Idioma Español - Spanish Language

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¡Hola! Me llamo Christopher y voy a enseñar español.

Hello! My name is Christopher and I'm going to teach Spanish.

You've probably heard Spanish spoken somewhere before. You may even know a little. Spanish is currently the second most widely-spoken language in the world, after Mandarin Chinese, with almost 500 million speakers today. In learning Spanish you can gain access to a huge wealth of literature, poetry, films, stage plays...the list goes on and on. No matter where you live, you will probably come across someone who speaks Spanish or a way to use Spanish skills. Also, with an understanding of Spanish, learning other Romance languages is infinitely easier. In fact, with a higher knowledge of Spanish, it is possible to read and partially understand writings in other Romance languages.

History of Spanish

Spanish is a Romance language, which means it developed from the language of the Romans, Latin. Like French, Italian, Romanian and Portuguese, Spanish began as an accent and then dialect of Latin. The size of the Roman Empire did not facilitate communication, even with their complicated and extensive road system, so the Latin of these partially isolated parts of Europe began to develop their own way of speaking. In the body of the Iberian peninsula, the Roman citizens began to use their language just a bit differently from anywhere else, and without the global community of today the language change progressed unfettered. Soon they began using different, colloquial words and phrases, and slowly the grammar began to change. In an interesting bit of trivia, here are multiple documents in which Roman scholars talk about how the Latin of what was then called Hispania had become so removed from the rest of the empire that the people there seemed, to the writers, to be mutilating the language every time they spoke. The attitude towards the adolescent Spanish, as with the other Romance languages, was actually one of distaste, up until the collapse of the Roman Empire.

Latin at that time, though still a popular language, was changing. The states that formed in the wake of the Roman Empire could now develop their own langauges without the nagging need to conform to the Roman Latin. In the Iberian peninsula, a collection of city-states and small groups, the development of Spanish continued until about the 8th century. At this time, the Moorish Muslims conquered nearly the entire peninsula, bringing their language, Arabic, with them. For hundreds of years, the Arabs gave to the Spanish their beautiful architecture, their religion and many of the words from their language. For example, nearly every word in Spanish today beginning with "Al" comes from Arabic.

Spanish, by this time, was already quite well established. When Muslim control fell, Spain started to unify. Castile, a kingdom established through the center of the Iberian peninsula, is the origin of Castilian Spanish, the dialect of Spain. At this time, Spain became highly imperialist, and the famous Conquistadors conquered lands all over the world. In fact, interestingly enough, the Spanish Empire under Charles I was the first Empire that the "sun did not set" on. The conquerers of all these different lands spread Spanish worldwide, to many of the countries that now speak it.

There are a few dialects of Spanish, the most common being the general Latin American variety and Castilian Spanish. Argentina also has a distinct accent and way of pronouncing things, but being sadly unversed in these pronunciations I probably won't be able to teach them. I'm hoping to teach both the Latin American and Castilian forms.

Spanish is written in the Latin alphabet, the same as English, but with a few extra letters. I'll explain those in following posts. I've never really had any experience teaching before, but I hope that you'll bear with me. biggrin

To get you started:

Here is a Spanish - English dictionary, always useful:
http://www.spanishdict.com/

As I (sadly) can't tell you everything about Spain, Latin America and the Spanish culture, here is more information on that:
http://www.spain-info.com/index.html
http://spanish.about.com/od/southamerica/Culture_of_South_America.htm

Spanish, for most English speakers, is a fairly easy language to learn. It has similar grammar, many common words and in comparison to many other languages it is quite regular. I'll do my best, and have fun!

Thank you,

Christopher Locke  

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Classifications of Spanish

Spanish is a Romantic language, as I said before, meaning it originated from Latin. It is in the Indo-European language family, which most of the languages of Europe belong to. As I also mentioned before, it is the second most widely-spoken language in the world. Currently, it is an official language of:

Spain | Mexico | Colombia | Venezuela | Peru | Guatemala | Cuba | Ecuador | Bolivia | Uruguay | Paraguay | Argentina | Chile | Honduras | El Salvador | Costa Rica | Panama | Equatorial Guinea | Dominican Republic | Nicaragua | Puerto Rico

Plus these, while it may not be official, there are many more countries that speak Spanish as a popular language. There are also many creoles of Spanish that appear in places such as the Philippines.

