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BASIC INFORMATION
The Spanish language and the Spanish-speaking world defy many of the definitions,
constraints and stereotypes that some of the less informed among us have placed
on them. The language is among the most global, and spoken by a great number
of people from a wide variety of geographic, economic, cultural, religious and
historical backgrounds. Spanish has a high number of speakers; in fact, it is
the third most spoken language in the world. It has proven itself as one of
the major languages of business and opportunity, especially in the Americas.
In fact, there are over 380 million (380,000,000) native Spanish speakers (hispanohablantes)
in the world of today.
The Spanish language consists of a long and glorious written history, including the world's most read work outside of the Bible and the Quran: Don Quijote de la Mancha (known to Spanish speakers as "the Quijote"). Spanish often holds quite closely to classical Latin grammar in places, but liberal linguistic developments in others, coupled with a long period of heavy borrowing from western dialects of Arabic, add an element of exoticism to the language.
PRONUNCIATION
The pronunciation of Spanish tends to be regular, largely thanks to
spelling conventions set in the 17th and 18th centuries.
| Letra/letras ~ Letter/Letters | Pronunciación ~ Pronunciation | Ejemplos ~ Example |
| a | father | padre (fahter) |
| b | boy (between vowels, as bilabial fricative [ß]) | yo iba (I went) |
| c | cash before a/o/u, certain before e/i | caro (dear, expensive), cerca (close) |
| ch | check | charlar (to chat) |
| d | dog (between vowels, as "th" in this) | de (of, from) |
| e | let (more open) | es (is) |
| f | fish | freír (to fry) |
| g | guts before a/o/u, heart before e/i | gusto (taste), energía (energy) |
| gu | anguish before a/o/u, guide before e/i | guardar (to put away), guía (guide) |
| gü | anguish (always) | vergüenza (shame) |
| h | (silent) | hotel (hotel) |
| i | seem | sí (yes) |
| j | as "h" in hotel (in Spain and elsewhere closer to Scottish loch) | jefe (boss) |
| l | light | lago (lake) |
| ll | million (sometimes as jam or shoe) | ¡Llámame! (call me!) |
| m | me | meter (to put) |
| n | nice | no (no) |
| ñ | onion | cañón (canyon) |
| o | so | contar (to tell, to relate) |
| p | pick (softer) | por (by, for) |
| qu | quick before a/o/u*, quiche before e/i | aquí (here) |
| r | rolled/trilled (heavily if it is the first letter of the word) | razón (reason) |
| rr | heavily rolled (always) | terror (terror) |
| s | safe | somos (we are) |
| s | before m/n, either as misery or an "h" through the nose) | el mismo (the same) |
| t | take (softer) | exigente (demanding) |
| u | soon | luz (light) |
| v | vase | vender (to sell) |
| y | as yes (sometimes as jam or shoe) | yo soy (I am) |
| x | mainly as express, but once in a blue moon as hotel | explicar (to explain), México (Mexico) |
| z | essay (in Spain as thing) | empezar (to begin) |
* Accentuation, or the application of stress and properties of pronunciation, is very strict in written Spanish. In English, for example, one can stress the word detonate on the first syllable, but hotel on the second, with no written indication separating the two. Spanish is simpler, for it follows two basic rules:
1 ~ Any word ending in a vowel is stressed on
the syllable before the last (the "penultimate").
2 ~ Any word ending in a consonant is stressed on
that syllable, unless that consonant is -s or
-n.
Any word not following these rules receives an acute accent (tilde, á, é, í, ó, ú) on the stressed vowel. These rules account for the written accent on razón (reason), cañón (canyon), and francés (French), and none on hotel and verdad (both stressed on the last syllable).
One property of the accent mark that often confuses the learner is to perform the function of the diaeresis or "diphthong-breaker" (usually seen in other Romance languages as a [ë, ï, ü ]). Freír (to fry) and reírse (to laugh) both need accents not to show the stress (as the stress falls on the final syllable anyhow), but to break the diphthong.
A few homophones take accent marks to differentiate them, such as:
sí (yes) si (if)
más (more) mas (but)
sólo (only) solo (alone)
mí (me) mi (my)
tú (you) tu (your)
PUNCTUATION
Sentences with interrogative or exclamatory marks must open
with inverted marks:
¡Te quiero! I love
you!
¿Quién sabe? Who knows?
BASIC GRAMMAR
The structure of Spanish will be especially familiar to Portuguese
or Italian speakers.
The Spanish noun has either a masculine or feminine gender. In the singular, masculine tends to end in an -o or a consonant, feminine in -a, and words of -e can belong to either gender (most often masculine).
