Putting It Together: ¿Cómo son las personas de tu familia?

Click on each link below for a review summary to help you complete the assignments and prepare for the quiz to demonstrate your mastery of the objectives.

Indicate possession with ser + de and possessive adjectives

There are two ways to indicate possession in Spanish. One way is to use the verb ser in the following pattern: object(s) + ser de + person who has the object(s)

El libro es de María. (The book is María’s.)

Los adjetivos posesivos

A more common way to express possession, especially when it is clear to whom something belongs, is to use possessive adjectives:

singular possessor	plural possessor
mi (my)	nuestro (our)
tu (your)	vuestro (your)
su (his, her, your)	su (their, your)

Remember that in Spanish, tú and usted both mean “you”. Therefore, the possessive adjective for “your” needs to follow the correct register: Tú – tu/tus; Usted – su/sus.

Atención a la acentuación: Tú con tilde, se refiere a la persona (Tú, with accent mark, refers to the person “you”); Tu, sin tilde, es el adjetivo posesivo (Tu, without accent mark, is the possessive adjective “your”).

The chart above, however, only shows the basic form. Possessive adjectives in Spanish – like all adjectives! – must agree in number. In the case of nosotros and vosotros, they also must agree in gender with what is owned.

Use family vocabulary to describe members of a family

El abuelo / La abuela (Grandfather/Grandmother)
El amigo / La amiga (friend)
El esposo / La esposa (husband wife)
El hermano / La hermana (brother sister)
El hijo / La hija (son daughter)
La madre / mamá (mother/ mom)
El nieto / La nieta (grandchild granddaughter)
El novio / La novia (boyfriend girlfriend)
El padre / papá (father dad)
La pareja (couple)
El pariente (relative)
El primo / La prima (cousin)
El sobrino / La sobrina (nephew / niece)
El tío / La tía (uncle aunt)
La cuñada / el cuñado (sister-in-law brother-in-law)
Los medio hermanos / el medio hermano/ la media hermana (half brothers half brother half sister)
Los hermanastros / el hermanastro / la hermanastra (stepbrothers stepbrother stepsister)
El hijastro / La hijastra (stepson stepdaughter)
La madrastra / El padrastro (stepmother stepfather)
la suegra / el suegro (mother-in-law father-in-law)

Tipos de familias:

Familia nuclear o pequeña
Familia extendida o grande
Primera, segunda, tercera generación
La familia política
La familia moderna
La familia tradicional

Mascotas

el perro / la perra

Describe people using physical and mental adjectives

El aspecto físico

alto/a

bajo/a

Image of a yorkshire terrier dog with a pink flower in its hair

bonito/a

delgado/a

feo/a

gordo/a

grande

Photo of a dog looking handsome in soft focus

guapo/a

joven

moreno/a (dark-haired or dark-skinned)

pelirrojo (red-haired)

pequeño/a

rubio (blond-haired)

viejo/a

La personalidad

aburrido/a (boring [w. ser])

antipático/a

bueno/a

cómico/a

famoso/a

honesto/a (honest)

malo/a

perezoso/a

pobre (poor)

rico/a

serio/a

simpático/a (nice)

sociable

tímido/a

tonto/a (foolish, silly)

trabajador/a

Ask and answer questions with ¿cuántos y quién(es)?

You may recall using cuánto in the question “¿Cuántos años tienes?”. We use this question word before a noun when that noun may be counted or measured. ¿Cuánto/cuántos? means “how many” if the noun is countable (meaning you can count up by adding more of the items), and means “how much” if the noun is uncountable (meaning an indivisible, collective thing).

Por ejemplo:

¿Cuánto cuesta? (How much does it cost?)
¿Cuántos dólares tienes? (How many dollars do you have?)

¡Be careful! ¿Cuánto? must agree in number and gender with the noun it describes.

Masculine singular: ¿Cuánto tiempo tenemos?
Feminine singular: ¿Cuánta luz entra por la ventana?
Masculine plural: ¿Cuántos perros tienes en casa?
Feminine plural: ¿Cuántas hermanas tienes?

¿Quién?

The question “Who speaks Spanish?” uses the pronoun “who” as a subject. Just like in English, the Spanish question ¿Quién habla español? uses the pronoun quién as the subject. Quién is the singular version of “who,” and is meant to represent one person. Therefore, the verb is conjugated in the él/ella form as if one person were the subject of the sentence.

