Rules Flashcards
Natural Stress vs Written Accent
- Words that end in a vowel (a, e, i, o, u) or the consonants n or s have their natural stress on the next to last syllable
Cucaracha, volumen, mañana, triste, tomates, hablo, examen
- Words that end in any consonant other than n or s have their natural stress on the final syllable
Salud, mujer, amistad, cantar, papel, vegetal, doctor, nariz, azul
- When a word does not follow one of these two rules, it will have a written accent on the syllable that is stressed
Teléfono, lámpara, canción, lección, música, difícil, fácil, café
If a one word syllable has a written accent, it means that…
…there is another word in the language that has the same spelling, but another meaning
El (the), él (he)
Si (if), sí (yes)
Tu (your), tú (you)
Se (oneself), sé (I know)
If a two word syllable has a written accent that does not affect the pronunciation, it means that….
There is another word that has the same spelling, but different meaning
Este (this), éste (this one)
Ese (that), ése (that one)
Interrogative words have an accent mark that does not affect pronunciation …
Qué
Quién
Dónde
Cómo
Por qué
Cuál
Nouns and adjectives that end in z change to _ to form the plural
El lápiz, los lápices
La nariz, los narices
Feliz, felices
Nouns that end in -ción, -sión, -dad, -tad, or -tud are
Feminine - they take the definite article la
A noun ending in -ista can be _ or _
Masculine or feminine depending on whether it refers to a male or female. The article indicates the gender of the noun (el or la)
A noun ending in -nte can be _ or _
Masculine or feminine depending on whether it refers to a male or female. The article indicates the gender of the noun.
Adjectives that end in -o change the -o to _ when describing a feminine noun
-a
Adjectives that do not end in _ have the same form for describing both masculine and feminine nouns
-o
Ex: el libro excelente, la comida excelente, la pluma azul
The adjective follows the _ it describes
Noun
Estar conjugations
Yo estoy
Tú estás
Nosotros estamos
Él está
Ella está
Ellos están
Ellas están
Usted está
Ustedes están
Vosotros estáis
Estar is used to express:
Position
Location
Action
Condition (health)
Emotion
Personal opinion in terms of taste or appearance
Ser conjugation:
Yo soy
Tú eres
Él es
Ella es
Ellos son
Ellas son
Nosotros somos
Ustedes son
Usted es
Ser describes:
Date
Occupation
Characteristic (description)
Time
Origin
Relation
Possession or ownership
Material
Where an event takes place
The Spanish definite articles el, la, Los, and las never follow _
Hay
When hay is followed by a plural noun, the _ is omitted
Article
When estar is used with food the English equivalent is
Taste or tastes
La sopa está sabrosa
El pescado está delicioso
When estar is used with appearance the English equivalent is
Look or looks
Él está guapo
Ella está hermosa hoy
Spanish nouns ending in -a that begin with a stressed “a” or “ha” are feminine but they take the masculine article elsewhere in the singular and the feminine article last in the plural
Water
Eagles
Souls
Weapons
Axe
El agua fría, las aguas frías
El águila, las águilas
El alma, las almas
El hacha, las hachas
Questions are formed by inverting the subject and the verb.
Cantas tú los domingos?
Or
Tú cantas los domingos?
The present tense can be used to express a future even if an adverbial expression of future time is included
She’ll sing with you tomorrow
Ella canta con ud. mañana
To make a sentence negative, place no directly before the verb
I don’t sing in the train
No canto en el tren
The preposition “a” means “to” and when it’s followed by the masculine “el” meaning “the”, the words contract to “al” meaning to the
We walk to the hotel
I walk to the restaurant
Caminamos al hotel
Yo Camino al restaurante