Espaol
BASICS 1
Tips and notes
Masculine and Feminine Nouns
In Spanish all nouns are masculine or feminine. Usually, nouns that end with an "o"
are masculine, and nouns that end with an "a" are feminine. For example,
"manzana" (apple) is feminine and "diario" (newspaper) is masculine.
The articles "el" and "un" are used with masculine nouns, and the articles "la" and
"una" are used with feminine nouns. "The apple" is "la manzana" and "a
newspaper" is "un diario."
Accent Marks
Vowels in Spanish can have an accent mark, such as the "u" in "men" (menu).
One use of the accent mark is to indicate which syllable should be stressed in the
pronunciation. For example, in "telfono" (telephone), the second "e" has the most
stress.
Accent marks are also used to distinguish homophones. For example, "l" and "el"
are homophones because they have the same pronunciation. However, "l" is a
masculine pronoun (meaning "he" or "him") and "el" is a masculine article (meaning
"the").
The Second Person Singular
"T," "usted" and "vos" are different ways of referring to the second person singular
(you). "Usted" is the formal way of saying "you," and "vos" is used in informal
speech in certain countries instead of "t."
The three pronouns are synonyms, but they change the way verbs are conjugated.
For instance, for the verb "comer" (to eat), it is "t comes," "usted come," and "vos
coms."
The decision of which form of "you" to use is regional and cultural, but you can
typically use "usted" when referring to strangers.
Verb Conjugation
Verb conjugation in Spanish is more complicated than in English. In Spanish, the
verb endings change in order to describe who is doing the action and when. For
example, for "comer," "I eat" is "yo como" and "you eat" is "t comes."
Because the conjugations indicate who is doing the action, it is usually possible to
omit the pronoun. For instance instead of saying "yo como arroz" (I eat rice), you
can say "como arroz."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Tardes and Noches
In English, "afternoon" comes before "evening," which in turn comes before "night."
In Spanish there are only two words that cover these times of the day: "tarde"
which means "afternoon," but overlaps with "evening," and "noche," which means
"night" but also overlaps with "evening." Therefore, at 6:30pm it is ok to say either
"buenas tardes" or "buenas noches."
Buenos Das
Even though "buenos das" literally means "good days," it is used in the mornings
to mean "good morning."
Conjugation of 'Hablar'
Present indicative (presente del indicativo):
yo hablo
t hablas
usted habla
l habla
ella habla
nosotros/as hablamos
ustedes hablan
ellos/ellas hablan
In Spanish, the most common negative word is "no". As an adverb negating a
sentence, it always comes immediately before the verb.
I speak - [Yo] hablo.
I do not speak - [Yo] no hablo.
He is - [l] es / est.
He is not - [l] no es / est.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Food
For eating breakfast you can use the verb desayunar
I eat breakfast - [Yo] desayuno.
For eating lunch you can use the verb almorzar
I eat lunch - [Yo] almuerzo.
Cenar is the rough equivalent of "to dine" or "to eat dinner" and refers specifically to
eating the final meal of the day.
She eats dinner - [Ella] cena.
He eats dinner - [l] cena.
Azcar is an ambiguously gendered word. It can be both feminine and masculine.
Double negatives are common in Spanish!
When nada is the object of a verb, it is normal for the verb itself to be negated.
Therefore, when translating such sentences, you usually have to translate nada as
"anything".
I do not eat anything - [Yo] no como nada