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- Capitalization (or lack thereof) & Punctuation
- Regular Verb endings (& Infinitives)
- Stem-changing verbs
- Gender of nouns
- Cognates (aka COGNADOS!)
- No contractions to show possession? Use "de!"
- What's the difference between SER & ESTAR?
- You down with the D.O.P.?
- Verbs like GUSTAR
- tú v. Ud
- LONERS & DiónZA
- How to make accent marks on the computer
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Capitalization (or lack thereof) & Punctuation
Days of the week and months of the year are NOT capitalized en español! And
neither is "español" :-)
You will see upside-down question marks like ¿ and upside-down exclamation
marks like ¡ in español. These give the reader a heads up about what's
coming next. EXAMPLE:
¡Hola!
¿Cómo estás?
(You do not write periods at the beginning of a sentence.)
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Regular Verb endings (& Infinitives)
There are 3 classes of verbs in español: -ar/ -er/ -ir
(Before verbs are conjugated they are called infinitives. They still have
their -ar, -er, -ir ending like "hablar" [to speak] or "comer" [to eat].)
To conjugate regular -ar, -er, -ir verbs, use these endings:
ar: -o, -as, -a, -amos, -an
er: -o, -es, -e, -emos, -en
ir: -o, -es, -e, -imos, -en
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Stem-changing verbs
jugar: to play *no stem change in the nosotros/as form!
juego, juegas, juega, *jugamos*, juegan
poder: to be able to ("can") *no stem change in the nosotros/as form!
puedo, puedes, puede, *podemos*, pueden
pedir: to order; to request *no stem change in the nosotros/as form!
pido, pides, pide, *pedimos*, piden
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Gender of nouns
In Spanish, nouns are either "masculino[el/los]" or "femenino[la/las]."
There's an easy way to remember:
"LONERS" are masculine.... meaning, nouns that end in one of these letters
are masculine. EXAMPLE: el papel (paper)
DiónZA is feminine.... meaning nouns that end in either D, -ión, Z, or A are
feminine. EXAMPLE: la ciudad (city) or la celebración (celebration)
But remember, there are ALWAYS exceptions! Like: la mano (hand)
and el lápiz
(pencil)
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Cognates (aka COGNADOS!)
Sra. Ordoñez LOVES "cognados" because they're just like English! That's to
say that a cognate is a word that looks like and has a similar meaning in
English and Spanish.
Examples:
popular, usar, la guitarra, la computadora, atención, el carro, el
estómago.... there are soooooooooo many more! Can you think of some?
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No contractions to show possession? Use "de!"
Remember that in spanish we can't say "Katie's dog" or "Jessie's book".
's doesn't exist in español!
Instead we use "de" like "el perro de Katie" and "el libro de Jessie".
(It is literally translated as "the dog of Katie" but it's the way we would
say Katie's dog.)
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What's the difference between SER & ESTAR?
While they both mean "to be," ser and estar are used in different
circumstances. Remember "Stop the ELF!"
SER-S.T.O.P.:
Ser
Time
Origin
(Permanent) & Physical/Personality traits
ESTAR-E.L.F. (temporary conditions):
Estar
Location
Feelings/Emotions
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You down with the D.O.P.?
The D.O.P. means direct object pronoun! The D.O.P. replaces the direct
object in a sentence. For example: Yo compré el pastel. (el pastel is the
direct object, so we replace it with "lo" because "lo" corresponds to
singular, masculine direct objects.) So you would rewrite the sentence
as "Lo
compré." (Notice the D.O.P. comes before the verb!)
Our other choices of D.O.P. are:
la --> for singular, feminine objects
los--> for plural, masculine objects
las--> for plural, feminine objects
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Verbs like GUSTAR
Watch out for these dudes.... they don't play by the regular rules--verb
rules that is! When you're dealing with gustar, encantar, aburrir, faltar,
doler (o-->ue), interesar, etc., you must have an I.O.P. in the sentence!
And also you will only use the 3rd person sing. or 3rd person plural form or
the verb. EX:
Me gusta la pizza.
Me gustan las pizza.
Me duele la cabeza.
Me duelen los pies.
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tú v. Ud
Ud. and tú both mean YOU, but they are used in different situations. If
you're talking to your buddy, little brother or someone you're familiar
with, use the "tú" form. When speaking with a teacher, an elder or someone
new, use the "Ud." form. (Ud. = usted = formal)(tú = informal or familiar)
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LONERS & DiónZA
All nouns in Spanish are either feminine or masculine. Use the LONERS (words
that end in these letters will be masculine) and DiónZA (words that end in
these letters will be feminine) to help you remember which ones are which.
Of course there are always exceptions like: la mano, el lápiz, el programa.
Also, some nouns can be both masculine AND feminine like: estudiante or
modelo. In these cases, the article (el or la) is very importante!
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How to make accent marks on the computer
There are a couple of ways.
1) Hold down the ALT key, press 0241 (on keypad, make sure #lock is on) and
release. You should get a "ñ"... Use the following codes for other letters:
á = ALT + 0225
í = ALT + 0237
é = ALT + 0233
ú = ALT + 0250
ó = ALT + 0243
¿ = ALT + 0191
¡ = ALT + 0161
2) You can also try this way: Press CTRL + ' (apostrophe) + any vowel
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