Spanish Grammar For Dummies

by Cecie Kraynak

Overview

The fast and easy way to improve your Spanish grammar

Do you need help with using Spanish? This hands-on, friendly guide teaches you the grammatical rules of the Spanish language, including parts of speech, sentence construction, and verb tenses and moods. Throughout the book, you get lots of practice exercises to help you retain what you've learned.

• Begin with the basics — discover how to use various parts of speech and deal with numbers, dates, and times
• Simple stuff — find out how to build simple sentences, express likes and dislikes, ask questions, and use exclamations
• Go to the next level — get the scoop on using the reflexive, employing passive voice, making comparisons, and adding negative words
• Don't be so tense — grasp verb tenses you'll use all the time: the present, the preterit, the imperfect, and the future
• Be moody — get up to speed in a hurry on the conditional mood and the imperative mood

Open the book and find:

• Information on nouns, adjectives, verbs, and other basic parts of speech
• Guidance on dealing with numbers, dates, and times
• Tips for constructing simple sentences and questions
• The scoop on making sentences more descriptive with comparisons, negative words, and more
• Different verb tenses and moods
• Ten common grammar mistakes (and how to avoid them)
• Plenty of examples and practice opportunities

Learn to:

• Grasp parts of speech, sentence construction, and verb tenses
• Enhance your descriptive speech with adverbs, adjectives, and prepositions
• Practice your grammar skills as you go

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781118235768
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	04/06/2012
Series:	For Dummies Books
Sold by:	JOHN WILEY & SONS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	384
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Cecie Kraynak, MA, is a Spanish teacher, ESL coordinator, and author/editor of numerous Spanish books, including Spanish For Dummies. She has taught and tutored Spanish at the junior high school and college levels for more than 25 years.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Part I: Starting with the Basics 7

Chapter 1: Spanish Grammar in a Nutshell 9

Chapter 2: Sounding Out Spanish Words 19

Chapter 3: Naming Things with Nouns and Articles 29

Chapter 4: Describing Stuff with Adjectives 47

Chapter 5: Dealing with Numbers, Dates, and Time 67

Part II: Constructing Simple Sentences and Asking Questions 81

Chapter 6: Writing in the Present Tense 83

Chapter 7: Expressing a State of Being with Ser and Estar 107

Chapter 8: Talking about Action in Progress with the Present Progressive 121

Chapter 9: Replacing Nouns with Pronouns 133

Chapter 10: Expressing Likes and Dislikes 149

Chapter 11: Handling Questions and Exclamations 163

Part III: Beefing Up Your Sentences with More Description 179

Chapter 12: Describing Action with Adverbs 181

Chapter 13: Modifying Meaning with Prepositions 195

Chapter 14: Acting on Oneself with the Reflexive 213

Chapter 15: Using the Passive Voice 227

Chapter 16: It’s All Relative: Making Comparisons 237

Chapter 17: Just Say "No": Negative Words and Expressions 249

Part IV: Talking about the Past or Future 261

Chapter 18: Looking Back with the Preterit 263

Chapter 19: Describing Ongoing Past Action with the Imperfect 281

Chapter 20: Projecting Forward with the Future Tense 295

Chapter 21: Forming Compound Tenses with the Helping Verb Haber 305

Part V: Expressing Conditions and Giving Commands 319

Chapter 22: Wondering "What If" with the Conditional Mood 321

Chapter 23: Taking Command with the Imperative Mood 329

Part VI: The Part of Tens 345

Chapter 24: Ten Common Spanish Grammar Mistakes (And How to Avoid Them) 347

Chapter 25: Ten Useful Spanish Idioms 353

Index 357

Interviews

Cheat Sheet for Spanish Grammar For Dummies

From Spanish Grammar For Dummies by Cecie Kraynak

Spanish grammar covers a lot of territory. To start writing grammatically correct sentences in the present tense, you need to know about masculine and feminine nouns, adjectives, and regular verbs in Spanish

Telling a Masculine Noun from a Feminine Noun in Spanish

In Spanish grammar, you need to be able to distinguish a noun's gender (either masculine or feminine) so that you can use the correct gender of any article or adjective that describes it. You can follow some simple guidelines to help you identify a Spanish noun's gender.

