Spanish Grammar Guide for English Speakers

Spanish grammar guide for English speakers 1:

Pronunciation:

Vowels:

In written English there are only five vowels, but in spoken English they reach the amount of fifteen (if I remember well). Instead, in Spanish vowels are always the same five, no matter if we are talking about spoken or written Spanish.

So, the sounds are always the same, independently of the word construction, and those sounds are:

A: It sounds as the a in astonish

E: It sounds as e in eclectic.

I: It sounds as i in intelligent.

O: It sounds as o in obsessive

U: It sounds as u in Uganda.

There are no other vowel sounds in Spanish except for the ones above explained.

Consonants:

The Spanish alphabet has almost the same letters as the English one, with some exceptions, but the sound of the letters is not always the same.

B: It sounds as b in borrow

C: With a, o, and u, it sounds as K in kilo. With e and i it sounds as c in ceiling or s in sailor. To obtain the K sound with e and i, we use the letter q followed by u, which is mute in this case, and we will see it under q key again.

CH: This letter has the same sound as the same English construction ch, but as it sounds in chair and chalk, never as it sounds in chore (never as a k)

D: It sounds as d in door.

F: It sounds as f in front or ph in philosophy.

G: With a, o and u it sounds as g in gall or w in war, with e and i it sounds as h in hotel, so the sound is an aspirated one “gesta” is read as “hesta” “gimnasia” is read as “himnasia” with the h sound of heart and hotel. To obtain the gall sound with e and i, we put a mute u after the g and before the vowel, as in “guerra” and “guirnalda” that have to be read with the same g sound as in gall and gomit. When the u precedes e and i and sounds (it is no mute) it has two points above itself, in this way: güira. Remember that if there is no dieresis (dieresis is the Spanish name of the two points over the vowel u) the u is mute.

H: In Spanish the H is mute; it has no sound at all, never. So habitación has to be read as abitación.

J: The J in Spanish is called jota (hotta) and has the same sound as the H in hotel and heart, with all the vowels, so it is not difficult to understand why so many people make mistakes when they write words with j instead of g or vice versa. Remember that ge and gi have the same sound as h in English, that is the same sound as je and ji.

It is an error to write 2girafa” instead of “jirafa” (the last one is correct)

So you will write jefe, but never gefe and general, but never jeneral.

K: The K has the same sound as in English in kilo and Kentucky.

L: Same sound as in Leonard and lake.

LL: This is a tricky letter; it sound is something between the y in you and the L itself. We call it elye, so Llanero has a sound similar to yanero, but with your tongue touching both sides of your superior maxillae.

M: Same sound as in English.

N: Same as English.

Ñ: This one is also tricky, it has an unique sound that it can be related at the sound of niy- followed by a vowel, the middle of your tongue has to touch your palatal ceiling, name is read as niyame, but the niy part must sound as one unique sound.

P: Same sound as English in potato, par, etc.

Q: The q in Spanish is only used to give us the k sound with the vowels e and i, as we already said in letter C, it is always followed by a mute u, so that the sounds are que- (ke) and qui- (ki).

Queso (keso) means cheese, quimioterapia (kimioterapia)

R: It sounds as r in English but with more strength, especially when is doubled as in carril, carro, cerro, etc.

S: It has the same s English sound as in space, souvenir, said, etc

T: Same as English in “time”. There is no explosive sound in Spanish for the t, as happens in “construction”, and there is no smooth sound as the one in “the”; either. T sounds always like the t in time and taste.

V: In Spanish there is no sound difference between B and V , both sound as B in brother, bar, and beach. This is not the case in Italian, French and English were V has its own sound as in vacation, with the inferior frontal teeth touching the superior leap.

But in Spanish they both are labial, so they sound the same.

W: This letter is not very much used in Spanish, except for words that are foreigners and had entered Spanish language, as Whisky for instance.

X: Sounds like English, (ecs- or egs- or eks-)

Y: This letter has two sounds, the i sound when it is a conjunction as in: “La madre y sus hijos” in this case it sounds the same way as i in Spanish 8as the I in intelligent).

The other sound is like y in the English word you, for instance: yate, yodo, yugo.

Z: This letter has a sound that it’s made by putting your tongue between your frontal teeth and blowing air among the complex. It reminds a little the f letter and a little the s one, because it has a sound in between them.

But in Latin-American countries the Z has acquired the same sound of the S, only in Spain it conserve its original sound.

Stress:

Anglican languages and Neo Latin ones stress words in different ways.

In English the syllable stressed tell you what kind of word you are confronting, so if the stress is given in the first syllable you maybe have a verb, the same word with the stress in the second syllable maybe an adjective or a noun as we can see in present (gift) and to present (verb).

It is also common than the stress is situated in the first syllable in English, no matter how long is the word. And the non stressed syllables have a smooth sound or even no sound at all.

So, if an English speaker tries to say murciélago, he maybe will say something like murséilgo, and that is wrong.

Let see; first of all in Spanish all letters have their own sound and all of them sound always, so you have to say mursiélago likewise.

Second of all, in Spanish you only can find stress in the first syllable with words that have three or less syllables, because in Spanish stress is always put in the last syllables.

Third of all, in Spanish the stress is given by the accent that can be written (orthographic accent) or not (acento prosódico)

There are four kinds of words depending on the syllable that receive the accent (so the stress):

Acute words: The accent falls on the last syllable as in león, paral, divan.

The accent is written when the word ends in vowel, n or s. If it is not ended in this letters must not be written.

Grave words: The accent falls on the next to last syllable, as in joya, barco, alma, etc. Here the accent is written if the word does not end in vowel, n or s. If it ends in these letters must not be written.

Proparoxytone words (palabras esdrújulas): The Accent falls on the last but two syllable, and the accent is always written, as in murciélago, penúltimo, etc.

The fourth group of words is called sobreesdrújulas, and the accent falls on the last but three syllable, but these words are very uncommon.

The way Spanish speakers distinguish among verbs, adjectives, nouns, etc, has nothing to do with the stress but rather than that it has to do with the endings of the words, and this is a matter that I will be treating in the next article.

Comparative CyberLexicon: A full list of computer and Internet terms in English and their Spanish equivalents.

               Diccionario   Anaya de la Lengua : An abridged Spanish-only dictionary that does a good job of  listing different                                                                    forms of words.

               Diccionario General de la Lengua VOX: A Spanish-only dictionary with nearly 100,000 entries.

               Jergas de Habla Hispana:  A Spanish-only listing of jargon listed by country.

Spanish For Fun

               El Chiste del Día: Spanish Joke of the Day,  quite a collection.

               Condorito: Comic strips from Chile, with a translation into English

               CyberJuegos: A place to play Java games, not to learn Spanish.

               Pasatiempos (El Mundo): Crucigramas (crosswords),  El Ahorcado (hangman), and a Spanish movie quiz.

               Los Tebeos de Siempre: Spanish-language comic strips from past and present.

Spanish Grammar

               Conjugation Trainer: Practice the present and preterite tenses.

               Diez Errores Frecuentes: An explanation, in Spanish, of the common errors made in translating.

               Ejercicios de Gramática: A slew of exercises on verb usage, pronouns and the use of se.

               Electronic Flashcards for Spanish: Review your knowledge of verb tenses and prepositional phrases.

               Grammar:  Brief lessons, mostly in Spanish, on accents, pronouns, and distinguishing between por and para.

               Presente de Subjuntivo: Here's a good explanation of the subjunctive mood, in Spanish..

               Simple Past Tense in Spanish: A good explanation of the differences between the preterite and the imperfect.

               Usos de "que":   A thorough list of the correct and incorrect uses of que. In Spanish.

Lesson 1

This Week's New Words: adiós - goodbye

bien - good, well

él - he, him

ella - she, her

ellas - they (female)

ellos - they (male)

hola - hello

gracias - thank you

lo siento - I'm sorry

nosotros - us, we (plural)

señor - sir, mister

señora - madame

señorita - miss

tú - you (informal)

usted - you (formal)

ustedes - you (plural, formal)

yo - I

Numbers 1-10 0 cero

1 uno

2 dos

3 tres

4 cuatro

5 cinco

6 seis

7 siete

8 ocho

9 nueve

10 diez

PronunciationThe Spanish alphabet is fairly similar to our own (English, or depending on where you're from, American). Each lesson will explain a few more letters. This week, I'll explain the interesting letters (or combinations thereof) from this week's words (above).

ll

The ll in Spanish is always pronounced like the English y in yes. Thus, the Spanish word ella (she, her) is pronounced like eh-ya.

