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January 31, 2007

Contraction of de el

Del is the contraction of "de el", meaning "of the; from the". Following are some useful rules.

  1. When de is followed by el, the two words are combined into del:
    la capital del país      (the capital of the country)
    la oficina del director    (the office of the director)
     
  2. De la, de las, de los, de él are never combined into one word:
    el puerto principal de la república (the principal port of the republic)
    el país de las pampas
    la capital de los Estados Unidos (the capital of the United States)
    el libro de él (his book)
     
  3. When de is followed by a proper name there is no contraction:
    Tengo el libro de Felipe. (I have a book of Felipe.)

 

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Posted by lubw00 at 05:55 AM | Comments (0)

January 30, 2007

Spanish Lesson: Agreement of adjectives

In Spanish, the adjectives must agree with the masculine or feminine property of the corresponding nouns. Following are some rules.

  1. Spanish adjectives ending in -o change -o to -a when describing a feminine noun:
    (masculino) El papel es blanco. (The paper is white.)
    (femenino) La tiza es blanca. (The chalk is white.)

    (masculino) El libro es amarillo. (The book is yellow.)
    (femenino) La flor es amarilla. (The flower is yellow.)
     
  2. Spanish adjectives not ending in -o are the same in the masculine and feminine:
    (masculino) El cuaderno es grande. (The notebook is big.)
    (femenino)  La casa es grande. (The house is big.)

    (masculino) El lápiz es azul. (The pencil is blue.)
    (femenino) La pluma es azul. (The pen is blue.)
     

Note that descriptive adjectives generally follow the noun they describe:
        una revista popular (a popular magazine)

 

PDF download: Spanish Lesson: Agreement of adjectives

Posted by lubw00 at 06:33 AM | Comments (0)

January 28, 2007

Spanish Numbers from 1 to 20

Following are the Spanish numbers from one to twenty.

1     uno
2     dos
3     tres
4     cuatro
5     cinco
6     seis
7     siete
8     ocho
9     nueve
10     diez
11     once
12     doce
13     trece
14     catorce
15     quince
16     diez y seis (dieciséis)
17     diez y siete (diecisiete)
18     diez y ocho (dieciocho)
19     diez y nueve (diecinueve)
20     veinte

Note that there are two forms for numbers from 16 to 19.
 

PDF download: Spanish Numbers from 1 to 20

Posted by lubw00 at 09:45 PM | Comments (0)

January 26, 2007

Plural forms of Spanish nouns

Following are the rules for plural Spanish nouns.

  1. Nouns ending in a vowel form their plural by adding -s:
    el alumno         los alumnos        (student)
    el presidente    los presidentes   (president)
    el amigo           los amigos         (friend)
    la muchacha     las muchachas   (girl, maid)
     
  2. Nouns ending in a consonant form their plural by adding -es:
    el papel          los papeles     (paper)
    el doctor        los doctores   (doctor)
    la flor             las flores        (flower)
     
  3. Nouns having a written accent on the last syllable lose the written accent in the plural:
    la nación             las naciónes    (nation)
    la composicion    las composiciones (composition)
     
  4. Nouns ending in -z in the singular change z to c before adding -es in the plural:
    el lápiz                los lápices  (pencil)

 

PDF download: Plural forms of Spanish nouns

Posted by lubw00 at 05:28 AM | Comments (0)

January 23, 2007

Masculine vs Feminine Spanish Nouns

All nouns in Spanish are either masculine or feminine.

The definite article (the) is el before a masculine singular noun (or los before a masculine plural noun) and la before a feminine singular noun (or las before a feminine plural noun).

Following are some common  rules:

  1. Nouns referring to male beings are masculine; nouns referring to female beings are feminine.
     
  2. Nouns ending in -o are generally masculine: el libro (the book).
     
  3. Nouns ending in -a are generally feminine: la pluma (the feather).
     
  4. The gender of a noun not ending in -o or -a must be learned and remembered individually:
    el lápiz (pencil), la clase (class)

The following are more rules that might help you determine the gender of some nouns:

  1. Nouns ending in -d and -ión are generally feminine:
    La ciudad es grande. (The city is large.)
    La pared es grande. (The wall is large.)
    La nación es importante. (The nation is important.)
    La construcción es importante. (The construction is important.)
     
  2. A few nouns ending in -ma, -pa are masculine:
    El programa es interesante. (The program is interesting.)
    El mapa es grande. (The map is large.)
    El problema es facil. (The problem is easy.)
     
  3. Nouns ending in -ista may be masculine or feminine.
    el turista, la turista   (the tourist)
    el artista, la artista   (the artist)

 

PDF download: Masculine vs Feminine Spanish Nouns

Posted by lubw00 at 03:52 AM | Comments (0)

January 22, 2007

Spanish words meaning YOU

Spanish has several words meaning you.

The formal ones are:
usted (singular)
ustedes (plural)
Usted and ustedes are used when speaking to strangers or to someone in a high position.

The more common ones are:
tú (singular)
vosotros (plural)
Tú and vosotros are used by relatives and intimate friends or in speaking to children.

Important notes: In Latin America, the informal plural, vosotros, is seldom used, even when talking with family members, so ustedes is used in plural cases. In Spain, vosotros is generally used as the plural of tú.

PDF download: Spanish words meaning YOU

Posted by lubw00 at 06:56 AM | Comments (0)