adjectives, and know how to explain how many there are with the use of
cardinal numbers.
Let's now expand your ability to talk about nouns by using the Spanish
for there is and there are.
This is very easy to do in Spanish, for there is just one word which
can be used for either of these two expressions.
That word is:hay
(pronounced like the English word "eye")
To recap, the word hay has two meanings:
there is
there are
For example:
Hay una chica bonita en la calle.
There is a pretty girl in the street.
Hay dos libros grandes en la mesa.
There are two big books on the table.
Hay can also be used in questions.
(By the way, the Spanish use two question marks – a reverse one at the
start of the phrase/sentence plus a normal one at the end.)
Hay?
can mean two things:
Is there?
Are there?
For example:
Hay una chica bonita en la calle?
Is there a pretty girl in the street?
Hay dos libros grandes en la mesa?
Are there two big books on the table?
Hay can also be used to answer questions: ¿Hay una chica bonita en la
calle?
Sí. Sí hay. (Yes. Yes there is.)
Hay dos libros grandes en la mesa?
No. No hay. (No. No there aren´t.)
So, depending on whether the answer is positive or negative, you just
answer:
Sí hay.
or
No hay.
Simple, isn´t it?!
25 Common Words – Part I
Below, you'll find twenty-five commonly-used words.
a ............................. to/at
agua (el) ................. water
ahora ...................... now
año (el) ................... year
antes ...................... before/earlier
aquí ........................ here
bien ........................ well
buen (o) ................. good
cada ....................... each
comida (la) ............. food/meal
como ...................... as/like
Cómo? ................. How?
con ......................... with
corto .......................short
cosa (la) ................. thing
cuando ................... when
Cuándo? .............. When?
de .......................... of/from/by
después ................. after/later
día .......................... day
diferente ................. different
donde ..................... where
Dónde? ................ Where?
en ........................... in/on/into
entre ....................... between/among
25 Common Words – Part II
And, here you have twenty-five more!
gente (la) ................... people
lugar (el) .................... place
mal (o) ....................... bad
más ............................ more
menos ........................ less
mismo ........................ same
mucho ........................ much/many (pl)
muy ............................ very
no ............................... no, not
noche (la) ................... night
nombre (el) ................. name
nuevo .......................... new
número (el) .................. number
o ................................... or
otro ............................... other/another
pequeño ........................ small
pero ............................... but
por ................................. for/by/along
porque ........................... because
si .................................... if
sí (with accent) .............. yes
también ......................... also
tan ................................. so
viejo ............................... old
y ..................................... and
Accent
When speaking or reading Spanish words, how do we know which syllable
of the word should be emphasized?
With the exception of words which end in –mente, all Spanish words
have just one syllable that is stressed or emphasized.
In words where there is no written accent, you can work out which
syllable should be stressed by looking at the ending of the word:
1. Words which end in a consonant, EXCEPT –n or –s have the
emphasis placed on the last syllable. For example:
español ..... Spanish
español (emphasis placed on last syllable)
2. Words which end in a vowel, -n or –s are stressed on the
penultimate syllable (ie last but one). For example:
diferente ..... different
diferente (emphasis placed on last-but-one syllable)
Occasionally, the above rules are not followed.
When this happens, the word is given an acute accent to show which
syllable should be stressed. For example:
árbol .......... tree (árbol)
número ...... number (número)
The written accent is also used for other reasons, outlined below.
1. To differentiate certain words, as in:
sí .......... yes (with a written accent on the "i")
si ........... if (with no written accent)
2. An accent is placed on certain words in interrogative or
exclamative sentences, such as the word donde, when it is used as a
question:
Dónde? .......... Where?
3. An accent is placed on the word o (or) when it comes between figures
so that it's not confused with the figure for zero:
3 4 .......... 3 or 4
4. An accent occurs when i or u is preceded or followed by another vowel:
baúl .......... trunk
Personal Pronouns
What are Personal Pronouns?
