Adjectives

In English, adjectives, such as red, large, or strong – are placed before the noun. In Spanish,

on the other hand, the adjectives are placed behind the noun.

Therefore in English, a red car becomes a carro rojo. A large house becomes a casa grande.

Adjectives agree in both number and gender of the object they are describing. Therefore, a red

car, carro rojo, suddenly becomes red cars – carros rojos. If the object was feminine, the

ending would change as well. Red table, Mesa roja, becomes red tables – mesas rojas.

If the adjectives ends in an “e” – like “grande” – you do not need to do anything for the gender

of the object. But you would still need to do something to make it plural – so large house, casa

grande, becomes large houses – casas grandes.

Commands

Commands are used to tell people what to do, as in stand here, raise your hand, or sit down.

In Spanish, there are 4 ways to make commands – formal and informal, singular and plural.

For the sake of ease, we will just stick with formal, singular commands – as most likely, you will

be talking to one person at a time – and often with people that you do not know well.

I will demonstrate with 3 verbs – an ar, er, and ir verb.

There are 3 main steps to making a command in Spanish:

Start with the yo form of the present tense. (So take off the ending and an “o”.)

Then drop the -o ending.

Finally, add the new endings: For ar verbs, add an -e and for er and ir verbs, and an a. So now

you have tome, coma, and escriba.

This formula also works with irregular verbs. The key is to have it conjugated to the “yo” form

first.

Next, drop the –o ending. Notice that the irregular stem is still there.

Then add your new endings, so now you have tenga, diga, and ponga.

The key here is to not get overwhelmed, but to have a better understanding of written

commands and why they are that way.

Comparisons

In English, we often use the letters “-er” at the end of word to compare to objects, such as

smaller, prettier, or nicer.

In Spanish, we follow a different formula. We say something is “more than” (más que) or “less

than” (menos que) when we are comparing two different objects. For example, la chica es mas

grande que el chico. The girl is larger than the boy.

El caballo blanco es menos rápido que el caballo castaño.

The white horse is slower (“less fast”) than the brown horse.

Let’s say that you want to compare things that are the same. This formula is a bit different.

You would say, “Tan” plus your adverb or adjective, followed by como. Such as El chico es tan

grande como el otro chico.

The boy is as large as the other boy.

El caballo blanco es tan rápido como el caballo castaño.

The white horse is as fast as the brown horse.

In summary, here are your main formulas when comparing objects.

Definite and Indefinite Articles

In Spanish, all nouns are either “masculine” or “feminine.” This has nothing to do with the

word’s gender, but rather how the words are classified in the language.

Most nouns end in either an “o” (for masculine items), or an “a” (for feminine items)

In front of each noun, you know if it is feminine or masculine depending on what kind of

“definite article” it has in front – el, la, los, or las.

If a noun is singular (meaning there is only one of the item) and it is masculine, use “el” – such

as el chico (the boy) or el libro (the book).

To make these plural (more than one), change the “el” to “los” and add an “s” to the nouns –

such as los chicos (the boys) or los libros (the books).

If a noun is singular and it is feminine, use “la” – such as la chica (the girl) or la mesa (the

table).

To make these plural, change the “la” to “las” and add an “s” to the nouns – such as las

chicas (the girls) or las mesas (the tables).

There are also such a thing as “indefinite articles”. Definite articles, as a review, meant “the.”

Indefinite articles may translate to “a”, “an”, or “some”.

If a noun is singular and it is masculine, use “un” – such as un chico (a boy) or un libro (a

book). To make these plural, change the “un” to “unos” and add an “s” to the nouns – such as

unos

chicos (some boys) or unos libros (some books).

If a noun is singular and it is feminine, use “una” – such as una chica (a girl) or una mesa (a

table).

To make these plural, change the “una” to “unas” and add an “s” to the nouns – such as unas

chicas (some girls) or

unas mesas (some tables).

There are exceptions to these rules, such as “un día” (one day) and “la mano” (the hand), but

overall, looking at the end of the word will help you to determine which one to choose: “el”

versus ”la” , “un” versus “una”

Definite Articles

In Spanish, all nouns are either “masculine” or “feminine.”