Por ejemplo:

¿Quién es tu hermano? Who is your brother? (assuming that you only have one brother)

Quiénes is the plural version of “who,” and is meant to represent multiple people. Here you would use the ellos/ellas form of the verb.

Por ejemplo: ¿Quiénes son tus padres? Who are your parents? (assuming that you have both parents)

Use adjectives of nationality to describe people

To answer the question “¿De dónde eres?”, one can either answer with a country or with a nationality:

Soy de Puerto Rico. (I am from Puerto Rico.)
Soy puertorriqueña. (I am Puerto Rican.)
Mis primos son de Colombia. (My cousins are from Colombia.)
Son colombianos. (They are Colombian.)

A description of nationality is an adjective, so its ending has to correspond to the gender and number of the subject.

Argentina, argentina/o
Belice, beliceña/o
Bolivia, boliviana/o
Brasil, brasileña/o
Canadá, canadiense
Chile, chilena/o
Colombia, colombiana/o
Costa Rica, costarricense
Cuba, cubana/o
Ecuador, ecuatoriana/o
El Salvador, salvadoreña/o
Estados Unidos, estadounidense
Guatemala, guatemalteca/o
Haití, haitiana/o
Honduras, hondureña/o
Jamaica, jamaicana/o
México, mexicana/o
Nicaragua, nicaragüense
Panamá, panameña/o
Paraguay, paraguaya/o
Perú, peruana/o
República Dominicana, dominicana/o
Surinam, surinamés
Uruguay, uruguaya/o
Venezuela, venezolana/o

España, español/ española

Use gustar+infinitive to express what you and others like to do

The verb gustar is used to indicate things or activities you like, but it is a little different in Spanish than in English. You’ll learn more about how gustar and other verbs like it work later, but for now you can see how it is used with infinitives:

	singular	plural
1^a (1st)	me gusta	nos gusta
2^a (2nd)	te gusta	os gusta
3^a (3rd)	le gusta	les gusta

As you see, instead of conjugating gustar to match the subject as you do with most verbs, only the third person ending is used along with different pronouns (me, te, le, nos, os, les). Gustar is frequently used in Spanish with infinitives to indicate likes (and dislikes):

¿Qué te gusta hacer? (What do you like to do?)
Me gusta comer en restaurantes buenos. (I like to eat in good restaurants.)

Identify rooms and furniture in the home

el baño (bathroom)

1. el inodoro (toilet)
2. la bañera (bathtub)
3. la ducha (shower)
4. el espejo (mirror)
5. el lavabo (sink)

el dormitorio (bedroom)

1. la cama (bed)
2. la mesita de noche (night stand)
3. la lámpara (lamp)
4. el armario (closet)

la sala (living room)

1. el sofá (sofa/couch)
2. el sillón (armchair)
3. la cortina (curtain)
4. la mesita (the little table)
5. la alfombra (carpet)
6. el comedor (dining room)
7. La mesa (table)

la cocina (kitchen)

1. el refrigerador (refrigerator)
2. la nevera (freezer)
3. el fregadero (sink)
4. la estufa (stove)
5. el microondas (microwave)
6. el horno (oven)
7. el patio (patio)
8. el jardín (garden)

Use the verb estar and prepositions to signify location

You have already learned the verb ser, and you’ve used it to: introduce yourself and others, to describe physical characteristics and personality traits, to indicate place of origin or nationality, to tell time, and to give dates. Spanish has another verb that also means “to be” – estar. You used estar at the beginning of this course to indicate how you are feeling (¿Cómo estás? Estoy bien, gracias.) In addition to indicating how you and others are feeling (which we’ll discuss in a future chapter), estar is used to express location. So, if you are talking about where a person or a thing is located, you will use estar:

estar (to be)
	singular	plural
1^a	yo estoy	nosotros estamos
2^a	tú estás	vosotros estáis
3^a	el ella usted está	ellos ellas ustedes están

As you should notice, estar has an irregular yo form along with accented endings in all but the nosotros form.

Estar y la locación

To use estar to express the locations of people and things, you’ll need to know some prepositions of location as well:

alrededor (around)

al lado de (beside)

enfrente de (in front of)

a la derecha de (to the right of)

a la izquierda de (to the left of)

enfrente (in front)

debajo de (under)

en (on, in)

detrás de (behind)

cerca de (close to)

lejos de (far from)

encima (on, above)

Learn about some typical family celebrations in the Spanish-speaking world

See the Cultura section in the Study Plan for these activities.

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