Dialects

Spanish has quite a few dialects, and many regional variations on the language. The most famous difference may be that between the Castilian Spanish of Spain and the Spanish of Latin America. The main differences between these two are as follows:

~In Castilian, the "c" or "z" before an "i" or "e" is pronounced as a voiceless "th" or "θ", like in the beginning of the word "thing." Latin American Spanish does not do this, and pronounces these letters as "s."

~Castilian Spanish uses an extra verb conjugation, known as the vosotros form. It is a plural "you," as though talking to multiple people directly. The vosotros form is rarely, if ever, used in Latin America.

~In some Latin American countries, speakers tend to drop the last "s" on the ends of words in rapid speech. Thus, the word "los" may end up pronounced more as "lo," with just a hint of air escaping between the teeth afterward. This may happen naturally as your speed of speech increases, but it is not a pronunciation that you need to learn.

There are many other dialects of Spanish, but I am sadly unversed in them. Probably the most prominent of these is Rioplatense, the dialect of Argentina, that uses many words that are not used anywhere else in the Spanish-speaking world. There are also some pronunciation differences, but seeing as I've only been exposed to and educated in Castilian and Latin American Spanish, I'll only be able to teach those.

If the fact that there are multiple dialects makes you nervous (Nervous? Never!) then take this bit of consolation: The differences between Latin American, Castilian, and any of the other Spanish dialects are about as removed from each other as British English, American English, and Australian English. Can you understand all of them? Then you can understand most dialects of Spanish just as easily.

If you'd like some more information on the differences between Latin American and Castilian Spanish:

http://spanish.about.com/cs/historyofspanish/f/varieties.htm

Writing System

Spanish is written using the Latin alphabet, the same as English and many other European languages. The spelling and pronunciation, however, is a bazillion times more regular than English. Pretty much every letter makes one sound. All the time. There are a few exceptions, but they have consistent rules that should take you no time to master.

One of the things that makes Spanish a good second language is the simple fact that it facilitates very punctual and understandable pronunciation. There are very few ambiguities in the pronunciation of words, and if you can recognize the pronunciation of the dialect you are aiming to learn you can understand a speaker very well, even as their speech gets faster. That is one place where Spanish falls a bit short--it is very easy for native or advanced speakers to talk very quickly, which can be quite daunting if you are a beginner. Have no fear, however, once you recognize the words you will find that you understand more and more.

In my next post I'll begin with the pronunciation and grammar lessons! Isn't it exciting??? whee Get ready!

Until next time,

Christopher Locke  

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Alphabet

The Spanish alphabet is very similar to that used in English and many other European languages, as I said before. Here is the full alphabet:

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N Ñ O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
a b c d e f g h i j k l m n ñ o p q r s t u v w x y z

"Ch," "ll" and "rr" used to be considered separate letters, and according to some sources they still are. As you have probably noticed, there is one letter that English does not have, and that is the "Ñ." I'll explain how to pronounce it along with the rest of the letters.

Pronunciation

~Vowels~

A - /ɑ:/ - as in father
E - /e:/ - as in late, without the "ay" diphthong
I - /i:/ - as in free
O - /ɔ:/ - as in lone
U - /u:/ - as in loom

These vowels are almost always pronounced exactly as they are shown above. If there is ever a case where they aren't, I'll be sure to show that. But until then hold fast to the rule that vowels in Spanish always sound the same as they look. There are almost no silent letters, but once again I'll explain that later. Every vowel is pronounced.

~Consonants~

B - /b/ - as in boat
C - /k/ || /s/ || /θ/ - pronounced k as in cat before a, o, and u; pronounced s as in place before e and i in Latin America, pronounced th as in thing in Castilian Spanish
D - /d̪/ - like a d, but with your tongue pressed up against the back of your top teeth, like a mix of d and a voiced th like in the beginning of the word "that"
F - /f/ - as in fill
G - /g/ || /x/ - pronounced g as in goat before a, o, and u; pronounced like a hard h (English doesn't have an equivalent sound) before e and i
H - always silent unless following c, in which case it is pronounced /tʃ/ as in chip
J - /x/ - as a hard h (no equivalent in English), like an h farther back in your throat, with more breath
K - /k/ - only appears in foreign words, as in kilometer
L - /l/ - as in let
M - /m/ - as in man
N - /n/ - as in nice
Ñ - /ɲ/ - as in onion
P - /p/ - as in pig
Q - /k/ - as in king, never appears without a u after it. This u is silent
R - /ɾ/ - like a little tap of your tongue against the plate behind your upper teeth, almost as in better
S - /s/ - as in sing
T - /t̪/ - almost a combination of t and th, just a small tap
V - /b/ - pronounced the same as b
W - no standardized pronunciation, extremely rare, you won't have to worry about this one. If you care, it is pronounced the same as in English, as a sort of oo sound to make diphthongs with
X - /h/ - also very rare, like a very soft h
Y - /i/ - only used to form diphthongs with vowels, as in you
Z - /s/ || /θ/ - pronounced s as in sit in Latin America; pronounced th as in thing in Castilian

