Pasos 1

Grammar and vocabulary tips

Lección 1

A La familia

When we talk about the family we use the masculine form when talking about siblings or
‘brothers and sisters’:

Tengo dos hermanos, un hermano y una hermana.

In the negative there is no Spanish equivalent for ‘any’. If we want to say:

‘I don’t have any brothers or sisters’, we simply say:

No tengo hermanos.

B Negative responses

Note that if someone asks you a question and the answer is in the negative, we use the
word ‘no’ twice: once to say ‘No’ and once to make a negative sentence.

Look at the following exchange:

A: ¿Tienes hermanos?
B: No, no tengo hermanos.
Lección 2

A Hay

‘Hay’ is a very versatile word. It can mean the following:

Hay leche There is (some) milk

Hay patatas There are (some) potatoes

¿Hay agua? Is there (any) water?

¿Hay huevos? Are there (any) eggs?

When we add ‘no’, it has the following meanings:

No hay vino There isn’t (any) wine

No hay manzanas There aren’t (any) apples

¿No hay mantequilla? Isn’t there (any) butter?

¿No hay olivas? Aren’t there (any) olives?

B Expressions with ‘Hay’

If you want to say ‘There isn’t anything’ or ‘There’s nothing’ in Spanish, use the double
negative:

No hay nada

as in:

No hay nada que hacer = There’s nothing to do

Spaniards often greet each other with the words ‘¿Qué hay (de nuevo)?, which means
What’s new?

‘Hay’ is also used in the phrase ‘Hay que …’ as in:

‘Hay que trabajar’, meaning: One has to work.
Lección 3

A Nationalities

There are two ways of stating your nationality.

We can say which country we are from:

Soy de Venezuela

Or we can say our nationality:

Soy venezolano/a

Note that the name of the country begins with an upper case letter:

Venezuela

but the name of the nationality begins with a lower case letter:

venezolano/a

B Where are you from?

When asking someone where they are from we use ‘ser’:

¿De dónde eres?

But when we ask where that place is, we use ‘estar’:

¿Dónde está?

Example:
A: ¿De dónde eres?
B: Soy de La Coruña.
A: ¿Dónde está La Coruña?
B: Está en el noroeste de España.
Lección 4

A Learn the names of the months of the year.

The first eight months (except for ‘abril’) end in ‘-o’:

enero, febrero, marzo, abril, mayo, junio, julio, agosto

The last four end in ‘-bre’: septiembre, octubre, noviembre, diciembre.

In fact, three of the last four months end in -iembre.

Note also that all months begin with a lower case letter, unlike in English:
January = enero

B Learn the names of the days of the week.

Weekdays end in ‘-es’:

lunes, martes, miércoles, jueves, viernes

and weekends end in ‘-o’:

sábado, domingo

C ‘hay’ and ‘tiene’

It may sometimes be confusing which of these to choose when describing something.

Look at these two examples:

Tengo un piso en Barcelona: tiene tres habitaciones

I have a flat in Barcelona: it has three bedroom.
Tengo un piso en Barcelona: hay tres habitaciones
I have a flat in Barcelona: there are three bedrooms

In this case we can use ‘tiene’ or ‘hay’ and they both mean more or less the same thing.

Now compare these two sentences:

En mi piso hay tres habitaciones In my flat there are three bedrooms

Mi piso tiene tres habitaciones My flat has three bedrooms

In the first sentence we can only use ‘hay’ if we begin the sentence with ‘en’.
Lección 5

A The time

We sometimes confuse the difference between saying the time and saying what time we
do something. Compare the following:

Son las diez

Salgo a las diez

The confusion is most noticeable in exchanges such as the following:

A: ¿A qué hora es el teatro?

B: A las ocho.

A: ¿Qué hora es?

B: Son las ocho.

B ‘de’ and ‘por’ + la mañana

Compare these two exchanges:

A: ¿Cuándo trabajas? When do you work?

B: A las nueve de la mañana. At nine in the morning.

A: ¿Cuándo trabajas? When do you work?

B: Por la mañana. In the morning.

