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Lesson 2 - La Casa (the house)
Palabras Nuevas (new words):
Sustantivos (NOUNS)
VERBS
PREPOSITIONS
ADJECTIVES
Numbers 11-99
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 estar
If 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
estar - to be
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:
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 -
- Identity - Yo soy Carla. ("I am
Carla")
- Profession - Él es un profesor. ("He is a
teacher.")
- Origin - Nosotros somos de Costa Rica. ("We
are from Costa Rica.")
- Religious or political affiliation - Tú eres
católico? ("You are Catholic?")
- Time of day or date - Son las ocho. ("It is 8
o'clock.")
- Posession - La casa es de Juana. ("It is
Juana's house.")
- Nationality - Soy de México. ("I am from
Mexico.")
- Physical aspects or characteristics of something -
Las sillas son verdes. ("The chairs are green.")
- 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 -
- Location - La silla está en la cocina. ("The
chair is in the kitchen.")
- Condition or emotion that is subject to change -
Estoy enfermo. ("I am sick.")
- 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:
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
Agreement
Adjectives 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
-
- 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 adjectives
In 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.
- El profesor viejo está enfermo.
- El teléfono verde es sucio.
- El cuarto de baño está en la casa.
- La casa de María es anaranjada.
Here are the translations for these sentences.
That's the end of Lesson 2.
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.
Palabras Nuevas (New Words):
info@roswalle.com
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