Read through this content to review the grammar taught in this module (note: there is no new instruction on this page). Be sure you can correctly indicate the gender of a noun, create plural nouns, change the gender of adjectives to match the nouns they describe, use definite and indefinite articles, identify personal pronouns, and use the verb “ser.”
Definite and Indefinite Articles
Definite articles describe a specific thing, while indefinite articles are used to refer to other things.
- el – the (masculine)
- la – the (feminine)
- un – a, an (masculine)
- una – a, an (feminine)
Grammar note
- El and La both mean the in Spanish. El is the masculine form and words that use el usually end in -o. La is the feminine form; most words that end in -a and all words that end in -ción are feminine. Some nouns can be either gender, such as estudiante, which can be used as el estudiante or la estudiante to mean the student. Examples of nouns contrary to the norms of gender are la mano and “la radio”.
- Some feminine words, like agua, use the form El when in singular form, as it is considered hard to say la agua due to the glottal stop (hiatus).
- Some Spanish speakers use local dialects, for example, in central Mexico salón de clases is used instead of aula, and maestro(a) instead of profesor(a).
Gender Agreement
In Spanish, every noun has a gender, which is either masculine or feminine. The article ‘la’ indicates feminine gender and the article ‘el’ indicates masculine gender. The gender of a noun cannot always be predicted by looking at the noun, but, typically, nouns ending in ‘o’ are masculine and those ending in ‘a’ are feminine. For example:
| La pluma | The pen (feminine) |
| El cuaderno | The notebook (masculine) |
Number Agreement
The number of any noun in Spanish is either singular or plural. The plural form depends on the last letter of the noun. If a noun ends in a vowel, add an ‘s’ to the end of it. If it ends in a consonant, add ‘es’. Articles also have plural forms. The plural form of ‘la’ is ‘las’, and the plural form of ‘el’ is ‘los’. For example:
| La escuela | The school (singular) |
| Las escuelas | The schools (plural) |
| El árbol | The tree (singular) |
| Los árboles | The trees (plural) |
Numbers in Spanish are always in the singular form. Plural forms of numbers don’t exist. Notice in the following examples that even though the noun is in a plural form, the number doesn’t change. The number “one” has both a masculine and a feminine form “uno” and “una”, but other numbers do not change for gender. For example:
| cinco casas | five houses |
| diez niños | ten children |
| dos amigos | two friends |
| una noche | one night |
Pronouns
Pronouns are essential to the Spanish language and mastering them will be very useful in the language. In Spanish, there are 6 types of pronouns.
- yo – I
- tú – you (familiar)
- usted (Ud.) – you (formal)
- él – he
- ella – she
- nosotros – we (masculine)
- nosotras – we (feminine)
- vosotros – you (plural, familiar, masculine)
- vosotras – you (plural, familiar, feminine)
- ustedes (Uds.) – you (plural, formal)
- ellos – they (masculine)
- ellas – they (feminine)
The 6 types of pronouns in Spanish are:
- 1st person singular: yo
- 2nd person singular: tú, usted (Ud.)
- 3rd person singular: él, ella
- 1st person plural: nosotros, nosotras
- 2nd person plural: vosotros, vosotras, ustedes (Uds.)
- 3rd person plural: ellos, ellas
Notes
- The masculine form of the plural pronouns is always used if there is a masculine object, for example, even if there are 100 females and only 1 male, ellos is still used when talking about the crowd.
- Vosotros and Vosotras, the English equivalent of “y’all” are mainly used in Spain, but they are also used in Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay at a lesser extent and rarely in the United States. For the rest of the Spanish-speaking world, use Ustedes (Uds.), which is the formal way of saying you (plural) in all Spanish-speaking countries.
Grammar (Tú/Usted [Ud.] – Vosotros/Ustedes[Uds.])
In Spanish, there are several ways to say “you.” We must differenciate between familiar/formal and singular/plural forms. Tú (singular) is used when talking to someone you know, such as family, friends, or pets. Usted (abbreviated Ud.) is used in formal events, such as talking to a teacher, someone who you don’t know well, or a person who has a high title, such as a police officer, etc. In some Spanish-speaking countries (Venezuela and Colombia for example), usted can also be used for a close friend and tú is never used as a polite form. In the same way, vosotros (vosotras in feminine) is the plural of tú and ustedes (abbreviated uds.)) is the plural of usted.
| Singular | Plural | |
| Familiar | tú | vosotros/as (Spain) ustedes (Latin America) RAE |
| Formal | usted | Ustedes |
Remember that when talking to a person you don’t know well or a respected person, use the usted (Ud.) form and ustedes (Uds.) form when talking to a group of people where there is at least one person you call usted individually.
The principle uses of ser
Ser is used to signify equivalence or identity between two elements of a sentence:
| Alberto es doctor. Alberto = doctor. |
Alberto is a doctor. | |
| María es una buena persona. María = buena persona. |
Maria is a good person. | |
| Ramón es colombiano. Ramón = colombiano. |
Ramon is Colombian. |
Origin: ser + de + country
| Diego es de Perú. | Diego is from Peru. | |
| Este tapete es de México. | This rug is from Mexico. |
possession
| Esa bicicleta es de Gustavo. | That bike is Gustavo’s. | |
| Las llaves son de Julio. | Those keys are Julio’s. |
time
| Son las dos. | It’s two. | |
| Es la una y media. | It’s one thirty. |
dates
| Hoy es el cuarto de junio. | Today is the fourth of June. | |
| Es jueves. | It’s Thursday. |
Ser, linking verb
“Ser” is used as a linking verb, stating that something is equal to something else. In the sentence, “John is tall.” we are saying that John is equal to a tall person. In Spanish we use the verb “ser” as a linking verb to say what something is. For example:
| Yo soy americano. | I am an American. |
| Juan es alto. | Juan is tall. |
| Nosotros somos viejos. | We are old. |
Uses of the articles
Unlike English, Spanish does not use indefinite articles when dealing with one’s occupation, religion or citizenship.
| Jorge es abogado. | Jorge is a lawyer. | |
| Soy mexicano. | I am Mexican | |
| Mi hermano es budista. | My brother is a Buddhist. |
Adjective Agreement
Adjectives agree with the noun they modify in number and gender. Except for adjectives that end in “e” (e.g., grande) generally adjectives end in “o” if they are masculine and “a” if they are feminine. Additionally we add an “s” to make them plural. For example:
| Marcos es alto. | Marcos is tall. | |
| María es alta. | María is tall. | |
| Marcos y Juan son altos. | Marcos and Juan are tall. |
Grammar: Adjectives
In Spanish, most adjectives are classified by gender. Masculine adjectives usually end in -o and feminine adjectives usually end in -a. Masculine adjectives are used to describe males and masculine nouns, while feminine adjectives are used to describe females or feminine nouns.
Masculine
- ordenado
- trabajador
- paciente
- deportista
Feminine
- ordenada
- trabajadora
- paciente
- deportista
