Nouns

If you are unsure of what a noun is please read through the "Grammar Time" article below - scroll down the page or see blog archive to the right.

In Spanish all nouns are either masculine or feminine.  For example, la ciudad (the city) is feminine and el garaje (the garage) is masculine.  It is important that you know whether a noun is masculine or feminine in order to ensure other words in a sentence agree with the noun in terms of gender.

Because of this I find that it's best to learn a new noun along with its article (la or el - "the", more about articles later).

The majority of nouns used to name people or animals will depend on whether the person or animal is male or female.

Masculine nouns	Feminine nouns
el padre (the father)	la madre (the mother)
el niño (the boy)	la niña (the girl)
el ingeniero (the engineer - male	el ingeniero (the engineer - female)
el gato (the cat - male)	la gata (the cat - female)

Most nouns that name people or animals have a masculine and a feminine form (there are exceptions).  Commonly, the masculine is -o and the feminine is -a but there are other endings too.

Masculine form	Feminine form
Nouns that end in -o	Replace the -o with an -a	el secretario  → la secretaria (the secretary)
Nouns that end in -d, -l, -n, -r, -s, -z	add an -a to the masculine form to make the feminine form	el profesor → la profesora (the teacher).  The main exceptions are: el/la joven (the youth), el/la lider (the leader)
Nouns that end in -e	Sometimes the -e is replaced by an -a, sometimes the ending remains the same.	el jefe → la jefa,  el estudiante →la estudiante (the student) but note: el tigre→la tigresa (the tigress)
Nouns that end in -ón or  -ín	Change to -ona or -ina respectively	el campeón → la campeona (the champion): el bailarín → la bailarina (the ballet dancer)
Nouns that end in -í or -ú	Remain the same	el iraní → la iraní (the iranian) el hindú → la hindú (the hindu)

There are some other nouns that remain the same in the masculine and the feminine form.  Som enouns ending in -a (and particularly -ista) can be used to refer to either males or females:

• el/la artista (the artist) 
• el/la atleta (the athlete)
• el/la ciclista (the cyclist)
• el/la futbolista (the footballer)
• el/la policia (the police officer)
• el/la taxista (the taxi driver)
• el/la tenista (the tennis player)
• el/la turista (the tourist)

There are then the nouns that can be used for either males or females (thses generally only take one article - either masculine or feminine for example el personaje would be the same article even when referring to a female:

• el bebé (the baby)
• la persona (the person)
• la victima (the victim) 
• el personaje (the character)
• el genio (the genius)
• la estrella (TV/film star)
• el/la testigo (the witness)
• el/la modelo (the model)

Bitesize Spanish 3 - different forms of 'you'

In Spanish (and French - along with many other languages) there are different forms of the word 'you' depending on who and how many people you are talking to.

Firstly there are both singular and plural forms of the word which in English is distinguished - it would sometimes help if it was in certain situations!  Spanish also has formal and informal forms of the word (informal is sometimes called familiar) - which is used depends on who you are talking to and/or the circumstances - the difference doesn't come across when translating into English but in Spanish if you used the informal where the formal is required you could run the risk of sounding rather arrogant or even a little presumptuous!

I will start with a small table showing what is needed where:

Singular	tú
Singular formal	usted
Plural informal	vosotros
Plural formal	ustedes

The following are some examples of where these pronouns would be used:

Kevin, ¿quieres tú comer?  -  Kevin, do you want to eat?
Senor Bedward, ¿quiere usted comer? - Mr Bedward, do you want to eat?
Fran y Shawn, ¿queréis vosotros comer?- Fran and Shawn, do you want to eat?
Señora McCarthy y Señor Gultnieks, ¿queréis vosotros comer? - Mrs McCarthy and Mr Gultnieks, do you want to eat?


Quite often in actual speaking the pronouns would be omitted because the context would make clear who the subject of each sentence is...

One of the reasons for needing to know which form of "you" to use is that there are corresponding words for "your" and "yours" as well as for "you" when it isn't the subject of the sentence.  Spanish uses different verb forms for informal and formal verb usages, the informal takes a second-person conjugation and the formal takes a third-person conjugation (which is the same as for the equivalents of "he", "she" and "they".