ñ

The ñ is the same sound as the ny pair in the word canyon. Thus, señor is pronounced like sen-yor.

h

The Spanish h is always silent. Thus, hola is pronounced ola (as in cola without the c).

a, e, i, o, u

The Spanish vowels each have only one sound, regardless of what letters they precede or follow, or accent marks on the vowel. The a is always pronounced as in the English word car. The e has the sound of the e in bed. The Spanish i is the same as the English long e or ee as in see. The o is

always pronounced as the o in the word cold. The Spanish u has the sound of the English oo as in too or the English ue as in blue.

r

As opposed to the English r, which is formed in the back of the mouth with the back of the tongue, the Spanish r is formed using the tip of the tongue on the upper palatte, behind the front teeth, more like the English d.

Being the first lesson, this week you're just learning some of the basics. The main emphasis is on pronouns (yo, usted) and numbers (cero through diez). Also, you're being introduced to some of the most common greeting and short phrases, such as hola ("hello") and lo siento ("I'm sorry").

Without knowing any verbs, there aren't many sentences to be made with the words we have, but here are some (short) examples with what we know:

Hola, señorita. - Hello, miss.

Lo siento, señor. - I'm sorry, sir.

And yes, that's about all we can do right now, but these are still good examples of Spanish grammatical structure. Notice how similar the above sentences are to English - hola comes first, and then the subject, señorita. You can form the same kinds of sentences using adiós and gracias, and señora, in addition to the example sentences above. However, you can't make a sentence like this:

Hola, usted.

What the above sentence literally says is "hello, you", and while it may be possible to think of times in English when you might say that, in Spanish the sentence is meaningless, and people will look at you funny if you say Hola ustedes! in the middle of a group of Spanish-speaking people.

Numbers. Numbers, as you should all know, are important. That's why I've included some in the first lesson. For the moment, you only know the numbers between 0 (cero) and 10 (diez), but that will change. What can you do with the numbers cero through diez? Count your toes! Uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, seis, siete, ocho, nueve, diez.. Recite your phone number! cinco, cinco, cinco, ocho, seis, cero, dos (555-8602). Tell someone how many sisters you have (dos). What you can't do with the numbers cero through diez is make numbers bigger than diez by stringing them together. Dos cero is not the same as 20, although if you were in a pinch, you might be able to make someone understand that 20 was what you meant. Don't worry, we'll get to the rest of the numbers (1-1000) in the next few lessons.

Pronouns. Pronouns (yo, tú, usted, él, ella, nosotros, ustedes, ellos, and ellas) aren't anything that you can actually use yet, because I haven't given you any verbs. But as we progress,

pronouns will be very important, so I'm introducing them now. The Spanish pronouns are used almost always exactly the same way they are in English. In English, you would say

I went to the store.

In Spanish, you would just substitute yo for I in the sentence above (we'll pretend that the rest of the sentence is really in Spanish) and end up with

Yo went to the store.

Spanish Lesson 2Welcome to the second installment of my Web-course in Spanish. If this is your first time visiting the Spanish Lessons, be sure to check out the first Lesson for an introduction to the course and to Spanish. Aiding me with Lesson 2 is Jennifer Chambers, also of Willamette University.

Lesson 2 now has audio! It's a different form than lesson 1 - instead of getting a pronunciation of a particular word, you select the audio clip that accompanies a particular section (such as the Nouns or the Colors). It's a much larger audio clip to download, but should be simpler to use once it has been transferred.

Lesson 2 - La Casa (the house)

This week's new words:

Audio: Internet Explorer, Netscape NOUNS

la casa - house

la cocina - kitchen

el cuarto - room

el cuarto de baño - bathroom

la mesa - table

la pared - wall

la puerta - door

la silla - chair

el teléfono - telephone

la televisión - television

la ventana - window

VERBS

estar - to be

ser - to be

PREPOSITIONS

de - from (or belonging to)

en - in (something)

ADJECTIVES

antipático(-a) - unpleasant

bonito(-a) - pretty

bueno(-a) - good/well

cómodo(-a) - comfortable

contento(-a) - happy/glad

enfermo(-a) - sick, ill

feo(-a) - ugly

grande - big

limpio(-a) - clean

malo(-a) - bad

nervioso(-a) - nervous

simpático(-a) - pleasant, nice

sucio(-a) - dirty

tranquilo(-a) - calm

viejo(-a) - old

Numbers 11-99

Audio: Internet Explorer, Netscape

11 once

12 doce

13 trece

14 catorce

15 quince

16 dieciséis

17 diecisiete

18 dieciocho

19 diecinueve

20 veinte

21 veintiuno

22 veintidós

23 veintitrés

24 veinticuatro

25 veinticinco

26 veintiséis

27 veintisiete

28 veintiocho

29 veintinueve

30 treinta

40 cuarenta

50 cincuenta

60 sesenta

70 setenta

80 ochenta

90 noventa

Colors

Audio: Internet Explorer, Netscape

blanco(-a) - white

amarillo(-a) - yellow

anaranjado(-a) - orange

rosado(-a) - pink

rojo(-a) - red

azul - blue

verde - green

café, marrón - brown

gris - grey

negro(-a) - black

Pronunciation

Most of the Spanish alphabet is exactly like the English alphabet. Here are some exceptions from words in this lesson.

c

The Spanish c has 2 possible sounds, just like English. It can sound like the s in some, or like the k in kite. Unlike English, there are very strict rules about when the Spanish c sounds like an s or a k. If the c precedes (comes before) an e or an i, the c will have an s sound. For example, once. If the c precedes any other letter (a, o, u, or a consonant), then it will have a k sound, as in cuarto. The word cocina has both types of c in it - the first c makes the k sound, and the second c makes the s sound.

j

The Spanish j has no exact English equivalent. It is like a strong English h as in happy, made further back in the throat and with more sound, much like one were clearing their throat. Listen to the pronunciations for rojo, anaranjada, and viejo above.

rr

In Lesson 1 you learned how to pronounce the Spanish r. The Spanish rr is pronounced differently than the single r - it is made by rolling the r on the upper palate, to produce a quick series of the Spanish r sounds. If a single r occurs at the beginning of a word (as in rojo), it is pronounced as a double-r (rr). Otherwise, only the rr is pronounced this way, as in marrón. If you are old enough, you might remember the "R-r-r-r-ruffles have r-r-r-r-r-ridges" commercials - this is the sound you are trying to make. It takes practice to do it well.

v

The Spanish v is very short and quick, and almost sounds like the English b in bed. It is never drawn out like the English word very.

z

The Spanish z is pronounced as an s, or an s-sounding c. Thus, azul is pronounced like "assule"(one word). In Spain, the z is pronounced like the English th in this. Azul would be pronounced "ath-ule". Use whichever pronunciation you prefer.

Two confusing verbs - ser and estarIf you have already read the New Words section, you probably noticed that the two verbs introduced this week both mean the same thing - to be, or to exist. These are two of the most confusing verbs for people learning Spanish, because there is a difference between when you use ser, and when you use estar. Hopefully, introducing them now and practicing them throughout the rest of the lessons will make them a little bit easier to comprehend.

Verb Conjugation

As in English, verbs are conjugated, or take various forms, in Spanish. In the present tense, there are 6 verb forms, depending on who the subject of the verb is. Here are the conjugations for ser and estar:

ser - to be yo soy ("I am")

tú eres ("you are")

usted/él/ella es ("you (formal)/he/she is")

nosotros somos ("we are")

*vosotros sois ("you (familiar plural) are")

ustedes/ellos/ellas son ("you (formal plural)/they (male)/they (female) are")

estar - to be yo estoy ("I am")

tú estás ("you are")

usted/él/ella está ("you (formal)/he/she is")

nosotros estamos ("we are")

*vosotros estáis ("you (familiar plural) are")

ustedes/ellos/ellas están ("you (formal plural)/they (male)/they (female) are")

Audio of conjugations of ser and estar: Internet Explorer, Netscape

Note that the conjugations for usted (you), él (he), and ella (she) use the same form of the verb. The same goes for their plurals (though the singular and the plural use different forms).

* - the vosotros form is shown only to describe all 6 conjugations for ser and estar. Vosotros is the familiar plural form of tú, and is not used in Latin America. Because my own instructors have ignored the vosotros forms of verbs, I do not use that verb form myself, and will not use it in examples. I will include it with all verb conjugations for those who are interested, however.

