CHAPTER 2 NOTES

¿Cómo eres?

¿Cómo eres? (What are you like?) Yo soy (adjective). Yo soy inteligente y

extrovertido. ¿Cómo es él/ella/Ud./someone’s name?

¿Cómo es María? What is Maria like? Ella es tímida y baja.

¿Cómo son ellos/ellas/Uds.? What are they/you all like? Ellos son activos. (They are active).

Nosotros somos atléticos. (We are athletic.)

Ser with adjectives

1. Adjectives are words that describ people or things. You can use the verb “ser” with adjectives to describe people. Javier es guapo.

You don’t have to include the subject pronoun if it is clear who the subject is. Soy simpática. (You know the subject is “yo”.

To say what someone is NOT like, but a no in FRONT of the verb. Yo no so antipático. (I am not mean.)

Gender and adjective agreement Nouns in Spanish have genders. Nouns for

men/boys are masculine. Nouns for girls/women are femenine. Masculine: chico, él, Marcos Femenine:

ella, chica, Luz Adjectives have different forms that must

match their noun. They must match in gender and number. The masculine form of most adjectives ends in –o and the femenine form of most adjectives ends in –a. Enrique es simpático. Paz es

simpática

Gender and adjectives, continued Adjectives that end in –e have the same

masculine and femenine forms. Raúl es inteligente. Rebecca es inteligente.

Adjectives ending in consonants do not add an –a unless they end in –or or are adjectives of nationality: Marcos es intelectual y trabajador. Marcos

es español. Rebeca es intelectual y trabajadora. Ella es

española.

Gender and adjectives, continued Adjectives also agree with nouns in number.

An adjective that describes on person or thing is in singular form. When it describes more than one person or thing, it is plural. If the singular form ends in a vowel, add-s to make it plural. If it ends in a consonant, add –es. Daniel es alto. Daniel y Esteban son altos. Carla es intelectual. Carla y María son

intelectuales. *To describe a mixed group of men and women,

use the masculine plural form of the active: Carlos y Ana son románticos.

Question Formation

1. To ask a question that may be answered “sí” o “no”, just raise the pitch of your voice at the end of the question. The subject, if included, can go before or after the verb. ¿La profesora es simpática? ¿Es la profesora simpática?

(Both mean “Is the teacher nice?”) You can answer a question like this with sí or no. You

say the word “no” twice in your answer: once to mean “no” and the other time to mean “not”. ¿Eres activo? No, no so activo. (No, I am not active.)

You can ask for more information by using question words (who, what, etc). All question words are written with an accent mark. ¿Cómo es Paco? (What is Paco like?)

Las preguntas (To the tune of Jingle Bells)

¿Por qué?Why? ¿Cuándo? When? ¿Qué? What? ¿Dónde? Where? ¿Cuánto? How much? ¿Cómo? How? Y ¿Quién? Means who is there? ¡Olé! (Not included: ¿quiénes?=who all?,

¿cuál?=which?, ¿cuáles?=which ones?, ¿cuántos?=how many?)

Los números

30-treinta 40-cuarenta 50-cincuenta 60-sesenta 70-setenta 80-ochenta 90-noventa 100-cien

To ask someone how old they are:

¿Cuántos años tienes? How old are you? (Literally means “How many years do you have?”)

Tengo 14 años. I am 14 years old. (Literally means “I have 14 years.”

Whenever someone’s age ends in “uno”, the o is dropped and it becomes “un”. Yo tengo treinta y un años. Ella tiene un año.

*veintiún

***Don’t forget your tilde on the ñ in años!

To ask about somebody else:

¿Cuántos años tiene Marcos? How old is Marcos? (Literally “How many years does Marcos have?)

Tiene 14 años. He is 14. (Literally “He has 14 years.”)

**You cannot use “ser”’ with age. (You cannot say “Yo soy 14.”)

Practice-Age

Ask how old the following people are. Then answer the question.

Example: Juan/3 ¿Cuántos años tiene Juan? Juan tiene tres años.

1. tú/30 2. Pablo/44 3. Jorge/59 4. Mateo/7 5. Adriana/1**** 6. Sofia/21****

Answer these for yourself:

¿Cuántos años tienes? ¿Cuándo es tu cumpleaños?

Tengo quince años. Mi cumpleaños es el primero de enero.

Or “Es el primero de enero.” (You can leave the “mi cumpleaños” part out.)

Another example: Mi cumpleaños es el siete de abril.

(Recommended: looking over how to write dates.)

When is someone else’s birthday? ¿Cuando es el cumpleaños de Elena?

El cumpleaños de Elena es el quince de agosto.Elena’s birthday is August 15th. (Notice they don’t use ‘s in Spanish. They say “the birthday of Elena” instead.)

