let´s remember their most common uses first. The verb “haber” is used: 1. As an auxiliary verb: El jefe ha llegado tarde a la reunión. Mis padres han salido a…
Reviewing past tenses in Spanish with songs Posted by Magda on May 16, 2013
Hi all! I know you have been working hard to learn Spanish verbs in past tense in some previous posts, so I think it´s a good idea to do an exercise to review them. I have chosen a song by Joaquin Sabina, and I have removed all verbs, giving you them in the infinitive form…
Syllable division in Spanish Posted by Adir on May 15, 2013
In Spanish syllables are made up of one (or more consonants) and a vowel: libro = li-bro suelo = sue-lo mucho = mu-cho There are some small rules to divide syllables in Spanish: 01. The clusters RR and LL are not separated. tierra = tie-rra corrida = co-rri-da calle = ca-lle olla = o-lla 02…
What would you do if you had $1,000,000? Posted by Adir on May 13, 2013
Hello, there! What would you do if you had $1,000,000? I’m pretty sure you’d go places, buy stuff and things like that, but my question here is to introduce a verb tense called Pretérito Imperfecto de Subjuntivo. Damn, Adir, what on earth is that? Well, answer I, just take a look at some sentences in…
Los Verbos de Cambio Posted by Adir on May 9, 2013
Los verbios de cambio are the ones that express a change or transformation. They are usually translated as “to become”, “to get”, “to go” or “to turn” in English. In this post let’s compare some cases where the use of a specific verb changes the whole meaning of a sentences. 01. Quedarse contento / triste…