Most nouns end in either an “o” (for masculine items), or an “a” (for feminine items)

In front of each noun, you know if it is feminine or masculine depending on what kind of

“definite article” it has in front – el, la, los, or las.

If a noun is singular (meaning there is only one of the item) and it is masculine, use “el” – such

as el chico (the boy) or el libro (the book).

To make these plural (more than one), change the “el” to “los” and add an “s” to the nouns –

such as los chicos (the boys) or los libros (the books).

If a noun is singular and it is feminine, use “la” – such as la chica (the girl) or La Mesa (the

table).

To make these plural, change the “la” to “las” and add an “s” to the nouns – such as las

chicas (the girls) or las mesas (the tables).

There are exceptions to these rules, such as “el día” (one day) and “la mano” (the hand), but

overall, looking at the end of the word will help you to determine which one to choose: “el”

versus ”la” .

Demonstrative Adjectives

Demonstrative Adjectives is a fancy way of saying this, these, that or those. We use them to

indicate what we are talking about.

There are two words in Spanish to say “This”, when referring to something close to you – este

and esta. It depends on the gender of the noun.

Likewise, there are two words in Spanish to say “That”, when referring to something farther

away – ese and esa. It also depends on the gender of the noun.

If your object is plural in English, this turns into these. It also changes in Spanish – este

becomes estos and esta becomes estas.

The same happens to that word “that” – it becomes “those” when the object is plural. Ese

becomes esos and esa becomes esas.

Direct Object Pronouns

A direct object is an object that receives the action of the verb.

For example, I kick the ball – the ball is the direct object – as it receives the action of the verb.

You can replace the word “ball” here by the word “it”. The “it” is the direct object pronoun.

Notice that in English, the “it” is placed AFTER the verb kick.

In Spanish, our direct object pronouns, me, te, lo, la, nos, los, and las. They are placed

BEFORE the verb.

For example: I eat the taco. The word el taco is masculine in Spanish, so you would choose

the pronoun “lo”. And remember, it is placed BEFORE the verb.

Now let’s say the item is plural. Instead of lo, it becomes los. – Yo los como. – I eat them.

Let's say you have a feminine object, such the key-la llave. In sentence form, you could say,

Yo necesito la llave. Because "la llave" is feminine, the direct object pronoun of "it" becomes

"la" – therefore, yo la necesito.

Now this object is plural. The direct object pronouns goes from “la” to “las” – so the sentence

is no Yo las necesito.

Using our remaining three direct object pronouns, we can say, ella me ve, yo te veo, and ellos

now ven. Keep in mind that the subject pronouns are always optional, so we could just say,

“me ve”, “te veo”, and “nos ven.” It will get easier with time as you start to see the patterns.

Just remember that the direct object pronouns is placed BEFORE the verb.

Doler

The verb “doler” means “to hurt” and can be a very useful word in Spanish – but it is a bit tricky

until you get the pattern down.

First of all, it is a stem-changing verb, where the o changes to a ue.

To ask the question, where does it hurt?, you will say “Donde le duele? The “le” in this case

means you? You may also get the question “Que le duele?”

To answer that question, say “me duele ___” and then the body part. When you are saying the

body part, don’t forget the definite article – or the el, la, los, or las.

Let’s say that your doctor asks “Le duelen los oídos? Notice now that a “n” was added to the

end of the word. That is because he is asking about ears – which are plural – or more than

one.

To answer this, say, “Sí, me duelen los oídos” – keeping the n on the end. The verb dolor is not

that difficult once you understand how it works. As with anything, it just takes practice!

Easy Future Tense Verbs

Expressing the future tense is actually quite easy in Spanish. We are going to learn how to say

“going to” in Spanish – and then just add on whatever verb we need.

Here’s the basic construction. Ir + a + infinitive. The verb “ir” means “to go” – which is

different than verbs that end in –ir. It conjugates as voy, vas, va, vamos, van.

So how would you express the future and say, “I am going to eat.” Let’s following the formula.

First, choose the yo form of ir, followed by the letter a, and then the infinitive – or the whole

verb of what you want to do. You now have “Yo voy a comer.” Remember that the pronouns

are always optional, so you could just say “voy a comer.”

How would you say “You are going to dance”? First, choose the correct form of “ir”, then a,

then the word to dance – bailar.

