A very short Spanish grammar (under construction)

- by Knut Holt - Pantera Consulting

This short grammar is intended for those allready understanding some Spanish, but yet are ancertain about the most essetial grammatical constructions.

1. Spanish nouns articles and pronouns

1.1 Singular of nouns and noun gender

The singular of nouns has no ending, or an ending indicating gender - masculine or feminine. Masculine nouns have often the ending -o, feminine nouns have often the ending -a.

A noun can often change ending from o to a, and thereby also gender to make som differense in the meaning. Nouns denoting living beings often change the ending to show the sex of the being.

1.2 Plural of nouns

The plural of Spanish nouns are formed by adding an -s to singular nouns ending in vowels, ex chico - chicos / boy/boys, chica / chicas - girl/girls.

If the singular ends in consonant, the plural gets the ending -es.

1.3 Irregular nouns

Some nouns are irregular: child - children, goose -geese, man - men, woman - women, ox - oxen 

1.4 Indefinite articles

The Spanish indefinite article is used when one only wants to tell what a thing is, without saying anything about the identity of the object, or to indicate that some object is spoken of for the first time.

The singular  indefinite article is "un" for masculine nouns and "una" for fenimine ones. The plural  indefinite article is "unos" for masculine nouns and "unas" for fenimine ones.

The indefinite articles are placed before its noun.

1.5 The definite article

The definite article indicates that the thing spoken of has been talked about allready, or is particularly known by the listener allready. It is also often used about things in general.

The singular  definite article is "el" for masculine nouns and "la" for fenimine ones. The plural  definite article is "los" for masculine nouns and "las" for fenimine ones.

There is also a neuter form "lo" used when talking about something of unknown properties or abstract concepts.

The definite articles are placed before its noun.

1.6 Personal pronouns

Personal pronouns have different forms when used as subject, direct object, indirect object and also has genitive forms. The object forms are also used after prepositions. When the subject and the object is the same, the reflexive object forms are used.

Some special constructions: conmigo = with me, consigo = with you

1.7 The place of the personal pronouns.

In combination with a finite verb, the place of the pronouns ar lik this: subject - indirect object - direct object - verb.  Example: Yo te lo de = I give it to you. (de = I give). Because the verb shows the person and number of the subject, the subject pronoun is usually omitted: The sentence would therefore most often be said more simply:  Te lo de.

1.8 Deictic and indefinite pronouns

Deictic pronouns is used to point out something and to mark identity.  They can both stand alone and be used before nouns. They are listed in this order. masculine sing, feminine sing, masculine plural, femine plural, neuter.

Deictic pronouns - about near objects: Este, esta, estes, estas, esto.

Deictic pronouns - near to the porson you speak with: Ese, esa, esos, esas, eso.

Deictic pronouns - about far objects:  Aquel, aquella, aquellos, aquellas, aquellos.

1.9 Interrogative pronouns

 Important interrogative pronouns are:

Qué - what, quién / quiénes - who

 These are placed firts in the sentence.

Què comes? - what do you eat? Quién eres? - who are you?

1.10 Relative pronouns

The most common relative pronoun is que, that can be used about everything when the relative pronoun comes directly after the word it shows back on.

La pluma que está en la mesa es mia. - The pen that is at the table is mine.

The pronoun quien (singular), quienes (plural) are used when there is as short distance between the pronoun and the word it shows back on,  for example after prepositions.

Other relatieve pronouns are el que, la que, los que, las que. Still others are el qual, la qual, los quales, las quales. These are used when there is a longer distance between the relative pronoun and the word it shows back at.

2. Spanish adjectives and numerals

2.1 General and positive degree

Adjectives are generally placed after the moun it is attribut to, but some common afjectives are most often placed before.

Adjectives are inflected in gender and number after the noun  or the object they describe.

A great group of ajectives have these endings: M.sg - o, f.sg - a, m.pl - os, f.pl - as.

Anothet group of adjectives have no ending in the singular and -es in plural.

2.2 Comparative degree

The comparative degree is made by placing the word - mas (more) before the adjective, example forte - mas forte = strong - stronger.

2.3 Superlative degree

The superlative  degree is made by placing the definite article before the comparative degree, example: forte - el mas forte = stronger - the strongest.

There is also a form denoting a very strong degree of a property, called absolute supperlative. This form has the ending -ísimo/a/os/as. Example fortísimo - very strong

2.4 Irregular adjectives

2.5 Adjectives used as nouns

2.6 Cardinal numbers

Cardinal numbers are used in counting and measuring items.

The first twenty cardinals are:

The tennumbers are:

The big numbers are:  

When composing more complex numbers, use the following pattern, but omit what you do not need in the formula:

Examples:

2.7 Ordinal numbers

3. Spamish verbs

3.1 Infinitive and general consepts

Spanish has thre verb classes or conjugations: first, secund and third, and also many irregular verbs. Verbs of the first conjugation often have "a" as the first part of the ending, those of the secund usually have "e" and those of the third have endings beginneing with "i".

The infinitive of first conjugation end in -ar, that of the sexond have -er, and that of the thir -ir.

Examples:  amar - to love, comer - to eat, finir - to finish.

When the infinitive endings are taken away, one gets the root of the verb: am-, com-, fin-.

Some verb forms are made by adding more endiongs to the root, others are made by adding more ednings to the full infinitive.

Verbs are conjugated in time/aspect, modi, persons and number for the subject.

There are also passive and reflexive constructions.

