Why are there many endings to the same word?
I don't understand how the endings change anything...
5 Answers
El libro --- the book vs. La libra --- the pound
El pero --- an obstacle (a negative) vs. La pera --- the pear
El capo -- the mafia boss vs. La capa -- the cape
And there are also the same words in the feminine and the masculine:
El sapo (the male toad) vs. La sapa (the female toad)
El niño (the boy) vs. La niña (the girl)
El perro (the dog) vs. La perra (the female dog)
I hope this helps!
It is the gender of the word. It all depends on what you are trying to say. It's really not so bad once you get the hang of it.
What do you mean?
The "-a" and "-o" endings denominate grammatical gender, something that only exists in words such as "waiter" and "waitress" in English.
La mesa=The table
El Meso= not a word
It's important to learn to distinguish masculine and feminine aspects of the language, and unfortunately it has no real comparison in English besides some words used to describe a man/woman (usually referring to jobs.)
El vestido es bonito The dress is pretty.Bonito because it is an adjective of a masculine noun. la chaqueta es bonita. The jacket is pretty. here the adjective follows a feminine noun.
If you mean the endings of vebs, then it is those endings that denote the grammatical person, tense, and number (singular or plural) of the verb. This would be a large subject, but you can find out more here.
There are many articles on verbs here, but I would go through the video lessons first.