Along with these letters, there are a few other pronunciations, of doubled letters, that you need to watch out for:

LL - /i/ || /ʝ/ - generally pronounced as the second part of the diphthong in "fire", as a y type sound. In some dialects, speakers can pronounced it as almost a mix of sh and j. You don't have to worry about this particular pronunciation, just use the first one.
RR - /r/ - a trilled r sound. Some people can't make this sound.

And there you go! Excluding a few (very, very few) spelling differences, words are pronounced as they are spelled and spelled as they are pronounced. Pretty soon you'll get the hang of even the spelling differences, and then you can read anything written in Spanish. Make sure to listen to Spanish as much as possible to get your pronunciations right--Spanish movies, even with subtitles in English, can help you figure out how to pronounce things correctly.

Next comes grammar!

Christopher Locke  

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Beginning Grammar

Hello everyone smile I'm going to be starting the actual grammar teaching here, so get ready. Spanish is quite easy once you get the hang of a few little things, so let's begin!

Nouns and Gender

A noun, as you probably know, is a word that denotes a person, place or thing. Nouns in Spanish fall into two different genders: Masculine and Feminine. The division of these has nothing to do with natural gender, which refers to the gender of nouns that correspond to men, women, etc. The gender of a noun tells you which definite and indefinite articles (the, a, an) to use and the gender of adjectives. Telling the difference between the two is easy, but to start off I'll color code them for you. If you'd like to just follow some rules, here are the general patterns that nouns fall into:

Masculine nouns

I will color-code these as being blue. A masculine noun almost always ends with the following

-o | as in libro (book)
-or | as in vendedor (vendor, seller)
-n | as in cinturón (belt)

There are a few exceptions. I'll get to those when we come across them. Now on to the feminine nouns, which are a bit more complicated.

Feminine Nouns

I will color-code these as being red. A feminine noun usually ends in the following

-a | as in lámpara (lamp)
-ión | as in lección (lesson)
-dad or -tad | as in ciudad (city) or libertad (liberty)
-triz | as in actriz (actress)
-umbre | as in costumbre (custom)

There are a few nouns that don't fall into any of the categories above. There are too many for me to list right here, but I'll make sure to keep the color-coding going so that you don't get confused.

Nouns come, as in English, in either singular or plural form. If there is more than one of something, you use the plural. Easy. In Spanish, to form the plural, you simply add an "s" on to the end of nouns ending in vowels and "es" onto the end of words ending in a consonant. Here are two examples:

gato (cat) turns into gatos (cats)
canción (song) turns into canciónes (songs)

There. That's simple, and there are few if no exceptions. This is also as close to a case ending as Spanish ever gets. biggrin

Now on to the definite and indefinite articles.

In English, we have "the", "a" and "an" as our definite and indefinite articles. They basically say whether the noun that's being referred to has been previously mentioned or not. In Spanish, "the" corresponds to:

el
&
la
in the singular and
los
&
las
in the plural.

El refers to a masculine noun. La refers to feminine nouns. Looking for the el or la before a word can tell you its gender if you don't know it already. The plural refers to multiple nouns. For the sake of my fingers, I won't color-code the "el", "la", "los" or "las" and instead use color on the nouns themselves.

The indefinite articles "a" and "an" are also separated by gender in Spanish. They correspond to the following:

un
&
una
in the singular and
unos
&
unas
in the plural.

They work the same way as the definite articles, corresponding to the masculine and feminine nouns, respectively. The plural, once again, corresponds to the plural nouns. I don't know if I really need examples here. It should be easy to get the hang of.