To say “she is going to talk” – say “va a hablar.”

You may have heard the word “vamos” before – meaning “let’s go.” To say, “we are going to

study” – we would say “vamos a estudiar.”

Finally, if there were a group of females that was planning on playing soccer, you would say,

“van a jugar fútbol.” And that’s all there is to it! The key is to just know how to conjugate the

verb “ir”.

Easy Past Tense Verbs

Now that you have seen how to conjugate verbs in the present tense, let’s put that same

formula together for past tense verbs. Remember, this is what I call the “easy” past tense.

There are harder past tenses, which are actually more common, but like I said, they are much

harder to master! So we’ll stick with this for now.

Once again, it all goes back to the subject pronouns. You need to know who you are talking

about before you can conjugate the verb.

First we need to conjugate the verb “haber” – which means “to have” – as in to have done

something. We will use these forms for all of our easy past tense constructions. Remember

that the “h” is silent, so they are pronounced, he, has, ha, hemos, han.

Now we decide who is doing the action, so choose a subject. As I am I doing the talking, we

will stick with the “yo” form.

Now we need to decide what the action, or verb is, that we want to express. Here we have

verbs in all 3 endings - ar, er, and ir verb.

Just like in the present tense verb conjugation, we are going to take off the ending.

Now we are doing to add the new ending. For –ar verbs, add –ado, For –er and –ir verbs, and

–ido.

Let’s add our form of “haber” together now with the 2nd verb – our action. We have he

hablado, he comido, and he vivido.

Feelings

Feelings are adjectives and adjectives in Spanish are a bit different than in English. In English,

we place the adjective before the noun. In Spanish, we place it after the noun.

For example, a “happy friend” is an amigo contento and a bored girl is a chica aburrida. Notice

how they agree in gender in these examples.

When you make these phrases plural, notice how the endings change. O becomes os, and “a”

becomes “as”

If you wanted to say, he is angry, the adjective would still agree in gender. Notice what

happens when the subject is feminine, as in she is calm, – the endings also change. Also note

that the verb that we use here is “estar” = which is used for temporary conditions, like feelings,

that can change.

Now let's make these plural. Not only do the endings of the words change, the verb also

changes – from is – or está in Spanish to are – or están in Spanish.

Indefinite Articles

As a review, in Spanish, all nouns are either “masculine” or “feminine.”

When we learned about definite articles, Most nouns end in either an “o” (for masculine items),

or an “a” (for feminine items)

Remember that there are 4 ways to say “the” in Spanish - depending on what kind of “definite

article” it has in front – el, la, los, or las.

There are also such a thing as “indefinite articles”. Indefinite articles may translate to “a”, “an”,

or “some”.

If a noun is singular and it is masculine, use “un” – such as un chico (a boy) or un libro (a

book).

To make these plural, change the “un” to “unos” and add an “s” to the nouns – such as unos

chicos (some boys) or unos libros (some books).

If a noun is singular and it is feminine, use “una” – such as una chica (a girl) or una mesa (a

table).

To make these plural, change the “una” to “unas” and add an “s” to the nouns – such as unas

chicas (some girls) or

unas mesas (some tables).

There are exceptions to these rules, such as “un día” (one day) and “una mano” (the hand), but

overall, looking at the end of the word will help you to determine which one to choose: ““un”

versus “una”.

Irregular Verbs

As in most languages, there will be verbs that do not seem to follow any of the rules. Irregular

verbs are verbs that violate conjugation rules and do not fall into any of the stem-

changing or spelling-changing categories. And unfortunately, these are usually the most useful

and regularly used words in the language!

Some verbs are irregular in the “yo” form only – such as the verb “saber”. You may recognize

it from a previous Spanish class as “no sé” – meaning “I don’t know.”

Other verbs that fall into this category are dar, hacer, poner, traer, and ver.

Some verbs are just irregular all the way around. This list includes “ser” – meaning to be, as in

Yo soy una chica and Ellos son amables.

Another word that means “to be” – but is used for temporary conditions, like feelings and

locations, is the verb “estar”. For example, tu estas in Mexico and el está contento.

While there are others, the last main verb that is completely irregular, and one of the most

useful, is the verb – ir. Meaning “to go.” For example, ella va a la escuela and nosotros vamos

a Nueva York.

