Basic Spanish for the Virtual Student- Section 2

1. This page has been checked by a native speaker for mistakes.
2. This does not mean the page is 'mistake-free.'
3. It means a lower probability of problems.
4. We advise that for everything you learn here, find it somewhere else too!

• ¡Bueno!
  • Older Spanish uses ¡ and ¿, but over the years, they are disappearing, and this is blamed on an increased usage of computers, for which these symbols are not readily available
• You have some knowledge of pronouns--we'll build on that
• You can do the first round of regular verb conjugation
  • And you know where to go to look it up again
  • Plus you know about the incredible verb conjugator
• You know about adjectives

SHORT ACHIEVABLE GOALS

1. adverbs
2. Coordinative Conjunctions
3. prepositions
   Be sure to read the caution that the Spanish conjunctions do not always translate to the English conjunctions listed next to them in the table. Thank you.
4. adverbs
   Gradeschool English memory lane:
   
   • you can divide a sentence into a subject part and a predicate part: we started out with noun/verb for this reason.
   • We discussed adjectives to build better subject descriptions
   • With adverbs we can write more descriptive predicates
   One other interesting thing to encounter
   
   • you can construct adverbs from adjectives
   • we could argue that adverbs and adjectives come from the same "root structures"; we may have some time for a philosophical discussion of this later
5. Estar vs. Ser ser o estar-- este es el problema...
6. regular verb conjugations for preterit and imperfect-
   For the english "she spoke" Spanish has
   1. preterit- ella habló
   2. imperfect- ella hablaba
7. become aware of the four possible forms for the past tense of 'to be'-
   you must consider
   1. estar vs. ser
   2. preterit vs. imperfect

ADVERBS

• Adverbs can be constructed out of adjectives
• You take the feminine form of the adjective and add -mente to it
  • natural
  • naturalmente
  • rápido
  • rápidamente

COORDINATE CONJUNCTIONS

• You may recall conjunctions and prepositions help you string short sentences together
• and, but, etc.

  English	Spanish
  and	y
  and	e
  or	o
  or	u
  but	pero
  but	sino

• The word 'e' is needed if the next word starts with 'i'
• The word 'u' is needed if the next word starts with "o"
  • John e Irene
  • John and Irene
• Use sino if your sentence stars with one idea, and then goes on to a contradition to an opposite
  • No quiero comer, sino beber (I don't want to eat, but to drink)
  • No quieren la paz, sino la guerra (They don't want peace, but the war)
  • No es gris, sino rojo (It is not grey, but red)
    (Borges contrasted red with grey, with red for life, and grey for death)

PREPOSITIONS

• The table below equates Spanish prepositions to English prepositions
• A word of caution is in order
  • The correspondence may not be always true
  • You may find cases where the English translation isn't appropriate
  • You may read the credit "Cien Años de Soledad por Gabriel Garcia Márquez"
  • Here 'by', not 'of', works better

  a	to, at, by, on
  con	with, by, in spite of
  de	from, by, of, with
  desde	from, since
  en	on, in, at, for
  hacia	toward, about
  hasta	until
  para	for, to, towards, by
  por	for, by, through, because of
  sin	without

  Long term goal--to provide lots of examples

MORE ADVERBS

• Use these to build better sentences

  before (adv)	antes
  after, later, next (adv)	después
  moreover, besides (adv)	además

ESTAR vs. SER

A more accurate description of the differences is to say that ser is used for characteristics and estar is used for conditions. The Latin root for ser is essere--like essence in English, and for estar is stare--like state or static in English. This is a better distinction than permanent/temporary, because conditions can be permanent--"esta muerto"--and characteristics can be temporary--"es joven". As you wrote, personal info is usually used with ser--soy profesora, delgada, catolica, democrata, bonita, etc. The characteristic/condition distinction can be exploited to express something unusual--"Gilda esta bonita hoy"---implying that she usually isn't pretty, but she looks good today.

Special thanks to Catherine Holm (Community College of Allegheny County)

• in general estar is 'to be' for conditions
• in general ser is 'to be' for characteristics
• estar works for the answer to question "How are you today?"
• estar is used if a person is sick, happy
• ser would work for height, nationality, ethnicity, sexuality, etc.
• I think ser works for catergories like belief systems, politics, etc.
  • (Soy católico or Soy ateo)
• estar works for your location
  • you write on the chatline, "I am in the Math Computer Science Materials Building at the University of Macondo Realitecno."

ESTAR-

• Daisy, Daisy, dame tu respuesta, di. Estoy medio loco de amor por ti...
  • Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer, do. I am half crazy for the love of you. ..
  • Estoy is first person singular for estar.
• The computer Hall sings that he is half crazy 'Estoy medio loco', a condition that is relatively new.

SER-

• La tierra es redonda como una naranja
  • The earth is round like an orange.
  • The geometry of the earth is a condition that on a relative time scale is permanent.
• El demonio tiene propiedades sulfúricas, y esto no es más que un poco de solimán.
  • The devil has sulfuric properties--and this is no more than just a little bichloride of mercury.
  • one chemical can convert to another, but it is assumed here that the bichloride of mercury has a shelf life that is permanent on a relative time scale.
• Es el diamante más grande del mundo.
  • It is the largest diamond in the world
  • On a relative time scale, diamonds are forever...
• Encantado de conocerle, doctor Floyd. Yo soy Nick Miller, de la Seguridad de la Estación. Se estrecharon las manos.
  • It's a pleasure to meet you, Doctor Floyd. I am Nick Miller, from Station Security. They extended the hands (handshake.)
  • you name is permanent. notice 'the hands' rather than 'their hands'. Often in Spanish an article (el, la, los, las) is used rather than personal pronoun (mi, tu, su, etc.).
• No es su culpa. Es una leona. (Memorias)
  • It's not her fault. She is a lioness.
  • For lion, it is 'un león, and for lioness, 'una leona.'

PRETERIT vs. IMPERFECT

• In English, we say 'she spoke' for the third person singular past tense
• In Spanish, there are two equivalents:
  • Ella habló (preterit)
  • Ella hablaba (imperfect)
• The preterit works for things that occured over a definite time frame
• The imperfect may be used for something that was a common occurance
  • We used to watch X-Files on Friday night
    • "We watched the X-Files Friday Night" using the imperfect shows it was (or maybe even still is), a habitual action
  • Father drank his coffee as he read the paper
    • If you use preterit, the focus is on a particular time
    • If you use imperfect, you are talking about a normal routine
• The imperfect is used if something started in the past and it is still occuring.

ESTAR vs. SER and also PRETERIT vs. IMPERFECT

• The past tense verb 'was' can be expressed four ways
• A table has been constructed to compare the four

  	preterit ser	imperfect ser	preterit estar	imperfect estar
  yo	fui	era	estuve	estaba
  tú	fuiste	eras	estuviste	estabas
  ella, él	fue	era	estuvo	estaba
  nosotros	fuimos	éramos	estuvimos	estábamos
  vosotros	fuisteis	erais	estuvisteis	estabais
  ellas, ellos	fueron	eran	estuvieron	estaban

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Gracias a Yesid Lopez y Johnny Nahui-Ortiz por su ayuda con las frases!

I used purely semantic html for this free online course. That means that you should be able to save this to a palm pilot or other PDA, and view it with any browser. The only problems might be the tables, and the images at the top, the only images used. If anyone tries this, I'd love to hear feedback about how well it works, or tips that I could give others.