After yesterday, you should have a good grip on both the alphabet and numbers in Spanish.
That’s the base.
So if you don’t got it, go back and review before continuing with today’s lesson.
Today we’re going to cover all those pesky “little” words that we see in practically ALL sentences in Spanish.
And taking a few moments to memorize them can really help us understand sentences.
The good news is that it is actually quite similar to English.
Noun cases (or the word for “the”):
English is easier in this regard, because the words have no gender, whereas in Spanish all subjects (whether they are a person or a thing) are either masculine or feminine.
For example:
El – masculine, singular
La – feminine, singular
Los – masculine, plural
Las – feminine, plural
The notebook – El cuaderno
The ball – La pelota
Now notice how the noun cases change in the plural form, or when theres more than one…
Plural form:
The balls – las pelotas
The notebooks – los cuadernos
Words that end in “a” tend to be feminine, and words that end in “o” masculine. However there are a few exceptions, most notably, the word for “water” (el agua). For now, just understand how it works, you’ll learn as you go.
When you when to say “a” or “an” in Spanish, whether the word preceeds a vowel or not doesn’t matter. The word you use changes according to the gender and plurality.
un – masculine, singular (a/an)
una – feminine, singular (a/an)
unos – masculine, plural (some)
unas – feminine, plural (some)
More Examples:
A ball – Una pelota
A notebook – un cuaderno
Some balls – unas pelotas
Some notebooks – unos cuadernos
Possessives (How to say something is owned by someone):
When you want to express that something is yours, just replace the article, or word we just learned that means “the”, (el, la, los, las) with the possessives.
Singular
mi- my
tu-your
su-his/her/their and also your (formal)
nuestro- our
Plural
mis- my
tus-your
sus-his/her/their and also your (formal)
nuestros- our
Examples :
el cuaderno > mi cuaderno (my notebook)
los cuadernos > sus cuadernos (their notebooks)
Tengo mis zapatos. = I have my shoes.
Tengo tus zapatos. = I have your shoes.
So that’s our lesson for today, you don’t have to memorize the noun case of a bazillion words, for today, just understand how it works, how to use “the”, “a, some” and how to use the possessives.
I recommend re-reading and to be sure you really got it!
Hasta Mañana,
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