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Spanish (español, castellano) is a language originating in North-Central Spain which is spoken throughout Spain, most countries in the Americas and Equatorial Guinea. It is an inflected language, with a two-gender system and about fifty conjugated forms per verb, but without noun declension and simplified pronominal declension. Spanish was the first of the Romance languages to have a grammar, written in 1492 by the Andalusian linguist Antonio de Nebrija. The Real Academia Española (RAE) traditionally dictates the rules of the Spanish language. This article first describes the most formal and standard rules of modern Spanish, and then goes on to detail idioms and colloquialisms. Formal differences between Peninsular and American Spanish are remarkably few, and someone who has learned the dialect of one area will have no difficulties using reasonably formal speech in the other, however, pronunciation does vary, as well as grammar and vocabulary.
[edit] Verbs
In some senses, employing Spanish verbs correctly is difficult for native speakers of English. There are seven indicative tenses with more-or-less direct English equivalents; for example present tense (I walk, I do walk), preterite (-ed or did, ie. I walked or I did walk), the imperfect (was, were, or used to), perfect (I have _____), future (will) and conditional (would). What is difficult in this area are the six different spellings for each tense; English grammar, in this respect, is simpler—in English, eat has two forms in the present tense (eat and eats), while in Spanish eat has six forms. In Latin American Spanish, Vosotros is usually replaced with Ustedes and the conjugation of that pronoun is the same as the third-person plural (i.e, ustedes comen, "You (plural) eat"). In Argentina, tú is generally replaced with vos, and is conjugated by replacing the infinitive -ar, -er, -ir with -ás, -és, -ís [edit] The Present IndicativeThe Present indicative is used to conjugate verbs to express present time frame. For example:
In all of the above cases, the verbs indicate actions or events in the present. Like so, the present indicative, as seen in the first exmaple sentence, can be used to characterize humans, places, or objects. It can also be used to tell time:
Present indicative for a verb ending in -ar, in this case, hablar
Present indicative for a verb ending in -er, in this case, comer
Present indicative for a verb ending in -ir, in this case, dormir. Note that this is a rare case - a stem changing verb. The dorm- stem changes to duerm- stem during conjugation in the Yo, Tú, Él/Ella/Usted, and Ellos/Ellas/Ustedes subjects. Not all -ir verbs are stem changing. Stem changing verbs are present ending with -ar, -er, and -ir. Dormir (to sleep) is a common example.
Another important irregular/stem changing verb is the verb ser, to be[1]
[edit] Past TensesSpanish has a number of conjugations used to express actions or events in a past (pasado) time frame. Among the most salient are the preterite and imperfect conjugations. [edit] PreteriteThe preterite, or simple preterite, is used to express actions or events that took place in the past, in an instantaneous or completed event. For example:
Preterite for a verb ending in -ar, in this case, hablar
Preterite for a verb ending in -er, in this case, comer
Preterite for a verb ending in -ir, in this case, escribir
[edit] The Imperfect PreteriteThe imperfect preterite works much like the simple preterite, except it is meant to express actions or events that were ongoing or uninstantaneous occurences in the past. For example:
All three of the sentences above describe "unfinished" or "non-instantaneous" events. The characteristics in the first two sentences were continual, not instantaneous occurences. The last refers to an action done over a prolonged period of time, not a fleeting moment. [edit] The difference between Preterite and ImperfectAs mentioned, while the preterite deals with events or actions that were instantaneous and momentary, imperfect preterite deals with prolonged, unfinished actions or characteristics and habits. The two can be combined to show causality or chronological order of events. For example:
In all three cases, an event or action interrupts an ongoing event or action. For example, in the second sentence, the speaker states that he was in his room - expressed through imperfect preterite to suggest ongoing or unfinished activity, when the other person interrupted the event by entering - expressed through preterite to suggest an instantaneous and momentary action. [edit] Present progressive and imperfect progressiveThe present and imperfect progressive both are used to express ongoing, progressive action in the present and past, respectively. For example:
The present progressive is formed by first conjugating the verb estar or seguir, depending on context, to the subject, and then attaching a gerund of the verb that follows. The past (imperfect) progressive simply requires the estar or seguir to be conjugated, depending on context, in imperfect, with respect to the subject. [edit] Forming gerundsTo form gerunds in an -ar verb, replace the -ar in the infinitive with -ando i.e.: jugar, hablar, caminar --> jugando, hablando, caminando For -er, or -ir verbs, replace the -er or -ir ending with -iendo i.e.: comer, escribir, dormir --> comiendo, escribiendo, durmiendo - note that dormir also has a stem change, since it is an irregular verb. Verbs that end with two vowels and a consonant such as leer, traer, creer have a special exception: i.e.: leer, traer, creer --> leyendo, trayendo, creyendo Verbs that end with -eir, such as reír and sonreír have yet another exception i.e.: reír, freir --> riendo, friendo [edit] The SubjunctiveThe subjunctive of a verb is used to express certain connotations in sentences such as a wish or desire, a demand, an emotion, uncertainty, or doubt. [edit] Present SubjunctiveNormally, a verb would be conjugated in the present subjunctive to indicate an event in the present frame of time.
