Learn Spanish - Basics
Tips and notes
Masculine and Feminine Nouns
In Spanish all nouns are masculine or feminine. Usually,
nouns that end with an "o" are masculine, and nouns that end with an
"a" are feminine. For example, "manzana" (apple) is
feminine and "diario" (newspaper) is masculine.
The articles "el" and "un" are used with
masculine nouns, and the articles "la" and "una" are used
with feminine nouns. "The apple" is "la manzana" and
"a newspaper" is "un diario."
Accent Marks
Vowels in Spanish can have an accent mark, such as the
"u" in "menú" (menu). One use of the accent mark is to
indicate which syllable should be stressed in the pronunciation. For example,
in "teléfono" (telephone), the second "e" has the most
stress.
Accent marks are also used to distinguish homophones. For
example, "él" and "el" are homophones because they have the
same pronunciation. However, "él" is a masculine pronoun (meaning
"he" or "him") and "el" is a masculine article
(meaning "the").
The Second Person Singular
"Tú," "usted" and "vos" are
different ways of referring to the second person singular (you).
"Usted" is the formal way of saying "you," and
"vos" is used in informal speech in certain countries instead of
"tú."
The three pronouns are synonyms, but they change the way
verbs are conjugated. For instance, for the verb "comer" (to eat), it
is "tú comes," "usted come," and "vos comés."
The decision of which form of "you" to use is
regional and cultural, but you can typically use "usted" when
referring to strangers.
Verb Conjugation
Verb conjugation in Spanish is more complicated than in
English. In Spanish, the verb endings change in order to describe who is doing
the action and when. For example, for "comer," "I eat" is
"yo como" and "you eat" is "tú comes."
Because the conjugations indicate who is doing the action,
it is usually possible to omit the pronoun. For instance instead of saying
"yo como arroz" (I eat rice), you can say "como arroz."
The Second Person Plural
In Latin America the pronoun for the second person plural is
"ustedes,” and in Spain it is "vosotros."