Okay! That's it for this lesson. In the next one, I'll start talking about verbs, and you can begin to put together sentences in Spanish!

Christopher Locke

(ps. If anyone was confused by the accent marks I used above, the trick for using those is very simple. All words in Spanish, innately, have their accent on the second-to-last syllable. If there is an accent mark over any other vowel, it shows you that the accent in that word does not appear on the second-to-last syllable but instead on the marked vowel. If this is confusing, I can clear it up in the next post.)  

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Pronouns and Verbs

Alright. Now that we've covered how nouns are organized, we can go on to verbs and verb forms. Verbs are the basic building blocks of language, speaking, and showing action. In Spanish, there are, effectively, ten pronouns. All ten may be used in Spain, for Castilian Spanish, but only nine of them are commonly used in Latin America. These ten are:

Yo ( I )
Tú ( You )
Él ( He )
Ella ( She )
Usted/Ud. ( You, formal )
Nosotros/Nosotras ( We, "nosotras" is only used on a group of all girls )
Vosotros/Vosotras ( You, plural, used almost solely in Spain, "vosotras" is only used on a group of all girls )
Ellos ( They, any group with at least one male in it )
Ellas ( They, all female )
Ustedes/Uds. ( You, formal, plural, used in the place of "vosotros" in Latin America )

It seems like a lot to remember, until you look at how they are grouped together. The "Él, Ella and Usted" forms all use the same verb conjugation. The "Ellos, Ellas and Ustedes" forms also use the same verb conjugation.

A verb conjugation is the change in the verb depending on the person who is doing the action. In Spanish, the conjugations are shown by a change in the end of the verb. Here, I'll explain the first kind of verb conjugation, for verbs ending in "ar." I'll mark the ending of these verbs as dark red.

-ar Verbs

bailar (to dance)

The first thing you do is take away the -ar ending. That leaves us with the root "bail". These are the endings that you add on to the end of this root:

yo - o | bailo | I dance.
tú - as | bailas | You dance.
él, ella (and Usted) - a | baila | He/She dances.
nosotros - amos | bailamos | We dance.
vosotros - áis | bailáis | You (plural) dance.
ellos, ellas, Ustedes - an | bailan | They/You (plural) dance.

It is generally optional whether or not you use the pronoun before the verb. "Yo bailo" and "Bailo" both mean exactly the same thing. When you come to the 3rd person verb conjugations, however, it is generally accepted to use the pronoun, so that you can tell whether you're talking about he, she, or a formal "you."

Almost all verbs ending with -ar will use these exact conjugations. There are some irregular verbs, however, that change the endings a little. I'll get to those later. For now, I'll give you a few more verbs to work with.

hablar (to speak)
root - habl
yo | hablo
tú | hablas
él/ella/Ud. | habla
nosotros | hablamos
vosotros | habláis
ellos/ellas/Uds. | hablan

dibujar (to draw)
root - dibuj
yo | dibujo
tú | dibujas
él/ella/Ud. | dibuja
nosotros | dibujamos
vosotros | dibujáis
ellos/ellas/Uds. | dibujan

estudiar (to study)
root - estudi
yo | estudio
tú | estudias
él/ella/Ud. | estudia
nosotros | estudiamos
vosotros | estudiáis
ellos/ellas/Uds. | estudian

comprar (to buy)
root - compr
yo | compro
tú | compras
él/ella/Ud. | compra
nosotros | compramos
vosotros | compráis
ellos/ellas/Uds. | compran

trabajar (to work)
root - trabaj
yo | trabajo
tú | trabajas
él/ella/Ud. | trabaja
nosotros | trabajamos
vosotros | trabajáis
ellos/ellas/Uds. | trabajan

...and so on. Beware, however, that there are a few irregular verbs that change in ways that may seem odd at first. These verbs change some of the vowels within the word itself. I'll go through those in the next post, and then through the other forms of verbs, ones ending in -er and -ir.

Now, you can form simple sentences. Here is one:

Yo compro un gato.

If you look up to my last post about nouns, you'll see that gato means "cat", and that it is masculine. Thus, if you were to say "a cat" it would be "un gato. Compro is the "yo" form of the verb comprar. Thus, it means "I buy."

The sentence "Yo compro un gato" (or, alternatively, simply "Compro un gato"), means "I buy a cat."

Another, possibly more useful sentence you can now form is:

Yo hablo español.

