At the present,grammar is the study of the fundamental forms of the
language with its significant content.
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The Spanish alphabet has thirty different signs.
| LETTERS | NAMES | LETTERS | NAMES | LETTERS | NAMES |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A,a | a | J,J | jota | R,r | ere |
| B,b | be | K,k | ka | -rr | erre |
| C,c | Ce | L,l | ele | S,s | ese |
| Ch,ch | che | LL,LL | elle | T,t | te |
| D,d | De | M,m | eme | U,u | u |
| E,e | e | N,n | ene | V,v | ve |
| F,f | efe | Ñ,ñ | eñe | W,w | doble v |
| G,g | ge | O,o | o | X,x | equis |
| H,h | (h)ache | P,P | pe | Y,y | y griega |
| I,i | i | Q,q | cu | Z,z | zeta |
The names of the Spanish letters are feminine: una " b" larga= a long "b" (that is,b not v). You will find that the letters "k" and "w" are founf mainly in words adopted from foreign languages and that the sound of "rr" at the begining of the words is represented by "r".
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The Spanish vowels have this values:
The vowels a,e,o are called strong; i,u weak.The stressed syllable is not prolong like in English but pronounced with greater force.
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Before we get into the heavy duty stuff it is good to know that there
are words that are
similar in Spanish and English. If you look closely some of this words,
you might
be able to guess their meaning:
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In this section , you'll learn few useful phrases:
In addition,you will notice that there is a letter in the ABC's that
is not present
in the English ABC's. That letter is Ñ,ñ. The tilde
is used only
on top of Ñ,ñ.This letter is pronounced like NY in
"canyon".
Sometimes you will find a letter like u look like ü in
ungüento= (ointment).This letter is pronounced like the
w in English.
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In Spanish as well as in other Romanic Languages,the name of things
and person
fall into two genders: masculine and feminine.
One thing that might help is to see the ending of the words. If the words
end in
"o",there are usually masculine,for example: muchacho
and
perro . Words that end in "a" are usually feminine,for
example:
muchacha and casa. For this reason,
I recommend that you learn the articles and words together,forexample:
Feminine: la madre,la flor and masculine :el padre,el hotel
.
This way it becomes easier to remember what they are and how to work
with plurals
and singular and much later with adjectives- this is when you will need
to know
for sure your masculine and feminine words!!!!
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Add an "s" to the word that end in a vowel (a,e,i,o,u).
Ifthe word ends in any
other letter add "es".Here are some examples:muchacho,muchachos;
maleta,maletas;hotel,hoteles;flor,flores.
Try to do this applying the rule:
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un and una are used in the same way a andan
it is used
in English. The only difference is that un is used in front of a
word that
is masculine. As for una, it is used in front of a word that is
feminine.
Here are few examples to help you a little:
una
cartera
la
mano y los dedos
Now, do not you worry ,it is not as scary as it sounds!!!!! This are
the words that make
everything "do something". The most of the verbs that end in
-ar,follow a pattern. If you
substitute -ar for o,you will be talking about yourself .
If you substitute the
-ar for a then you will be talking about another person,he
or she doing the action.Let me show you few examples so you undertand what
I am
saying:
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Spanish is the official language of Spain,Argentina,Uruguay,Chile,Perú,Bolivia,
Ecuador,Venezuela,Colombia,Panamá,Costa Rica,Honduras,Nicaragua,El
Salvador, Guatemala,México,Cuba,la República Dominicana,Puerto
Rico,Paraguay and the Philippines.
The Castilian Language ( Spanish language spoken in the region of Castilla
in Spain) is spoken in several regions of the United States.In addition,
when the Jews were exiled from Spain in 1492, they took with them the language
and tradicions known today as Sefardí(Sephardi). Today,it is of
great importance to try to rescue this Spanish of the XV Century buried
in other languages in countries like Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Greece,Turkey,Israel,North
America and Morocco.
Spanish takes the third place among the main spoken languages of the world
with a total of approximately of 200 milliones of inhabitants.Chinese being
the first with approximately 490 millions inhabitants and English being
the second with 310 millions inhabitants.
Spanish in known by two terms: Español and Castellano. Español
is the official language of Spain as well as in other Countries mention
above. Castellano is named after the region where it was born,Castilla.
In addition,there are many other languages spoken in Spain such as Gallego,Catalán,Euskera
or Basque.
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Our house has:
These are few of the things you will find in a house. Now that we know
a little of the words needed for a basic conversation:
When you land in a Spanish-speaking country ,you need few words to get
you through the day, specially if you loose your suitcases !!!!!!!!!!!!!
Buenos días,señor.Busco mis maletas.
Good morning sir.I am looking for my suitcases.
Bien.¿Cómo se llama?
Okay.What is your name?
Me llamo___________________
My name is_______________________
¿De donde viene?
where do you come from?
Yo vengo de Los Estados Unidos
I come the United States
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