Tuesday, August 31, 2010

The Subjunctive - "Trigger Clauses"

The present subjunctive can be implemented with several indicative clauses that "trigger" a subjunctive, or subordinate(dependent) clause. Even in English, the sound of these trigger clauses calls for the subjunctive clause to follow because they imply an imposition of will or desire:






























insistir en
to insist
Insisto en que vengas a mi casa.
I insist you come to my house.
exigir
to demand
El maestro nos exige que hagamos nuestra tarea.
The teacher demands we do our homework.
querer
to want
Mi madre quiere que tú cenes con nosotros.
My mother wants you to eat dinner with us.
necesitar
to need
Necesito que me trabajes.
I need you to work for me.
mandar
to order, to demand
El doctor me manda que yo baje peso.
The doctor orders me to lose weight.
prohibir
to prohibit
La ley nos prohíbe que fumemos en los ascensores.
The law prohibits us from smoking in the elevators.
pedir
to ask for
David pide que yo le compre el libro.
David asks me to buy him the book.
recomendar
to recommend
¿Tú me recomiendas que me vista?
Do you recommend that I get dressed?




It is important to understand that this list is not all-inclusive. Basically, any clause you would use in English to imply a desire, want, or need would be used in Spanish with the subjunctive clauses adjoining the indicative ones.

Monday, August 30, 2010

The Relative Pronoun cuyo

A relative pronoun is a part of grammar that is used to combine two independent clauses into a single sentence. Examples of relative pronouns are whose, whom, which, and that. The relative pronoun cuyo means whose, and must agree in number and gender with the noun it introduces. It is important to know that cuyo does NOT translate over to "who's", as in "He's the guy who's learning Spanish."

cuyo libro whose book

cuya revista whose magazine

cuyos televisores whose television sets

cuyas mochilas whose backpacks


Here are some examples of sentences using these relative pronouns. Notice, again, that they agree in gender and number with the noun modified by them. Hopefully you know by now that in Spanish, pronouns are always in agreement with their accompanying nouns.


Me gusta el escritor cuyos libros son traducidos al español.

I like the writer whose books are translated into Spanish.



Damion, cuya madre es dependienta en la tienda, recibiría un descuento de veinte por ciento si comprara algo.

Damion, whose mother is a clerk in the store, would receive a discount of 20 percent if he were to buy something.



Sigue estudiando,

Professor Joel

Sunday, August 29, 2010

The Imperfect Subjunctive Conjugation (-AR Verbs)

To conjugate verbs into the imperfect subjunctive, then you must know the third-person plural preterit conjugation. If you are not familiar with the preterit verb conjugation, then I highly recommend you read that section prior to proceeding with this one.

You also must know the concept of "opposite vowel", which you should know if you have already played with the present tense subjunctive mood. As you will start noticing (hopefully), the opposite vowel is playing a large part in the distinguishing of subjunctive mood over the indicative mood.

Let's start with the verb hablar (whose third-person plural conjugation in the preterit tense is hablaron), and try to notice the similarity in suffixes for both the preterit and the imperfect subjunctive.
















hablar
"to speak"
yo hablara
nosotros habláramos
hablaras
vosotros hablarais
él, ella, Ud. hablara
ellos, ellas, Uds. hablaran



Do you notice the similarity between the aforementioned conjugations and the third person plural preterit conjugations? Although not exact, it still is helpful to remember the pronunciation of the preterit version so as to be able to recall the approximate sounding-out of the imperfect subjunctive when it is required in speech.

Another example of an -ar verb conjugated into the imperfect subjunctive:
















pegar
"to paste"
yo pegara
nosotros pegáramos
pegaras
vosotros pegarais
él, ella, Ud. pegara
ellos, ellas, Uds. pegaran




The imperfect subjunctive also has another conjugation, although it is more widely used in Spain and Spanish literature than it is in the Western Hemisphere. However, to fully enjoy your Spanish-speaking ability, give these a try! Although they aren't used exclusively in countries like Mexico or El Salvador, they are still able to be understood by the general populace (much like we in the United States can understand British speaking "styles".)