In summary, know that irregular verbs – or verbs that do not follow the general conjugation

plan – do indeed exist. It will take time to get used to, but luckily, they are some of the more

common verbs in Spanish, so you will be seeing them again and again!

Naming System

While many Spanish-speakers have adopted the traditional United States way of last names,

many will keep their birth names and traditions from their home countries. Let me explain how

this works, which may help you in how you file or even find Spanish-speakers in your system.

In the U.S., people off go by

First Name, Middle Name, Last Name

(U.S. women often change their last name when they get married)

In many Latin American countries, they use:

First Name, 1st/Father’s Last Name, 2nd/Mother’s Last Name

For example, if you meet Juan Martínez Gomez, his first name is Juan, and:

Martínez is Juan’s father’s last name (NOT his middle name)

Gomez is Juan’s mother’s last name

Let’s say you meet Ana María Hernandez Lopez. Her entire first name is Ana María. (Maria is

not considered her middle name, but part of her first name).

Hernandez is Ana’s father’s last name (NOT her middle name)

Lopez is Ana’s mother’s last name

Let’s say Juan Martínez Gomez marries Ana Hernandez Lopez*

What would their child, Lupe, be named?

Lupe Martínez Hernandez (the father’s name is always carried down).

Martinez is Lupe’s father’s last name name. Hernandez is Lupe’s mother’s Last Name.

Now let’s see if you can figure out your name if you were born in a Spanish-speaking country.

While some countries have a different system yet, as in taking the husband’s last name and

using a “de” in front of it, hopefully this gives you a better sense how some Spanish-speakers

are named.

Possessive Adjectives

Possessive adjectives are used to show ownership.

There are 4 main possessive adjectives in Spanish – mi, tu, su, and nuestro. “Su” could mean

his/her/your, or their. While initially it seems confusing, you would know in context what you

are referring to.

To express possession of an object, all you do is put the possessive adjective, mi, tu, su, or

nuestro, in front of the object.

If your object is plural, all you would do is add an “s” to both words. Mi, tu and su do not have

masculine and feminine forms. They stay the same, regardless of the gender of the nouns they

modify.

Present Progressive Tense

The Present Progressive Tense is a great tense – because it is fairly easy! Basically, this is the

“ing”, such as running, walking, and talking, in Spanish.

First we need is the form of “estar” – which means “to be”. This is your “I am, he is, we are,”

etc. part of our phrase.

Next, we need a verb. We’ll choose one of each – an ar, er, and ir verb.

Now we remove the endings of the verb.

Now we add our new ending. For ar verbs, add – ando. For –er verbs, and iendo.

Finally, we put it all together, combining the form of estar with our new verb.

Present Tense Verbs

One of the most difficult parts of learning Spanish is learning how to conjugate verbs. Don’t

worry if this doesn’t make sense yet. Just take in what you can now and come back later to

see if more will sink in.

First, let’s start with a review of our Subject Pronouns. You will need to know these in order to

conjugate verbs.

Now, let's at look these pronouns in a different way – in one long column. Notice that I have

now also added another column – which are our new verb endings. The first thing we need is a

verb that ends in –ar, such as hablar.

Let’s take off the last two letters, the –ar ending, so now we are left with the root of the verb.

Now we are going to decide who is doing the talking. In this case, I am doing the talking – or

“yo” in Spanish.

For “yo”, we see that the ending is “o”, so all we do is just add the “o” to the end of the verb

and there you have it! That is all there is to verb conjugation!

The same happens for –er verbs. Notice how similar the patterns are. First, find an –er verb.

Take off it’s ending, find out who the subject is, then add on the new ending.

The process is identical for verbs that end in –ir. Find an –ir verb. Take off it’s ending, find out

who the subject is, then add on the new ending.

In summary, let’s look at all 3 verbs side-by-side – the ar, er, and ir verbs. Notice that the only

difference between er and ir verbs is just in nosotros! While this is hard to get down initially,

eventually you will start seeing the pattern. Remember – poco a poco…or little by little – it will

start to become easier.

Preterite and Imperfect Tenses

One of the harder concepts in Spanish is determining which form of the past tense to use –

preterite or imperfect. Both express the past tense – but in different ways.

