Affirmative and negative expressions

NOTE: In Spanish, double negation is very common, as stated in the examples below.

ALGO y NADA/ Something and nothing

Algo and nada are invariable and refer to things and objects.

EXAMPLES:

Hay algo afuera./ There is something outside.

No hay nada en el refrigerador./ There is nothing in the refrigerator.

ALGUIEN y NADIE / Someone and no one

Alguien and nadie are invariable and refer to people. When alguien, nadie, alguno and ninguno are direct objects, they must be preceded by the personal a when they refer to a person.

EXAMPLES:

Invité aalguien a salir./ I asked someone out.

No defiendo anadie. / I don't defend anybody.

ALGUNO (someone or some) y NINGUNO (no one or none)

Alguno and ninguno can refer to people or things. Furthermore, alguno and ninguno drop the final -o before masculine singular nouns similarly, uno /one shortens to un, and bueno / good to buen.

EXAMPLES:

Algún día venderemos millones./ Some day we'll sell millions.

Ningún producto está fallado./ None of the products is damaged.

NOTE: Ninguno is never used in a plural form.

ALGUNA VEZ/ Ever

Alguna vez is equivalent to ever.

EXAMPLE:

¿Has diseñado alguna vez un logotipo?/ Have you ever designed a logo?

THE USE OF MULTIPLE NEGATIVE:

1. Whenever the negative words nada, nadie, nunca, tampoco, jamás, follow the verb, no must precede the verb, which produces a multiple negative construction.

EXAMPLE:

No como nunca espinaca./ I never eat spinach.

2. The negative word can be placed at the end of the sentence.

EXAMPLE:

No como espinaca nunca. / I never eat spinach.

3. When the negative word precedes the verb, the word no is NOT used.

EXAMPLE:

Nunca como espinaca./ I never eat spinach.

DOUBLE NO

When the answer to a question is negative, the word no appears twice. It appears at the beginning of the sentence and also in front of the verb.

EXAMPLE:

Juan: ¿Abren ahora?/ Are you going to open now?

Clerk: No, no abrimos hasta las diez./ No, we don't open until ten.

NOTE: Usually the subject pronoun is omitted in the answer because the verb ending identifies the subject, as in the example above.

NUNCA JAMÁS/ never again

Nunca jamás is one of the strongest negative forms that is equivalent to never ever or never again.

EXAMPLE:

Nunca jamás ganarán./ They'll never ever win.

NUNCA MÁS/ Never again

Nunca más is equivalent to never again.

EXAMPLE:

Nunca más vi a Ana./ I have not seen Ana ever again

JAMÁS/ Ever

Jamás is used as a superlative and is equivalent to ever.

EXAMPLE:

Este projecto es el más intenso que jamás he empredido./ This project is the most intense that I have ever undertaken.

TAMBIÉN/ Also or too

También expresses the union of two affirmative sentences. También means also or too.

EXAMPLES:

Yo quiero comer; también ellos quieren comer./ I want to eat; they want to eat too.

Nosotros también ganamos la competencia./ We also won the competition.

TAMPOCO/ Neither

Tampoco means neither and is used to unite negative sentences.

EXAMPLE:

Victoria no comió, y yo tampoco. / Victoria didn't eat and neither did I.

NI/ Nor

Ni connects two negative constructions.

EXAMPLE:

No quiero ni comer ni beber./ I don't want to eat or drink.

Ni siquiera and sometimes ni are equivalent to not even.

EXAMPLES:

Pedro ni siquiera me saludó./ Pedro did not even greet me.

Pedro no quiere ni saludarme./ Pedro doesn't even want to greet me.

PAST TENSE

In Spanish there are 2 simple past tenses, the preterite and the imperfect. A simple tense is one that does not need an auxiliary verb, such as to have.

El pretérito/ The preterite

El imperfecto/ The imperfect

EL PRETÉRITO/ THE PRETERIT

The preterite is used to refer to an action, state or condition that is considered fully completed in the past. It is formed by removing the infinitive endings -ar, -er, and -ir and adding the appropriate endings as follows:

NOTE: The endings of verbs ending in -er and -ir are identical.

Pronoun	Comprar/ to buy	Vender/ to sell	Recibir/ to receive
yo/ I	compr é	vend í	recib í
tú/ you	compr aste	vend iste	recib iste
él, ella, Ud./ he, she, you	compr ó	vend ió	recib ió
nos./ we	compr amos	vend imos	recib imos
vos./you	compr asteis	vend isteis	recib isteis
ellos, Uds./ they, you	compr aron	vend ieron	recib ieron

NOTE: The first person (yo), the third person (él, ella) and Ud. require written accents. Without the accents, these words mean something else. For instance, compro (without the accent) is the present tense for the first person. For accentuation rules, click here.