Now that you have this pretty little conjugation, what does one do with it? Make sentences, of course. The conjugation of a verb tells you which form of the verb to use depending on who is the subject of the verb. In English we conjugate without thinking about it - I am, you are, he is, etc. You don't (normally) say "I are" or "you is", because it's gramatically incorrect. Likewise in Spanish, you don't say "yo eres", because it's just plain wrong. Here are some examples of using ser and estar:

Yo soy viejo. ("I am old.")

Tú eres bonita. ("You are pretty.")

Nosotros estamos nerviosos. ("We are nervous.")

Ella está en la silla. ("She is in the chair.")

Ellos están sucios. ("They (the males) are dirty.")

Now it's time to explain the differences between ser and estar, before we go any further. While both verbs mean "to be" or "to exist", there are very distinct rules as to when you use one or the other. The rules are summarized here:

ser is used to indicate more permanent aspects of people or things, such as -

1. Identity - Yo soy Carla. ("I am Carla") 2. Profession - Él es un profesor. ("He is a teacher.") 3. Origin - Nosotros somos de Costa Rica. ("We are from Costa Rica.") 4. Religious or political affiliation - Tú eres católico? ("You are Catholic?") 5. Time of day or date - Son las ocho. ("It is 8 o'clock.") 6. Posession - La casa es de Juana. ("It is Juana's house.") 7. Nationality - Soy de México. ("I am from Mexico.") 8. Physical aspects or characteristics of something - Las sillas son verdes. ("The chairs are green.") 9. Essential qualities of something or someone - Soy viejo. Eres antipático. ("I am old. You are

unpleasant.")

estar is used to indicate more temporary aspects of people or things, such as -

1. Location - La silla está en la cocina. ("The chair is in the kitchen.") 2. Condition or emotion that is subject to change - Estoy enfermo. ("I am sick.") 3. Personal observations or reactions, how something "seems" or "feels" - La cocina está limpia.

("The kitchen is (seems) clean.")

Notes: Notice that the verb form used for things like la silla is the él/ella/usted form. A chair is an "it" (below, you'll see that it's actually a "she"), which uses the el/ella/usted form of the verb. Also notice that you can make sentences like Soy de México, without including the pronoun. To English speakers this may seem like saying "Am from Mexico", which we would never do, but in Spanish, because the subject can be figured out by the form of the verb used (since the sentence used soy, the subject must be yo, or I), there is no confusion about who the subject of the sentence is and the pronoun can be left out. If it would be unclear what the subject of the sentence is, then the pronoun has to be included.

The above lists of when to use ser and estar have to be memorized - using them incorrectly means you will be less likely to be understood, and people will definitely know you are not a native speaker. The same goes for the conjugations of ser and estar. Every Spanish verb has a conjugation, and memorizing them just goes along with learning the language.

El, la, un and una (definite and indefinite articles)

In Spanish, as well as all the other Romance languages (French, Italian, etc), all nouns have a gender associated with them. "Chair" is feminine, "telephone" is masculine. The way to tell whether a noun is masculine or feminine is to look at the el or la that precedes the noun in the New Words section of these lessons. El (differing than él, which means "he", by the accent mark over the "e") is the definite article that corresponds to masculine nouns - el cuarto, el teléfono. La is the definite article that corresponds to feminine nouns - la casa, la mesa, la ventana. Whether a noun is considered feminine or masculine is generally based on the last letter of the noun. If the noun ends with an "a", as in silla or cocina, or with "-sión" (televisión), "-ción", "-tad", "-dad", or "-umbre", then it is probably a feminine noun. If it ends with an "o" or a consonant, such as cuarto or reloj (wristwatch), then it is probably a masculine noun. Exceptions do exist to this rule - mapa (map) is masculine, and pared (wall) is feminine -

but the majority of Spanish nouns behave normally. The exceptions just have to be memorized as you come across them.

When using nouns, you must make sure that you use the correct gender and number when using an identifier. The identifiers are el, la, los, las, un, una, unos, and unas. El and la are singular definite articles, which means you are talking about a specific thing. La silla means "the chair" - you are talking about a specific chair. Un and una are singular indefinite articles, which means you are taking about any member of a group of things. Una silla means "a chair" - you are talking about any chair in general. The use of these identifiers is identical to the way you would say it in English - if you want to say "a table", use una, and if you want to say "the table", use la. Los is the plural of el, and las is the plural of la. You use these plural definite articles when you are talking about several specific members of a group - las mesas means "the tables". Unos and unas are plural forms of un and una, respectively, and translate to "some" when used in sentences - unas mesas means "some tables". These are plural indefinite articles, which means they don't refer to any specific objects but to a class of them, such as tables or chairs.

Here are some examples using these 8 articles:

Los cuartos son grandes. ("The rooms are big.")

Unas sillas están en la cocina. ("Some chairs are in the kitchen.")

El teléfono es verde. ("The telephone is green.")

La pared es fea. ("The wall is ugly.")

De and en

De is Spanish for of or from. La casa de Theresa means "Theresa's house" (literally, "the house of Theresa"). Soy de Mexico means "I am from Mexico". De is used most often to show possession or origin, as per the preceding examples. When de is followed by an el, as in la casa de el profesor, the de and el are combined into del. So the correct way to say "The (male) teacher's house" would be la casa del profesor.

En is Spanish for in, as in inside something (not necessarily inside a physical object). It can be used to mean that something is inside something else, as in la silla está en la cocina ("the chair is in the kitchen"), or that someone is somewhere, Marcos está en España ("Mark is in Spain").

Adjectives

AgreementAdjectives are words that describe things, words like "red", "fast", and "pretty". In English, there isn't much to using adjectives because they never change - "the fast car" or "the cars are fast". In Spanish, the adjective has to agree, in both gender and number, with whatever it is describing. If the adjective modifies a feminine noun, then the adjective uses a feminine ending. If the adjective modifies a

masculine plural noun, then the adjective uses a masculine plural ending. Here are some adjectives with their various endings:

bonito - pretty

singular masculine - bonito

singular feminine - bonita

plural masculine - bonitos

plural feminine - bonitas

cómodo - comfortable

singular masculine - cómodo singular feminine - cómoda plural masculine - cómodos plural feminine - cómodas

feo - ugly

singular masculine - feo singular feminine - fea plural masculine - feos plural feminine - feas

sucio - dirty

singular masculine - sucio singular feminine - sucia plural masculine - sucios plural feminine - sucias

blanco - white

singular masculine - blanco singular feminine - blanca plural masculine - blancos plural feminine - blancas

negro - black

singular masculine - negro singular feminine - negra plural masculine - negros plural feminine - negras

The above rules are good for any adjective that ends in an -o or -a. Adjectives like azul and verde, that end in a consonant or an -e, do not have separate masculine and feminine forms. So, you would say el cuarto es azul ("the room is blue"), and la casa es azul ("the house is blue"), as well as las sillas son azules ("the chairs are blue"). There are exceptions to this rule, but that will be addressed in another lesson.

Placement of adjectivesIn Spanish, adjectives generally go after the noun they are describing. For example, el teléfono rojo ("the red telephone"), and las profesoras viejas ("the old (female) professors"). If you want to say that "something is something", then the sentence structure is the same as in English, using the correct forms of ser or estar: el teléfono es rojo ("the telephone is red"); las profesoras son viejas ("the (female) professors are old").

Numbers 11-99

The numbers 11-15, like the numbers 1-10 in Lesson 1, have irregular forms - memorize them. From 16 on, however, numbers start following some patterns, much like they do in English. Sixteen is dieciséis, which is actually a contraction (shortening) of diez y seis, or "10 and 6". Seventeen is diecisiete, or "10 and 7", and so on. Much like the "teens" in English - fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, etc.

Twenty in Spanish is veinte. Twenty-one is veintiuno (a contraction of veinte y uno or "twenty and one"), 22 is veintidós ("twenty and two"), and so on. Twenty (veinte) is the only number that allows this contraction. Starting at thirty (treinta), all numbers are made by combining the 10's and the 1's words via y, like this: 31 is treinta y uno, 38 is treinta y ocho (literally "thirty and 8"). This pattern holds for all of the numbers 31 through 99. Here are some examples:

33 - treinta y tres 45 - cuarenta y cinco 51 - cincuenta y uno 66 - sesenta y seis 72 - setenta y dos 89 - ochenta y nueve 94 - noventa y cuatro

Examples

Here are some examples of sentences you can now make, using the words and grammar from these 2 lessons:

Soy de México. Tim está en la cocina. La señorita es bonita. Tú eres antipático. La silla es cómoda. San Juan está en Puerto Rico.