Let’s first look briefly at the conjugations of each one. First, the Preterite Tense. Notice that

verbs that end in –er and –ir have the same endings.

Now for the imperfect tense. Once again, notice that verbs that end in –er and –ir have the

same endings. The point of this tutorial is not to get you to memorize these endings at this

time, but rather for you to have a sense of how these two tenses are used.

So let’s start with the Preterite. When would you use this? When an action has completed or

has a definite ending point. For example, ayer llamé a mi mama. Yesterday, I call my mother.

This action had a definite beginning and ending point, yesterday, and the action was complete.

I am no longer talking with my mother.

Let’s compare this to the imperfect tense. The imperfect tense happened in the past, but it was

ongoing without a definite beginning and ending point. For example, Cuando era niña, llamaba

a mis abuelos cada sábado – when I was a girl, I used to call my grandparents every Saturday.

Let's look at some more examples. The first examples in each set are in the preterite form,

because they had a dfinite beginning and ending point and came to a conclusion. The 2nd

sentences in the imperfect form talked about things that used to happen – without a definite

beginning and ending point.

Reflexive Verbs

Reflexive verbs are things that you do yourself. Many daily routines are reflexive verbs, like

waking up, brushing your teeth, and combing your hair. These are all things that you do

yourself without the help of others. Any verb that ends in “se” is reflexive.

This first thing you need to do is to review the endings of –ar, -er, and -ir verbs. These are all

conjugated to present tense.

Next, you need to be aware of the reflexive pronouns – me, te, se, nos, and se.

Now, let’s put these together. There are two main steps to conjugating a Reflexive Verb.

Step 1: Pretend the se at the end of the verb doesn't exist, and conjugate the verb just like

you normally would – using the table to the left.

Let’s take the word “lavarse” as our example.

Step 2: Figure out which person (yo, tú, él, ella, usted, nosotros, ellos, ellas, or ustedes) is

doing the action. Then change the se accordingly. – using the table to the left. Notice that

these pronouns go before the verb.

Now let’s see how this works with an –er reflexive verb like

Step 2: Figure out which person (yo, tú, él, ella, usted, nosotros, ellos, ellas, or ustedes) is

doing the action. Then change the se accordingly. – using the table to the left. We are now

going to be the pronoun in front of the verb

The same happens for an ir verb. In this case, sentirse is a stem-changing verb, so the stem

also changes.

Spanish Alphabet

Did you know that the Spanish language used to have 30 letters in its alphabet? Did you also

know that the Spanish language does not have any words native to the language that include

the letters W and K? That’s right! All of the words in Spanish that have these two letters are

actually foreign words that have become a part of the language.

At one time, there were 30 letters in the Spanish alphabet – where you could find separate

entries in a dictionary. These included our traditional 26 letters, but also 4 more – the “ch”,

“ll”, “ñ”, and “rr”. Several years ago, the RAE Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) decided that 3

letters would no longer be treated as separate letters in dictionaries, and only the “ñ” now

remains. So now we have 27 letters in the Spanish alphabet!

There are also 2 letters that are not native to the Spanish language. Let's start with the letter

W. This may explain why there are at least 4 different ways to say W. Depending on where

you studied Spanish beforehand, you may have learned to pronounce W as uve doble, ve doble,

doble ve, or even doble u.

K, or kah, also has foreign origins. Some examples include kilo, karate, and the country of

Kenya – Kenia.

Hopefully this answers some of your questions regarding the Spanish alphabet and how you

may have learned it differently in the past.

Stem-Changing Verbs

Stem-changing verbs are a kind of verb where the spelling and pronunciation change in the

main part of the verb.

They are similar to regular verbs in that they have the same endings.

What makes them different, however, is that the vowels in the main part of the verb – the stem

– or root – changes. For example – tener becomes tiene and poder becomes puede.

While you will need to memorize these, luckily, they fall into common categories. Let’s first look

at the e – ie category. These verbs change in all of the conjugation forms except nosotros –

where it stays the same. This is true of all stem-changing verbs. They do NOT change in the

nosotros form.

Some other common verbs that fall into the e to ie category includes:

There is also a category where the stem of the verb changes from e to i. Once again, .hese

verbs change in all of the conjugation forms except nosotros – where it stays the same.