Masculine nouns include the following:

• Most nouns that end in -o, such as año (year)
• Nouns that identify males, such as tío (uncle)
• Nouns that end in -aje or -ambre, such as equipaje (luggage) and alambre (wire)
• Certain nouns that end in -or or -án, such as amor (love) and champán (champagne)
• Nouns that end in -ama, -ema, -oma, -ma, or -ía, such as programa (program) and dilema (dilemma)
• Days of the week and months of the year
• Colors used as nouns
• Names of languages, rivers, seas, and oceans
• Compound nouns that consist of noun-verb combinations and that usually end in -s, such as abrelatas (can opener)

Feminine nouns include the following:
• Most nouns that end in -a, such as ensalada (salad)
• Nouns that identify females, such as hija (daughter)
• Nouns that end in -dad or -tad, such as ciudad (city) and libertad (liberty)
• Nouns that end in -ie, -eza, -sis, or -itis, such as especie (species), riqueza (richness), tesis (thesis), and sinusitis (sinusitis)
• Nouns that end in -ción, -sión, -tud, or -umbre, such as canción (song) and misión (mission)

Making Spanish Adjectives Agree with the Nouns They Modify
In Spanish grammar, adjectives have to agree with the nouns they modify in both gender and number, no matter what:
• Gender: If a noun is feminine, like la muchacha (the girl), the adjective must be feminine, too. For example, to talk about a tall girl, you'd say la muchacha alta (the tall girl). If the girl has a brother who's also tall, you'd say el muchacho alto (the tall boy).
• Number: If a noun is plural, the adjective must also be plural. For example, to describe a group of tall girls, you'd say las muchachas altas. To describe a group of tall boys, you'd say los muchachos altos. Similarly, if a noun is singular, the adjective must be singular, too (see the preceding bullet for examples).

Following are some general rules about making adjectives agree with the nouns they modify:
• Like nouns, most adjectives follow the general rule that masculine adjectives end in -o and pluralize with -s and feminine adjectives end in -a and pluralize with -s.
• Adjectives that end in a consonant, -e, or -ista usually don't have masculine and feminine forms, but they do have singular and plural forms. To make an adjective that ends in -e or -ista plural, simply add -s. To make an adjective that ends in a consonant plural, add -es.
• With some adjectives that end in -dor, -ón, or -án, you add -a to form the feminine, -es to form the masculine plural, and -as to form the feminine plural.

Here are a few more examples of adjectives that agree with the nouns they modify in both gender and number:
• un examen difícil (a difficult exam)
• una chica inteligente (a smart girl)
• unos peces caros (some expensive fish)
• unas reglas importantes (some important rules)

Conjugating Regular Spanish Verbs in the Present Tense
In Spanish grammar, as in English, you conjugate verbs to reflect the tense (when the action occurred, is occurring, or will occur) and to agree with the subject in person and number. To conjugate regular Spanish verbs ending in -ar, -er, or -ir in the present tense, you drop the ending and add endings to specify the subject (in person and number) that's performing the action. Here's what those endings look like:

Verb	Infinitive	Ending	Present	Tense Endings
-ar	-o, -as, -a,	-amos,	-áis,	-an
-er	-o, -es, -e,	-emos,	-éis,	-en
-ir	-o, -es, -e,	-imos,	-ís,	-en

Here's a conjugation chart for a regular -ar verb conjugated in the present tense:
cantar (to sing)
yo canto nosotros/nosotras cantamos
tú cantas vosotros/vosotras cantáis
él/ella/usted canta ellos/ellas/ustedes cantan

Here's a conjugation chart for a regular -er verb conjugated in the present tense:
beber (to drink)
yo bebo nosotros/nosotras bebemos
tú bebes vosotros/vosotras bebéis
él/ella/usted bebe ellos/ellas/ustedes beben

Here's a conjugation chart for a regular -ir verb conjugated in the present tense:
vivir (to live)
yo vivo nosotros/nosotras vivimos
tú vives vosotros/vosotras vivís
él/ella/usted vive ellos/ellas/ustedes vive