I'm from Mexico. Tim is in the kitchen. The lady is pretty. You are unpleasant. The chair is comfortable. San Juan is in Puerto Rico. The old professor is sick. The green telephone is dirty. The bathroom is in the house. Maria's house is orange.

El profesor viejo está enfermo. El teléfono verde es sucio. El cuarto de baño está en la casa. La casa de María es anaranjada.

Introduction

The emphasis for this lesson is school, either gradeschool, secondary school, or at a university, and what you do or find there. The numbers from 100 to 999999 are covered, regular -ar verb conjugation is introduced, you'll learn some question-and-answer words, and you'll find out how to tell time in Spanish.

If you're new to the Spanish lessons, you might want to check out the first 2 lessons at the Spanish Lessons Homepage.

Spanish Lesson 3 - en la escuela (at school)

This week's new words:

NOUNSAudio: Internet Explorer, Netscape

la biblioteca (bib-lee-o-tek-a) - library

la biología (bee-o-lo-ghee-a)1 - biology

el amigo/la amiga (ah-mee-go, ah-mee-ga) - friend

el borrador (bor-ra-dor) - chalkboard eraser

el cuaderno (kwa-der-no) - notebook

la clase (klah-say) - class

el diccionario (dik-see-o-nar-eeo) - dictionary

el dinero (dee-ner-oh) - money

la economíca (eeko-nom-eeka)- economics

el español (es-panyohl) - Spanish

el/la estudiante (estoo-dee-ahn-tay) - student

el escritorio (eskree-tor-eeo) - desk

la escuela (esk-way-la) - school

la geografía (geeo-gra-fee-a) - geography

la hora (or-a) - hour

el inglés (eeng-layss) - English

el lápiz (la-peess)- pencil

el libro (lee-bro) - book

las matemáticas (mat-ay-mat-ee-kass) - math

la página (pa-ghee-na)1 - page

el papel (pah-pel) - paper

la pizarra (pee-ssara) - chalkboard

la pluma (ploo-ma) - pen

el reloj (ray-lojh)2 - clock/watch

la sala de clase (sah-la-day-kla-say) - classroom

la tarea (ta-ray-a) - homework

el tiempo (tee-empo)- time

la tiza (tee-ssa)- chalk

la universidad (oo-nee-ber-see-dahd)- university

VERBSAudio: Internet Explorer, Netscape

amar - to love

escuchar (es-koo-char) - to listen

estudiar (es-too-dee-ar) - to study

hablar (ah-blar) - to speak/talk

llamar (yah-mar) - to call

necesitar (neh-seh-see-tar) - to need

regresar (reh-greh-sar) - to return

trabajar (trah-bah-jhar)2 - to work

INTERROGATIVESAudio: Internet Explorer, Netscape

cuál (kwahl)- which

cuándo (kwahndo) - when

cuánto(-a) (kwahnto) - how much

cuántos(-as) (kwahntos)- how many

dónde (dohn-day) - where

por qué (poor-kaay)3 - why

qué (kay) - what

quién (kee-en) - who

CONJUNCTIONSAudio: Internet Explorer, Netscape

porque (poor-kay)3 - because

y (ee) - and

PREPOSITIONS

a (ah) - at, to, the personal a

ADJECTIVESAudio: Internet Explorer, Netscape

corto(-a, -os, -as) (korto) - short

cuarto(-a, -os, -as) (kwar-toh) - quarter (one-fourth)

difícil(-es) (dee-fee-sil) - difficult

fácil(-es) (fa-sil) - easy

largo(-a, -os, -as) - long

medio(-a, -os, -as) (meh-dee-o) - half

Numbers 100-999.999

Audio: Internet Explorer, Netscape

100 cien (see-en)

101 ciento uno (see-en-toh oo-no)

102 ciento dos

103 ciento tres

110 ciento diez

120 ciento veinte

199 ciento noventa y nueve

200 doscientos (dohs-see-en-tohs)

201 doscientos uno

255 doscientos cincuenta y cinco

282 doscientos ochenta y dos

300 trescientos (tray-see-en-tohs)

400 cuatrocientos (kwa-troh-see-en-tohs)

500 quinientos (keen-ee-en-tohs)

600 seiscientos (say-ssee-en-tohs)

700 setecientos (set-ay-see-en-tohs)

800 ochocientos (oh-cho-see-en-tohs)

900 novecientos (no-bay-see-en-tohs)

1.000 mil (mill)

1.001 mil uno

1.010 mil diez

1.100 mil cien

1.538 mil quinientos treinta y ocho

1.999 mil novecientos noventa y nueve

2.000 dos mil

3.000 tres mil

9.000 nueve mil

10.000 diez mil

15.000 quince mil

27.000 veintisiete mil

76.000 setenta y seis mil

99.999 noventa y nueve mil novecientos noventa y nueve

100.000 cien mil

210.005 doscientos diez mil cinco

305.111 trescientos cinco mil ciento once

500.000 quinientos mil

860.789 ochocientos sesenta mil setecientos ochenta y nueve

911.222 novecientos once mil doscientos veintidós

Pronunciation Notes

1. The g in biología and página is a soft, throatal g sound. It does not have an English equivalent, but it is very much like the English h in "help", except made further back in the throat, like one was softly clearing their throat.

2. The j in reloj and trabajar is pronounced in a similar manner as the g in Note 1. 3. There are two very similar-sounding words in this lesson - por qué, and porque. The accent on

por qué tells you that the stress is on that syllable (qué). In porque, the stress is on the second-to-last syllable, which is por-; when speaking, you must make sure you pronounce these words correctly becuase your pronunciation and the context of the word are the only clues others will have about what you are saying.

Regular -ar verbs

All Spanish verbs fall into one of three categories - they either end in ar, er, or ir. Within each category, there are regular and irregular verbs. Regular verbs all conjugate with a similar pattern - all the new verbs in this lesson are regular (as you'll see soon). Irregular verbs don't follow a pattern, and each verb's conjugation has to be memorized separately - the two verbs you learned in Lesson 2, ser and estar are irregular.

Here are the new verbs for this lesson: amar, escuchar, estudiar, hablar, necesitar, regresar, trabajar. These are all regular -ar verbs. Here are the present-tense (present indicative) conjugations of them all:

yo hablo ("I speak")

tú hablas ("you speak")

usted, él, ella habla ("you (formal), he, she speaks")

nosotros hablamos ("we speak")

vosotros habláis ("you (familiar plural) speak")

ustedes, ellos, ellas hablan ("you (formal plural), they (male), they (female) speak")

Regular verbs are made up of a body (habl), and a suffix (ar). To conjugate regular verbs, replace the infinitive suffix (ar, er, ir) with the correct conjugation suffix from the example conjugation for hablar above. For example, take amar, and conjugate it:

yo amo ("I love")

tú amas ("you love")

usted, él, ella ama ("you (formal), he, she loves")

nosotros amamos ("we love")

vosotros amáis ("you (familiar plural) love")

ustedes, ellos, ellas aman ("you (formal plural), they (male), they (female) love")

(Hear the spoken conjugations of hablar and amar: Internet Explorer, Netscape)

All verbs can be split into a body/suffix pair, but only regular verbs follow these patterns. There are 3 different regular-verb patterns - one for -ar verbs, one for -ir verbs, and one for -er verbs. (In the next lesson, we'll learn the rules for regular -er and -ir verbs.) In summary, to conjugate any regular -ar verb in the present (present indicative) tense, remove the -ar suffix, and add one of the following (depending on who is the subject of the verb):

yo, -o

tú, -as

usted, él, ella, -a

nosotros, -amos

vosotros, -áis

ustedes, ellos, ellas, -an

Here are complete conjugations of 2 more verbs from this lesson:

trabajar

yo trabajo, tú trabajas, usted, él, ella trabaja, nosotros trabajamos, vosotros trabajáis, ustedes, ellos, ellas trabajan

regresar

yo regreso, tú regresas, usted, él, ella regresa, nosotros regresamos, vosotros regresáis, ustedes, ellos, ellas regresan

Now that we have the conjugation for these regular -ar verbs, we can make sentences with them, like this:

Amo a Tanya. ("I love Tanya") Él trabaja en la universidad. ("He works at (in) the university") Nosotros escuchamos a la profesora. ("We listen to the teacher") Ellos estudian a las ocho. ("The men study at 8") Ellas hablan español. ("The women speak Spanish") Yo regreso a la universidad a las tres. ("I return to the university at 3 o'clock") ¿Estudias matemáticas? ("Do you study math?") ¿Necesita dinero ella? ("Does she need money?")