EL USO DEL PRETÉRITO/ THE USE OF THE PRETERIT

1. The preterite tense is used to report the beginning or the end of an action.

EXAMPLES

Ana abrió la puerta y salió volando./ Ana opened the door and left swiftly.

Esta mañana empezó a llover./ This morning it started to rain.

2. The Spanish preterite has 2 equivalents in English.

EXAMPLE

Llovió ayer.

It rained yesterday. It did rain yesterday.

NOTE: There is NO equivalent for the English auxiliary did. Therefore, to formulate a question in preterite tense, the subject and the verb are inverted or the interrogative intonation is used.

EXAMPLE

¿Subió el interés? ¿El interés subió?

Did the interest increase?

3. The preterite can be used to interrupt an action in the imperfect tense (IT).

EXAMPLE

Trabajábamos (IT) intensamente cuando anunciaron los despidos masivos./ We were working intensely when they announced the massive lay-offs.

CASOS IRREGULARES/ IRREGULAR CASES

1. In order to preserve the sound of the infinitive, regular verbs that end in -car, -gar, and -zar have spelling changes in the first person (yo) as follows:

Change	EXAMPLES
Infinitive	Preterit
c to qu	bus car / to look for	bus qué / I looked for
sa car / to pull out	sa qué / I pulled out
ata car / to attack	ata qué / I attacked
g to gu	lle gar / to arrive	lle gué / I arrived
pa gar / to pay	pa gué / I paid
apa gar / to turn-off	apa gué / I turned-off
z to c	empe zar / to start	empe cé / I started
comen zar / to commence	comen cé / I commenced
almor zar / to eat lunch	almor cé / I ate lunch

2. Verbs ending in vowel + ir and vowel + er, such as caer / to fall, the preterite ending -ió (which is for él, ella, Ud.) and -ieron (which is for ellos, Uds.), change to -yó and -yeron respectively.

EXAMPLES

Infinitive	él, ella, Ud.	ellos, Uds.
l eer / to read	le yó (ley ó)	le yeron
oír / to hear	o yó	o yeron
c aer / to fall	ca yó	ca yeron
constr uir / construct	constru yó	constru yeron
Other verbs:contrib uir / to contribute, destr uir / to destroy, incl uir / to include, atrib uir / to attribute, cr eer / to believe, h uir / to run away.

3. The following examples have irregular endings for yo and Ud. The endings are -e and -o instead of -í and -ió. NOTE: NO written accent is required.

EXAMPLES

Infinitive	yo	Ud.
andar/ to go, to walk	anduv e	anduv o
caber/ to be contained	cup e	cup o
estar/ to be	estuv e	estuv o
hacer/ to make	hic e	hiz o
haber/ to have (auxiliary)	hub e	hub o
poder/ to be able, can	pud e	pud o
poner/ to put	pus e	pus o
saber/ to know	sup e	sup o
tener/ to have	tuv e	tuv o
querer/ to want	quis e	quis o
venir/ to come	vin e	vin o

4. Verbs that end in -decir and -ducir, j is used as follows:

EXCEPTION: The verb traer / to bring is in this category.

EXAMPLES

Pronoun	decir / to tell	reducir / to reduce	traer / to bring
yo/ I	di je	redu je	tra je
tú/ you	di ji ste	redu ji ste	tra ji ste
él, ella, Ud./ he, she, you	di jo	redu jo	tra jo
nos./ we	di ji mos	redu ji mos	tra ji mos
vos./you	di ji steis	redu ji steis	tra ji steis
ellos, Uds./ they, you	di je ron	redu je ron	tra je ron

Prefixes des -, in -, and re -

1. The prefixes des - and in - are used to indicate the opposite meaning to the word that they modify.

EXAMPLES

WORD	ANTONYM
Acuerdo/agreement	desacuerdo/disagreement
Hacer/to do	deshacer/to undo
Heredar/ to inherit	desheredar/disinherit
Vestirse/to get dressed	desvestirse/to get undressed
Consciente/conscious	inconsciente/unconscious
Útil/useful	inútil/useless
Experto/expert	inexperto/ unskilled, inexpert
Feliz/happy	Infeliz/unhappy

2. The prefix re - is used to emphasize or increase the meaning of the word that it modifies. If re - is added to a verb, it means to repeat the same action. Furthermore, if re - modifies an adjective, it means very.

NOTE: In Spanish, there are two slang prefixes, requete - and super -, that are more intense than - re, but NOT as intense as superlative forms of adjectives. They mean practically the most. Furthermore, they can modify ONLY adjectives.

EXAMPLES

WORD	RE-	REQUETE-; SUPER-
Hacer/ to do	re hacer/ to redo	NA
difícil/ difficult	re difícil/ very difficult	requete difícil, super difícil
linda/ pretty	relinda/ very pretty	requete linda, super linda

DISMINUTIVO/ DIMINUTIVE

Diminutives are used to express smallness or affection.