Su cumpleaños es el quince de agosto.Her birthday is August 15th.

Gustar=to be pleasing to

Use the verb gustar to say what people like. If the thing they like is singular, use gusta. If it is plural, use gustan. Use ¿qué? With gusta to ask what someone likes. ¿Te gusta la pizza? Sí, y me gustan las

verduras. (Do you like pizza? Yes, and I like vegetables.)

¿Qué te gusta? Me gustan los carros. (What do you like?I like cars.)

Gustar-continued

Put one of these pronouns before gustar to say who likes something. me gusta(n) I like nos gusta(n) we like te gusta(n) you like os gusta(n) you like

(vosotros) le gusta(n) Ud./he/she/it likes les gusta(n) you

all/they like

Gustar-continued

Notice that “le” can stand for you “Ud.”, he, she or it, and “les” can stand for you “ustedes”, or they. To ask who is beign talked about, use “a quién”, or “a quiénes”. To clarify who is being talked about, use “a + name/s”. ¿A quién le gusta la pizza? ¿A quiénes les

gusta la pizza? Who likes pizza? Who all likes pizza?

A Juan le gusta la pizza. A Juan y a Sara les gusta la

pizza. Juan likes pizza. Juan and Sara like

pizza.

Gustar-continued

Put the word “no” before the pronoun to say “don’t” or “doesn’t”. ¿Te gusta la fruta? -No, no me gusta la

fruta. Do you like fruit? No, I don’t like fruit.

To ask “why”, use ¿por qué? Answer with “porque” (because). ¿Por qué te gusta el helado? Me gusta

porque es delicioso. Why do you like ice cream? I like it because it is

delicious.

To describe something:

¿Cómo es……? (What is …… like?) ¿Cómo es el helado? (What is ice cream like?

Describe it.) Es delicioso.

¿Cómo son …..? (What are….like?) ¿Cómo son los carros? (What are cars like?

Describe them.) Son fenomenales.

***Remember to make the form of “ser” match the subject. If the subject is plural, it will be “son”. If it is singular, it will be “es”.

***Remember to make your adjectives match the noun!! (in number and gender)

Definite Articles In Spanish, all nouns belong to one of the

two gender categories: masculine or femenine. Masculine nouns usually end in –o (carro). Femenine nouns usually end in –a (fruta).

Definite Articles-continued

Singular nouns name one of something. Plural nouns name more than one of something. If a singular noun ends in a vowel, add –s to make it plural. If a singular noun ends in a consonant, add –es to make it plural. estudiante (student) estudiantes (students) animal (animal) animales (animals)

Definite articles-continued

The definite articles in Spanish can be used to say “the” with a specific noun. They have different forms that agree with their noun in gender and number.

Masculine Feminine

SINGULAR el la

PLURAL los las

Definite Articles - examples

¿Cómo es la profesora? What is the teacher like?

La profesora es simpática. The teacher is friendly.

¿Quiénes son los muchachos? Who are the boys over there?

Son los compañeros de clase de Rafael? They are Rafael’s classmates.

Using Definite Articles with Gustar Use definite articles to talk about a noun

as a general category or when saying what you like with gustar. ¿Cómo es la pizza?

What’s pizza (in general) like? Es deliciosa. Me gusta la pizza.

It’s delicious. I like pizza.

Put the definite article in front of the following words:

1. _____ música 2. _____ películas 3. _____ libros 4. _____verduras 5. _____comida 6. _____ zapato 7. _____ deportes 8. _____ vaso

_____mesa _____ventantas _____carros _____calendario _____días _____noches _____amigo _____amigas

De=of or from Uses of de: To show possession:

Es el carro de Enrique. It is Eric’s car. To indicate what type of thing you’re

describing: Me gustan los libros de aventuras.

To say where someone/something is from: Yo soy de Puerto Rico.

*De + el = del (a contraction) La comida es del supermercado. The food is

from the supermarket.

de

Choose: de, del, de la, de los, de las 1. Yo soy __________ Puerto Rico. 2. Te gustan los libros ___________ Sr.

Motsinger. 3. La tarea _________ estudiantes es fácil. 4. Es un libro ________ aventuras. 5. Yo soy un profesor __________ español. 6. Es la película ____________ chica.

Repasar (review)

1. ¿Cuántos años tienes? 2. ¿De dónde eres tú? 3. ¿Cuál es la fecha? 4. ¿Cuándo es tu cumpleaños? 5. ¿Cómo eres?

Review of definite articles

1. _____escritorio 2. _____pluma 3. _____libros 4. _____calendarios 5. _____plumas 6. _____ tiza 7. _____ libro 8. _____ventana

9. _____ cuaderno 10. _____clase 11. _____revistas 12. _____regla 13. _____señor 14. _____bolígrafos 15. _____ventanas 16. _____ bandera