A - At or To, and the Personal A

In a few of the sentences above, the preposition a is used, as in Ellos estudian a las ocho. The preposition a translates to the English "at" or "to", depending on the sentence. The preceeding sentence ("ellos estudian...") is an example of a meaning "at". The sentence nosotros ecuchamos a la profesora is an example of a meaning "to". When the a comes before an el, as in nosotros escuchamos "a el" profesor, the a and the el combine to form al. So the correct way to write the preceeding sentence is: Nosotros escuchamos al profesor.

Note that the English "at" may translate to either a or en in Spanish, depending on the sentence. En is usually used to refer to something being at something else, such as estoy en la universidad - "I'm at the university". A usually refers to a state or condition (sort of) of something, such as "at great speed", or when referring to time, such as a la una ("at one o'clock").

In one sentence above, amo a Tanya, the a isn't either of the above two meanings. When a person or name of a place is the direct object of a verb (with the exception of the verb tener, "to have"), an a is placed before the object, as in amo a Tanya. This is known as the "personal a", and it is required. Some more examples of the personal a:

La profesora llama a los estudiantes. ("The teacher calls the students")

Ella ama a él. ("She loves him")

Numbers 100 to 999.999

If you've looked at the numbers in the New Words section, you may already have seen some patterns developing in Spanish numbers. First, the numbers 100, 200, 300, etc., all have a similar form - ciento, doscientos, trescientos... If you look carefully, and remember the numbers 2 through 9, you'll see that each hundred above 100 is just "two hundreds" (doscientos), "three hundreds" (trescientos), and so on. There are three exceptions, for pronunciations' sake - quinientos (500), setecientos (700), and novecientos. To form numbers in between the hundreds, you use the numbers 1-99 you learned in the last 2 lessons, but add the hundreds on to the front. Eleven is once, 111 is ciento once. Three-hundred and twenty is trescientos veinte, and so on.

Mil is Spanish for 1.000. No, this isn't "one point zero zero zero zero", this is one-thousand. English uses a comma to separate thousands, millions, etc., in a number. Spanish uses the period (".") instead. In English, we would expect to see this number: 12,399,100. In Spanish, the same number is written: 12.399.100. In much the same way, where English uses the period to denote numbers between whole numbers (as in "12.99"), Spanish uses a comma ("12,99"), but this will be discussed in another lesson.

Multiples of 1000 are treated as such - 2000 is dos mil, literally "two thousand". Three thousand is tres mil, and so on. This pattern is the same for thousands up to 999.000 (that's nine-hundred ninety-nine thousand), so that 50.000 is cincuenta mil, and 231.000 is doscientos treinta y uno mil. Combining these two rules for numbers, we can read numbers like 123.456 (ciento veintitres mil cuatrocientos cincuenta y seis) and 784.675 ( setecientos ochenta y cuatro mil seiscientos setenta y cinco). So now, practice saying things like:

The current year. (dos mil diez)

How many miles are on your car. (cien mil cuatroscientos treinta y dos)

The number of pages in the book you're reading. (trescientos ochenta)

The number of CDs and tapes you own. (doscientos cinco)

Your yearly salary. (diez mil)

Telling Time

Yo regreso a la universidad a las tres. Telling time in Spanish uses only 2 forms of the verb ser: es and son. Spanish for "it is one o'clock" is es la una. Times are always given in the feminine form because la hora ("hour", or "the time") is feminine. Es la is only used if you are talking about one o'clock, since "one" is singular. For all other hours, you use son las, as in son las seis ("It's 6 o'clock"). Minutes are expressed as numbers after the hour, using either y or menos to represent after or before the hour, respectively. At 15 minutes before or after the hour, cuarto ("a fourth") is used instead of quince

("fifteen"). Likewise, at 30 minutes after an hour, media ("half") is used instead of treinta ("thirty"). Media is never used with menos Here are some exapmles:

Es la una y veinte. ("It's twenty after one", literally "it's one and twenty") Son las dos menos diez. ("It's ten before two", literally "it's two minus ten") Son las cuatro y cuarto. ("It's a quarter after four.") Son las cuatro menos cuarto. ("It's a quarter before four.") Son las diez y media. ("It's half past ten.") Es la una menos cinco. ("It's five (minutes) to one.")

To say that something is "at" a certain time, use a la or a las:

¿A qué hora es la clase? ("At what time is the class?") La clase es a las nueve. ("The class is at 9 o'clock.") La clase es a la una. ("The class is at one o'clock.")

To ask for the time in Spanish, use ¿Qué hora es? ("What time is it?"). To ask what time something happens at, use ¿A qué hora...? ("At what time...?") as in ¿A qué hora es la clase?, or ¿A qué hora regresas a la universidad? ("What time do you return to the university?").

To differentiate between AM and PM when telling time, Spanish uses de la mañana ("in the morning"), de la tarde ("in the afternoon"), and de la noche ("in the night") to describe what time of day being referred to. So 9 o'clock PM becomes son las nueve de la noche, while 9AM is son las nueve de la mañana, and 5PM is son las cinco de la tarde.

Questions and Question Words

Asking a yes or no questionThere are many ways to ask questions in Spanish. The simplest form of a question is to use a regular sentence but either add question marks (when written) or change the inflection (when spoken). Look at these 2 sentences:

Marisa estudia. ("Marisa studies.") ¿Marisa estudia? ("Does Marisa study?")

When writing a question in Spanish, question marks occur at both the beginning and the end of the question. The beginning question mark is always inverted, i.e. upside-down (¿), to specify the beginning of a question. Question marks do not need to surround the entire sentence if the entire sentence is not a question - see the example below. When speaking, you can't draw little question marks to let the other person know you're asking a question, so you must change the inflection of the sentence. A normal Spanish sentence ends on a low inflection, as in "maRIsa esTUdia", with capital letters denoting syllable emphasis. When asking a question, the sentence ends with a high inflection, as in "maRIsa estudIA", much the same as English questions.

It is also possible to change the word order when asking a question. Look at these sentences:

¿Marisa estudia español? ¿Estudia Marisa español? ¿Estudia español Marisa?

All three of these sentences say the same thing, "Is Marisa studying Spanish?" The subject of the sentence, namely Marisa, can be placed at the beginning of the sentence, after the verb, or at the end of the sentence, for questions only. The same rules of inflection apply as above. It is important to note that, the second form above (¿Estudia Marisa español?), with the subject after the verb, is the most "question-like", and is the preferred form for asking questions of this kind. In the section above, the proper way to ask "does Marisa study" would be ¿Estudia Marisa?

One other common way of asking a question is to add ¿no? or ¿verdad? ("right?") to the end of a sentence. So the question above could also be written: Marisa estudia español, ¿verdad? ("Marisa is studying Spanish, isn't she?" or "Marisa is studying Spanish, right?").

Question wordsAll of these questions have implied either a yes or no answer - "Is Marisa studying?", "Is she studying Spanish?" To ask questions that require more than a yes or no answer, you generally have to use a question word. Here is a list of some English question words and their Spanish equivalents:

1. What - qué 2. Who - quién 3. When - cuándo 4. Why - por qué, 5. Which - cuál 6. How much - cuánto(-a) 7. How many - cuántos(-as) 8. Where - dónde

Each question word, or interrogatve, works similarly to its English counterpart. Perhaps the easiest way to explain how to use them is through example sentences. Take a look at these:

1. ¿Quién es Roberto? ("Who is Roberto?") 2. ¿Cuándo regresa? ("When is s/he returning?") 3. ¿Dónde estudia? ("Where does s/he study?") 4. ¿Qué hora es? ("What time is it?") 5. ¿A qué hora es la clase? ("At what time is the class?") 6. ¿Cuál es la tarea? ("What is the homework (assignment)?") 7. ¿Quién está en la casa? ("Who is in the house?") 8. ¿Dónde está el lápiz? ("Where is the pencil?") 9. ¿Por qué regresa a la escuela? ("Why do you return to school?") 10. ¿En cuál universidad estudias? ("At which university do you study?") 11. ¿Cuántos estudiantes estan en la clase? ("How many students are in class?") 12. . What is in the book?

