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Languages at King Solomon High School
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Compilation of rules that will help you understand a language. Articles Nouns The name of a person, place or thing. For example: chico (boy), colegio (school), sacapuntas (pencil sharpener). All nouns in Spanish are either masculine or feminine.
Pronouns A pronoun is a pro-form that substitutes for a noun or noun phrase with or without a determiner, such as you and they in English. The replaced phrase is the antecedent of the pronoun. A pronoun used for the item questioned in a question is called an interrogative pronoun, such as who. Spanish has a range of pronouns that in some ways work quite differently from English ones. They include: yo, tú, vos, usted, él, ella, ello, nosotros, vosotros, ustedes, ellos, ellas, esto, eso, aquello etc.
Adjectives A word that describes something or someone: grande (big), caro (expensive), simpático (friendly).
Verbs Verbs are commonly described as “doing words” or words that tell you what is happening like to do, to jump, to see, or “being words” like to be, to love, to live, to hope
Irregular verbs
Verbs take different forms depending on whether we are talking about something in the past, the present or the future. Each of these forms is called a tense
Verb ending a form added to a verb, for example, go=goes ,
A verb form used to talk about what is true at the moment, what happens regularly, and what is happening now, for example, I'm a student; I travel to college by train; I'm studying languages.
A verb form used to talk about actions that were completed in the past in Spanish. If often corresponds to the ordinary past tense in English, for example, I bought a new bike; Mary went to the shops on Friday; I typed two reports yesterday.
One of the verb tenses used to talk about the past, especially in descriptions, and to say what was happening or used to happen, for example, It was sunny at the weekend; We were living in Spain at the time; I used to walk to school. Compare to preterite.
Generally speaking, the preterite is used for actions in the past that are seen as completed. Use of the preterite tense implies that the past action had a definite beginning and definite end. Generally speaking, the imperfect is used for actions in the past that are not seen as completed. Use of the imperfect tense implies that the past action did not have a definite beginning or a definite end.
The perfect tenses [tiempos perfectos] are compound tenses [tiempos compuestos]; that is, they are made up of two parts, a helping verb [verbo auxiliar] and a past participle [participio pasado], for example: he hablado (I have spoken), habías hablado (you had spoken), habremos hablado (we will have spoken). There are three main perfect tenses in the indicative: present perfect, past perfect, and future perfect. They are “perfect” or “pefective”, as opposed to “imperfect” or “imperfective”, in the sense that they portray an action or state as completed and not in progress, from the point of view of present, past, or future time, respectively.
The present perfect tense is frequently used for past actions that continue into the present, or continue to affect the present.
The past perfect tense is used when a past action was completed prior to another past action. Expressions such as "ya", "antes", "nunca", "todavía" and "después" will often appear in sentences where one action was completed before another.
The future perfect tense is used to describe what will have happened in the future before a different action takes place, or by a specific time.
A verb form used to talk about things that would happen or would be true under certain conditions, for example, I would help if I could. It is also used to say what you would like or need, for example, Could you give me the bill?
The future tense is used to tell what "will" happen, or what "shall" happen.
Both verbs mean “to be” but are used in different circumstances. Ser is used for relationships and character and Estar is used for feelings and saying where. SER or Estar that is the real question?????
The subjunctive is not a tense; rather, it is a mood. Tense refers to when an action takes place (past, present, future), while mood merely reflects how the speaker feels about the action. The subjunctive mood is rarely used in English, but it is widely used in Spanish.
imperative Adverbs An adverb is used to describe a verb Ven rapidamente (come quickly), an adjective es muy bueno or another adverb, demasiado tarde.
Prepositions Words like “near”, “with”, “opposite”, etc. They often describe the position of something or someone.
Time phrases
Gender agreement The fact of all nouns in Spanish being masculine or feminine. When you learn a new noun, you should always learn its gender (whether it is masculine or feminine) at same time. Most nouns ending in –o are masculine: chico (boy), pájaro (bird). Most nouns ending in –a are feminine: chica (girl), goma (rubber), pizarra (board). The fact of all adjectives agreeing in gender (masculine/feminine) and number (singular/plural) with the noun they are describing: chico alto (tall boy)/chica alta (tall girl)/chicos altos (tall boys)/chicas altas (tall girls).
Number agreement The fact of all adjectives agreeing in gender (masculine/feminine) and number (singular/plural) with the noun they are describing: chico alto (tall boy)/chica alta (tall girl)/chicos altos (tall boys)/chicas altas (tall girls). Word order Linking words
Interjections Idioms As used in this site, "idiom" most often refers to a phrase or expression that cannot be understood by knowing what the individual words in the phrase mean. For example, "to roll out the red carpet" is to extravagantly welcome a guest; no red carpet is needed. The phrase is misunderstood when interpreted in a literal fashion. An example of a Spanish idiom is "no está el horno para bollos, which literally means "the oven isn't ready for bread rolls." The phrase generally means "the time isn't right." Although most idiomatic phrases are of primarily colloquial usage, there are many that are acceptable in standard speech and writing.
accents
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