The conjugations for -ar verbs, like charlar("to chat"), are below:















charlar
"to chat"
yo charlase
nosotros charlásemos
charlases
vosotros charlaseis
él, ella, Ud. charlase
ellos, ellas, Uds. charlasen

Saturday, August 28, 2010

The Imperfect Subjunctive and When to Use It

The imperfect subjunctive is formed when the indicative clause of the sentence takes place in the past tense, i.e. either as an imperfect or a preterit. Look at the following sentence:

Buster wanted me to leave immediately.


You'll notice that the sentence structure still rigidly adheres to the pattern we previously saw in the present tense subjunctive sentences: an indicative clause followed by a subjunctive, or dependent, clause. In Spanish, we combine these two cláusulas with que, which takes on the meaning of "that", so we can re-write the sentence as such:

Buster wanted THAT I leave immediately.


Now, we can see a lot more obviously the two clauses at work here. When we think of an English sentence to fit in the pattern above, we can visualize the dependency of the subjunctive clause more readily in Spanish. So let's take our new sentence and translate it into Spanish. The imperfect subjunctive conjugation, as well as the imperfect indicative conjugation, is underlined:

Buster quería que yo saliera inmediatamente.


Another example of a sentence that uses an imperfect subjunctive, but with the preterit indicative conjugation:

Julio exigió que Marta entregara la tarea cuando la pidió.

Julio demanded that Marta turn in the homework when he asked for it.


Notice in both instances of past-tense indicative clauses we use the imperfect subjunctive for the same reason we would use the subjunctive in the present tense.

Sigue estudiando,

Professor Joel

Friday, August 27, 2010

Irregular Present Progressive Gerunds

As you know, a gerund is affixed to a present progressive to form the Spanish equivalent of the English "-ing". There are some irregular gerund formations, which usually occur in verbs like caer("to fall") and leer("to read"). A "y" is injected in the word to avoid a clumping of vowels, and allows easier pronunciation:

leer leyendo

Manuel está leyendo su revista.

Manuel is reading his magazine.


caer cayendo

Estoy cayendo.

I am falling.


Other verbs that follow this pattern are traer("to bring"), poseer("to possess"), and oír("to hear").

Also, the -ir verbs that are irregular in the preterit third-person also carry forth the same irregularity into the gerund formation. Note the following chart of examples:

















Verb
Preterit Form
Gerund
dormir
durmió
durmiendo
morir
murió
muriendo
pedir
pidió
pidiendo
repetir
repitió
repitiendo
sentir
sintió
sintiendo
servir
sirvió
sirviendo



If you didn't have enough to worry about, there are also a couple of other irregularities that stand alone. The verbs poder("to be able to") and ir("to go") have as their gerunds pudiendo and yendo, respectively. Also, the two verbs venir("to come") and decir("to say, to tell") exhibit irregular gerunds:







decir
diciendo
venir
viniendo

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Irregular Verbs in the Imperfect (ser, ir, and ver)

Fortunately, with almost every verb conjugation having significant irregularities, there are only 3 verbs in Spanish that are irregular in the imperfect tense. They are ser, ir, and ver.









ser
to be
yo era
nosotros éramos
tú eras
vosotros erais
él, ella, Ud. era
ellos, ellas, Uds. eran












ir
to go
yo iba
nosotros ibamos
tú ibas
vosotros ibais
él, ella, Ud. iba
ellos, ellas, Uds. iban












ver
to see
yo veía
nosotros veíamos
tú veías
vosotros veíais
él, ella, Ud. veía
ellos, ellas, Uds. veían




You'll notice immediately when conjugating these verbs the crux of their irregularities. Also, many students wonder why the verb ver is considered irregular; on first glance, it DOES appear regular in its conjugation.

However, if you dissect it a little further, then you'll see that if we were to follow the regular pattern of conjugation, then ver SHOULD conjugate like vía, vías, etc. Remember, when a verb is conjugated, we strive to maintain as much as possible the sound of its original root form.

