Español básico - lección tres
Español básico - lección tres
Buenos
diás señores y señoras. Bienvenidos a la semana tres de la clase de español. Click on the highlighted text to access videos and links.
Empecemos.
Revisión
¿Cualquier preguntas de la semana pasada? Any questions from last week?
Let’s try a quick test:
¿Cuánto
es uno más tres?
¿Cuánto
es nueve menos seis?
¿Cuánto
es diez dividido por cinco?
¿Cuánto
es tres multiplicado por dos?
¿Cuánto
es dos más tres, multiplicado por dos y dividido por cinco?
La respuesta es …
¿Cuál
es la palabra en español para Monday?
¿Cuál
es la palabra en español para January?
¿Cuál
es la palabra en español para Saturday?
¿Cuál
es la palabra en español para July?
¿Cuál
es la palabra en español para Wednesday?
En español, la palabra para … es …
¿En español, cuál es la palabra para secretary?
¿En español, cuál es la palabra para
economical?
¿En español, cuál es la palabra para
investigation?
¿En español, cuál es la palabra para
probable?
¿En español, cuál es la palabra para
important?
En español, la palabra para … es …
Secretario o secretaria
económico
investigación
probable
importante
Fue pan comido
OK,
now we are going to talk about conjugation and the two verbs in Spanish which
mean “to be”. Some of us will have never heard of conjugation, but we do it all
the time. However, in English we’re quite lazy and don’t conjugate verbs
precisely.
For
example, the verb “to be”
I
am
You
are
He/she
is
We
are
They
are
In
Spanish, every instance is conjugated differently and there are also the
formal/informal and plurals to consider. Let’s look at estar (to be) and the
Spanish subject (or personal) pronouns. Does everyone know what a subject
pronoun is? Subject
pronouns are pronouns that identify who or what is performing the action of a
verb.
There’s
a very comprehensive guide to subject pronouns at: https://www.spanishdict.com/guide/subject-pronouns-in-spanish
I = Yo estoy
You (inf) = Tú (vos) estás
He, she, you (for) = Él, ella, usted está
We = Nosotros/as estamos
You (plural inf) = Vosotros/as estáis
He, she, you (plural for) = Ellos, ellas,
ustedes están
Note
that we have a formal and informal to consider – tú y usted.
Note
that we have a plural informal you and a plural formal you – vosotros y ustedes
Note
that we have two different forms of they – ellos y ellas. Ellos is masculine,
ellas is feminine, so if you have a group of men, you would say ‘ellos’ and a
group of women, you would say ‘ellas’.
If
there was one woman and one man, what would you say? Ellos.
If
there were 999 women and one man, what would you say? Ellos
Señoras,
¡lo siento!
The
bad thing about personal pronouns in Spanish is there are so many of them, the
good thing is that because you conjugate the verb very precisely, you don’t
need to use them unless it is for emphasis or clarification.
So
we say: estoy bien,
no need to say yo estoy bien. It’s obvious from the verb that you are saying: “I am.”
So
the verb “to be” is one of the most important in the Spanish language.
Annoyingly, there are two of them, so we have to learn which one to use, also
they are irregular verbs so we can’t use any rules to know the different forms.
All
verbs in Spanish end in either ar, er or ir. Regular verbs all conjugate in the
same way, but irregular verbs don’t follow any rules.
I’m
getting all the bad news out of the way as quickly as I can.
To be or to be? ¿Ser o estar?
Ser and estar both mean “to be”.
So which one to use?
Estar is used
for the following:
Health
Location
State or condition (people)
State or condition (things and places)
Ser is
used for everything else (that's a vast over-simplification!). Ser is used for
inherent characteristics and things that don’t change.
I used to hate ser and estar, I thought
it was stupid having two verbs for to be. Now I love the extra dimension and
subtlety this can bring. Let me illustrate:
Ese hombre está
borracho – that man is drunk. Using estar to indicate state
Ese hombre es
borracho – that man is a drunk. Using ser to indicate characteristic
Estoy aburrido – I am bored
Soy aburrido – I am boring
Let's look at some uses of estar:
Health
¿Cómo
estás? Estoy bien. Estoy enfermo
Location (people, places and things)
Estoy en Peterborough Los libros están en la mesa
State or condition
Estoy listo Estoy occupado Este
hombre está borracho
El
té está caliente La
taza está llena La
tienda está cerrada
…
and ser:
¿Qué
hora es? Son las dos y media Este
libro es de María
Soy de Peterborough Somos amigos Él es
amable conmigo
Some odd ones:
Ella está muerta – she is dead
El es casado – he is married
Ella es una doctora – she is a doctor
Ella es pintora –
she is a painter
Where are you from?
To ask someone where they are from, you
say:
¿De dónde eres? -
informal
¿De dónde es? -
formal
To answer, say:
Soy de …
Where do you live?
The Spanish verb to live is vivir.
To ask someone where they live, we say:
¿Dónde vives? -
informal
¿Dónde vive? -
formal
To answer, you say: Vivo en …
I would say:
Soy de Gran Bretaña,
nací en Cheshire y ahora vivo en Thorney, cerca de Peterborough.
England = Inglaterra English = inglés
Scotland = Escocia Scottish = escocés
Wales = Gales Welsh=
galés
Ireland = Irlanda Irish
= irlandés
USA = los Estados Unidos de America American = norteamericano
Check Page
254 of your text book for a comprehensive list.
Let us look at the various forms of vivir
in the present tense:
vivo I
live
vives You
live (informal)
vive He,
she, you (formal) live(s)
vivimos We
live
vivís You
(plural) live
viven They
live
¿De dónde es él? -
where is he from?
Él es de Francia
¿Dónde vive él? -
where does he live?
Él vive en Paris
Can you speak the language?
Someone might ask
you: ¿Habla usted español?
Right now the answer
might be: “no, no hablo español, pero estoy aprendiendo.”
Very soon you might
say: “hablo inglés y un poquito de español.”
At the end of the year, I hope you will
say: “me defiendo.” Literally “I defend myself” or, in this context, “I can get
by”.
“Un poco de” means a little, “un poquito
de” is a very little. You can add ito or ita to the end of lots
of words to add little as a term of endearment. Niñita or niñito would be a
little girl or little boy. I might be called abuelito - little granddad.
It´s similar to ishka in Russian -
Anishka means little Ann. My youngest son is married to a Russian called Inna
and her parents always call her Inishka, except when they are cross with her.
¿Alguien habla otro idioma aparte del
inglés? - does anyone speak another language, apart from English?
¿qué lenguas habla usted?
No hablo español,
pero puedo hablar un poco de francés ¿Habla usted francés?
Alemán – German
Italiano – Italian
The verb hablar
yo hablo
tú hablas
él, ella, usted habla
nosotros hablamos
vosotros
habláis
ellos/ellas/ustedes
hablan
Asking questions:
We have been asking lots of questions and
you will have noticed there is sometimes an obvious clue that it is a question
– if it starts with either the words:
dónde
– where cuál - which
qué
– what cómo – how
or what
Those are obvious questions, but if I
said to you:
“Quieres un café” it could mean “you like
coffee” or “would you like a coffee?”.
In English we add “would” to make the
meaning clear. In Spanish, you have to make the meaning clear by the way you
say the sentence. A question always increases in height – a little like the
Australians talk or how we would talk if we wanted to sound cheerful.
Tu tarea esta semana (your homework this
week)
Read and absorb Chapter 1 of Sueños.
Complete the homework quiz sheet
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