Lesson 33 Spanish prepositions

The Spanish prepositions works almost in the same way than the English prepositions do, so you just have to learn them and of course use them.

Here we go:

A (by, at, to) ex: voy A tu casa (I'm going to your home), vamos en coche (we are going by car)
ANTE ,antes de, (before, in the face of) ex: antes de ir te llamaré (Before I go, I'll call you)
BAJO (under) ex: los apuntes están bajo los libros (the notes are under the books)
CON (with)
CONTRA (against) ex: no estoy contra nadie (I'm not against anyone)
DE (of, from, possession) ex: no soy de aquí (I'm not from here), está hecho de madera (is made of wood)
DESDE (since)
DURANTE (during)
EN (in) ex: las llaves del coche están en el cajón (car keys are in the drawer)
ENTRE (between)
HACIA (Toward) ex: va hacia tu casa (he/she goes towards your home)
HASTA (until) ex: he llegado hasta el final (I  have come until the end)
PARA (for) have a look on lesson 28 here
POR (for) have a look on lesson 28 here
SEGÚN (acording to)
SIN (without)
SOBRE (over, about) ex: hablan sobre los conflictos actuales (they talk about current conflicts)
TRAS (After, behind) ex: lloraban tras su muerte (they cried after his death)

Lesson 32 how to use umlauts

The spanish umlaut : (diéresis) is used just to change the sound of some words  with "gu" followed  by the vowels"e" and "i" , Let's see it:

Agua (water)                  click here and listen to me
Guerrero (warrior)
Guirnalda (wreath)
Guapo (handsome)
Pingüino (penguin)
Antigüedad (Antique)

Well, when gu is followed by the vowels a,o, the vowel u always sounds but if "gu" is followed by "e" and "i" the vowel u can sound if we use the "diéresi" but if we do not put the "diéresi" the vowel u does not sound

More words with diérisis:

click here and listen to me

Paragüero (umbrela stand)
Cigüeña (stork)
Ambigüedad (ambiguity)
Bilingüismo (bilingualism)
vergüenza (shame)
desagüe (drain)

LESSON 31 Llevar versus Traer

Llevar and traer are two verbs that if we translate them into English, both would mean to bring, yes yes both mean the same!!!. but  there is a difference, we use Llevar when we are going to bring something from we are right now to another place and we use traer when we are going to bring something from another place to the place that we are right now.

Let's see some examples:

Mañana es el aniversario de Ana y le llevaré un regalo
(tomorrow is the Ana's birthday and I'll bring her a present)

Vienes a la fiesta de Ana? traes algo?
(Are you coming to the Ana's party? do you bring something?)

Trae el coche que te lo necesito
(bring the car because I need it)

te  llevaré el coche mañana
(I'll bring it tomorrow)

Vocabulari:
Regalo: gift/present

All the forms of verbs llevar and traer will be uploaded very soon on the verbs list here: verbs list

LESSON 28 when to use por or para

In this lesson we are going to see when we must use the words POR or PARA with some examples that are going to make it understandable:

     ---we will use the word "PARA" when:

           ---we are looking for a target:

      My boss: "lo quiero PARA mañana!!" (I want it for tomorrow)
      Me:         "no te preocupes lo tendré hecho PARA las tres" (do not worry I'll have done it at three)


          ---Shows a direction:

                Voy PARA tu casa ( I go to your house)
                Vienen PARA quedarse (they are coming for staying)(well this also shows a target)

         ---Shows an opinion:

               PARA mi está bien(for me is ok)
               PARA él no es lo más importante(for him is not the most important)
                                                         

   ---we use the word "POR" when: 

      ---shows where we are doing something:

           Estamos caminando POR la playa(We are walking on the beach)
           está subiendo POR las escaleras(is going up the stairs)

     ---Shows a distribution:

          Vale 100 dólares POR cada uno (It cost 100 dólares each one)
           Hay que dividirlo POR dos( we must divide by two)

     ---Is also used  as  "pick up"

           Vengo a POR ti (I go to pick you up)

     ---shows the way of tranfer something:

           Mándalo POR correo (send it by mail)
           envíalo POR carta (send it in a letter)

LESSON 30 SABER Y CONOCER

Do you know what the verbs saber and conocer means? well both means to know but we use them in a different way, we use the verb conocer when you know a person or a place  and the verb saber when you know information or you know how to do something.

PRESENT

Click here and listen to me

Yo...................................sé................conozco
Tú....................................sabes..........conoces
El.....................................sabe...........conoce
nosotros/as.......................sabemos.....conocemos
Vosotros/as......................sabéis.........conocéis
Ellos/as............................saben...........conocen

Let's go to see some examples

Click here and listen to me

yo sé la lección...........I know the lesson (Information so we use the verbo saber)
el sabe mi nombre......he knows my name (Information so we use the verbo saber)
Conozco a tu amigo...I know your friend (to know a person so we use the verbo conocer)
ella sabe conducir muy bien.....she.knows how to drive very well (how to do something so verbo saber)
ellos conocen la lección pero no la saben......they know the lesson but they do not know it...(here they know the lesson which they should memorize but they do not memorizet yet)


Sabes qué hora es?......do you know what time is it?
Ha sido un placer conocerte.....Has been a pleasure to meet you
conozco algún detalle pero no los sé en profundidad.....I know some detail but do not know in depth
no sabe cómo lo hago.....he/she does not know how I do it
saben cocinar muy bien...They know how to cook very well

