Today's Lesson: Level One: Beginner Info

Question

Here is some nice information for beginner Spanish. This is not a QUESTION,this is just INFORMATION.

1. How to ask a question:

In English we change the order of the subject and person in order to make a question. eg. (affirmative) = They have eaten (interogative) = Have they eaten? In Spanish there is no change in the word order. You know that someone is asking a question because there is a change in intonation at the end of the sentence. In written Spanish there are question marks both at the beginning and at the end of the question. eg ¿Tienes fuego? (Do you have a light?)

There is also another way to make a question. In English it is called a tag question. eg. You live in Spain, don't you? This is a difficult system for foreigners learning English but in Spanish it is very easy. You just add "verdad" or "no" to the end of the question and use a question intonation. For example: ¿Vives en España, verdad? or ¿Vives en España, no? Note ("verdad" means "True") If you speak Spanish a lot you may find yourself using ¿no? when you go back to English.

1. How to put negative sentences into Spanish:

This is very easy you just put "no" before the verb. eg. No vivo en Paris. = I don't live in Paris.

1. How to use adjectives in Spanish:

As in most latin languages the the adjective goes after the noun. In English it is the opposite. Eg. In English we say: "A red book" but in Spanish we say "A book red" Eg. A red book = Un libro rojo.

All the nouns in Spanish are either masculine or feminine and when we use an adjective they must agree with the gender of the noun. Also the adjective must agree in number so if the noun is plural so is the adjective. Generally speaking masculine adjectives end in "o" and feminine adjectives end in "a". There are also a lot of adjectives that do not have an "a" or "o" ending eg. verde= green in which case there is no difference when you use them with masculine or feminine nouns.

Answer 1

Hope this was in some way helpful