Funnily enough, the root of the verb ver, when the suffix is dropped, is v-. The verb ir has NO root. This is a very interesting and phenomenal evolution of the Spanish language.

Sigue estudiando,

Professor Joel

Friday, August 20, 2010

La Palabra Diaria - "el capó"

La Palabra Diaria Daily Word

el capó noun, "the hood (of a car)", [ehl kah-POH]


El mecánico abrió el capó para revisar el motor. The mechanic opened the hood to check the motor.

Monday, August 16, 2010

Irregular Future Tense Conjugations

Although mainly regular and easy to work with, there are some verbs in the future tense that have a certain root change before applying the standard future-tense suffixes (-é, ás, á, etc.)

The verb salir(to leave), for example, is NOT conjugated yo saliré. It creates a new form to be used in the future tense, saldr-. Once we know this irregular stem, we can put the first person singular ("yo") suffix on it. So the correct way to say "I will leave" is:

Yo saldré.


Other verbs that have irregular stems are:






















Irregular Verb
New Root
poner
pondr-
salir
saldr-
decir
dir-
hacer
har-
venir
vendr-
poder
podr-
saber
sabr-



Notice that these verbs that are irregular are commonly used, as you have seen that many verbs are indeed irregular the more they are used in speech.

Sigue estudiando,

Professor Joel

Sunday, August 15, 2010

La Palabra Diaria - "estremecer"

La Palabra Diaria Daily Word

estremecer verb, "to make shudder, to shake", [ehs-treh-meh-SEHR]


Con tu mirada, siempre me estremeces. With your look/glance, you always make me shudder/shake. (¡Gracias a Los Cuates de Sinaloa!)

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Augmentative Suffixes (cont.)

In continuation of the lesson on augmentations, let's talk further about suffixes to change the meaning of nouns slightly. Another interesting and very common suffix used in Spanish is the -ón/-ona ending. This suffix, when attached to the verb stem means someone or something who is always engaged in whatever the verb stem signifies. Colloquially, this suffix usually adds a tone of contempt or derogation.

Respectively, the -ón/-ona suffixes are referring to a masculine and feminine noun.

For example, if we take the verb gritar(to yell, to shout) and after dropping the infinitive suffix, we replace it with -ón, we get the new noun:

el gritón loud mouth, somebody who is always shouting


Other verbs that take on different meanings when an augmentative suffix is added are in the table below, along with their derived nouns:

























burlar("to joke")
el burlón
a joker
comer("to eat")
el comilón*
a "pig", glutton, big eater
contestar("to answer")
el contestón
know-it-all, always answers back
dormir("to sleep")
el dormilón*
sleepy-head, always tired
llorar("to cry")
el llorón
a crybaby
mirar("to see")
el mirón
always stares
preguntar("to question")
el contestón
always asking questions, inquisitive



*As you can see above, certain verbs like dormir and comer have an additional "il" added onto the suffix in order for it to meld smoothly onto the root verb.

Here are some example sentences:

Miguel sigue hablando en una voz alta. Siempre ha sido un gritón. Miguel keeps talking in a loud voice. He's always been a loud-mouth.


David pesa mucho a causa de comer tanto. Es un comilón. David weighs a lot because he eats too much. He is a fatso.



¡Sigue estudiando!

Professor Joel

Friday, August 13, 2010

La Palabra Diara - "enoloquecer"

La Palabra Diaria Daily Word

enloquecer verb, "to madden, to drive crazy", [ehn-loh-kay-SEHR]


Hacer toda esta tarea me enloquece. Doing all of this homework drives me nuts.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

My Word of the Day - La Palabra Diaria - "masticar"

I have decided to compliment my daily postings with a section called Word of the Day, or La Palabra Diaria. In it, I will include a word in Spanish that has come across my daily perusals of movies, pop culture, books, and other forms of periodicals in the Spanish speaking world. The word will include its part of speech (noun, verb, etc.), an approximate phonetic pronunciation, and an example of its usage.

La Palabra Diaria Daily Word

masticar verb, "to chew", [mahs-tee-KAHR]


David mastica su chicle contentamente. David chews his gum happily.

