Basic Spanish for the Virtual Student- Section 6

SHORT ACHIEVABLE GOALS

1. List of Adjectives
2. Subjunctive Verbs
3. Irregular Present Subjunctives
4. Expressions
5. Conditional Verbs
6. Demonstrative Pronouns
7. Neuter Demonstrative Pronouns

LIST OF ADJECTIVES

SUBJUNCTIVE VERBS

The regular subjunctive forms are shown below:

• Subjunctive verbs may be used to talk about something that may or may not exist
  • I'm looking for evidence that the government covered up the 1947 discovery of an extraterrestrial spacecraft in Roswell.
  • Maybe no such evidence exists.
• Subjunctives might be used to build doubt into your sentence.
• You might use it for the expression "God willing that ..."
• The present subjunctive was used for the imperative.
  • first person plural commands
  • formal commands
  • negative tú and negative vosotros commands
• doubt, fear, hope, joy, sorrow

  Dudo que	I doubt that
  No creo que	I don't believe that
  Temo que	I fear that
  Me alegro de que	I am happy that
  Espero que	I hope that

• After the adverbs
  • acaso
  • quizá
  • tal vez

IRREGULAR PRESENT SUBJUNCTIVES

*Two different references list second person plural dar without an accent

EXPRESSIONS

CONDITIONAL

• Conditional verbs may be used if some action occurs as a result of a condition.
• The conditionals for regular verbs

• He sobrevivido, evidentemente. No estaría hablando con vosotros si no fuera así.
  • I survived, obviously. I wouldn't be talking to you if I hadn't.
  • i.e. I am talking to you because I survived.
• ¿La sed de sangre? Creo que podría existir sin ella por completo.
  • The blood thirst? I believe I could exist without it altogether.
  • i.e. I could live without the blood.

DEMONSTRATIVE ADJECTIVES

• This, that, these and those
• As adjectives, the above agree with the gender and number of the noun
  • number means singular vs. plural
• As adjectives, they come right before the noun
  • este gato (this cat)
  • esa pregunta (that question)
  • aquel vampiro (that vampire)
• There is a spatial order to esta vs. esa vs. aquella
  • Things labeled with esta are closer than things labeled with esa
  • Things labeled with esa are closer than things labeled with aquella
  • Where you draw the line is arbitrary
  • One textbook seemed to imply that you might use esta for something by you, esa for something away from you and by the person you are talking to, and aquella for something away from you both. The writing appeared to be in the context of a suggestion.

DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUNS

• This, that, these and those are demonstrative pronouns if they aren't used as adjectives
  • These are the times that try the souls of humans
• In the above examples, you can see the noun that the demonstrative pronoun refers to, and thus you know the gender.

NEUTER DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUNS

• What if you don't know the gender of the noun that the demonstrative pronoun refers to?
  • You are in a deep forest and you come across a carcass of some creature you have never seen before.
  • "What is that?" you scream, and since you don't know what to call it, you don't know if the noun is feminine or masculine.
• You use a neuter demonstrative pronoun- esto, eso, or aquello
• The esto form is closest to you, and the aquello form is farthest
  • Whether or not something is 'esto' close to you, 'eso' close to you, or 'aquello' close to you is arbitrary. There might be a correlation between your choice of esto, eso, or aquello, and how loud you scream.
• For the neuter demonstrative pronouns, you might not know what the 'it' is.
• Esto es interesante.
• That is interesting.
• Eso es verdad
• That is true

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