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Pasos 1 Grammar and vocabulary tips Lección 1 A La familia When we talk about the family we use the masculine form when talking about siblings or ‘brothers and sisters’: Tengo dos hermanos, un hermano y una hermana. In the negative there is no Spanish equivalent for ‘any’. If we want to say: ‘I don’t have any brothers or sisters’, we simply say: No tengo hermanos. B Negative responses Note that if someone asks you a question and the answer is in the negative, we use the word ‘no’ twice: once to say ‘No’ and once to make a negative sentence. Look at the following exchange: A: ¿Tienes hermanos? B: No, no tengo hermanos. Lección 2 A Hay ‘Hay’ is a very versatile word. It can mean the following: Hay leche Hay patatas There is (some) milk There are (some) potatoes ¿Hay agua? ¿Hay huevos? Is there (any) water? Are there (any) eggs? When we add ‘no’, it has the following meanings: No hay vino No hay manzanas There isn’t (any) wine There aren’t (any) apples ¿No hay mantequilla? Isn’t there (any) butter? ¿No hay olivas? Aren’t there (any) olives? B Expressions with ‘Hay’ If you want to say ‘There isn’t anything’ or ‘There’s nothing’ in Spanish, use the double negative: No hay nada as in: No hay nada que hacer = There’s nothing to do Spaniards often greet each other with the words ‘¿Qué hay (de nuevo)?, which means What’s new? ‘Hay’ is also used in the phrase ‘Hay que …’ as in: ‘Hay que trabajar’, meaning: One has to work. Lección 3 A Nationalities There are two ways of stating your nationality. We can say which country we are from: Soy de Venezuela Or we can say our nationality: Soy venezolano/a Note that the name of the country begins with an upper case letter: Venezuela but the name of the nationality begins with a lower case letter: venezolano/a B Where are you from? When asking someone where they are from we use ‘ser’: ¿De dónde eres? But when we ask where that place is, we use ‘estar’: ¿Dónde está? Example: A: ¿De dónde eres? B: Soy de La Coruña. A: ¿Dónde está La Coruña? B: Está en el noroeste de España. Lección 4 A Learn the names of the months of the year. The first eight months (except for ‘abril’) end in ‘-o’: enero, febrero, marzo, abril, mayo, junio, julio, agosto The last four end in ‘-bre’: septiembre, octubre, noviembre, diciembre. In fact, three of the last four months end in -iembre. Note also that all months begin with a lower case letter, unlike in English: January = enero B Learn the names of the days of the week. Weekdays end in ‘-es’: lunes, martes, miércoles, jueves, viernes and weekends end in ‘-o’: sábado, domingo C ‘hay’ and ‘tiene’ It may sometimes be confusing which of these to choose when describing something. Look at these two examples: Tengo un piso en Barcelona: tiene tres habitaciones I have a flat in Barcelona: it has three bedroom. Tengo un piso en Barcelona: hay tres habitaciones I have a flat in Barcelona: there are three bedrooms In this case we can use ‘tiene’ or ‘hay’ and they both mean more or less the same thing. Now compare these two sentences: En mi piso hay tres habitaciones Mi piso tiene tres habitaciones In my flat there are three bedrooms My flat has three bedrooms In the first sentence we can only use ‘hay’ if we begin the sentence with ‘en’. Lección 5 A The time We sometimes confuse the difference between saying the time and saying what time we do something. Compare the following: Son las diez Salgo a las diez The confusion is most noticeable in exchanges such as the following: A: ¿A qué hora es el teatro? B: A las ocho. A: ¿Qué hora es? B: Son las ocho. B ‘de’ and ‘por’ + la mañana Compare these two exchanges: A: ¿Cuándo trabajas? B: A las nueve de la mañana. When do you work? At nine in the morning. A: ¿Cuándo trabajas? B: Por la mañana. When do you work? In the morning. Further examples: Las diez de la mañana Trabajo por la mañana C ‘mañana’ and ‘la mañana’ Note that ‘mañana’ means tomorrow, but ‘la mañana’ means the morning So: ‘mañana por la