Some other common verbs that fall into the e to i category include:

Our last stem-changing category is the o to ue category. Like the other stem-changing

categories, these verbs change in all of the conjugation forms except nosotros – where it stays

the same.

Some other common verbs that fall into the o to ue category include.

In summary, the stem-changing verbs fall into 3 categories: e to ie, e to I, and o to ue. With

time and practice, it will become more natural and you will start to pick it up and see the

patterns.

Subject Pronouns

Subject pronouns are words that describe who is doing the action. In English, these include:

me, you, him, her, us, and them.

In Spanish, it is sometimes helpful to think of the pronouns divided up by singular or plural. For

the singular pronouns – or pronouns that just involved one person, there is the yo, tu, el, ella,

and usted. Notice that I put the el, ella, and usted together. This will be helpful later is we

begin verb conjugation. Also notice that there are two “you’s” – the tu and the usted. The tu is

for people that are your age or you know well, and the usted is for people that are older or who

you are just meeting and want to show respect to.

For the plural pronouns – or pronouns that involve two or more people, there is the nosotros,

vosotros, ellos, ellas, and ustedes. Once again, notice that I put the ellos, ellas, and ustedes

together. This will be helpful later during verb conjugation. Also notice that there are two “you

all’s”. We will concentrate on the ustedes version, as the vosotros is only used in Spain. Do

you see the ellos and ellas? Both conjugate to “they”. But ellas is used ONLY if “they” are all

females. If the group is all male or a mix of female and male, use ellos.

One main difference you will note between English and Spanish pronouns is that pronouns are

always optional in Spanish. In English, you must use the word “I” in the sentence I have a cat.

In Spanish, you can either say “yo tengo un gato” or just “tengo un gato.” In fact, most native

speakers leave them out most of the time and only use them for emphasis.

Telling Time

Be able to ask the time and tell the time is a great skill to have in Spanish and will help in many

situations.

¿Qué hora es?

What time is it?

For times in the 1 o’clock hour, use:

Es la una (It is 1:00)

OR

Es la una y _________. (It is 1:_ _ )

(Example: Es la una y veinte = 1:20)

For all other times, use:

Son las _____ (It is _ :00)

(Example: Son las tres = 3:00)

OR

Son las _____ y _____. (It is _ : _ _)

(Example: Son las cuatro y diez = 4:10)

To say what time it is, you simply say the hour, then add the minutes.

For example, 8:15

Son las ocho y quince.

OR

Son las ocho y cuarto.

10:30

Son las diez y treinta

OR

Son las diez y media.

If you want to express a time after the half an hour, you say the upcoming hour minus the

minutes.

For example:12:45

Es la una menos quince.

It is 1 o’clock minus 15 minutes.

3:53

Son las cuatro menos siete.

It is 4 o’clock minus 7 minutes.

Here’s some more useful vocabulary:

15 minutes (ex: 2:15) = cuarto (literally means “quarter”)

30 minutes (ex: 2:30) = media (literally means “half”)

Midnight = medianoche (literally means “half/middle night”)

Noon = mediodía (literally means “half/middle day”)

In the morning = de la mañana

In the afternoon = de la tarde

In the evening = de la noche

NOTA: 24 – Hour Clock

Many Spanish-speaking countries use the 24-hour clock for travel times and appointments to

avoid confusion.

Por ejemplo:

13:00 = 1 pm, 18:30 = 6:30 pm

(Subtract 12 from the time to find the PM time)

Two Verbs Together

Whenever you have two verbs coming together, the first one is conjugated and the second one

stays in the infinitive form.

Let me explain this a little better. Let’s say that you want write the phrase “I need to study.”

You know that the verb “to need” is necesitar and “to study” is “estudiar.”

First, you need to conjugate the first verb – necesitar for the pronoun “I”. If you remember

your conjugations, the ending for “yo” is an “o” – so to conjugate the verb necesitar, you would

change it to “necesito”.

Now all you need to do is add on the second verb – estudiar.

Here are some other examples for you to see how this works. Notice that while most of the

time, there is just one word, but every now and then you get a phrasal verb, such as “tener

que” – mean to have to do something.