Spanish/Lesson 5

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Grammar - Questions

Unlike English, yes/no questions in Spanish are not usually formed by switching the position of subject and verb (if the subject is explicit). To recognize a sentence as affirmative or as a question one must pay attention to the intonation pattern. Unlike English, Spanish uses a reversed question mark (¿) at the beginning of a question:

Tú eres de México.	You are from Mexico.
Eres de México.	You are from Mexico.

become

¿Tú eres de México?	Are you from Mexico?
¿Eres de México?	Are you from Mexico?

For other type of questions Spanish uses the following question words (note that all of them have an accent in the word):

¿Cómo...? or ¿Qué...?	How...? or What...?
¿Cuándo...?	When...?
¿Cuánto...?	How much...?
¿Cuántos...?	How many...?
¿Dónde...?	Where...?
¿Por qué...?	Why...?
¿Quién...?	Who...? (singular)
¿Quiénes...?	Who...? (plural)

Here are some Spanish sentences where specific question words are used:

¿Cómo te llamas?	What is your name? (Literally: How do you call yourself?)
¿Cuántos años tienes?	How old are you? (Literally: How many years do you have?)
¿Dónde está el aeropuerto?	Where is the airport?

Questions can also be posed within a sentence:

Y tú, ¿cuántos años tienes?	How old are you? (Literally: And you, how many years do you have?)
Entonces, ¿por qué no puedo jugar con él?	So, why can't I play with him?

Exercise: Questions

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Grammar - Possessive Adjectives

Like English, the Spanish possessive adjectives differ depending on the person they are referring to. Unlike English, the possessive article also changes depending on the number of items that one possesses (for example: mi libro = my book, mis libros = my books). It can also change depending on the gender of the item (for example: nuestro perro = our dog, nuestra casa = our house). The following table summarizes all Spanish possessive adjectives:

Person	Singular	Plural	English	Examples
yo	mi	mis	my	mi lápiz
tú	tu	tus	your	tu lápiz
él	su, de él	sus	his	su lápiz, el lápiz de él
ella	su, de ella	sus, de ella	her	su lápiz, el lápiz de ella
usted	su, de usted	sus, de usted	your	su lápiz, el lápiz de usted
nosotros/nosotras	nuestro, nuestra, de nosotros	nuestros, nuestras	our	nuestro lápiz, el lápiz de nosotros
vosotros/vosotras	vuestro, vuestra	vuestros, vuestras	your	vuestro lápiz
ellos	su, de ellos	sus, de ellos	their	su lápiz, el lápiz de ellos
ellas	su, de ellas	sus, de ellas	their	su lápiz, el lápiz de ellas
ustedes	su, de ustedes	sus, de ustedes	your	su lápiz, el lápiz de ustedes

• Possessive Pronouns are not used when talking about body parts:
  

mi nariz (la nariz de él)	my nose (his nose)
mi dedo (el dedo de él)	my finger (his finger)
mis manos (las manos de él)	my hands (his hands)
mis ojos (los ojos de él)	my eyes (his eyes)

Exercise: Possessive Adjectives

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Grammar - Comparisons

Equality

Spanish uses three slightly different constructions for comparisons of equality. One for comparing verbs, one for comparing nouns and one for comparing adjectives/adverbs. The following examples show the three different possibilities:

Alberto estudia tanto como Felicitas.	Alberto studies as much as Felicitas.
Yo tengo tanto dinero como mi hermano.	I have as much money as my brother.
La estudiante es tan inteligente como el profesor.	The student is as intelligent as the teacher.

When comparing nouns, the ending of tanto will be modified to tanta, tantos, or tantas in order to match gender and quantity of the noun. The general pattern for comparisons of equality is the following:

{verb} tanto como	{verb} as much as
tanto/a/os/as {noun} como	as much/as many {noun} as
tan {adjective/adverb} como	as {adjective/adverb} as

Inequality

For comparisons of inequality, Spanish uses the same form for both nouns and adjectives/adverbs. There are two types of inequalities: más ... que (more than) and menos ... que (less than):

Trabajo más horas que tú.	I work more hours than you.
Trabajo menos horas que tú.	I work less hours than you.
Tom Hanks es más famoso que Patrick Stewart.	Tom Hanks is more famous than Patrick Stewart.
Patrick Stewart es menos famoso que Tom Hanks.	Patrick Stewart is less famous than Tom Hanks.

In general:

más/menos {noun/adjective/adverb} que

more/less {noun/adjective/adverb} than

Superlatives

Superlatives in Spanish are similar to comparisons of inequality: They use más for the most, menos for the least. Then follows the adjective and finally there is a preposition (de):

Ricardo es el estudiante más alto de la universidad.	Ricardo is the tallest student in the university.
Plutón es el planeta más pequeño del sistema solar.	Pluto is the smallest planet in the solar system.
Los diamantes son las gemas más caras del mundo.	Diamonds are the most expensive gems in the world.
María es la más inteligente de la clase.	Maria is the most intelligent one in the class.
El libro de Jorge es el menos interesante de la clase.	Jorge's book is the least interesting book in the class.

Note that in some cases (la más inteligente) you can just write the article and omit the noun. The general pattern for Spanish superlatives is:

el/la/los/las ({noun}) más/menos {adjective} de

the (most/least){adjective} {noun} in/of

Exercise: Comparisons

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Vocabulario (Vocabulary) - La escuela (School)

La escuela	The school
Nombres	Nouns
el profesor, la profesora	the teacher, the professor
el maestro, la maestra	the primary school teacher
el rector, la rectora	the university president, the school principal
el colegio	the primary school (Spain), the K-12 school (Chile)
la escuela	the school (all senses), the primary School (Chile)
el instituto	the secondary school (Spain)
el liceo	the secondary school (Chile)
la preparatoria	the secondary school (Mexico)
la universidad	the university, the college
la biblioteca	the library
la librería	the book store
el libro de texto	the text book
el curso, la clase	the course, the class
el examen	the exam
los deberes, las tareas escolares, la tarea	the homework
la actividad extracuricular	the extracurricular activity
el club	the club
la ajedrez	chess
la banda	the band
el equipo	the team
el coro	the choir
la fotografía	photography
el teatro	theater
Verbos	Verbs
aprender	to learn
estudiar	to study
leer	to read
calcular	to compute, to calculate
hacer un proyecto	to do a project
preguntar	to ask
contestar	to answer
discutir	to argue
Adjectivos	Adjectives
fácil	easy
difícil	difficult
interesante	interesting
aburrido, pesado	boring
inteligente	intelligent
estúpido, tonto	stupid, dumb, silly

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