Using Adjectives

Adjectives, as you may or may not know, are descriptive words that describe a noun. They go before a noun in common English:

I have a shiny quarter.


In Spanish, the adjective goes after the verb 80% of the time. Also, the adjective must agree in gender and number if it ends in either -o or -a, or simply in number if the adjective ends in an ambiguous letter (such as e(alegre) or z(feliz).

Let's suppose we have a little boy. We have un niño. This noun is what we refer to as a singular, masculine noun. Therefore, we need to add a singular masculine adjective to accompany this noun. Let's choose an adjective now to put with this noun. If we want to say "an angry boy", we'll use the singular masculine form of "angry", which is enojado. So we have now

un niño enojado an angry boy


For describing an angry girl, we simply have to change the adjective to a feminine ending. The article will also reflect the change, as well. The adjective will still, however, remain singular:

una niña enojada an angry girl


For the above nouns, if plural, we would just add an "s" to the adjectives (enojados and enojadas, respectively).

Now let's look and see what we should do about an adjective with an ambiguous ending. If the above-mentioned boy was "happy" and we use the adjective alegre, we can't very well change the gender by switching an -o to an -a, or vice versa; in fact the only thing we can do is change the number (singular v. plural). Notice the difference in the following sentences:

unos niños alegres some happy kids

unas niñas alegres some happy kids(girls)


One caveat of ambiguous adjective endings is you sometimes have to change the spelling of the adjective slightly. For example, if we used the word feliz instead of alegre above, to make it plural we need to change the z to a c, as well as add an -es. So we get

unos niños felices some happy kids

unas niñas felices some happy kids(girls)


If no spelling change takes place, then when an adjective has an ending consonant like -r, you just need to add -es to pluralize. Let's express the following:

mi hermano menor my younger brother


Now to pluralize it, we'll say:

mis hermanos menores my younger brothers


This form of the adjective, since it is ambiguous, doesn't reflect gender changes. Note the following:

mis hermanas menores my younger sisters


Remember when I said that 80% of adjectives in Spanish follow the noun? Well, how about the other 20? Basically, if the adjective describing the noun is an inherent quality of the noun, then we have the option to put the adjective before the noun. The adjective must still agree with the noun's number, and if possible, the gender:

las rojas fresas the red strawberries

el caluroso sol the hot sun


Sigue estudiando,
Professor Joel

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Augmentative Suffixes

Several words can have augmentative suffixes attached to the noun to create a different word, yet with similar meaning. One very common augmentative suffix is -ado/a. This suffix can have several interpretations. First, it can refer to a maximum amount that the noun can hold. For example, a cucharada, which is a portmanteau of sorts of the word cuchara(spoon), and -ada., means "spoonFUL". Other examples of this are:

un puñado "a fistFUL, a handFUL"

un bocado "a mouthFUL"



You can also use the -ado/-ada suffix for expressing the noun touching or hitting something, like

una patada (from la pata = "the foot") a kick

una cuchillada (from un cochillo = "the knife") the slash (from a knife)


Finally, the -ado/-ada suffix can mean a typical characteristic of the noun, for example:

una animalada acting like an animal

una muchachada acting like a child


The way we use these nouns is like this:

Eres una muchachada. You're acting like a child.

Comer así es una animalada. Eating like that makes you look like an animal.


Remember not every noun can follow this pattern. There are only a handful of nouns that exhibit this change colloquially, so really the only way to learn them is by listening for them.

Sigue estudiando,

Professor Joel

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

-IR Verbs with Irregular Preterit Endings

Some verbs like pedir (to ask for) and medir (to measure) reflect a slight spelling change in the third persons singular and plural of the preterit tense. Other verbs like morir (to die), and dormir (to sleep) are also victims of this spelling change. Observe the following:









pedir
to ask for
yo pedí
nosotros pedimos
tú pediste
vosotros pedisteis
él, ella, Ud. pidió
ellos, ellas, Uds. pidieron










repetir
to repeat
yo repetí
nosotros repetimos
tú repetiste
vosotros repetisteis
él, ella, Ud. repitió
ellos, ellas, Uds. repitieron










morir
to die
yo morí
nosotros morimos
tú moriste
vosotros moristeis
él, ella, Ud. murió
ellos, ellas, Uds. murieron










dormir
to sleep
yo dormí
nosotros dormimos
tú dormiste
vosotros dormisteis
él, ella, Ud. durmió
ellos, ellas, Uds. durmieron



