37 Posts found for Author: Hildebrando Villarrea

Two Spanish verbs express to know: saber and conocer.

• Saber means to know facts or pieces of information. When followed by an infinitive, saber means to know how to do something (or to be able to do something).

No sabemos el telefono de Alejandro. ¿Saben Uds. dónde vive Alejandro? ¿Saben llegar alli? – We don’t know Alejandros phone number Do

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Authors: Ana María Pérez-Gironés, Hildebrando Villarrea, Marty Knorre, Thalia Dorwick, William R. Glass | Subject: ¿Qué Tal?

In English and in Spanish, the direct object (el complemento directo) of a sentence is the first recipient of the action of the verb.

I see the car; but I don’t see the dog.
George is preparing dinner for the family

In Spanish, the word a immediately precedes the direct object of a sentence when the direct object refers to a specific person … [ Read more ]

Content: NA | Authors: Ana María Pérez-Gironés, Hildebrando Villarrea, Marty Knorre, Thalia Dorwick, William R. Glass | Subject: ¿Qué Tal?

me – to/for me
te – to/for you (fam. sing.)
le – to/for you (form. sing.), him, her it
nos – to/for us
os – to/for you (fam. pl.)
les – to/for you (form. pl.), them

• Indirect object nouns and pronouns are the second recipient of the action of the verb. They usually answer the questions to whom? or for whom? in relation

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Content: NA | Authors: Ana María Pérez-Gironés, Hildebrando Villarrea, Marty Knorre, Thalia Dorwick, William R. Glass | Subject: ¿Qué Tal?

–¿Que les parece este restaurante? ¿Les gusta?
— ¡A mí me gusta mucho!
–Y a mí me gustan los postres que sirven.
–Bueno, ¿quién va a pagar hoy?
–¿Nadie contesta?
–Bueno, nos gusta mucho el restaurante… no nos gustan nada las cuentas,

You have been using the verb gustar to express likes and dislikes. However, gustar does not literally mean to like, but to … [ Read more ]

Content: NA | Authors: Ana María Pérez-Gironés, Hildebrando Villarrea, Marty Knorre, Thalia Dorwick, William R. Glass | Subject: ¿Qué Tal?

• To suggest activities to a friend: ¿Qué tal si nosotros verb form?
• Descriptive adjectives are frequently used by Spanish speakers with ¡Qué ___!, to express English how + adjective.

¿El bebé? ¡Que mono!
¿Michael Jordan? ¡Qué alto! ¡Y qué bárbaro!

• Beginning with 31, Spanish numbers are not written in a combined form: treinta y uno, cuarenta y dos, sesenta y tres,

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Content: NA | Authors: Ana María Pérez-Gironés, Hildebrando Villarrea, Marty Knorre, Thalia Dorwick, William R. Glass | Subject: ¿Qué Tal?

Just as there are two Spanish verbs that mean to be (ser and estar), there are two Spanish words that often express English for: por and para. These prepositions (words that express the relationship between other words) have other English equivalents as well.

In the following questions, you will use por in one of its most important meanings: in, during.

• Estudio por la

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Content: NA | Authors: Ana María Pérez-Gironés, Hildebrando Villarrea, Marty Knorre, Thalia Dorwick, William R. Glass | Subject: ¿Qué Tal?

• tener miedo (de) – to be afraid of
• tener prisa – to be in a hurry
• tener razon – to be right
• tener ganas de – to feel like
• tener que – to have to
• tener (mucho) calor – to be (very) warm

tener (mucho) frio – to be (very) cold
These expressions are used to describe people or animals only.

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Content: NA | Authors: Ana María Pérez-Gironés, Hildebrando Villarrea, Marty Knorre, Thalia Dorwick, William R. Glass | Subject: ¿Qué Tal?

• afuera – outside
• almacén – department store
• alrededor de – around (physical proximity only?)
• añada – add
• antiguo – old
• a propósito – by the way
• a su vez – at the same time
• a ver – let’s see

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Content: NA | Authors: Ana María Pérez-Gironés, Hildebrando Villarrea, Marty Knorre, Thalia Dorwick, William R. Glass | Subject: ¿Qué Tal?

Here is a list of the most common indefinite and negative words in Spanish.

algo – something, anything
alguien – someone, anyone
algún (alguno/a/os/as) – some, any
siempre – always
también – also
nada – nothing, not anything
nadie – no one, nobody, not anybody
nunca, jamás – never
ningún (ninguno/a) – no, none, not any
tampoco – neither, not either

Pay particular … [ Read more ]

Content: NA | Authors: Ana María Pérez-Gironés, Hildebrando Villarrea, Marty Knorre, Thalia Dorwick, William R. Glass | Subject: ¿Qué Tal?

Estar is used with adjectives to express temporary conditions or observations that are true at a given moment but that do not describe inherent qualities of the noun. The following adjectives are generally used with estar. Some of them are cognates.

abierto/a – open

aburrido/a – bored

cansado/a – tired

cerrado/a – closed

contento/a – happy

desordenado/a – messy

enfermo/a – sick, ill

furioso/a … [ Read more ]

Content: NA | Authors: Ana María Pérez-Gironés, Hildebrando Villarrea, Marty Knorre, Thalia Dorwick, William R. Glass | Subject: ¿Qué Tal?

