Spanish grammar



         


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The verb

Spanish verbs are conjugated in three moods: indicative, subjunctive, and imperative. Each verb has three non-finite forms: an infinitive, a gerund, and a past/passive participle. Verbs are divided into three regular conjugations, which can be identified by looking at the infinitive ending: "-ar", "-er", or "-ir".

The indicative mood is traditionally said to have seven tenses. Though it is sometimes difficult, each one can be more or less compared to one of the English tenses:

hablar = to speak

Simple tenses:

Compound tenses:

There exist two more compound tenses:

The last five of the above are compound tenses; they are conjugated using the passive participle and a form of the verb haber (roughly like the use of auxiliary "have" in English). The compound progressive forms, which use the gerund or active participle with a form of estar (like English "to be" + "-ing": for example "Estoy hablando" = "I am speaking") are not considered part of the paradigm, but follow the same concept.

The pretérito anterior is almost never used. In addition to showing futurity, the future tense can show an uncertain resolution or hope; for example, De alguna forma me escaparé = "Somehow (I hope) I will escape", "Somehow I will manage to escape". In Spain, the future tense often indicates likelihood: ¿Qué hora es? Serán las tres, = "What time is it?" "It's about three (but I haven't checked)."

The subjunctive mood has a separate conjugation table with fewer tenses. It is used to express the speaker's opinion or judgement, such as, doubts, possibilities, emotions, and events which may or may not occur.

hablar = to speak

The present subjunctive is formed from the stem of the first person present indicative of a verb. So for an irregular verb like salir with the first person salgo, the present subjunctive would be salga, not sala. The use of the imperfect subjunctive is determined by tense of the main verb of a sentence, not necessarily the tense of the subjunctive verb itself. The "-ra" form is always correct, whereas the "-se" form is only correct in certain types of clauses.

The future tense of the subjunctive is found mostly in old literature or legalese and is even misused in conversations by confusing it with the past tense (often due to the similarity of its charataristic suffix, "-ere", as opposed to one of the suffixes of the past tense, "-era"). Many Spanish speakers live their lives without ever knowing about or realizing the existence of the future subjunctive.

The imperative mood is formed mostly like the subjunctive, with the exception of the singular positive informal command:

comer = to eat

Spanish verbs describing motion tend to emphasize direction instead of manner of motion. According to the pertinent classification, this makes Spanish a verb-framed language. This contrasts with English, where verbs tend to emphasize manner, and leave the direction of motion to helper particles, prepositions, or adverbs. Compare the English "we drove away" with the Spanish "nos fuimos en coche" (literally, "we left by car").

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Conjugation

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Regular -ar verbs (amar)

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Regular -er verbs (temer)

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Regular -ir verbs (partir)

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ser

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estar

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haber

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Pronouns

I, thou, he, she, we, ye, they
yo, tú, él, ella, nosotros/as, vosotros/as, ellos/as
to me, thee, him, her, us, you, them
me (a mí), te (a ti), se (a él), se (a ella), nos (a nosotros), vos (a vosotros), se (a ellos)
my, thy, his, her, our, your, their
mi(s), tu(s), su(s), su(s), nuestro/a(s), vuestro/a(s), su(s)
mine, thine, his, hers, ours, yours, theirs
el/la mío/a, el/la tuyo/a, el/la suyo/a, el/la suyo/a, el/la nuestro/a, el/la vuestro/a, el/la suyo/a
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The noun

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Gender

All Spanish nouns have one of two genders: masculine or inclusive and feminine or exclusive. Most adjectives and pronouns, and all articles indicate the gender of the noun they reference.

Nouns can be grouped in the following categories:

  1. Applied to persons and most domesticated animals
    1. Declinable nouns. The feminine form adds "a" or replaces the final vowel by "a". Examples: el profesor/la profesora, el presidente/la presidenta, el perro/la perra.
    2. Invariant nouns (in Spanish, "sustantivos de género común"). The feminine form and the masculine form are identical: el artista/la artista, el testigo/la testigo, el estudiante/la estudiante.
    3. Nouns with a unique gramatical gender. The noun has a fixed gender, regardless of the sex of the person it describes: el personaje, la visita.
      A recent politically correct usage substitutes the plural inclusive masculine (amigos, "friends, male or of any gender") with the character @ (amig@s) in writing, or with the longer form (amigos y amigas, or amigas y amigos). @ appears as a blend of o and a. This usage can be heavily objected, though.
  2. Applied to wild and some domesticated animals
    1. Nouns where the two sexes of animals have different words to describe them: el león/la leona, el toro/la vaca.
    2. Epicene nouns. The gender of the noun is fixed and sex is indicated by "macho" (male) or "hembra" (female). Examples: la jirafa macho, la jirafa hembra, el rinoceronte macho, el rinoceronte hembra.
  3. Applied to things
    1. Masculine or inclusive: el pan.
    2. Feminine or exclusive: la leche.
    3. Vacillant (called "sustantivos ambiguos" in Spanish). Either gender is acceptable: el azúcar/la azúcar, el esperma/la esperma.
    4. In some cases the same word can take two genders. In that case it is better to say that there are two discrete words. El capital = funds; la capital = capital city.

(Note: Some nouns ending in "e" that refer to persons are declinable, e.g., "presidente/a", whereas others are invariant, e.g., "estudiante". More often than not, nouns that refer to positions that are traditionally held by men are declinable.)

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Number

There are two grammatical numbers: singular and plural. Plural is indicated adding "s" or "es".

Masculine gender is indicated in the plural with phrases such as los niños varones, los niños hombres = the boys (note that "hombre" is "male person", not "man"). Feminists (and their satirists) try to reverse the pattern with phrases such as las personas humanas jóvenes varones = the young male human people.

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The adjective

The feminine gender for most adjectives is formed in the same way as it is for declinable nouns, although most adjectives ending in a consonant or "e" remain unchanged: hombre superior, mujer superior (compare with el superior/la superiora); hombre importante, mujer importante (compare with el jefe, la jefa).





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