Download 1A Grammar: Gender of Nouns, Exception Words, Infinitives

1A Grammar: Gender of Nouns, Exception Words, Infinitives & Expressing
Agreement/Disagreement
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All nouns in Spanish are either masculine or feminine.
Nouns that end in –o, or refer to male beings, are generally masculine.
Nouns that end in –a, -d, or –ión, or that refer to female beings are generally feminine.
The gender of the noun must be learned individually. Several grammar concepts that
we will cover will depend on you knowing the gender of your nouns/subjects.
Masculine
Feminine
el libro, the book
el padre, the father
la tinta, the ink
la ciudad, the city
La lección, the lesson
La madre, the mother
THERE ARE SOME EXCEPTIONS TO THESE RULES!!! Unfortunately, even though
you can learn some tricks to help you, it’s best to just learn the individual noun with its
corresponding article. This is why the textbook will always give you a new noun
vocabulary word with the article in front – so that you can see whether it’s masculine or
feminine. BE ON THE LOOK OUT FOR THOSE EXCEPTION WORDS!! There are
not many this year but just be aware of them.
Here are some of the exception words that you’ll come across in Spanish I:
la mano
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el día
el agua
la carne
la leche
So what can you look at to help you figure out the gender of each noun? First and
foremost, look at the article whenever you have one! That is the most obvious way.
What if you don’t have an article? Then look at how the word ends. If a noun ends in
L, O, S, E, R, MA or N (LOSER MAN) it is GENERALLY masculine.
If a noun ends in D, -IÓN, Z or A (DIÓNZA) it is GENERALLLY feminine. Remember
that we can’t say “always” because there are some exceptions like the ones given
above.
Knowing this will allow you to make educated guesses whenever you have a doubt!
Infinitives:
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Remember that verbs that have not been conjugated yet are called “infinitives.” This
means that it is a potential action – we don’t know who is doing the action yet. If you’d
see a verb written as “to sing” – you’d ask yourself, WHO is singing? We don’t know!
Infinitives are easy to spot in Spanish because they are verbs that end in -AR, -ER or –
IR.
An infinitive in English has the word “to” in front of the verb. For example: hablar = to
speak.
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When you receive a new list of vocabulary words you’ll notice that all of the verbs will
be written in infinitive form.
Expressing Agreement/Disagreement:
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In Chapter 1A you’ve learned how to say that you like or dislike something (A mí me
gusta/ A mí no me gusta). The different expressions and how to agree/disagree with
them may get a little confusing… Let’s divide them up into positive and negative
expressions.
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Positive expressions will be for things that we like and when we agree with someone
else with what they like. Here are all of the positive expressions:
1. (A mí) me gusta _______.
I like/ I like to ____________.
2. (A mí) me gusta mucho _____.
I like to ________ a lot.
3. (A mí) me gusta más _____.
I like to _____ better (or prefer) ____.
4. A mí también.
Me too.
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Negative expressions will be for things that we don’t like and when we agree with
someone else with what they don’t like. Here are the 4 negative expressions:
1. (A mí) no me gusta ________.
I don’t like/ I don’t like to ______.
2. (A mí) no me gusta ________.
I don’t like/ I don’t like to _____ at all.
3. (A mí) no me gusta ni ___ ni ____.
I neither like (to) _______ nor ______.
4. A mí tampoco.
Me neither.
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Only use “A mí también” when you agree with someone in the positive and “a mí
tampoco” when you agree with someone in the negative. For example, if someone
says, “I like chocolate” and you also like it, you would respond “me too.” It would not
make sense to say, “me neither.”
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Now if someone says, “I don’t like chocolate” and you agree with them that you DON’T
like it, you’d say, “Me neither.”
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If you don’t agree with someone’s statement then you would not use “me too” or “me
neither” – just start a positive or negative statement of your own, just as you would in
English. For example:
 Person 1: “I like to dance.”
 Person 2: “Me too.”
 Person 1: “I also like to sing.”
 Person 2: “I don’t like to sing!”