13. Answer: ¿Qué está en el libro? 14. 2. Where does s/he work? 15. Answer: ¿Dónde trabaja? 16. 3. Who is it? 17. Answer: ¿Quién está? 18. 4. Is it 2 o'clock? 19. Answer: ¿Son las dos? 20. 5. What do you(informal) need? 21. Answer: ¿Qué necesitas? 22. 6. Why do you(informal) love him? 23. Answer: ¿Por qué amas él?

English to Spanish1. Hello, Miss, are you in school?

Answer: Hola, senorita, ¿está en la escuela?

2. You're the teacher, aren't you?

Answer: ¿Eres la profesora, ¿verdad?

3. The class is long and difficult.

Answer: La clase es larga y difícil.

4. Is the television in the kitchen?

Answer: ¿Está la televisión en la cocina?

5. The green chair is big.

Answer: La silla verde es grande.

6. I listen to the teacher in (the) class.

Answer: Escucho al profesor en la clase.

7. Are the students unpleasant?

Answer: ¿Son los estudiantes antipáticos?

8. The chalkboard is dirty.

Answer: La pizarra está sucia.

9. I'm sorry, I don't speak English.

Answer: Lo siento, no hablo inglés.

10. They're Tim's papers.

Answer: Son los papeles de Tim.

Spanish to English1. ¿Es la tarea dificíl?

Answer: Is the homework difficult?

2. ¿Cuándo está la clase?

Answer: When is the class?

3. Hablo inglés y español bueno.

Answer: I speak English and Spanish well.

4. ¿Está ella bonita?

Answer: Is she pretty?

5. La sale de clase es grande y limpia.

Answer: The classroom is big and clean.

6. ¿Dónde estudias geograf*iacute;a?

Answer: Where do you study geography?

7. ¿Quién llamas en la cocina?

Answer: Who do you call in the kitchen?

8. ¿Cuándo trabaja en la escuela?

Answer: When do you work at the school?

9. Es un libro de matemáticas.

Answer: It's a math book.

10. Necesito una pluma azul.

Answer: I need a blue pen.

When people who are familiar with each other use a greeting, they'll also often ask how are things. There are two common phrases used to ask how someone is

¡Hola! ¿Que tal? Hi. How are things?¿Cómo está / estás? How are you?

In the Spanish language, we differentiate between informal and formal language. To show respect, to one's collegues or to someone you don't know, one uses formal language (¿Cómo está?). For friends and family, you can use informal language (¿Cómo estás?).

Replying to greetings is easy. You can return the greeting, and ask how someone is doing. If someone has already asked you a question, you can reply and then ask the same of them.

¡Hola! ¿Cómo estás? Hi. How are you?Estoy bien. ¿Y tú? I am well. And you?

In this example, we have been asked how we are. After answering the question, we ask the same. This example uses informal speech, so let's see what formal speech would be like.

¡Hola! ¿Cómo está? Hi. How are you?Estoy bien. ¿Y usted? I am well. And you?

In this case, the dialogue isn't very different. You should notice, however, that we used the word usted rather than tú. Both word mean you, but usted is the more formal form. This fits with the formal form of the question (está not estás).

Asking someone their name is extremely easy in Spanish. Remember however that there is a formal and an informal way of asking things - so if you don't know someone's name its unlikely that you'll be informal.

The simplest way is to ask either of the following

¿Como se llama? What is your name?¿Cual es su nombre? What is your name?

Why are there two ways of asking this? In most languages, there are different ways of asking the same question - use which ever you're most comfortable with, but make sure you can understand both questions. Literally, the first is asking "how are you called", but we understand this to mean what is your name.

To reply, we could answer in either of the following ways

Me llamo José (literally) I am called José

Mi nombre es José My name es José

There are many ways to say goodbye in Spanish, just as there are many ways to greet someone. The following is a list of simple phrases, that mean goodbye or see you.

¡Adiós! Bye!Hasta luego See you later

Hasta mañanaSee you in the morning

Vaya con diosFarewell - (Literally) Go with God

Verbs are an important part of any language - every full sentence has one. If its been a little while since you've studied English at school, here's a simple description of a verb. A verb is a "doing word". Run, walk, play, eat, smile, cry, look, sneeze and sleep are all verbs. These verbs are in the infinitive form. Notice the difference between "run" and "he ran". Even though they represent the same action (to run), there are different ways of expressing it ("she ran", "they're running"). When we take a verb in its infinitive form, and then covert it to a more definitive form (he speaks, I speak), we are said to have conjugated it. Now that we understand how verbs work in English, let's look at Spanish verbs.

In Spanish, almost all verbs in their infinitive form end in the following :-

-ar

-er

-ir

This makes it easy to identify a verb. While there are some exceptions, most Spanish verbs follow a set pattern when we conjugate them. We'll learn some very simple rules, and once you understand the basics, you'll be able to speak whole sentances in Spanish!

Personal Pronouns

Before we can begin to conjugate verbs, we first need to learn Spanish personal pronouns. You use pronouns every day, probably without even realising it. I do this, he did that, they went there. Do you understand?

yo I nosotros (m) we

nosotras (f)

tú You (informal)vosotros (m)vosotras (f)

you all

él He ellos he  (plural)

ella She ellas she (plural)

Usted You (formal) Ustedes they (formal)

Note - (m) indicates masculine form, (f) feminine

Present tense

To keep things simple, we're only going to start with the present tense. We'll look first at -ar verbs, and then move on to -er and -ir verbs.

Numbers 1 - 10

Let's get started. Remember to speak the numbers aloud as you read them. Read through them several times, until you feel confident enough to write them. Don't cheat by looking though - write them down and then compare it with the original list.

1. uno2. dos3. tres4. cuatro5. cinco6. seis7. siete8. ocho9. nueve10. diez

Okay. Let's repeat the numbers again. Say it aloud.

uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, seis, siete, ocho, nueve, diez

Now, count backwards with me.

diez, nueve, ocho, siete, seis, cinco, cuatro, tres, dos, uno

dos y tres = ..... cuatro y dos = ....

seis y cuatro= .... cinco y uno = .... siete y dos = .....

Answers

1. cinco

2. seis

3. diez

4. seis

5. nueve

This lesson continues to teach numbers in Spanish. We'll go further than the previous lesson, and learn the numbers up to one hundred.

Numbers 11 - 30

As in the previous lesson, you'll learn best by speaking the numbers out aloud. Read through them several times, until you feel confident enough to write them down without looking. The numbers 11-20 require memorization, but you'll notice a pattern forming with the numbers 21-29. 

The pattern is that the numbers 20 start with veinti, followed by the number 1-9.  For example, twenty five is veinticinco.

When you think you've learnt them, write the numbers 11-30 down on a piece of paper, and compare results. Remember too the accents on ventidós and veintitrés.

11 once 21 veintiuno

12 doce 22 veintidós

13 trece 23 veintitrés

14 catorce 24 veinticuatro

15 quince 25 veinticinco

16 dieciséis 26 veintiséis

17 diecisiete 27 veintisiete

18 dieciocho 28 veintiocho

19 diecinueve 29 veintinueve

20 veinte 30 treinta

Okay. Let's repeat the numbers 10-20. Say it aloud.

diez, once, doce, trece, catorce, quince, dieciséis, diecisiete, dieciocho, diecinueve, veinte 

Now, count backwards with me.

vente, diecinueve, dieciocho, dicisiete, dieciséis, quince, catorce, trece, doce, once, diez

Numbers 30-100

Once you're sure about the numbers 1-30, the rest becomes easy. You only need to remember the numbers 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 and 100, and combine it with the numbers 1-9. We say forty-five in English, and cuarenta y cinco in Spanish. Pretty simple isn't it!

30 treinta 70 setenta

40 cuarenta 80 ochenta

50 cincuenta 90 noventa

60 sesenta 100 cien

So, the number sesenta y nueve is 60 + 9=69. This is very straightforward, so you don't need to memorize every digit from 1-100. 

¿Qué hora es?

To ask the time in Spanish, we use the phrase '¿Qué hora es?', which translated literally asks what hour is it.

To say that it is one o'clock, use the reply

Es la una.