Notice that all of these subtle changes in the third person preterit occur in -ir verbs. You will also notice that when you pronounce the correct pronunciation with the pronunciation from the conjugation you thought was correct ("pedió", for example), there is not whole lot of difference phonetically. However, this doesn't excuse you from misspelling it!

Sigue estudiando,

Professor Joel

Monday, August 9, 2010

Conjugating Verbs Ending in -uir

In addition to irregular verbs with (e--->ie) or (o--->ue) stem changes, there is also a whole other class of verbs that carry other radical changes. Usually these are done to maintain as much as possible the sound of the root of the original infinitive. You MUST memorize the vast majority of these verbs.

One set of verbs ends in -uir. A common verb that ends in this suffix is construir, to construct. The conjugation pattern is construir (y). Notice the conjugation below:









construir
to build, to construct
yo construyo
nosotros construimos
tú construyes
vosotros construís
él, ella, Ud. construye
ellos, ellas, Uds. construyen



Let's take a look at the preceding verb conjugation. First, you'll see the injection of the consonant "y" in every form EXCEPT nosotros and vosotros. This really shouldn't come as a surprise, since nosotros and vosotros forms never change the spelling of the root anyway. However, take a minute to notice the "y" in between the hard vowels u and o and e. We need to put this consonant there to break up the diphthongs that would result from the missing "y". If the "y" didn't exist, we would be left with a root that doesn't carry on its original sound.

It might pay to review some phonetic lessons if you are unsure about the phonemic properties of the Spanish language. Also, if the grammatical term "diphthong" sounds like a foreign word, then a lesson in Spanish phonics might be in the cards for you.

Other verbs that are conjugated like construir are:















atribuir
to attribute
concluir
to conclude
contribuir
to contribute
destruir
to destroy
distribuir
to distribute
huir
to flee
incluir
to include
influir
to influence
sustituir
to substitute



Like I said, there are other irregularities that must be simply memorized.

Sigue estudiando,

Professor Joel

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Conjugating -IR Verbs in the Present Tense

If you are familiar with how to conjugate -er verbs, then conjugating -ir verbs is a snap. The only difference between them is the nosotros and vosotros forms. Let's compare the two below:








aprender
to learn
yo aprendo
nosotros aprendemos
tú aprendes
vosotros aprendéis
él, ella, Ud. aprende
ellos, ellas, Uds. aprenden











vivir
to live
yo vivo
nosotros vivimos
tú vives
vosotros vivís
él, ella, Ud. vive
ellos, ellas, Uds. viven



Notice that the nosotros and vosotros forms change slightly, which is unique to the -ir verbs. Keep in mind that this change is only for regular verbs. Some stem changing irregular -ir verbs are below, along with their stem changes:









pedir(e--->i)
to ask for
yo pido
nosotros pedimos
tú pides
vosotros pedís
él, ella, Ud. pide
ellos, ellas, Uds. piden











adquirir(i--->ie)
to acquire
yo adquiero
nosotros adquirimos
tú adquieres
vosotros adquirís
él, ella, Ud. adquiere
ellos, ellas, Uds. adquieren

Saturday, August 7, 2010

Los Partes del Automóvil - The Parts of the Automobile

Here's a vocabulary list of stuff you'll find in and around a car. I recommend with all of my vocabulary lists that you create flash cards and memorize these words that way. Have fun!
























































el carro
the car
el automóvil
the car
el coche
the car
el limpiaparabrisas
the windshield wipers
el parabrisas
the windshield
el volante
the steering wheel
la derecha
the right
el derecho, el recto
straight
la izquierda
the left
el intermitente
turn signal
la direccional
turn signal
el carril
the lane
el retrovisor
mirror
los faros
headlights
los frenos
the brakes
el acelerador
accelerator
el baúl, el maletero
the trunk
el capó
the hood
las flechas
arrows
el semáforo
traffic light
la señal (vial)
street sign
el estacionamiento
the parking lot