If the sentence is trying to express a desire, demand, or emotion, or something similar, in the present tense, the subjunctive is used.
Literally, the sentence above is saying I want that you be very ambitious
The subjunctive is also used to convey doubt or uncertainty.
The verbs above are in the present indicative because the friend in the first example is an entity that is known to exist, and the book in the second example is another known entity. There is no uncertainty or doubt. In the second two examples, uncertainty is also eliminated through the beginning phrases "Es verdad - It's true" and "No hay duda - There is no doubt". The present indicative of the verbs suffice here. However:
In the first two examples, the ideally sympathetic friend has not yet been found and remains an uncertainty, and authors "who write that" are not known to exist. In the third, possibility is not certainty, but rather a conjecture, and the last expresses clear doubt. Thus, subjunctive is used. Some of the phrases and verbs that require sentences to have subjunctive formation include:
Some phrases that do not require subjunctive because they express certainty include:
To form the subjunctive, first take the present indicative first-person ('yo') form of a verb. For example, the verbs hablar, comer, and escribir (To talk, to eat, to write) --> Yo hablo, yo como, yo escribo Then, replace the ending 'o' with the "opposite ending". The way this works is in the following: If the verb is an -er or -ir verb such as comer, poder, escribir, or compartir, replace the ending o with an 'a' i.e. : Yo como; Yo puedo; Yo escribo --> Yo coma; Yo pueda; Yo escriba If the verb is an -ar verb such as caminar, or hablar, replace the ending o with an 'e' i.e. : Yo habla; Yo camina --> Yo hable, yo camine This forms the first-person conjugation. The others are as follows:
[edit] The imperfect subjunctiveThe two forms of the imperfect subjunctive are largely interchangeable. The use of one or the other is largely a matter of personal taste and dialect. Many speakers only use the -ra forms. Many only use the -ra forms in speech, but vary between the two in writing. Many, especially in Castile[citation needed], may spontaneously use either, or even prefer the rarer -se forms. The imperfect subjunctive is formed for basically the same reasons as the present subjunctive, but is used for other tenses and time frames. [edit] NounsMain article: Spanish nouns Spanish has nouns of two genders, masculine and feminine. [edit] AdjectivesMain article: Spanish adjectives Spanish generally uses adjectives in a similar way to English and most other Indo-European languages. However, there are three key differences between English and Spanish adjectives.
[edit] DeterminersMain article: Spanish determiners Spanish uses determiners in a similar way to English. The main difference is that they "agree" with what they refer to in terms of both number (singular/plural) and gender (masculine/feminine). [edit] ArticlesDefinite articles: equivalent to "the". Indefinite articles: equivalent to "a/an, some."
mucho (mucha, muchos, muchas); poco (poca, pocos, pocas); otro (otra, otros, otras)... [edit] DemonstrativesSpanish has three kinds of demonstrative, whose use depends on the distance between the speaker and the described thing/person. The demonstrative equates to the English terms "this" and "that", although in Spanish the word used must agree for number and gender.
NOTE: When standing before the noun they qualify, i.e., when used as adjectives, demonstratives never take an accent: esta casa (this house), esos días (those days). But demonstratives may also stand on their own, instead of the noun they refer to. In that case, an accent is optional (and usually omitted unless this omission could make the sentence ambiguous): Quiero este (or éste) (I want this one). Neuter demonstratives have the meaning of "this (or that) thing, concept or idea": Eso está bien (That is okay). In certain cases, neuter demonstratives can convey a pejorative connotation: Quita eso de ahí (Take that out of there). Neuter demonstratives, because of their use, are never used as adjectives, which makes it unnecessary for them ever to take an accent. Moreover, for their indefinite meaning they do not have plural forms. [edit] PossessiveThe possessive words depend on the gender and number. The first one in the table is a possessive adjective, the second is a possessive pronoun.