Meaning, as you probably know, "I speak Spanish." whee

Now you can form a complete thought! Using some of the other verbs, it is possible to make quite a few sentences. Unfortunately, some of the most commonly used verbs, for "to be", "to go", etc, are quite irregular, we we'll get to those later. For now, work with the -ar verbs.

Christopher Locke  

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Irregular -ar Verbs

In the last lesson, I showed you how to conjugate verbs ending in -ar, but those conjugations were for regular verbs. There are a few irregular ones, and I'll talk about a couple types of those today.

O > UE

The verbs I'll be showing you change not only the ending of the verb when conjugated, but a vowel in the middle as well. One kind of these verbs changes a "o" in the middle of the verb to a "ue" in the yo, tú, él/ella/Ud. and ellos/ellas/Uds. forms. The nosotros and vosotros forms stay the same. It may seem complicated, but it's really very easy. Here is an example of the "o > ue" change.

contar (to count, to rely)
root - cuent/cont
yo | cuento
tú | cuentas
él/ella/Ud. | cuenta
nosotros | contamos
vosotros | contáis
ellos/ellas/Uds. | cuentan

As you can see, the "o" in the stem changes to a "ue" for certain conjugations. The pronunciation is just a *tiny* bit different from how the word is spelled, however. The word, for example, cuento (I count), instead of being pronounced "cooayntoh" is pronounced "kwento" with the "u" and "e" making a diphthong. I know I'm nitpicking with the details here, but this is the more accurate pronunciation.

E > IE

The second set of irregular verbs changes an "e" in the middle of the verb to an "ie" in the same conjugations as above. Here is an example of that:

empezar (to start, to begin)
root - empiez/empez
yo | empiezo
tú | empiezas
él/ella/Ud. | empieza
nosotros | empezamos
vosotros | empezáis
ellos/ellas/Uds. | empiezan

This time, however, the "ie" doesn't make a diphthong, like the "ue" did. It remains two separate sounds, so, "I begin" will sound like "empeeaysoh". Just as it is spelled. biggrin

U > UE

This group is like the above "o > ue" verbs, but instead of changing an "o" to the "ue" it changes a "u" in the verb instead. Here is an example of this kind of change:

jugar (to play; sports, games, etc.)
root - jueg/jug
yo | juego
tú | juegas
él/ella/Ud. | juega
nosotros | jugamos
vosotros | jugáis
ellos/ellas/Uds. | juegan

Once again, the "ue" makes a diphthong. There are not as many of the "u > ue" verbs as there are "o > ue" verbs, but there are a few that are quite important.

These are very easy to get the hang of, but you should always make sure you know if a verb is irregular like this before you use it. There are some quite unexpected ones that pop up now and then, but most dictionaries will tell you how a verb is conjugated, if only for the first form or two.

Okay, in the next lesson I'm going to start with the next group of regular verbs, ones ending in -er. Maybe soon I'll start a new thread with vocabulary.

Christopher Locke  

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Regular -er Verbs

You've learned about the first class of verbs in Spanish: the -ar verbs. They are one of three types of verbs, -ar, -er and -ir. The -er verbs are very similar to the ones we looked at before, and pretty much entail only one vowel change throughout. Here is an example:

correr (to run)
root - corr
yo | corro
tú | corres
él/ella/Ud. | corre
nosotros | corremos
vosotros | corréis
ellos/ellas/Uds. | corren

As you can see, the only real change throughout the entire verb is that the "a" found in the -ar ones changes to an "e". This is the only change in the entire chart. That's easy, right? You don't have to memorize any new endings, just replace any "a"s with "e"s.

Here are a few more useful -er verbs:

comer (to eat)
root - com
yo | como
tú | comes
él/ella/Ud. | come
nosotros | comemos
vosotros | coméis
ellos/ellas/Uds. | comen

beber (to drink)
root - beb
yo | bebo
tú | bebes
él/ella/Ud. | bebe
nosotros | bebemos
vosotros | bebéis
ellos/ellas/Uds. | beben

creer (to believe)
root - cre
yo | creo
tú | crees
él/ella/Ud. | cree
nosotros | creemos
vosotros | creéis
ellos/ellas/Uds. | creen

leer (to read)
root - le
yo | leo
tú | lees
él/ella/Ud. | lee
nosotros | leemos
vosotros | leéis
ellos/ellas/Uds. | leen

vender (to sell)
root - vend
yo | vendo
tú | vendes
él/ella/Ud. | vende
nosotros | vendemos
vosotros | vendéis
ellos/ellas/Uds. | venden