When to use which form
Think of English and if you are in a situation where in English you would call a person by their first name then generally the informal would be appropriate.  The informal is used when speaking with family members, pets and close acquaintances, usted is generally used when speaking with anyone else.  If uncertain the best thing to do is to use usted until the other person uses tú and then it is usually okay to reciprocate (the exceptions to this are - if you're a child or the person speaking to you is a police officer or other authority figure).

Bitesize Spanish 2 - plural of nouns

The following table shows how noun endings change in Spanish when making plural, depending on the original ending:

Ending in a vowel Add -s	la camarera - las camareras
Ending in a consonant Add - es	el escritor - los escritores
Exception: ending in -z Change to -ces	la actriz - las actrices

Bitesize Spanish 1

I will probably do a few of these little bitesize articles or tables as it will help me to get it stuck in my head...this first one is a Spanish one taken from the book Portales Unit 1 from the Open University and is a little table showing how endings change for professions or occupations depending on whether they refer to a male or a female:

Ending	Masculine	Feminine
Ending in -o change to -a	el arquitecto	la arquitecta
Ending in -or, -ín add an -a	el professor, el bailarín	la profesora, la bailarina
Ending in  -nte, -ista No change	el artista el cantante	la artista la cantante

It's nearly time!

Posted by:  Kate McCarthy, of byITsizePro.co.uk - York based website designers and developers.

As I have previously mentioned, I am starting a degree in Modern Languages (French and Spanish).  The course materials arrived a few weeks ago and ever since then I have been eager to get started, I did some reading and some of the listening and tests in the first book.  I then checked the Open University website daily just in case the  course was online (even though it said 18th October!).

The 18th October finally arrived and the two course websites went live! - I have had a really good look around and worked out where everything is that I need and downloaded all of my assignments in preparation for when the course actually starts which is not until 1st November.

I am starting the next of the Spanish courses in February so I want to get as much of the first Spanish one out of the way as quickly as possible.  I have done my first assessment (due on 6th December) on both the French and Spanish courses - I can't submit them yet as I haven't been allocated a tutor.  At least they're ready to go and I can get on with reading knowing that I'm on target (more than in fact!).

I will be using this blog mainly to revise and share my grammar knowledge but basically anything to do with grammar, French or Spanish that I feel I need to write down or just that it would be of interest.  Some things may be of no interest to anyone but me - they are on here to help me remember!

If you have any grammar questions that you would like to ask me then please feel free - I will do my best to answer or to find out the answers.  If you find anything of interest on here then please click the follow button and you will be notified when there are new articles....

Thanks for reading.

Grammer time!

As I have just re-started my degree with the Open University in Modern Languages (French and Spanish), I thought I would refresh my grammar and share it with the world!  As I go through the course I will post more on here regarding French and Spanish grammar.

A verb is a doing word which describes what someone or something does or what happens to them.

A noun is a naming word for a living being, a thing or an idea e.g. woman, desk, happiness, Kevin.  In Spanish and French all nouns are either masculine of feminine.

A pronoun is a word used instead of a noun (see above), when you don't want to name something or someone directly.  There are different types of pronoun (listed below)

• Personal - I, you, her, they etc.  They refer to the person you are talking to or other people and things.  They can be either subject pronouns (I, you, he, she etc) or object pronouns (him, her, them etc)
• Possessive - mine, yours, his etc - which show who someone or something belongs to.
• Indefinite - Something or nothing, which refer to people or things in  a general way.
• Relative - who, which, that - which link two parts of a sentence together.
• Demonstrative - this or those - which point things or people out.
• Interrogative - who, what, which - which are used in questions.
• Reflexive - a type of object pronoun that forms a part of Spanish reflexive verbs like "lavarse" (to wash) or French reflexive verbs like "appelle" (to be called).

A reflexive verb is a verb where the subject and the object are the same and where the actions 'reflects back' on the subject.  It is used with a reflexive pronoun e.g. I washed myself, he shaved himself.  These are much more common in French and Spanish than in English.

An article is one of the words - the, a and an - which is given in front

• definite article - the
• indefinite article - a or an in English

An adjective is a 'describing' word.  It tells you more about a person or thing such as appearance, colour, size e.g. pretty, blue, big.