• To identify people and things. (Ella es doctora.)
• To express nationality; with de to express origin. (Son cubanos. Son de la Habana.)
• With de to tell of what material something is made. (El suéter es de lana.)
• With para to tell for whom something is intended. (El regalo es para Sara.)
• To tell time. (Son las once. Es Ia una y media.)
• With de

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Content: NA | Authors: Ana María Pérez-Gironés, Hildebrando Villarrea, Marty Knorre, Thalia Dorwick, William R. Glass | Subject: ¿Qué Tal?

• To tell location. (El libro está en la mesa.)
• To describe health. (Estoy muy bien, gracias.)
• With adjectives that describe conditions. (Estoy muy ocupada.)
• In a number of fixed expressions. ((No) Estoy de acuerdo. Está bien.)

Content: NA | Authors: Ana María Pérez-Gironés, Hildebrando Villarrea, Marty Knorre, Thalia Dorwick, William R. Glass | Subject: ¿Qué Tal?

Use ¿qué? to mean what? when you are asking for a definition or an explanation. Use ¿cual? To mean what? in all other circumstances.

Que without an accent mark means that or which.

Nouns that refer to male beings and most nouns that end in -o are masculine (masculino) in gender: hombre, libro.
Nouns that refer to female beings and most nouns that … [ Read more ]

Content: NA | Authors: Ana María Pérez-Gironés, Hildebrando Villarrea, Marty Knorre, Thalia Dorwick, William R. Glass | Subject: ¿Qué Tal?

Ir + a + infinitive is used to describe actions or events in the near future

Van a llegar esta noche. – They’re going to arrive tonight.

Voy a ir de compras esta tarde. – I’m going to go shopping this afternoon.

Content: NA | Authors: Ana María Pérez-Gironés, Hildebrando Villarrea, Marty Knorre, Thalia Dorwick, William R. Glass | Subject: ¿Qué Tal?

Although all Spanish words of more than one syllable have a stressed vowel, most words do not have a written accent mark. Most words have the spoken stress exactly where native speakers of Spanish would predict it. These two simple rules tell you which syllable is accented when a word does not have a written accent.

• Words that end in a vowel, -n,

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Content: NA | Authors: Ana María Pérez-Gironés, Hildebrando Villarrea, Marty Knorre, Thalia Dorwick, William R. Glass | Subject: ¿Qué Tal?

Prepositions express relationships in time and space. Some common prepositions include a, con, de, en, para, and por. Here are some prepositions that express time relationships:

antes de – before

después de – after

durante – during

hasta – until

The infinitive is the only verb form that can follow a preposition in Spanish.

¿Adónde vas después de estudiar? Where … [ Read more ]

Content: NA | Authors: Ana María Pérez-Gironés, Hildebrando Villarrea, Marty Knorre, Thalia Dorwick, William R. Glass | Subject: ¿Qué Tal?

The plural of usted is ustedes. In Latin America, as well as in the United States, ustedes also serves as the plural of tú. In Spain (and other parts of the Spanish-speaking world), however, there are two different plural forms for you: ustedes and vosotros/vosotras. Ustedes is used when speaking with two or more persons whom you address individually as usted. Vosotros/vosotras is used when … [ Read more ]

Content: NA | Authors: Ana María Pérez-Gironés, Hildebrando Villarrea, Marty Knorre, Thalia Dorwick, William R. Glass | Subject: ¿Qué Tal?

Continúe la secuencia: noventa y nueve, cien, ciento uno, …; mil, dos mil, …; un millón, dos millones, …
100 – cien, ciento
101 – ciento uno/una
200 – doscientos/as
300 – trescientos/as
400 – cuatrocientos/as
500 – quinient os/as
600 – seiscientos/as
700 – setecientos/as
800 – ochocientos/as
900 – noveciento s/as
1.000 – mil
2.000 – dos mil
1.000.000 – un millón … [ Read more ]

Content: NA | Authors: Ana María Pérez-Gironés, Hildebrando Villarrea, Marty Knorre, Thalia Dorwick, William R. Glass | Subject: ¿Qué Tal?

• The infinitive (el infinitivo) of a verb indicates the action or state of being, with no reference to who or what performs the action or when it is done (present, past, future) – In English the infinitive is indicated by t-ar, -er, or -ir.
• To conjugate (conjugar) a verb means to give the various forms of the verb with their corresponding subjects: I speak,

… [ Read more ]

Content: NA | Authors: Ana María Pérez-Gironés, Hildebrando Villarrea, Marty Knorre, Thalia Dorwick, William R. Glass | Subject: ¿Qué Tal?

• When used with an infinitive, empezar (to begin) is followed by a.

Uds. empiezan a hablar muy bien el español. – You’re beginning to speak Spanish very well.

• When used with an infinitive, volver (to return) is also followed by a. The phrase then means to do (something) again.

¿Cuando vuelves a jugar al tenis? – When are you going

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Content: NA | Authors: Ana María Pérez-Gironés, Hildebrando Villarrea, Marty Knorre, Thalia Dorwick, William R. Glass | Subject: ¿Qué Tal?