Words in -ción/-sión (related to Portuguese -ção/-são, French -tion/-sion, Italian -zione/-sione, Romanian -t¸ie [sometimes -t¸iune]/-sie [sometimes -siune], and Catalan -ció/-sió) are feminine, just as in those languages.
In forming the plural, a consonant adds "s"; an -o becomes -os, an -e becomes -es, an -a becomes -as, and words ending in a consonant take -es. The word expulsión (expulsion; as Portuguese expulsão, French expulsion, Italian espulsione, Romanian expulsare, and Catalan expulsió), for example, the plural is expulsiones (a written accent is no longer necessary; the stress naturally falls on the "o").
The articles agree in number and gender with the noun:
Indefinite (a/an)
| Masculine | Feminine | |
| Singular | un hombre (a man) | una cosa (a thing) |
| Plural | unos hombres (some men) | unas cosas (some things) |
Definite (the)
| Masculine | Feminine | |
| Singular | el libro (the book) | la cosa (the thing) |
| Plural | los libros (the books) | las cosas (the things) |
The articles usually accompany the noun, and it is common to see them where English would reject them: ¿Habla Usted español? (Do you speak Spanish?), but Estudio la física (I study Physics).
The Spanish verb follows many of the same basic principles as its sister languages, so don't be surprised if you recognize a verb, verb form, or usage of a verb as being similar to Italian, French, etc. As in any Romance Language, the present indicative active of the verb often occurs where English would use the present participle (in Spanish, for example, hablo means "I speak" or "I am speaking").
Spanish has three verb terminations ("infinitive endings"): -ar, -er, and -ir. Here are the regular present indicative tense conjugations for each of the infinitive endings, including sample verbs:
| -ar | hablar (to speak) | -er | vender (to sell) | -ir | vivir (to live) | |
| yo (I) | -o | hablo | -o | vendo | -o | vivo |
| tú (you)* | -as | hablas | -es | vendes | -es | vives |
| él (he) | -a | habla | -e | vende | -e | vive |
| ella (she) | -a | habla | -e | vende | -e | vive |
| Ustedes (you)* | -a | habla | -e | vende | -e | vive |
| nosotros (we) | -amos | hablamos | -emos | vendemos | -imos | vivimos |
| vosotros (you, thou)* | -áis | habláis | -éis | vendeis | -ís | vivís |
| ellos (they) | -an | hablan | -en | venden | -en | viven |
| ellas (they; all female) | -an | hablan | -en | venden | -en | viven |
| Ustedes (all of you)* | -an | hablan | -en | venden | -en | viven |
* Tú is used for familiar/informal situations when addressing a single person, Usted (abbreviated Ud. [Vd.]) for more formal addresses in the singular. Vosotros is the historic (except in Spain) plural of tú, unused in much of the Spanish-speaking world outside of poetry, literature, or religious works. Ustedes (abbreviated Uds./Vds.) is the plural form of "you".
Adjectives agree with the noun, and most always follow them: una cosa blanca (a white thing), las cosas blancas (the white things). An adverb is simply formed by adding -mente to the feminine form of the adjective: rápidamente (quickly, rapidly; from rápido quick, fast, rapid).
BASIC WORDS AND PHRASES
These are phrases common to much of the Spanish-speaking world. Variations
are included where they are considered common:
Buenos días! = Goodday!
¡Hola! = Hello!
¡Cómo estás? = How are you?, How's it going?
¿Cómo está? = How are you? (formal)
Bien. = Well.
Mal. = Badly.
Así así. = So-so.
Muy... = Very...
¿Cómo se llama Usted? = What's your name?
¿Cómo te llamas? = What's your name? (informal)
¿Cuál es tu/su nombre? = What's your name? (informal, formal)
¿Y tú?, ¿Y Usted? = And you? (informal, formal)
Señor = Sir, Mr
Señora = Madam, Mrs
Señorita. = Miss
Encantado (from male), Encantada (from female) = Pleased to meet you.
Mucho gusto. = Pleased to meet you.
Por favor. = Please.
Perdón. = Excuse me.
(Aquí) Hay... = Here is...
Hay... = There is...
Hay... = There are...
Sí. = Yes.
No. = No.
Gracias. = Thank you.
De nada. = You're welcome.
¿Qué? = What?
¿Quién? = Who?
¿Por qué? = Why?
¿Qué hora es? = What time is it?
¿Qué horas son? = What time is it?
¡Adiós! / ¡Hasta luego! = Goodbye!, See you later!
Joshua Rudder, talktume@hotmail.com.
