Hispana/Leciono 1: Malsamoj inter versioj
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Kiel registrite je 13:12, 14 sep. 2006
Dialogue 1
Two good friends - Carmen and Roberto - are meeting:
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Listen to the dialogue. (139KB)
Vocabulary
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Dialogue 2
Two people - Señor González and Señora Pérez - are meeting for the first time:
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Listen to the Dialogue. 
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Vocabulary
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Exercise: Greetings
Grammar: Personal Pronouns
Spanish has six different types of pronouns.
| Person | English equivalent | Spanish equivalent |
| 1st person singular (1) | I | yo |
| 2nd person singular (2) | singular you (informal) | tú |
| 3rd person singular (3) | he, she, you (formal) | él, ella, usted |
| 1st person plural (4) | we | nosotros, nosotras |
| 2nd person plural (5) | plural you (informal) | vosotros, vosotras |
| 3rd person plural (6) | they, you (formal) | ellos, ellas, ustedes |
A few things to keep in mind:
- It is normal in Spanish to omit the personal pronoun (i.e. you seldom say yo estoy bien but estoy bien, and you ask ¿Cómo se llama? instead of ¿Cómo se llama usted?) because the specific conjugation of a verb usually indicates which person is the subject. However, usted, él and ella all use the same verb form so if you choose to drop the pronoun in this case it must be clear in the situational context which pronoun is being referenced.
- In most of Spain the vosotros form can be used to address a group of familiar people (e.g. friends), and ustedes is used with more formality (e.g. recent acquaintances). In all Latin American countries and parts of Spain ustedes is used also for a familiar group of people; in these countries the "vosotros" form is almost never used.
- In Argentina,parts of Uruguay and some other countries, the tu form is replaced with vos.
- Usted and ustedes can be abbreviated as Ud. and Uds., respectively.
Grammar: Verbs ser and estar
Spanish has two different words that can be translated with "to be". Ser is used more for more permanent characteristics ("Soy Luis") whereas estar is used for more temporary or changeable conditions, such as location ("La papelera está al lado del escritorio", "The trash can is beside the desk") and feeling ("Estoy bien"). In future lessons we will come back to the uses of ser and estar.
Here we will look at the conjugations in the present indicative.
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Ejemplos de los verbos ser y estar (Examples of the Verbs ser and estar)
| Spanish (español) | English (inglés) |
|---|---|
| Yo soy una persona. | I am a person. |
| Yo estoy en casa. | I am at home |
| Tú eres un buen hombre. | You are a good man. |
| Tú estás en el sitio correcto. | You are in the correct place. |
| Él es mi amigo. | He is my friend. |
| Él está jugando muy bien.* | He is playing very well. |
Note: *This use of estar is the Spanish present progressive which is used for actions in progress. More about the present progressive in Lesson X
Dialect Note: Spanish which uses the vos form conjugates ser with the following irregular form: sos.
Exercise: Verbs ser and estar
Hay
Spanish uses a different verb (haber) to express "there is " and "there are". The form of haber used for this purpose is hay, for both singular ("there is") and plural ("there are").
| English (inglés) | Spanish (español) |
|---|---|
| there is there are |
hay |
Spanish alphabet
Here is the normal Spanish alphabet. However words aren't alphabetized by it. Please read the notes and sections below. (Blue letters are a part of the normal English alphabet.)
Audio: OGG (646KB)
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | ñ | o | p | q | r | rr | s | t | u | v | w | x | y | z | |
| Notes about Ñ and RR | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Ñ should always be alphabetized after N no matter where it appears in the word (e.g., muñeca goes after mundo). RR is considered a letter in the Spanish language, but there are no words beginning with this letter. It is alphabetized after R (e.g., carro comes after caro). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Notes about CH and LL | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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CH and LL used to be considered as distinct letters of the alphabet, but in 1994, the Real Academia Española (Spanish Royal Academy) declared that CH and LL were not letters but digraphs. Accordingly, words beginning with CH and LL are now alphabetized under C and L, respectively. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Notes about K and W | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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K and W are part of the alphabet but are mostly seen in foreign derived words and names, such as karate and whisky. For instances, kilo is commonly used in Mexico to refer to a kilogram. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Although the above will get you understood, proper pronunciation of Spanish consonants is a bit more complicated:
Most of the consonants are pronounced as they are in American English with these exceptions:
- b like the English b at the start of a word and after m or n; otherwise closer to v (in Latin America there's no distinction)
- c before a, o, u and other consonants, like English k
- c before i and e like English th in “think” (in Latin America is like English s)
- ch like ch in “cheese”
- d between vowels (even if it starts a word following a word ending in a vowel) or at the end of a word, like English d in dental
- g before e or i like the Scottish pronunciation of ch in “loch”, except that it is voiced
- g before a or o like g in “get”
- h is always silent (except in the digraf ch)
- j like the h in hotel
- ll is pronounced like English y in “yes”
- ñ like nio in “onion” (or gn in French cognac)
- q like the English k
- r slighty trilled; like a soft d except at the beginning of a word or after l, n or s where it is trilled
- rr should be trilled longer than a single r
- v is pronounced like a cross between a v and a b
- z like the English th (in Latin America is like English s)
Vowel pronunciation
The pronunciation of vowels is as follows:
- a [a] "La Mano" as in "Kahn" (ah)
- e [e] "Mente" as the ay in "day" (e)
- i [i] "Sin" as the ea in "lean" (i)
- o [o] "Como" as in "no". (short o)
- u [u] "Lunes" as in "toon" or "loom" (oo)
The "u" is always silent after "q" (as in "qué" pronounced kā).
Spanish also uses the ¨ (diaeresis) diacritic mark over the vowel u to indicate that it is pronounced separately in places where it would normally be silent. For example, in words such as vergüenza ("shame") or pingüino ("penguin"), the u is pronounced as in the English "w" and so forms a diphthong with the following vowel: [we] and [wi] respectively. It is also used to preserve sound in stem changes and in commands.
Semi-Vowels
- y [j] "Rey" as in the y of "yet".
Acute accents
Spanish uses the ´ (Acute) diacritic mark over vowels to indicate a vocal stress on a word that would normally be stressed on another syllable; Stress is contrastive. For example, the word ánimo is normally stressed on a, meaning "mood, spirit." While animo is stressed on ni meaning "I cheer." And animó is stressed on mó meaning "he cheered."
Additionally the acute mark is used to disambiguate certain words which would otherwise be homographs. It's used in various question word or relative pronoun pairs such as cómo (how?)& como (as), dónde(where?) & donde (where), and some other words such as tú (you) & tu (your), él (he/him) & el (the).
| A | E | I | O | U |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| á | é | í | ó | ú |
Emphasis
The rules of stress in Spanish are:
1. When the word ends in a vowel or in "n" or "s" the emphasis falls on the second to last syllable.
Eg: Mañana, Como, Dedos, Hablan.
2. When the word ends in a consonant other than "n" or "s", the emphasis falls on the last syllable.
Eg: Ciudad, Comer, Reptil.
3. If the above two rules don't apply, there will be an accent to show the stress.
Eg: Fíjate, Inglés, Teléfono.
4. SPECIAL CASE: Adverbs ending in -mente, which are derived from adjectives, have two stresses. The first stress occurs in the adjective part of the adverb, on the syllable where the adjective would normally be stressed. The second stress occurs on the -men- syllable.
Eg: Solamente, Felizmente, Cortésmente.