Idiomatic expressions

EXAMPLES

· La nieve es blanca./ The snow is white.

· La tierra es redonda./ The earth is round.

· El saco es de lana./ The jacket is wool.

· Yo soy alta./ I am tall.

· Mi socio es extrovertido./ My partner is outgoing.

2. Possession.

EXAMPLE

· El auto es mío./ The car is mine.

3. Relationship.

EXAMPLE

· Ella es mi prima./ She is my cousin.

4. Profession.

EXAMPLE

· Son cirujanos plásticos./ They are plastic surgeons.

5. Nationality.

EXAMPLE

· Soy argentina./ I am Argentine.

6. Origin.

EXAMPLE

· El interventor es de La Paz./ The auditor is from La Paz.

7. Ser/ to be is used to indicate marital status.

EXAMPLE

· Ella es divorciada./ She is divorced.

8. Expressions of time and dates.

EXAMPLES

· Es la una./ It's one o'clock.

· Hoy es jueves./ Today is Thursday.

9. Events taking place.

EXAMPLE

· La fiesta es esta noche./ The party is tonight.

10. Passive voice.

EXAMPLE

· La casa fue incendiada./ The house (was) burned down.

11. Impersonal expressions.

EXAMPLE

· Es imposible hablar con ellos./ It's impossible talking to them.

12. Noun and adjective complement (A complement completes the sentence by describing or defining the subject).

EXAMPLES

· Mi suegra es una abuela maravillosa./ My mother-in-law is a wonderful grandma.

· Ella es Ana./ She is Ana.

· El compasivo es él./ The compassionate one is he. (Remember that the verb to be is transitory; therefore, he is used instead of him.)

ESTAR / TO BE

Estar is used to express location, transitory aspects, and characteristics that are NOT inherant property of a noun, such as how something/someone looks, feels or tastes at a given moment.

Pronoun	Present	Past	Future	Conditional
yo/ I	estoy	estuve	estar é	estar ía
tú/ you	estás	estuviste	estar ás	estar ías
él, ella, Ud./ he, she, you	está	estuvo	estar á	estar ía
nos./ we	estamos	estuvimos	estar emos	estar íamos
vos./you	estáis	estuvisteis	estar éis	estar íais
ellos, Uds./ they, you	están	estuvieron	estar án	estar ían

1. Location or position of people and things.

EXAMPLES

· El restaurante está en la esquina./ The restaurant is at the corner.

· Los inversores estarán en Venezuela./ The investors will be in Venezuela.

2. Transitory, unusual, recently changed or constantly changing state or condition.

EXAMPLES

· Pablo estuvo enfermo./ Pablo was sick.

· El café está frío./ The coffee is cold.

3. Results of an action.

EXAMPLE

· Nuestros problemas estarán resueltos pronto./ Our problems will be solved soon.

4. State or condition of a subject.

EXAMPLE

· El rehén está vivo./ The hostage is alive.

5. Progressive tenses.

EXAMPLE

· El lunes estaremos celebrando nuestro triunfo./ On Monday we'll be celebrating our triumph.

6. Weather expressions.

EXAMPLE

· Está lloviendo./ It's raining.

IDIOMATIC EXPRESSIONS

· Estar acostumbrado/ to be accustomed to

· Estar conforme/ to be satisfied, in agreement

· Estar de acuerdo/ to be in agreement

· Estar de buen (mal) humor/ to be in a good (bad) mood

· Estar apurado (a)/ to be in a hurry

· Estar de vacaciones/ to be on vacation

· Estar de vuelta/ to be back

· Estar listo (a)/ to be ready

· Estar de moda/ to be in fashion

· Estar de viaje/ to be on a trip

· Estar embarazada/ to be pregnant

· Estar de rodillas/ to be kneeling

PREGUNTAS/ QUESTIONS

In Spanish there are 3 ways of asking a question to elicit a yes or no answer, and they are the following:

1. Verb + pronoun...Unlike English, the auxiliaries do and does are not used.

· ¿ Quierenustedes aprender español? / Do you want to learn Spanish?

NOTE: That interrogative questions have an opening (¿) question mark and also a closing one (?).

2. Pronoun + verb...The intonation makes the sentence interrogative.

· ¿ Ustedesquieren aprender español?/ Do you want to learn Spanish?

3. Verb +...+ pronoun. The pronoun goes last.

· ¿ Quieren aprender español ustedes?/ Do you want to learn Spanish?

PALABRAS INTERROGATIVAS / INTERROGATIVE WORDS

NOTE: These words are ALWAYS graphically accentuated, whether they are used to formulate a direct or indirect question.

· ¿ Qué hora es?/ What time is it? (direct)

· Dime qué hora es./ Tell me what time it is. (indirect)

¿A qué hora...?	What time...?
¿Dónde?	Where?
¿De dónde?	From where?
¿Por dónde?	Which direction?
¿A dónde?	To where?
¿Cómo?	How?
¿Cuál/-es?	Which one/-s?
¿Cuándo?	When?
¿Cuánto/-a?	How much?
¿Cuántos/-as?	How many?
¿Qué?	What?
¿Para qué?	For what reason?
¿Por qué?	Why?
¿Quién/-es?	Who?
¿A quién?	To whom?
¿Para quién?	For whom
¿De quién/-es?	Whose?

Acentuación/ Accentuation

Spanish words are classified into 4 categories, aguda, grave, esdrújula and sobresdrújula, depending on where the words are stressed.

A written accent indicates where a word is stressed; however, not all words have the written accent. Therefore, the following rules will be helpful.

AGUDA

Agudas are stressed in the last syllable. All words that do not have a written accent and end in a consonant other n or s, the stress is on the last syllable.

EXAMPLES:

azul/ blue

avestruz/ ostrich

Agudas are graphically accentuated only if the words DO end in n, s or a vowel.

EXAMPLES:

ratón/ mouse

interés/ interest

acné/ acne

GRAVE

Graves are stressed in the second to the last (penultimate) syllable. All words that do NOT have a written accent and end in n, s or a vowel, the stress is on the penultimate syllable.

EXAMPLES:

mo no/monkey

a ve/bird

pa to/duck

Graves are graphically accentuated only if the words do NOT end in n, s or a vowels. Note that graves have opposite rules to agudas.

EXAMPLES:

lá piz/ pencil

difícil/ difficult

ú til/useful

ESDRÚJULA

Esdrújulas are stressed in the third from last (antepenultimate) syllable. They are always graphically accentuated.

EXAMPLES:

rá pido/ quick

pá jaro/ bird

América/ America

SOBRESDRÚJULA

Sobresdrújulas are stressed in the fourth, fifth, sixth, etc. from last syllable. They are always graphically accentuated. Generally, sobresdrújulas are adverbs, which end in mente.

EXAMPLES:

rá pida mente / quick ly

fá cil mente / easi ly

Género y Número/ Gender and Number

In Spanish, all nouns, including those denoting non-living things and abstract concepts, are either masculine or feminine and singular or plural.

Therefore, the articles and adjectives change according to the grammatical gender and agree in number with the nouns they modify.

GENDER

The following are some rules to determine the gender; however, the gender of some nouns must be learned by memorization.

The gender of living beings, such as people or animals, determines their grammatical gender.

A noun that refers to a male is masculine; a noun that refers to a female is feminine.

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