Notice particularly that the gender here refers to that of the thing possessed, rather than to the possessor. Therefore, if a man has a house (Spanish "casa", which is a feminine noun) we can say that "La casa es suya" (The house is his), with a feminine possessive, according to the gender of the object this man possesses. Similarly, if a woman has a dog (in Spanish, "perro", a masculine noun), then we can say that "El perro es suyo" (The dog is hers), with a masculine possessive to agree with the noun "perro". [edit] Other determinersIndefinite quantity: poco (little), mucho (a lot), bastante (enough)... Cardinals: un (one/a, an), dos (two), tres (three)... Ordinals: primero (first), segundo (second), tercero (third)... Cardinal and ordinal numbers are adjectives of amount (like mucho and poco) and precede nouns (dos animales = two animals, primera persona = first person). Interrogative (¿): qué (what), cuándo (when), cómo (how), quién (who), dónde (where), por qué (why), cuál (which). The cardinal numbers greater than un and the interrogatives (except the plurals for cuál & quién, cuáles & quiénes) are indeclinable. The indefinite quantifiers, ordinals, un, and cuál are declined as adjectives. [edit] PronounsMain article: Spanish pronouns Spanish has a range of pronouns that in some ways work quite differently from English ones. They include: yo, tú, usted (vos), él, ella, ello, nosotros, vosotros, ustedes, ellos, ellas, esto, eso, aquello etc. Personal pronouns are usually omitted due to context, but it is not rare to see one in written text or in the spoken language, whether be for emphasis or in cases where there may be some confusion between conjugations. [edit] PrepositionsMain article: Spanish prepositions Spanish has a relatively large number of prepositions, and does not use postpositions. The following list is traditionally recited: A, ante, bajo, cabe, con, contra, de, desde, durante, en, entre, hacia, hasta, mediante, para, por, pro, según, sin, so, sobre, tras. Lately, two new prepositions have been added: "durante" and "mediante", usually placed at the end. This list includes two archaic prepositions (so and cabe), but leaves out two new Latinisms (vía and pro) as well as a large number of very important compound prepositions. Prepositions in Spanish do not, as in English, change a verb's meaning. For example, to translate "run out of water" "run up a bill" "run down a pedestrian" "run in a thief" into Spanish requires completely different verbs, and not simply the use of "correr" ("run") plus the corresponding Spanish prepositions. [edit] Miscellaneous[edit] ConjunctionsSpanish speech employs euphony in aid of communication, by changing the conjunctions being used, to alternate vowel-sound conjunctions that avoid the cacophony inherent to sounding two like-vowel-sound words or letters in short sequence; thus the conjunctions y (“and”) and o (“or”) change — either to e or u, or assume a graphical accent (′ ) — as determined by the first-syllable sound of the word each precedes. The “and” conjunction, Y is replaced with e if the next word begins with the vowel i or with the vowel-sounded hi (most i sounds); thus, Spanish avoids inserting a hiatus betwixt like-sounded vowels, hence, the binomial Fernando y Isabella becomes Fernando e Isabella (Fernando and Isabella); yet two exceptions exist:
The “or” conjunction, O is replaced with u if the next word begins with either the vowel o or with the vowel-sounded ho (most o sounds); thus, Sujeto o objeto becomes Sujeto u objeto (Subject or object). Vertical o horizontal becomes vertical u horizontal (Vertical or horizontal). In a pragmatic construction, the o conjunction is twice spelled with a graphical accent (acento gráfico) as ó; (i) when written between digits, lest it appear a zero, and (ii) as the typographic distinction between the the digit zero 0 and the letter and conjunction o. Therefore, the ambiguous: 2 o 3 becomes the correct 2 ó 3 (2 or 3). These typographic distinctions usually apply to lenguaje manuscrito (hand-written language), wherein the writer’s penmanship might be ambiguously legible; however, in printed matter, the grammatically usual graphical accent is discretionary. [edit] Cleft sentencesA cleft sentence is one formed with the copular verb (generally with a dummy pronoun like "it" as its subject), plus a word that "cleaves" the sentence, plus a subordinate clause. They are often used to put emphasis on a part of the sentence. Here are some examples of English sentences and their cleft versions:
Spanish does not usually employ such a structure in simple sentences. The translations of sentences like these can be readily analyzed as being normal sentences containing relative pronouns. Spanish is capable of expressing such concepts without a special cleft structure thanks to its flexible word order. For example, if we translate a cleft sentence such as "It was John who lost the keys", we get Fue Juan el que perdió las llaves. Whereas the English sentence uses a special structure, the Spanish one does not. The verb fue has no dummy subject, and the pronoun el que is not a cleaver but a nominalising relative pronoun meaning "the [male] one that". Provided we respect the parings of "el que" and "las llaves", we can play with the word order of the Spanish sentence without affecting its structure - although each permutation would, to a native speaker, give a subtly different shading of emphasis. For example, we can say Juan fue el que perdió las llaves ("Juan was the one who lost the keys") or El que perdió las llaves fue Juan ("The one who lost the keys was Juan"). As can be seen from the translations, if this word order is chosen, English stops using the cleft structure (there is no more dummy "it" and a nominalising relative is used instead of the cleaving word) whilst in Spanish no words have changed. Here are some examples of such sentences:
Note that it is ungrammatical to try to use just que to cleave such sentences as in English, but using quien in singular or quienes in plural is grammatical.