LESSON 29 acentuación

As you know the words are formed by sillables, and each word has and strong one, listen to these audio file to see what i am talking about:

pa-TA-ta (potato)
ca-miÓN (truck)
se-MÁ-fo-ro (traffic light)                           click here and listen to these words
di-FÍ-cil (difficult)
va-GÓN (wagon)

well as you can see some of those words are marked with a(´) and I am sure that you are asking yourself why some of those words are marked and some are not??  let's go to see it:

There are three kind of words, the words where the strong sillable is the last one like camión, vagón...which are called "palabras agudas", the words where the strong sillable is second to last like: difícil,patata..which are called "palabras llanas"and the words where the strong sillable is the third to last like: semáforo which are called "palabra esdrújula" (esdrújula is a palabra esdrújula it self: es-drú-ju-la)

Let' start with the easy one: all the esdrújulas words must be marked on the vowel of the strong sillable!!!
the agudas words must be marked when the word ends in  N, S or a VOWEL
the llanas words must be marked when always if the word ens with a consonant and consonant+S(bíceps(bicps))

There is another kind of words, like when we make the conditional ex: caminaría(ca-mi-na-rí-a) that is llana and ens with a vowel but we also marked it to show that when we tallk we split the last sillable(we call at this   exeption"diptongo"

LESSON 28 when to use POR or PARA

In this lesson we are going to see when we must use the words POR or PARA with some examples that are going to make it understandable:

     ---we will use the word "PARA" when:

           ---we are looking for a target:

      My boss: "lo quiero PARA mañana!!" (I want it for tomorrow)
      Me:         "no te preocupes lo tendré hecho PARA las tres" (do not worry I'll have done it at three)


          ---Shows a direction:

                Voy PARA tu casa ( I go to your house)
                Vienen PARA quedarse (they are coming for staying)(well this also shows a target)

         ---Shows an opinion:

               PARA mi está bien(for me is ok)
               PARA él no es lo más importante(for him is not the most important)
                                                       

   ---we use the word "POR" when: 

      ---shows where we are doing something:

           Estamos caminando POR la playa(We are walking on the beach)
           está subiendo POR las escaleras(is going up the stairs)

     ---Shows a distribution:

          Vale 100 dólares POR cada uno (It cost 100 dólares each one)
           Hay que dividirlo POR dos( we must divide by two)

     ---Is also used  as  "pick up"

           Vengo a POR ti (I go to pick you up)

     ---shows the way of tranfer something:

           Mándalo POR correo (send it by mail)
           envíalo POR carta (send it in a letter)

LESSON 27 Pretérito pluscuamperfecto

I am sure that when you have read the head of this post you may have said pluscuamwhat????....well is easier that you think, and in a few minutes or maybe less you are going to say: "I already had read the post head and for a while I thought I would not undertand it but after have read just the begining I already had undrestood!!"

Did you see something odd?? yes i marked something in yellow, and what i have marked is the pretérito pluscuamperfecto.

The pretérito pluscuamperfecto show us that in a specific point of the past we have done something.
In English we use the verb to have in past form and the participle of the action that we have done, in spanish we use the verb Haber in a pretérito imperfecto and the participle of the action (I do not like teach like that is better the firs part)

pretérito imperfecto verbo haber:

yo................había
tú.................habías
él.................había
nosotros.......habíamos
vosotros.......habíais         ( i'll put all forms of the verb haber very soon on verb's list)
ellos.............habían

Well now we now the imperfecto of verb Haver now just we have to add the participle:


ya lo había hecho..........................I already had done
nosotros habíamos comido........... we had eaten
ellos habían venido........................they had come

Lesson 26 verbo Deber

The verb Deber as a noun can be translated as a duty, obligation,  ought, task...but as a verb means must, should, shall, owe.....

as a noun:
 mi deber es explicar bien las lecciones......my duty is to explain well the lessons

as a verb:

Present:

yo debo.............................I should, must, owe
tú debes............................you should...
el/ella debe........................he/she should
nosotros debemos.............we should
vosotros debeis.................you should
ellos deben.......................they should

Building a sentence:  person(I,you...)+deber+verb infinitive

yo debo venir................I must/should come

In english, the verb should is used a lot with the verb to have and in spanish language we use the verb haber but with the verb deber in conditional let's go to see it:

deber in conditional+haver(infinitive)+verb(participle)

deberías haber llegado pronto..........you should have arrived soon
deberíamos haber comprado más....we should have bought more

making a conditional click here:
making the participle click here
the verb haber click here

Lesson 25 creating adverbs

What is an adverb?

      An adverb is a word that we add to describe how is something or someone doing the action, is just a kind of describtion of the verb that it is  following, there are adverbs of place like aquí(here) allí(there), adverbs of time like: más tarde(later).después(after).... but in this lesson we are going to talk about advebs made from  adjectives, lets go to learn how:
   
There are some adverbs that you can create them  from a adjective like bad(badly), friend(friendly), well as you can see in English language we can create them just adding "ly", in spanish language is the same but we add the letters "mente" ex:

Feliz (happy)..........felizmente(happily)
Cansado(tired).....cansadamente(wearily)
nuevo(new)..........nuevamente(newly)
lento(slow)...........lentAmente(slowly)
pesado(heavy).....pesadAmente(heavily)

Did you see something weird?? wes!! you are right we make the adverbs adding "mente" always from the female word like the two last adverbs lento and pesado, I do not why but is just like that(you know languages)

We have also adverbs with a preposition, you can have a look on vocavulary list block 2 here