Grammar Terms

Grammar Terms

Nouns in Spanish

  • A noun refers to a person, place, thing or idea.

  • Spanish nouns have gender: they’re either masculine or feminine.

  • Masculine nouns usually end in ‘-o’ (e.g., ‘libro’ = book), while feminine nouns generally end in ‘-a’ (e.g., ‘casa’ = house).

  • Pluralisation rules depend on the last letter of the noun. Nouns ending in vowels add ‘-s’, while those ending in consonants add ‘-es’.

Verbs in Spanish

  • Spanish verbs are inflected according to tense (present, past, future, etc.), mood (indicative, subjunctive, imperative), and voice (active or passive).

  • Each verb is conjugated differently for each person (I, you, he, she, it, we, you plural, they).

  • The three main types of verbs in Spanish are -ar, -er, and -ir verbs, and each follows a specific conjugation pattern.

Adjectives in Spanish

  • An adjective modifies a noun, giving us more information about it.

  • Adjectives in Spanish agree in gender and number with the nouns they modify.

  • The position of adjectives is usually after the noun, unlike in English where it precedes the noun.

Adverbs in Spanish

  • An adverb modifies a verb, an adjective, another adverb, or a whole sentence.

  • Many adverbs are created by adding ‘-mente’ to the feminine form of the adjective.

Prepositions in Spanish

  • Prepositions connect words or phrases and provide information about location, direction, time, manner, purpose, or condition.

  • Common prepositions include ‘a’, ‘de’, ‘en’, ‘para’, ‘por’, and ‘con’.

Pronouns in Spanish

  • Pronouns replace nouns in sentences to avoid repetition. There are several types including subject, direct object, indirect object, reflexive, and relative pronouns.

  • Pronoun usage in Spanish often differs from English and can be a challenging aspect of grammar.

Useful Grammar Structures

  • Negation in Spanish involves placing the word ‘no’ before the verb.

  • The use of comparatives and superlatives allows for comparisons and expressing extremes. They typically involve the words ‘más’ (more), ‘menos’ (less), and ‘tan’ (as).

  • The imperative mood is used for commands and requests.

  • Question structuring involves the proper placement of question words, proper intonation, and sometimes inversion of the subject and the verb.

Remember that although grammar is important, the key is to practice listening, speaking, and writing to become comfortable with Spanish sentence structure and word order.