When prepositions come into play, things become complicated. Structures unambiguously identifiable as cleft sentences are used. The verb ser introduces the stressed element and then there is a nominaliser. Both of these are preceded by the relevant preposition. For example:
This structure is quite wordy, and is therefore often avoided by not using a cleft sentence at all. Emphasis is conveyed just by word order and stressing with the voice (indicated here within bolding):
In casual speech, the complex cleaving pronoun is often reduced to que, just as it is reduced to "that" in English. Foreign learners are advised to avoid this.
In the singular, the subordinate clause can agree either with the relative pronoun or with the subject of the main sentence, though the latter is seldom used. However, in the plural, only agreement with the subject of the main sentence is acceptable. Therefore:
[edit] Dialectal variations[edit] Forms of addressThe use of usted and ustedes as a polite form of address is universal. However, there are variations in informal address. Ustedes replaces vosotros in much of Andalusia, the Canary Islands and Latin America, except in the liturgical or poetic of styles. In some parts of Andalusia, the pronoun ustedes is used with the standard vosotros endings. Depending on the region, Latin Americans may also replace the singular tú with usted or vos. The choice of pronoun is a tricky issue and can even vary from village to village. Travellers are often advised to play it safe and call everyone usted. A feature of the speech of the Dominican Republic and other areas where syllable-final /s/ is completely silent is that there is no audible difference between the second and third person singular form of the verb. This leads to redundant pronoun use, for example, the tagging on of ¿tú ves? (pronounced tuvé) to the ends of sentences, where other speakers would say ¿ves?. [edit] VoseoMain article: Voseo Vos was used in medieval Castilian as a polite form, like the French vous and the Italian voi, and it used the same forms as vosotros. This gave three levels of formality:
Whereas vos was lost in standard Spanish, some dialects lost tú, and began using vos as the informal pronoun. The exact connotations of this practice, called voseo, depend on the exact dialect. In most places, it is associated with low socio-economic levels. In Argentina, however, it is used by everyone and is fully accepted. Argentinian voseo uses the pronoun vos for tú, but maintains te as an object pronoun and tu and tuyo as possessives. In Argentina, verbs corresponding to vos in the present indicative (roughly equivalent to the English simple present), are formed from the second person plural (the form for vosotros). If the second person plural ends in áis or éis, the form for vos drops the i:
Similarly the verb ser (to be) has:
If the second person plural ends in -ís (with an accent on the í), then the form for vos is identical:
In the imperative, the form for vos is also derived from the second person plural. The latter ends always in -d. So for the form for vos this d is removed, and if the verb has more than one syllable, an accent is added to the last vowel:
The only exception to these rules is in the verb ir (to go), which does not have an imperative form for vos and uses the analogous form of the verb andar, which has a similar meaning, and is regular:
In the present subjunctive, the same rules as for the present indicative apply, though these forms coexist in Argentina with those for the pronoun tú:
OR
Other tenses always have the same form for vos as for tú. Outside Argentina, other combinations are possible. For instance, Chileans may use standard vosotros endings for vos. [edit] Vosotros imperative: -ar for -adColloquially, the infinitive is used instead of the normative imperative for vosotros. This is not accepted in the normative language.
[edit] non-normative -s on tú formA form used for centuries but never accepted normatively has an -s ending in the second person singular of the preterite or simple past. For example, lo hicistes instead of the normative lo hiciste; hablastes tú for hablaste tú. This is the only instance in which the tú form does not end in an -s in the normative language. Ladino has gone further with hablates. [edit] Pronouns[edit] Laísmo[edit] Loísmo[edit] Leísmo[edit] Queísmo[edit] Dequeísmo[edit] External links
[edit] References
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