Spanish Basics

Introduction

This lesson is a brief overview of the basics of grammar in the Spanish language. We begin with an introduction to Spanish nouns. The present tense of verbs is then covered, including the very common Spanish verbs estar and ser. This lesson also discusses how to ask questions in Spanish, and gives the Spanish words for the numbers from 1 to 20.

The purpose of this lesson is to give you enough of a foundation in Spanish grammar that you can start learning the common Spanish phrases taught in unit 2. As you start getting more familiar with Spanish, you can start looking at the grammar lessons in Unit 3. Don't worry about making mistakes, just focus on getting better at communicating in Spanish.

Nouns

Nouns are words that describe a person, place or thing. All nouns in Spanish are either masculine or feminine. The plural of nouns is formed by adding an s or es to the end of the noun. The following table shows some examples of nouns in Spanish.

la mujer	the woman
el hombre	the man
las mujeres	the women
los hombres	the men
la taza	the cup
los lagos	the lakes
un zapato	a shoe
una silla	a chair

For more information on nouns in Spanish, see the lesson on nouns.

Polite and Informal

Spanish has both a polite and informal version of the pronoun you. When you are speaking with someone in Spanish, it is best to use the polite version of you.

There are also two polite versions of the pronoun you. Usted is used when speaking to one person, and ustedes is used when speaking to more than one person. In written Spanish usted is often shortened to Ud. and ustedes is often shortened to Uds.

There are examples of using the polite versions of the pronoun you in the rest of this lesson.

Present Tense of Verbs

The simple present tense of verbs is more common in Spanish than in English. The Spanish sentence Voy a la tienda. can mean I go to the store., I am going to the store., and I do go to the store.

Spanish has three types of verbs, verbs that end in ar, er, and ir. The following tables show the present tense of regular verbs for the three categories of verbs. There are also many irregular Spanish verbs and they are covered in the Grammar unit.

hablar (speak)

comer (eat)

vivir (live)

Subject pronouns are not used as often in Spanish. For example, since hablo means I speak, the subject pronoun yo is not required.

Examples

With practice, the various grammatical endings used with Spanish verbs will become very familiar. If you would like more information about Spanish verbs, visit the present tense, past tense, future tense, and irregular verbs lessons.

To Be

Spanish has two words for the English verb to be, estar and ser. Both of these verbs are very irregular. Estar is used to indicate the location of people and objects, to indicate a temporary state of being, and to indicate a person's mood. Ser is used for indicating more permanent conditions, times, dates and locations of events.

Note: ll is pronounced like the y in yes.

Examples

Questions

In the written language, questions start with a ¿ and end with a ?. In the spoken language, sentences can be turned into questions by emphasizing the end of the sentence. As in English, Spanish also has words that indicate a question.

The following table lists some common Spanish questions words.

Examples

Numbers 1 - 20

Here are the numbers from one to twenty in Spanish.