Here is some additional vocabulary that includes useful verbs associated with cars and roads:





























girar
to turn
doblar
to turn
conducir
to drive
manejar (Mex.)
to drive
revisar
to check (mechanic)
cambiar el aceite
to change the oil
prender
to turn on
encender
to turn on
apagar
to turn off
parar
to stop
incorporarse
to merge (onto freeway)
estacionar
to park
salir(la autopista)
to exit
cambiar(los carriles)
to change(lanes)
adelantar
to pass

Friday, August 6, 2010

Introduction to Regular Participles

Participles are parts of grammar that can't stand alone. The basic rule of thumb of forming participles is to drop the suffix of the infinitive(by now you should know that these can either be -ar, -er, or -ir) and add a new set of endings. Broken down into -ar verbs and -er/-ir verbs, the endings are as follows:

-AR Verbs: -ado, -ada, -ados, -adas


-ER/-IR Verbs: -ido, -ida, -idos, -idas


The four forms of these participles represent nouns that are singular masculine, singular feminine, plural masculine, and plural feminine, respectively.

Each of these new endings are placed onto the root of the word after the suffix of the infinitive has been dropped. For the word mirar for example, our participle is mirado. By default, the particple remains in the singular masculine and is the version used in conjunction with the auxiliary verb haber, which will be introduced to you at a later time.

One more example is the infinitive pedir. Dropping the -ir at the end of the word gives us the root, ped-; now, we can add the default participle ending which is -ido and we are left with the participle pedido, which can then be tacked onto a noun to function as an adjective, or augmented onto haber to form the sentence "to have + done something..."

If this is your first venture into the world of participles, this certainly won't be your last. They indeed make up an enormous chunk of Spanish dialect, so be on the ready when reading an article from a Spanish newspaper or listening to someone speak.

Sigue estudiando,

Professor Joel

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Preterite Conjugations of Irregular Verbs

Some verbs in the preterit tense observe irregular conjugations. Most of the verbs are irregular since they are extremely common. Fortunately, it's a pretty concise list:













decir
to tell, to say
yo dije
nosotros dijimos
tú dijiste
vosotros dijisteis
él, ella Ud. dijo
ellos, ellas, Uds. dijeron















estar
to be
yo estuve
nosotros estuvimos
tú estuviste
vosotros estuvisteis
él, ella Ud. estuvo
ellos, ellas, Uds. estuvieron















hacer
to make, to do
yo hice
nosotros hicimos
tú hiciste
vosotros hicisteis
él, ella Ud. hizo
ellos, ellas, Uds. hicieron















poder
to be able to, can
yo pude
nosotros pudimos
tú pudiste
vosotros pudisteis
él, ella Ud. pudo
ellos, ellas, Uds. pudieron















poner
to put, to place
yo puse
nosotros pusimos
tú pusiste
vosotros pusisteis
él, ella Ud. puso
ellos, ellas, Uds. pusieron















querer
to want, to love
yo quise
nosotros quisimos
tú quisiste
vosotros quisisteis
él, ella Ud. quiso
ellos, ellas, Uds. quisieron















saber
to know
yo supe
nosotros supimos
tú supiste
vosotros supisteis
él, ella Ud. supo
ellos, ellas, Uds. supieron















tener
to have
yo tuve
nosotros tuvimos
tú tuviste
vosotros tuvisteis
él, ella Ud. tuvo
ellos, ellas, Uds. tuvieron















traer
to bring
yo traje
nosotros trajimos
tú trajiste
vosotros trajisteis
él, ella Ud. trajo
ellos, ellas, Uds. trajeron















venir
to come
yo vine
nosotros vinimos
tú viniste
vosotros vinisteis
él, ella Ud. vino
ellos, ellas, Uds. vinieron















andar
to walk
yo anduve
nosotros anduvimos
tú anduviste
vosotros anduvisteis
él, ella Ud. anduco
ellos, ellas, Uds. anduvieron















caber
to fit
yo cupe
nosotros cupimos
tú cupiste
vosotros cupisteis
él, ella Ud. cupo
ellos, ellas, Uds. cupieron















producir
to produce
yo produje
nosotros produjimos
tú produjiste
vosotros produjisteis
él, ella Ud. produjo
ellos, ellas, Uds. produjeron