mañana’ means tomorrow morning. D ‘tarde’ and ‘la tarde’ Note the difference between the adverb ‘tarde’, as in: ‘Siempre llega tarde’ He always arrives late and the noun ‘la tarde’: ‘Siempre llega por la tarde’ He always arrives in the afternoon D Uses of the verb ‘llevar’ This verb is very versatile. It can be used to describe what someone is wearing: Lleva una chaqueta He’s wearing a jacket It can be used to describe what someone is carrying: Lleva un paraguas She’s carrying an umbrella It can be used to describe how long someone has been somewhere: Llevo cinco años aquí I’ve been here for five years and it can be used to offer someone a lift in your car: Te llevo en el coche I’ll take you in the car Lección 7 A ‘este/a/os/as’ and ‘éste/a/os/as’ Compare these two sentences: éste es mi coche este coche es mío this is my car this car is mine The first example shows a pronoun, known as a demonstrative pronoun, and is really saying ‘this (thing) is my car’. The second example shows an adjective, so the word does not carry an accent. Look at the following examples: éste es mi hermano y ésta es mi hermana éstos son mis padres y éstas son mis tías este hermano es el mayor y esta hermana es la menor this brother is the older one and this sister is the younger one B Oddities in masculine and feminine Most nouns either end in ‘o’ and are masculine, or in ‘a’ and are feminine, but there are several exceptions. Most are words that end in ‘a’, which are masculine: el mapa el clima el problema el poema el programa el día map climate problem poem programme day Some end in ‘o’ and are feminine: la mano la radio la foto(grafía) la moto(cicleta) hand radio photo motorbike Note that the full form of the last two words does in fact end in ‘a’ and so it is logically feminine. C ¿cuál …? or ¿qué …? Both ‘qué’ and ‘cuál’ can mean what and which, but they are not interchangeable. It can be confusing trying to work out when to use each one, but a look at the grammatical rule will help. ‘qué’ is used when you want to identify or define something. ¿Qué es esto? What is this? ¿Qué es un bocadillo? What’s a ‘bocadillo’? ‘qué’ followed by a noun means which one? ¿Qué casa vas a comprar? Which house are you going to buy? ‘cuál’ followed by the verb ‘ser’ asks what? (which one of all the possibilities): ¿Cuál es tu apellido? What is surname? ¿Cuál es la fecha? What is the date? (If we ask ‘¿qué es la fecha?’ we want to know what the word ‘fecha’ means.) Cuál + de + a plural noun asks which of two or more alternatives: ¿Cuál de los coches prefieres? Which of the cars do you prefer? Compare this with: ¿Qué coche vas a comprar? Which car are you going to buy? Lección 8 A Verbs that work like ‘gustar’ You will probably know that the verb ‘gustar’ is used when we want to explain things or activities we like, but that it cannot be directly translated as to like. In fact it means to please or to be pleasing to. So the English equivalent of ‘Me gusta el cine’ is I like cinema but the literal translation of the phrase is: Cinema is pleasing to me This means that the subject and object of the sentence are changed around between the English and Spanish expressions: Subject I Verb like Object the cinema Me A Juan le Object gusta gusta Verb el cine el teatro Subject There are lots of other verbs that work in the same way in Spanish. Here are a few: interesar Me interesa la historia I’m interested in history (History interests me) molestar Me molesta el ruido I’m bothered by the noise (The noise bothers me) encantar Me encanta Barcelona I love Barcelona (Barcelona enchants me) aburrir Me aburre esta ciudad I’m bored by this city (This city bores me) importar No me importa si no salimos I don’t mind if we don’t go out (Not going out is not important to me) parecer Me parece una buena idea It seems to me a good idea faltar Por favor, me falta un tenedor Excuse me, I’m missing a fork (…a fork is missing to me) B Noun and verb agreement There are many nouns in Spanish which refer to numbers