English has a few common diminutives, such as kitty, doggy, sonny, also some proper names have diminutive forms, such as Bobby, Vicky, etc. In Spanish, most nouns and adjectives have diminutive forms, which is the equivalent to modifying a word with little. The most common diminutive suffixes are the following:

	SINGULAR	PLURAL
MASCULINE	-ito, -cito	-itos, -citos
FEMININE	-ita,-cita	-itas, -citas

The following diminutive suffixes are less commonly used:

	SINGULAR	PLURAL
MASCULINE	-illo	-illos
FEMININE	-illa	-illas

1. Generally, when words end in -a, -o or -te, the vowel is dropped and -ito(s) or -ita(s) is added. For the other words -cito(s), -cita(s) are used. However, these are NOT rules. They are only guides because there are many variations.

EXAMPLES

NOUN	DIMINUTIVE
dedo/ finger	dedito
cabeza/ head	cabecita
elefante/ elephant	elefantito
peine/ comb	peinecito
camión/ truck	camioncito
mujer/ woman	mujercita
sol/ sun	solcito
lunar/ mole	lunarcito
solo/ alone, lonely	solito

NOTE: When looking up a word in a dictionary, be aware of diminutives, which are NOT listed. Therefore, try to find the base word.

2. There are many words that end in -illa(s), -illo(s), -cilla(s), -cillo(s) that are NOT diminutives:

WORD	DIMINUTIVE
martillo/ hammer	martillito
ladrillo/ brick	ladrillito
pocillo/ demi-tasse (small cup)	pocillito
platillo/ saucer or dish (food preparation)	n/a
bocadillo/ finger food	bocadillito
bolsillo/ pocket	bolsillito
silla/ chair	sillita

Conocer & Saber/ to know

In Spanish, there are two verbs that are equivalent to the English verb to know:conocer and saber. They are used to express distinct types of knowledge; they are NOT interchangeable.

CONOCER/ TO KNOW

Pronoun	Present	Past	Future	Conditional
yo/ I	conozco	conocí	conoceré	conocería
tú/ you	conoces	conociste	conocerás	conocerías
él, ella, Ud./ he, she, you	conoce	conoció	conocerá	conocería
nos./ we	conocemos	conocimos	conoceremos	conoceríamos
vos./you	conocéis	conocisteis	conoceréis	conoceríais
ellos, Uds./ they, you	conocen	conocieron	conocerán	conocerían

1. Conocer is used to express familiarity or acquaintance with a person, a place, or a thing.

EXAMPLES

Conozco a tu mamá./ I know your mother. (person)

Ella conoce Bariloche muy bien./ She knows Bariloche very well. (place)

Ana conoce el idioma./ Ana knows the language.(thing)

NOTE: The preposition a is required before a direct object noun (mamá) only when that noun is a person, but a is NOT required when referring to a place or thing (Bariloche, idioma).

2. Conocer means to meet for the first time or to make someone's acquaintance.

EXAMPLES

Conocí a tu mamá./ I met your mother.

Voy a conocer a los padres de mi prometido./ I am going to meet my fiancée's parents.

NOTE: In Spanish, the past tense of conocer expresses the meaning of meeting someone for the first time.

SABER/ TO KNOW

Pronoun	Present	Past	Future	Conditional
yo/ I	sé	supe	sabré	sabría
tú/ you	sabes	supiste	sabrás	sabrías
él, ella, Ud./ he, she, you	sabe	supo	sabrá	sabría
nos./ we	sabemos	supimos	sabremos	sabríamos
vos./you	sabéis	supisteis	sabréis	sabríais
ellos, Uds./ they, you	saben	supieron	sabrán	sabrían

1. Saber is used to express knowledge of factual information.

EXAMPLES

Sé dónde queda Buenos Aires./ I know where Buenos Aires is.

Pedro sabe de qué hablamos./ Pedro knows about what we talked.

2. Saber means to know something by heart.

EXAMPLES

Sé esa canción (de memoria)./ I know that song (by heart).

Sabíamos todas las óperas./ We used to know all of the operas.

3. Saber + infinitive.

This construction is used to indicate knowledge of how to do something.

EXAMPLE

Nosotros sabemos cocinar./ We know how to cook.

Mi hijo sabe nadar./ My son knows how to swim.

GERUNDIO/ GERUND

The gerund is also called the present participle; however, the gerund is NOT the equivalent to the English gerund. It may NOT be used as a noun as in English. The English gerund is normally translated into Spanish as an infinitive.

EXAMPLES

7. Saludar con un beso es habitual en la Argentina./ Greeting with a kiss is customary in Argentina.

8. Abrir los negocios los domingos es raro./ Opening the stores on Sundays is rare.

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