3.2 Present (prs)

The inflection is indicated by means of example verbs and their endings. The roots and endings are here separated with a hyphen. Such a hyphen is not used in real use.

Indicative

Conjunctive

3.3 The gerund and contious forms

The basic mening of the gerund is telleing that sometings is goeing on.

1. Conjugation: am-ando

2. Conjugation: tem-iendo

3. Conjugation: part-iendo

The continous forms is used to tell about actions taking place, but without indicating the beginning and end of te action. It is used by combining a tense of the verb estar with the gerund

Estamos partiendo de Madrid = we are departing from Madrid.

3.4 Imperfect form

Conjunctive

Conjunctive

In adition to the imperfect subjunctive form containing an "-ra-", there are alternative forms containing an "-se" :  am-ase, amases, amase, etc

The imperfect forms is used about something taking long time in the past, when you speak about something going on the past but not about the action finishing,  or about someting repeating itself in the past.

Ex: Partíamos de Madrid. = We were departing from Madrid.

Instead of a plain imperfect form, one can sometimes use a past continous form:

 Estíamos partiendo de Madrid. = We were departing from Madrid.

The indicative forms are used to express something certain. The conjunctive is used to express somethingthat is not quite certain or some event that was dependent of some other event and therefore would not occur without that other event.

3.5 The preterite form

The preterite is used about an action in the distant past that happend once, that were finnished and that did not take a long time. It is also used about the beginning of a state or an action in the past.

Partimmos de Madrid. = We departed from Madrid.

3.6 The perfect participle and the perfect

The perfect participle denotes  a state after an action has been done to something or someone. When used this way it behaves as an adjective

It is also used to make the composite tense perfect.

1. Conjugation: am-ado/a/os/as

2. Conjugation: tem-ido/a/os/as

3. Conjugation: part-ido/a/os/as

The perfect tense for most transitive verbs is made by combining the present of haber with a perfect participle. The participle is decloned in gender and number according to the subject.

The perfect tense of most intransitive and reflexive verbs are made by combining the present tense of ser with a perfect participle.

The perfect is used about an action in the near past that happend once, that were finnished and that did not take a long time.

3.7 Pluperfect

The pluperfect tense for most transitive verbs is made by combining the preterite of haver with a perfect participle. The participle is declioned in gender and number according to the subject.

The pluperfect tense of most intransitive and reflexive verbs are made by combining the preterite tense of ser with a perfect participle.

The pluperfect is used about an action in the past that occured befor another action.

Quando havíamos comido, somos partidos a Madrid = When we had eaten, we departed to Madrid.

3.8 Future

The future is made by adding endings marking person and number to the infinitive.

These endings are:

Singular: 1p é, 2p -ás, 3p -á  Plural: 1p -emos, 2p -éis, 3p -án

For some verbs the infinitive is contracted or otherwise changed before adding the endings. The most common are:

caber - cabr-, haber - habr-, hacer - har-, poner - pondr-, poder - podr-, salir - saldr-, tener - tendr-, valer - valdr, venir - vendr

The future is used to express something that will happen in the future. It is also often used to express somefing one believes happen either in the present or the future.

Comeremos muy tarde esta noche - we will eat very late this evening.

3.9 Future perfect (sf)

The future perfect is made by combining the first future of haber with the perfect participle of the main verb.

It is used to express something in the future that will happen before a specific time or another event in the futire. It can also express something one supposes has allready happened before a certain time or event, either in the future, the past or the present.

Habré comido antes partiro a Madrid - I will have eaten before I (shall) depart to Madrid.

3.11 Present conditional (fc)

The present conditional is made by adding endings marking person and number to the infinitive.

These endings are:

Singular: 1p ía, 2p -ías, 3p -ía  Plural: 1p -íamos, 2p -íais, 3p -ían

For some verbs the infinitive is contracted or otherwise changed before adding the endings. The most common are:

caber - cabr-, haber - habr-, hacer - har-, poner - pondr-, poder - podr-, salir - saldr-, tener - tendr-, valer - valdr, venir - vendr

The conditional is used to express something that ought to happen, or is intended to happen, but not necessarily will happen.

Comeríamos aora - we should actually have eaten now.

3.12 Conditional perfect 

The conditional perfect is made by combining the presaent conditional of haber with the perfect participle of the main verb.

It is used to express something that should allready have happended, but has not necessarily happened.

Habríamos comido aora - Whe should have eaten (allready) by now.

4. Spanish adverbs (adv)

4.1 Adverbial forms

One often make adverbs from adjectives by adding the ending -mente to the feminine form of the adjective.

4.2 Comparison of adverbs

4.3 Irregular spanish adverbs

4.4 numeric adverbs

5. Spanish word order

The most common word order is subject - predicate - object - other complements. The subject is however often placed after the verb or last in the sentence.

Adjectives are usually placed after the noun, but the most common adjectives are often placed before the noun.

Unstressed spanish personal pronouns are not actually independent words, they are rather affixes to the verb that are placed in special positions. About these see above under pronouns.

6. Negation

The most common spanish negation word is "no". It means no, and also not. It is placed before the verb to negate a sentence.

No hé comido. - I have not eaten.

7. Questions

In spanish questions are made by rizing the voice towardss the end of a sentence. In interogartive sentences, the subject is often placed right after the verb, but this placement do not necessarily denote a question. An inverted question mark is placed before the sentence and a normal question mark after the sentence.  Important question words that are placed frirst in a sentence are:

Que cosa - what, qui - who

Que cosa comes? - what do you eat? Qui eres? - who are you?

7. Emphasis