of people but which are in the singular form. Here are a few: la gente, la familia, la policía, el grupo, el gobierno and here are a few examples of these nouns in sentences: La gente de esta ciudad es muy simpática The people of this city are very friendly La policía me ayudó mucho The police helped me a lot El grupo de estudiantes es muy inteligente The group of students is/are very intelligent Lección 9 A Ways of expressing obligation and their differences Compare the following sentences and study the equivalent meanings in English: Tengo que ayudar a mi madre en casa Hay que ayudar a los padres en casa Debo ayudar a mis padres en casa I have to help my mother at home It’s important to help one’s parents at home I should / ought to help my parents at home Each of these structures – tener que, hay que, deber – followed by the infinitive form of a verb, is related to some form of obligation, but as you can see they are all slightly different. • ‘tener que’ refers to the obligation felt by or about one person’s obligation to do something; • ‘hay que’ refers more to the acceptance that something has to be done by someone, but is not so personalized; • ‘deber’ refers to the feeling that one ought to do something but perhaps with less of a sense of obligation than ‘tener que’. B Polite imperative Sometimes when Spanish speakers translate their own way of saying something into English, they may sound a little abrupt. Look at this example: Deme un kilo de patatas Give me a kilo of potatoes This is because they are using the formal imperative form in Spanish, which when translated into English may sound a little rude. In fact the formal imperative form in Spanish is regarded as a very polite form, so ‘deme’, instead of meaning its literal give me means could you give me please, something rather different. Other examples are: !Oiga! which literally means Listen! but which in fact means Excuse me when we want to attract someone’s (usually a stranger’s) attention. Lección 10 A Irregular futures Notice the following verbs, which are all irregular, are irregular in a similar way in their future form: poner: salir: tener: poder: valer. venir: Pondré la mesa dentro de unos minutos ¿Saldremos esta noche? Juan tendrá muchos deberes Lo siento; no podré venir Este valdrá mucho dinero Los chicos vendrán más tarde I’ll set the table in a few minutes Shall we go out tonight? Juan will have lots of homework Sorry, I won’t be able to come This will be worth a lot of money The kids will come later on The endings are: dré, drás, drá, dremos, dries, drán Others have various forms of these endings: ré, rás, rá, etc. caber: ¿Cabremos todos en el coche? decir: Diré la verdad haber: Habrá mucha gente. hacer: ¿qué harás mañana? querer: Juan no querrá ir. saber: Carmen sabrá la hora de salida Will we all fit in the car? I’ll tell the truth There’ll be a lot of people What will you do tomorrow? Juan won’t want to go Carmen will know the departure time Lección 11 A Greetings When we phone a friend or buzz an apartment entry-phone and the other person answers, we use the first person singular of ‘ser’ to introduce ourselves, as in: Soy yo It’s me or Soy Juan It’s Juan Whereas in English we would use the expression It’s, in Spanish we use the equivalent of I’m me / Juan Similarly, if you ring and you think you know the person who answers, you can confirm by asking: ¿Eres tú? Is that you? B Using ‘mismo’ for emphasis When we want to emphasise that something is happening right now or that we are going to do something immediately, we add ‘mismo’ to the word ‘ahora’: A: ¿Cuándo vendrá Carmen? B: Ahora mismo. When is Carmen coming? Right now. A: ¿Puedes ayudarme? B: Sí, ahora mismo voy. Can you help me? Yes, right away. We can also add ‘mismo’ to other adverbs of time and place, as follows: Hay un supermercado aquí mismo Llegaron ayer mismo There’s a supermarket just here They arrived just yesterday We can also use ‘msmo’ to stress something about ourselves: Yo mismo fui ayer Ella