Regular -ir Verbs

The -ir verbs are almost identical to the -er verbs in their conjugations. In fact, there are only two changes in the regular forms. They change for the same pronouns that the irregular -ar verbs changed for. Here is an example of the -ir conjugation:

vivir (to live)
root - viv
yo | vivo
tú | vives
él/ella/Ud. | vive
nosotros | vivimos
vosotros | vivís
ellos/ellas/Uds. | viven

The only differences from the -er verbs are that in the "nosotros" and "vosotros" forms, the vowel changes from an "e" to an "i", give or take. The "i" in the "vosotros" form will always take an accent for regular verbs.

Here are a few more useful -ir verbs:

escribir (to write)
root - escrib
yo | escribo
tú | escribes
él/ella/Ud. | escribe
nosotros | escribimos
vosotros | escribís
ellos/ellas/Uds. | escriben

recibir (to recieve)
root - recib
yo | recibo
tú | recibes
él/ella/Ud. | recibe
nosotros | recibimos
vosotros | recibís
ellos/ellas/Uds. | reciben

descubrir (to discover)
root - descubr
yo | descubro
tú | descubres
él/ella/Ud. | descubre
nosotros | descubrimos
vosotros | descubrís
ellos/ellas/Uds. | descubren

Like the -er verbs, the -ir verbs have many irregularities, making it hard to post any useful regular verbs. In the next post, I'll explain the irregularities in these two forms. Then I will post a lesson explaining the most common (and quite irregular) verbs that appear in Spanish. That will wrap up the section on verbs in the present tense, but we won't go into too many fancy other tenses yet. I hope the light blue isn't too hard to see for long periods of time razz If it is, I'll change it to another color.

Christopher Locke  

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Irregular -er and -ir Verbs

Hey, sorry this lesson has taken so long! School is being a pain in my rear end, but now I have come back to give this to all you lovely people!

I showed you the regular forms of the last two kinds of verbs in the last lesson, and now I'll show you the irregular forms. There are probably more irregular forms than regular ones (imagine that) and many of them are very useful. The -ir verbs have more than one kind of irregularity, so you may need to watch out for those. Once you get the hang of which verbs are irregular and which aren't it becomes very easy, however.

YO - GO

The -er verbs (and some -ir ones) have a very interesting way of changing for the present tense. A very, very frequent example of this is the verb tener, which means "to have." It is used very regularly and is an important word to know. Not only does it have a different yo ending, it also follows the E>IE rule from back with the irregular -ar verbs. Here are the conjugations, the irregular and strange "yo" form in bold:

tener (to have)
root - tien, ten
yo | tengo
tú | tienes
él/ella/Ud. | tiene
nosotros | tenemos
vosotros | tenéis
ellos/ellas/Uds. | tienen

As you can see, the yo form includes a very strange "go" at the end. This happens in certain select verbs, and most of the time you’ll just have to learn which ones. Here are a few more of the yo-go verbs:

poner (to put)
root - pon
yo | pongo
tú | pones
él/ella/Ud. | pone
nosotros | ponemos
vosotros | ponéis
ellos/ellas/Uds. | ponen

salir (to leave, to go away)
root - sal
yo | salgo
tú | sales
él/ella/Ud. | sale
nosotros | salimos
vosotros salís
ellos/ellas/Uds. | salen

Another extremely important verb is hacer, which is "to make, to do." It is used very regularly, and I may even dedicate an entire post to it, like I plan to with tener. Hacer is another yo-go verb, and here is its conjugation:

hacer (to do, to make)
root - ha, hac
yo | hago
tú | haces
él/ella/Ud. | hace
nosotros | hacemos
vosotros | hacéis
ellos/ellas/Uds. | hacen

E > I

The next irregularity in -er and -ir verbs is another vowel change one. In some verbs, mostly -ir ones, an "e" in the middle of the verb will change to an "i" for all forms except the nosotros and vosotros. This is a very simple but important change. Here are a few examples:

servir (to serve)
root - sirv, serv
yo | sirvo
tú | sirves
él/ella/Ud. | sirve
nosotros | servimos
vosotros | servís
ellos/ellas/Uds. | sirven

repetir (to repeat)
root - repit, repet
yo | repito
tú | repites
él/ella/Ud. | repite
nosotros | repetimos
vosotros repetís
ellos/ellas/Uds. | repiten

