la gramática del cap 1

La gramática del capítulo 1

​artículos y sustantivos

Sustantivos are nouns in Spanish. Unlike English nouns, all Spanish nouns have gender. All words that represent people, places or things are either masculine or feminine.

As we have seen already, the gender of most Spanish nouns is easy to see.

Those that end in "o" are generally masculine (many ending in "ma")
Those that end in "a" are generally feminine (also "tad","dad", "ción")

Some noun's gender, like those that end in an "e" must be learned.


The gender of the noun as well as the number (singular or plural) will be seen in the surrounding articles and adjectives.

​los artículos

​ los artículos definidos

el - masc. sing los - masc. plural

la - fem. sing las - fem. plural

​ los artículos indefinidos

un - masc. sing. unos - masc. plural*

una - masc. sing. unas - fem. plural*

(often omitted)

​may but does not have to be translated as "the"

​has to mean "a or an" but the plural
"some" is often left out

​los adjetivos

​Adjectives in Spanish must reflect the gender of the noun they modify (if they can) and the number (singular / plural) of the noun.

muchacho alto - muchacha alta - muchachos altos - muchachas altas

-¡ojo! (note) adjectives follow the noun they modify unless they are non -descriptive (quality, quantity, possessive, and demonstrative)

​To make nouns and adjectives plural, you use the last letter

- if it ends in a vowel (a, e, i, o, u) just add an "s"
- if it ends in a consonant, just add an "es"

​El verbo - ser (to be really like or from)

​We have already seen "es" as he / she is, and "son" for they are

Below are all the present tense forms this verb:

​ (Yo) soy - I am (Nosotros) somos - We are

(Tú) eres - You are (Vosotros) sois - You all are (Sp.)

Él es - He is Ellos/Ellas son - They are
Ella es - She is Uds. son - You all are
Ud. es - You (polite) are (ustedes)
(usted)

​As I have mentioned before, Spanish does not require the use of a subject or subject pronoun. When a subject or subject pronoun is used it is either for emphasis or clarification.

​Spanish verbs are spelled differently as the subject change. The spelling tells when it is happening (the tense) and who the subject is. We will concentrate on the present tense for most of the year.

​We will learn to associate the ending letter(s) with a particular subject. Unlike with nouns an "o" at the end of a verb means "I" am the subject. It does not show gender like nouns and adjectives.