misma me lo dijo I myself went yesterday She herself told me Lección 12 A ‘ser’ and ‘ir’ in the past These two verbs share the same form in the past tense. Compare these sentences: Fui al cine anoche con mis amigos La película fue muy buena Después fuimos a cenar Los camareros fueron muy simpáticos I went to the cinema last night The film was very good Afterwards we went to have dinner The waiters were very nice However be careful to distinguish between ‘ser’ and ‘estar’ when recounting something you did. For example, you might say in this case: La cena estaba muy buena The dinner was very good We use ‘estar’ because we are talking about the quality of one particular meal on one particular occasion. On another occasion it might not be so good, unlike the film which will always be the same film and so uses ‘ser’: La película era muy Buena. Note that in the example above, we use the imperfect form of the verb ‘estar’: estaba. B Other common irregular forms in the simple past tense (preterite) Look at the way the stem changes in each of these verbs: The following verbs follow a recognisable pattern: estar (to be) tener (to have) obtener (to obtain) andar (to walk) estuve, estuviste, estuvo, estuvimos, estuvisteis, estuvieron tuve, tuviste, tuvo, tuvimos, tuvisteis, tuvieron obtuve, obtuviste, obtuvo, obtuvimos, obtuvisteis, obtuvieron anduve, anduviste, anduvo, anduvimos, anduvisteis, anduvieron dar (to give) hacer (to do) di, diste, dio, dimos, disteis, dieron hice, hiciste, hizo, hicimos, hicisteis, hicieron venir (to come) vine, viniste, vino, vinimos, vinisteis, vinieron querer (to want) quise, quisiste, quiso, quisimos, quisisteis, quisieron poder (to be able) pude, pudiste, pudo, pudimos, pudisteis, pudieron. poner (to put) puse, pusiste, puso, pusimos, pusisteis, pusieron haber hubo (only used in the 3rd person) Lección 13 A Ways of saying you feel unwell Me duele la cabeza Tengo dolor de cabeza Me encuentro mal Me siento mal Me mareo I have a headache I feel bad I feel faint Note that when we refer to a part of the body, we use the definite article; in other words, instead of saying the equivalent of ‘it hurts me my head’, we say ‘it hurts me the head’ (me duele la cabeza). Here are some other examples: Me hace daño la rodilla Me escuece la espalda Me duele el estómago My knee hurts (the knee hurts me) My back stings (the back stings me) My stomach aches (my stomach hurts me) B Describing what you did Notice the use of ‘me’ with the present perfect tense in these sentences. In each one ‘me’ means myself. We can use ‘te’, ‘se’, etc. for the other persons. Me he quemado Me he cortado Me he hecho daño ¿Te has roto la pierna? Se ha dado un golpe I (have) burnt myself I (have) cut myself I (have) hurt myself Have you broken your leg? He (has) banged himself Lección 14 A ¿adónde? vs ¿dónde? & adonde vs donde Notice that with question words involving location, we use ‘¿adónde?’ to indicate the question is about where we are going, and ‘¿dónde?’ to indicate the question is about where someone or something is. Look at the examples: A: ¿Adónde vais? B: Vamos a la piscina. A: ¿Dónde está la piscina? B: Está en la calle Goya. Where are you going? We’re going to the swimming pool. Where is the swimming pool? It’s in Goya Street. So ‘¿adónde?’ is always used with a verb of motion, usually ‘ir’. Note: it can also be written separately: ¿A dónde? B To say that something is missing. To express that something we should have is missing, we use the verb ‘faltar’. We can use this with an object pronoun or on its own, as in these examples: Me falta un vaso Falta un vaso I’m missing a glass There’s a glass missing We can use it to mean I need something, or to indicate that something is missing from a group of objects or people. Look at these examples: A: Oiga, me falta un tenedor. B: Perdone, ahora le traigo uno. Excuse me, I need a fork. I’m sorry, I’ll bring you one right away. A: ¿Estamos todos? B: No. Falta Juan. Are we all here? No, Juan isn’t here (yet).