The following post will explain the many aspects of grammar. For some individuals this section will be to much because they are not interested in the whys but in speaking without getting into the grammar. For other individuals, it is a must to know and understand why something is said the way it is. On the other hand, there are other individuals that some of each is good enough. So, let's begin with some aspects of Spanish grammar.
I like to always begin with teaching the sound of the letters in the alphabet. The reason for this is that once you learn the sounds of the vowels will help you pronounce the words more clearly. Please go to the post page and search in the drop down menu for the alphabet, las vocales, las vocales -practice the sounds to get you started.
NOUNS
In Spanish, nouns are masculine or feminine so learn them with the article la for feminine words and el
for masculine words.
Some examples of what I mean : La mesa, la puerta, la ventana, la cama
el espejo, el escritorio, el baño, el día
Notice that most the nouns that end in -a are feminine words except for el día which is a masculine word. Also, note that most of the words that end in -o are masculine but remember that there are exceptions to this rulesuch as la mano.These like the nouns ending in -a and -o must be lerned individually.
When you are using a noun to talk about what a person does for a living or where they are from, you may change the gender of the noun by simply changing the letter o to a like in hermano (brother); hermana (sister); or by adding a: español (Spaniard); española (Spanish woman).
VERBS
I'll be talking about verbs in some posts as to help those of you with more advance knowledge of Spanish. Before I do, I need to explain subject pronouns to you.
Subject pronouns in English are: I, you, he,she, it, we, they.
Subject pronouns in Spanish are: yo, tú,usted (formal you), él, ella, nosotros,nosotras, vosotros,vosotras, ellos, ellas.
When using a verb in Spanish you see (Yo) tengo dos hermanos. I have two brothers. The reason is that in Spanish the verb not only tells the action but tells you WHO is doing the action; therefore, the subject pronouns can be dropped.like the (Yo) above. While in English the subject pronouns are necessary to use all of the
time because verbs in English only tell the action
Of course, there are some exceptions to this as well since the subject is only required for clarification, emphasis or contrast.
Clarification:
_______habla Who is doing the speaking? It could be él/ella/usted habla
________hablan .......................................................... ellos/ellas/ustedes hablan
Emphasis:
Let's say that in English you want to emphasize that you speak English well. You would say I speak well. In Spanish empahsis is used in this instance in the same way by using the subject pronoun : Yo hablo bien.
Contrast:
Here, we use subject pronouns to show contrast between two groups. Ellas hablan mucho; nosotros hablamos poco. They talk a lot. We talk little.
Remember
Check the post page to find a post that talks about verbs, grammar rules,etc. This page is just that, a page to a guide you to wonderful world of the Spanish Language. Keep checking in to find out what else is new or if my blog has change the way it looks. I am working on it as well!