We use the singular form of 'is', because we are saying it is the first hour. For subsequent hours (2 o'clock, 3 o'clock, etc. ) we use the plural form - son.

To say that it is two o'clock, use the reply

Son las dos.

To say that it is three o'clock, use the reply

Son las tres.

and so on for every hour, using the numbers one to twelve that we learnt earlier.

If you'd like to be more specific, and say that a time is in the morning, or that it is in the afternoon/evening, you can add the following expressions:-

de la mañana (in the morning)

de la madrugada (in the wee hours of the morning)

de la tarde (in the afternoon)

de la noche (in the evening)

For example, to say seven in the morning, use

Son las siete de la mañana.

¿Qué hora es? Say what the time is in Spanish, based on the specified numerical time.

1. ¿Qué hora es?  (4 pm)

2. ¿Qué hora es?  (9 am)

3. ¿Qué hora es?  (11 am)

4. ¿Qué hora es?  (1 pm)

5. ¿Qué hora es?  (2 am)

Answers

1. Son las cuatro de la tarde.

2. Son las nueve de la mañana.

3. Son las once de la mañana.

4. Es la una de la tarde.

5. Son las dos de la madrugada.

When we travel, one of the most popular things to do is to try the local food and drink. Whether you're touring Spain, or the many countries that make up South America, be sure to try the local cuisine. To do so, you'll need to know some common words.

We use the verb comer to indicate we wish to eat something, and beber for drinking. To ask for something, we use the verb poder and tener. But what to eat and drink with?

Cutleryglass el vasopitcher la jarratable la mesafork el tenedorknife el cuchillospoon la cucharasalt shaker el saleropepper shaker el pimenteronapkin la servilleta

Let's take a look at a few examples now.

Spanish EnglishPuedo tener un jarra de cervesa por favor

Can I have a pitcher of beer please

¿Dónde me sentaré? Where will I sit?Quiero un vaso de agua I'd like a drink of waterPuedo tener un cuchullo nuevo por favor

Can I please have a new knife?

Pase el salero por favor Pass the salt shaker

Here are a list of common foods and drinks you may like to memorize.

Drinksmilk lechejuice jugo

water aguacoffee cafétea técool drink bebida fríawarm drink bebida caliente

 

Foodsmeat carnechicken pollofish pescadossalad ensaladabread panfruit frutayoghurt yogurice-cream helado

One of the most frequently used verbs you'll come across in language is the verb that represents 'to be'. Situations like I am, she is, he was, they are, he will, etc. For the moment, we will concentrate only on the present tense of this verb.

In Spanish, there are two verbs for "be". One represents a temporary condition ("today I feel fine, but tomorrow I might not"), and the other represents a permanent condition ("Today I am an American, always have always will be"). There are some other general rules that distinguish the use of one verb over another; learning these will be important, in addition to the different conjugation forms of the two verbs.

Learning a new language can be tough. The more you read, speak, and listen to a language, the easier it will become. Just learning grammar won't teach you Spanish - you need to read the language to become familiar. Children learn language at a young age from speaking, and from reading simple words in books. Conversation is an excellent way to pick it up, and the next best thing to a spoken conversation is a written dialog.

Note : We advise going through the first few Spanish lessons first, or using these dialogs in combination with lessons.

Dialog 1, Pedro y Julia

Julia es una estudiante de la Universidad de México. Estudia en la biblioteca, cuando Pedro llega. 

Pedro : ¡Julia, hola!Julia : Pedro, buenos días. ¿Comó estas?Pedro : Bien, gracias. ¿Y tu?Julia : Así, así. Yo estudio para un examen.Pedro : ¿Cuál examen?Julia : La historia de México.Pedro : Ah... ¡Buena suerte!

Questions

1. What do you think the relationship between Julia and Pedro is? Are they strangers, or friends?

Julia and Pedro use informal ('tú') language. This suggests that they are good friends, and have met previously.

2. What was Julia doing before greeting Pedro?

Julia was studying in the library.

3. What might Julia be worrying about?

Julia might be worried about her test, on the history of Mexico. Pedro wishes her luck.

1. Some Spanish Basic Phrases ¡Buenos días!buayn-ohs dee-ahsHello! / Good morning!

¡Buenas tardes!buayn-ahs tard-aysGood afternoon! ¡Buenas noches!buayn-ahs nohch-aysGood evening / Good night ¡Hola!oh-lahHi!

¿Cómo se llama usted?coh-moh say yah-mah oo-stedWhat is your name? (formal)

¿Cómo te llamas?coh-moh tay yah-mahsWhat is your name? (informal) Me llamo...may yah-mohI am called... Mi nombre es...mee nohm-bray aysMy name is... ¿Cómo está usted?coh-moh ay-stah oo-stedHow are you? (formal)

¿Cómo estás?coh-moh ay-stahsHow are you? (informal)

¿Qué tal?kay tahlWhat's up?

Yo estoy...yoh ay-stoyI am... (when talking about your mood) Bien / Muy bienbee-ayn / moy bee-aynGood / Very good Mal / Muy mal / Más o menosmahl / moy mahl / mahs oh may-nohsBad / Very bad / OK Adiósah-dee-ohsGood bye ChaochowBye

Hasta la vistaah-stah lah vee-stahUntil we meet again Hasta luegoah-stah loo-ay-go

See you later Hasta mañanaah-stah mahn-yahn-ahSee you tomorrow Señor / Señora / Señoritasayn-yor / sayn-yor-ah / sayn-yor-ee-tahMister / Mrs. / Miss Mucho gustomoo-choh goo-stohNice to meet you Encantado/aain-cahn-tah-doh/dahDelighted to meet you

Igualmenteee-guahl-main-taySame here Yo tambiényoh tahm-bee-ainMe too ¿De dónde es usted?day dohn-day ays oo-stedWhere are you from? (formal) ¿De dónde eres?day dohn-day air-aysWhere are you from? (informal) Yo soy de... yoh soy dayI'm from... Yo soy de los Estados Unidosyoh soy day lohs ay-stah-dohs oo-nee-dohsI'm from the United States

¿Cuántos años tiene usted?quahnt-ohs ahn-yohs tee-ayn-ay oo-stedHow old are you? (formal) ¿Cuántos años tienes?quahnt-ohs ahn-yohs tee-ayn-aysHow old are you? (informal) Yo tengo _____ añosyoh tayn-goh _____ ahn-yohsI am _____ years old

 Graciasgrah-see-ahsThank you Por favorpor fah-borPlease ¿Y usted?ee oo-stedAnd you? (used when asking the same question) (formal) ¿Y tú?ee tooAnd you? (informal)

Te amotay ah-mohI love you Note: For Encantado/a, you would use the masculine ending, o, if you're a man. You would use the feminine ending, a, if you're a woman. So, if you're a man, you would say Encantado, and if you're a woman, you would say Encantada. Most adjectives work this way. Also, accents (´ ) are very important in the Spanish language. You CANNOT leave out the accents or it'll change the meaning of a word. The syllable with the accent is the emphasized syllable in a word.

Spanish Letteraeioullvñrrrdjgquai / all / ayzz, ce, ci

English Soundahayeeohooyb at beginning of word, real soft b between 2 vowelsny (as in canyon)almost like a d when in between 2 vowelsr w/ a roll of the tonguealmost like a th when in between 2 vowelshard hg, sometimes a hkeyesth (in most parts of Spain)

Note: Any time I put a double r (rr) in the pronunciation of a word, you need to roll your tongue when you say the r's.

Definite and Indefinite Articles and Demonstratives

                Singular Masc.   Singular Fem.                       Plural Masc.            Plural Fem.

thea, anthisthatthat

elunesteeseaquel

launaestaesaaquella

thesomethesethosethose

losunosestosesosaquellos

lasunasestasesasaquellas

Note: El is also used with feminine nouns beginning with a or ha when the accent is on the first syllable. Use the ese froms to mean that when what you are talking about is near the person you are addressing. Use the aquel forms when what you are talking about is far from both you and the person you are addressing. Esto and eso are the neuter forms of this and that. They can be used in general and abstract ways.

yotúél / ella / usted

Iyou (informal)he / she / you (formal)

nosotros(as)vosotros(as)ellos / ellas / ustedes

weyou allthey / they / you (plural)

Note: Vosotros is used only in Spain when speaking to more than one person with whom you know well. Nosotras and vosotras refer to a group of all females, as well as ellas. Ustedes is almost always used for saying "you all" in all Spanish speaking countries. Usted can be abreviated to Ud. Ustedes can also be abreviated to Uds. Please note that the subject pronouns are rarely used before verbs.

ser - to be               estar - to be               tener - to havesoyereses

somossoisson

estoyestásestá

estamosestáisestán

tengotienestiene

tenemostenéistienen

Note: Ser is used to indentify or describe. It tells what something is, its basic characteristics, or its origin. Estar is used to tell the location of something or how someone feels.