Personal Pronouns are words like I, you, he, she, we, they. They are
the words we use to replace nouns and it is useful to know them before
starting on verbs and verb conjugations.
A complete list of the Spanish Personal Pronouns follows:
Singular yo ............. I
tú .............. you (familiar)
él ............... he
ella ............. she
usted .......... you (polite)
Plural nosotros ..... we (masculine or mixed group)
nosotras ..... we (feminine)
vosotros ..... you (familiar, masculine or
mixed group)
vosotras ..... you (familiar, feminine)
ellos ............ they (masculine or mixed
group)
ustedes ....... you (polite)
Spanish Personal Pronouns are a little more complicated than their
English equivalent. Some have feminine and masculine forms and there
are a variety of ways of saying the English you. Let´s look at some of
them a little closer.
The word nosotros – meaning we – is used either by an entirely male
group or by a group containing at least one male.
If the group contains ONLY females, nosotras would be used.
So, in Spanish, there are two ways to say we:
nosotros .......... we (masculine or mixed group)
nosotras ...........we (purely female group)
The same rules apply to the Spanish equivalent of they:
ellos .................. they (when referring to a masculine or mixed group)
ellas ................... they (when referring to a purely female group)
Now, let´s take a look at the various ways of saying you.
Firstly, the Spanish language has polite and familiar forms of the word you.
Usted is the polite (singular) form and would be used for addressing
strangers/older people/bosses etc, in order to show respect.
Tú is the familiar (singular) form and would be used when talking to
family/friends/work companions etc.
These two ways of saying you also have plural forms.
If addressing more than one person to whom you should show respect,you
would use ustedes (ie the plural of usted):
ustedes .......... you (polite, plural, masculine or feminine)
If the people you are addressing are family/friends/acquaintances, you
would use the plural form of tú.
The plural form of tú also has masculine and feminine versions:
vosotros .......... you (familiar, plural, masculine or mixed group)
vosotras ........... you (familiar, plural, purely female group)
To recap on "you":
one friend/family member – tú
one stranger/older person – usted
more than one friend/family member – vosotros/vosotras
more than one stranger/older person – ustedes
In the written form, usted can be abbreviated to Ud or Vd.
Similarly, ustedes can be abbreviated to Uds or Vds.
This book concentrates on Castilian Spanish (ie the Spanish spoken in
Spain) and you will find that the rules relating to vosotros/vosotras do not
apply in Latin American countries.
Chapter 18
Regular –ar Verbs
As with English, Spanish verbs are either regular or irregular.There
are three types of regular verbs in Spanish: those ending in –ar;
those ending in –er; and those ending in –ir.Examples of the
infinitives of verbs in these three categories are:
hablar .......... to speak
comer .............. to eat
vivir ................. to live
Today, we will concentrate on the first group – regular verbs ending
in – ar such as hablar – and learn how to conjugate it in the present
indicative tense.
If you were to conjugate the verb "to speak" in the present tense in
English, it would be like this:
to speak (infinitive)
I speak
you (singular) speak
he/she speaks
we speak
you (plural) speak
they speak
You've already learnt about Spanish personal pronouns and how to use
them in the previous lesson. Now, you just need to know the verb
endings.
The present tense of hablar and all regular verbs ending in –ar would
be as follows:
Singular
yo hablo ................................I speak
tú hablas ............................... you (familiar) speak
él/ella/Vd habla ..................... he/she/you (polite) speak/s
Plural
nosotros/as hablamos ........... we speak
vosotros/as habláis ................ you (familiar) speak
ellos/ellas/Vds hablan ............ they/you (polite) speak
You conjugate regular –ar verbs by taking the infinitive (ie to speak)
which, in this case, is:hablar
And remove the –ar ending in order to get the root, which would be
habl (= hablar – ar)
To this root, you then add the following endings:
-o
-as
-a
-amos
-áis
-an
This results in the full conjugation of the present tense, as you saw
above. Although we have used hablar as our example, the same rule
would apply to any regular verbs which end in –ar.
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