Now that you know how to do both the E>I and the yo-go irregular changes, you can conjugate another verb that is used quite regularly. This verb is decir, and it means "to say." Here are the conjugations:

decir (to say)
root - di, dec, dic
yo | digo
tú | dices
él/ella/Ud. | dice
nosotros | decimos
vosotros | decís
ellos/ellas/Uds. | dicen

Other Irregular Forms

Okay! Now you know the two new irregular conjugations of verbs! Many -er and -ir verbs follow the same irregularities as the -ar verbs did. There are a few verbs, like tener up above, that change according to the E>IE patterns. Instead of conjugating them here for you, I'll let you try these. Here two for you to conjugate:

querer (to want) <--important verb!
root - quier, quer

entender (to understand) <--second "e" changes
root - entiend, entend

The -er and -ir verbs can also change according to the O>UE rules. Once again, I'll let you try these on your own:

poder (to be able) <--VERY VERY IMPORTANT
root - pued, pod

volver (to return, to go back)
root - vuelv, volv

In the next post I hope to go through some more irregular verbs (when am I ever going to stop?) that don't follow any of the generalized rules above. Then I'm going to come to the most important verbs in the entire language! Then we may just be done with these handy little parts of speech. What can I say? I like them wink

Christopher Locke  

[gravitybutton]

Hey! I know it's been so long (months!) since I last posted something, and I wish I could blame something other than myself. I have been very busy, but now I shall come back with another lesson! Haha!

The Most Important Verbs

In Spanish, like in English, there are a few verbs that are used the most frequently and are necessary for some grammatical features of the language. One of the very important verbs was the verb tener, as I showed you in the last lesson. It is used quite frequently, as is poder. Possibly the three most important verbs to know in the language are:

ser
estar
ir

All of these verbs are irregular, which makes them a bit hard for someone just learning. If you can memorize their conjugations and practice to the point where it is natural, however, they become very easy. Here are the conjugations in the present tense:

ser (to be, as in permanently)
root - no single root
yo | soy
tú | eres
él/ella/Ud. | es
nosotros | somos
vosotros | sois
ellos/ellas/Uds. | son

estar (to be, as in location or state of being)
root - est
yo | estoy
tú | estás
él/ella/Ud. | está
nosotros | estamos
vosotros | estáis
ellos/ellas/Uds. | están

As you can see, estar has accents over most of the conjugations. These are necessary in order for the word to be correct. Also, you've probably noticed that ser and estar both mean "to be." In Spanish, the word for "to be" changes depending on the situation. I'll explain all that in a second. Here are the conjugations for ir:

ir (to go)
root - none
yo | voy
tú | vas
él/ella/Ud. | va
nosotros | vamos
vosotros | vais
ellos/ellas/Uds. | van

Ir, when in the present tense, seems to conjugate almost exactly like an -ar verb, minus the accent on the vosotros form and the entire yo form. If you remember that, remembering the conjugations will be a lot easier.

The Difference Between Ser and Estar

Ser and estar both mean "to be." There are, however, differences in their meanings. They cannot be used interchangeably. Here are some general guidelines as to the uses of these verbs.

Ser

-When referring to a physical or personality trait in a noun, a.k.a. description (El perro es pequeño*/The dog is small)
-When referring to nationality or place of origin (or profession) (Él es de España/He is from Spain)
-When referring to time or dates (La fiesta es a la una/The party is at 1:00)
-Possession (Es mi manzana/It's my apple)

Estar

-When referring to location (La computadora está encima de la mesa/The computer is on top of the table)
-When referring to the temporary condition of something (Estoy triste/I'm sad)

The rules are very easy, and once you learn them you may start wondering why we don't have two words for them in English (at least, I wonder that).

Now you know what are possibly the most important verbs in the entire language. I'll start getting into more grammar besides verbs in my next post, which will hopefully come a lot sooner than this one did!

Christopher Locke

*I'm going to introduce adjectives soon, and they will be purple with an ending that corresponds to their gender. Like many other parts of Spanish grammar, the gender of an adjective is generally the same as that of the word it is describing.