Uses of Ser

Identify person/object Inherent characteristics or qualities Nationality/Occupation Telling time Express ownership Impersonal expressions Passive voice

El edificio es un templo. La casa es grande. Carlos es pobre. Es carpintero. Son las tres. Los libros son de Juan. Es necesario. El telefono fue inventado por Bell.

The building is a temple. The house is large. Charles is poor. He is a carpenter. It's three o'clock. The books are John's. It is necessary. The telephone was invented by Bell.

Uses of Estar

Location/position Temporary condition/stateState of health Form progressive tense

El libro está en la mesa.La ventana está abierta.Juan está enfermo. Miguel está estudiando.

The book is on the table. The window is open. John is sick. Michael is studying.

Common Expressions with "to be" to be afraid - tener miedo to be against - estar en contra to be at fault - tener la culpa to be careful - tener cuidado to be cold - tener frío to be curious - ser curioso (a) to be happy - estar contento (a) to be hot - tener calor to be hungry - tener hambre to be in a hurry - tener prisa, estar de prisa to be jealous - tener celos to be lucky -

tener suerte to be patient - tener paciencia to be successful - tener éxito to be thirsty - tener sed to be tired - estar cansado (a)

whatwhohowwhenwherewhy

quéquién(es)cómocuándodóndepor qué

whichhow muchhow manywhomwhosewhy

cuál(es)cuánto (-a)cuántos (-as)a quién(es)de quién(es)por qué

012345678910111213141516171819202122304050607080901001000

cerounodostrescuatrocincoseissieteochonuevediezoncedocetrececatorcequincediez y seisdiez y sietediez y ochodiez y nueveveinteveinte y unoveinte y dostreintacuarentacincuentasesentasetentaochentanoventacien(to)mil

firstsecondthirdfourthfifthsixthseventheighthninthtentheleventhtwelfththirteenthfourteenthfifteenthsixteenthseventeentheighteenthnineteenthtwentiethtwenty-firsttwenty-secondthirtiethfortiethfiftiethsixtiethseventietheightiethninetiethhundredththousandth

primerosegundotercerocuartoquintosextoséptimooctavonovenodécimoundécimoduodécimodécimo tercerodécimo cuartodécimo quintodécimo sextodécimo séptimodécimo octavodécimo novenovigésimovigésimo primerovigésimo segundotrigésimocuadragésimoquincuagésimosexagésimoseptuagésimooctogésimononagésimocentésimomilésimo

Note: If you are just saying 100, you use just cien. If it's over 100, you use ciento. So 101 is ciento uno. And 156 would be ciento cincuenta y seis. Also you can also use dieciséis, diecisiete, dieciocho, and diecinueve for 16, 17, 18, and 19, respectively. They are pronounced the same but are combined into one word.

lunesmartesmiércolesjuevesviernessábado

MondayTuesdayWednesdayThursdayFridaySaturday

domingoel díala semanael fin de semanahoymañana

Sundaythe daythe weekthe weekendtodaytomorrow

springsummerwinterautumn

primaveraveranoinviernootoño

leftrightfarnearstreetavenuenorthsoutheastwest

IzquierdaDerechaLejosCercaCalleAvenidaNorteSurEsteOeste

redpinkorangeyellowgreenbluelight bluepurplevioletbrowndark brownblackgraywhitegoldsilver

rojorosadoanaranjadoamarilloverdeazulcelestemoradovioletamarróncafénegrogrisblancodoradoplateado

Qué hora es?Es la una.Son las dos/tres/cuatro...Es mediodía.Es medianoche.Son las cinco y cinco.Son las ocho y cuarto.Son las diez menos cuarto.Son cuarto para las diezSon las nueve menos diez.Son diez para las nueveSon las tres y media.

What time is it?It's one.It's two/three/four...It's noon.It's midnight.It's 5:05It's 8:15It's 9:45It's 9:45 (common in Mexico)It's 8:50It's 8:50 (common in Mexico)It's 3:30

Qué tiempo hace?Hace buen tiempo.Hace mal tiempo.Hace frío.Hace calor.

What's the weather like?The weather's nice.The weather's bad.It's cold.It's hot.

Hace sol.Hace viento.Llueve.Nieva.Está nublado.

It's sunny.It's windy.It's raining.It's snowing.It's cloudy.

familyparentshusbandwifefathermothersondaughterchildrensisterbrother

la familialos padresel esposola esposael padrela madreel hijola hijalos hijosla hermanael hermano

grandfathergrandmothergrandsongranddaughteruncleauntnephewniececousin (m)cousin (f)relatives

el abuelola abuelael nietola nietael tíola tíael sobrinola sobrinael primola primalos parientes

dogcatbirdfishhorsegoatpigcowrabbitturtlemouse

el perroel gatoel pájaroel pezel caballola cabrael cerdola vacael conejola tortugael ratón

conocer - to know people saber - to know facts

conozcoconocesconoce

conocemosconocéisconocen

sésabessabe

sabemossabéissaben

How to say 'hello' and introduce yourself

Read your first page in this lesson. Don't try to memorize everything. Just read the dialogues aloud and slowly.

If you want to say 'hello' in Spanish to a friend or a young person, use the word 'hola'.

Hola

  DiegoHello Diego.

Hola

  ErnestoHello Ernesto.

<- click here to listen to this dialogue

If you want to introduce yourself or you want to know the name of someone you are talking to, use 'Me llamo ...' (My name is ...) and '¿Cómo te llamas?' (What's your name?).

Hola. Me llamo Teodoro. Y

  tú, ¿cómo te llamas?

Hello. My name is Theodor. And what's your name?

Me llamo Juan My name is Juan.

<- click here to listen to this dialogue

Try to read aloud to yourself the two dialogues above. Then please do the same for the two dialogues below. While doing so, please do not worry too much about your pronunciation. You

will learn later in this lesson, how to pronounce and stress the different words in Spanish.

Here are a few examples, how you can ask your friends or a young person, how they are doing and how things are going.

HolaMarcos. ¿Cómo estas? Hello Markus. How are you?

Muy bien, gracias. ¿ Y  tú? Very well, thanks. And you?

Así, así. So so.

Hola Carmen. Hi Carmen.

Hola  Nena. ¿Cómo estás? Hello Nena. How are you?

Regular. Quite well.

Instead of saying "¿Cómo estas?", you can also use "¿Qué tal?" ("What's up?" or "How are you?").

To say goodbye to someone in Spanish, use the following suggestions:

adiós bye

Hasta

mañana

.

See you tomorrow.

Hasta luego. See you later.

Say hello to someone you don't know very well

When addressing someone in Spanish, unlike in English, you have to distinguish, whether you know the person you are talking to very well or not.

To greet an adult person that you don't know very well, use 'Buenos dias' (Good morning), 'Buenas tardes' (Good afternoon) or 'Buenas noches' (Good evening/Good night).

Buenos dias, señor Martínez. Good morning, Mr. Martinez.

Buenos dias, señor Hernandez. Good morning, Mr. Hernandez.

To introduce yourself to an adult person, who you don't know very well, say 'Me llamo ...' (My name is ...) and '¿Cómo se llama usted?' (What's your name?).

Buenas Tardes. Me llamo Eduardo Good afternoon. My name is Eduardo Gómez. And what's your

Gómez. ¿ Y Cómo se llama usted? name?

Me llamo Rosa López. My name is Rosa López.

Mucho gusto, señora López. Nice to meet you, Mrs. Lopez.

Igualmente. Likewise.

Please read aloud the two dialogues above one more time without caring too much about your pronunciation. Your Spanish sounds great already!

Here are a few expressions to ask someone formally, how he/she is doing.

Buenas Tardes, señor Ruiz.

¿Cómo esta usted?

Good evening Mr. Ruiz. How are you?

Bien,gracias. ¿ Y usted? I'm fine, thanks. And you?

Pues, bastante bien. Well, quite fine.