More Word Formations - Using Participles

We learned already that you can form some nouns out of taking a verb and conjugating it into either the first- or third-person form. For example, the verb aumentar ("to increase") can be turned into a noun which means "the increase" by conjugating the infinitive into the first person:

aumentar - to increase turns into el aumento - the increase

Habrá un aumento en los sueldos este año. There will be an increase in salaries this year.



You must memorize which verbs turn into nouns, and the method in which they do so. This knowledge will come with time, as you eventually increase your understanding of the language.

Another way to turn verbs into nouns is by extrapolating the verb's past participle. If you are unsure what a past participle is, be sure to review this concept before attempting to understand this. However, if you want, you can also just remember the suffixes -ada for "-ar verbs", and -ida for "-er/ir verbs". Here are some examples:

bajar to go down, to lower

la bajada the way down, decline



comer to eat

la comida the meal



entrar to enter

la entrada the entrance



salir to leave

la salida the exit



llegar to arrive

la llegada the arrival



mirar to see

la mirada the glance



subir to go up

la subida the way up, incline


See what other verbs exist out there where you can change them into nouns. There are several different ways in which you can do this. Also, be sure to watch for other ways to change nouns into verbs, which will come up in future lessons.

Sigue estudiando,

Professor Joel

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Step-By-Step Conjugations of Regular -ar Verbs

One aspect of learning Spanish that always throws English speakers for a loop is the method of conjugating verbs from their infinitive forms. If you are unsure what the terms "conjugating" and "infinitive" mean, then this lesson is a useful starting place for you before you embark on your journey through learning Spanish.

To conjugate regular -ar verbs, first start out with the infinitive form of the verb you want to conjugate. If you are unsure if the verb is indeed in the infinitive, then check to see if the ending is either -ar, -er, or ir. If it is, then follow this step-by-step pattern:

1)Drop the suffix (the suffix is the ending, which is either -ar, -er, or -ir). You are now left with the root.

2)Add a new suffix to the root to conjugate the verb. The suffix should match the correct subject pronoun.


For regular -ar verbs ONLY, the correct conjugated suffixes are:



Singular
Plural
1st Person
yo: -o
nosotros: -amos
2nd Person
tú: -as
vosotros: -áis
3rd Person
él, ella, Ud.: -a
ellos, ellas, Uds.: -an



So for example, let's take the example of enseñar, which means to teach. Following our first step, drop the infinitive suffix -ar, so we're left with the root form enseñ-. After that, add the suffixes from above to match the correct subject pronoun. So, fully conjugated, we have the following complete sentences:

Yo enseño. I teach.

Tú enseñas. You teach.

Ella enseña. She teaches.

Nosotros enseñamosWe teach.

Vosotros enseñáis You (plural) teach.

Ellas enseñan They teach.

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Más Vocabulario - La Cocina (The Kitchen)

Here's a list of vocabulary that define words found in your kitchen. Notice that I list the words out using their definite article which distinguishes them as either masculine or feminine. I highly recommend you do the same. Enjoy!

el horno microondas microwave oven

el horno oven

el congelador freezer

la nevera refrigerator

el aparador cabinet

el lavaplatos dishwasher

la encimera counter

el comedor dining room

la mesa table

el tenedor fork

el cuchillo knife

la cuchara spoon

el sartén frying pan

la olla pot

los platos plates


Sigue estudiando,

Professor Joel

Using "¿qué? and ¿cuál? in interrogative sentences; You know them better as "questions".

Both ¿qué? and ¿cuál? mean "what?" in English, but the verbs in Spanish change depending on where they are used.  " cuál &q...