Further examples:
Las diez de la mañana
Trabajo por la mañana

C ‘mañana’ and ‘la mañana’

Note that ‘mañana’ means tomorrow, but ‘la mañana’ means the morning
So: ‘mañana por la mañana’
means tomorrow morning.

D ‘tarde’ and ‘la tarde’

Note the difference between the adverb ‘tarde’, as in:

‘Siempre llega tarde’ He always arrives late

and the noun ‘la tarde’:

‘Siempre llega por la tarde’ He always arrives in the afternoon

D Uses of the verb ‘llevar’

This verb is very versatile. It can be used to describe what someone is wearing:

Lleva una chaqueta He’s wearing a jacket

It can be used to describe what someone is carrying:

Lleva un paraguas She’s carrying an umbrella

It can be used to describe how long someone has been somewhere:

Llevo cinco años aquí I’ve been here for five years

and it can be used to offer someone a lift in your car:

Te llevo en el coche I’ll take you in the car

Lección 7

A ‘este/a/os/as’ and ‘éste/a/os/as’

Compare these two sentences:

éste es mi coche this is my car

este coche es mío this car is mine

The first example shows a pronoun, known as a demonstrative pronoun, and is really
saying ‘this (thing) is my car’.

The second example shows an adjective, so the word does not carry an accent.
Look at the following examples:

éste es mi hermano y ésta es mi hermana

éstos son mis padres y éstas son mis tías

este hermano es el mayor y esta hermana es la menor

this brother is the older one and this sister is the younger one

B Oddities in masculine and feminine

Most nouns either end in ‘o’ and are masculine, or in ‘a’ and are feminine, but there are
several exceptions.

Most are words that end in ‘a’, which are masculine:

el mapa map
el clima climate
el problema problem
el poema poem
el programa programme
el día day

Some end in ‘o’ and are feminine:

la mano hand
la radio radio
la foto(grafía) photo
la moto(cicleta) motorbike

Note that the full form of the last two words does in fact end in ‘a’ and so it is logically
feminine.

C ¿cuál …? or ¿qué …?

Both ‘qué’ and ‘cuál’ can mean what and which, but they are not interchangeable. It can
be confusing trying to work out when to use each one, but a look at the grammatical rule
will help.
‘qué’ is used when you want to identify or define something.

¿Qué es esto? What is this?

¿Qué es un bocadillo? What’s a ‘bocadillo’?

‘qué’ followed by a noun means which one?

¿Qué casa vas a comprar? Which house are you going to buy?

‘cuál’ followed by the verb ‘ser’ asks what? (which one of all the possibilities):

¿Cuál es tu apellido? What is surname?

¿Cuál es la fecha? What is the date?
(If we ask ‘¿qué es la fecha?’ we want to know what the word ‘fecha’ means.)

Cuál + de + a plural noun asks which of two or more alternatives:

¿Cuál de los coches prefieres? Which of the cars do you prefer?

Compare this with:

¿Qué coche vas a comprar? Which car are you going to buy?
Lección 8

A Verbs that work like ‘gustar’

You will probably know that the verb ‘gustar’ is used when we want to explain things or
activities we like, but that it cannot be directly translated as to like.

In fact it means to please or to be pleasing to.

So the English equivalent of

‘Me gusta el cine’

is
I like cinema

but the literal translation of the phrase is:

Cinema is pleasing to me

This means that the subject and object of the sentence are changed around between the
English and Spanish expressions:

Subject Verb Object

I like the cinema

Me gusta el cine
A Juan le gusta el teatro
Object Verb Subject

There are lots of other verbs that work in the same way in Spanish. Here are a few:

interesar
Me interesa la historia
I’m interested in history (History interests me)

molestar
Me molesta el ruido
I’m bothered by the noise (The noise bothers me)

encantar
Me encanta Barcelona
I love Barcelona (Barcelona enchants me)

aburrir
Me aburre esta ciudad
I’m bored by this city (This city bores me)

importar
No me importa si no salimos
I don’t mind if we don’t go out (Not going out is not important to me)
parecer
Me parece una buena idea
It seems to me a good idea

faltar
Por favor, me falta un tenedor
Excuse me, I’m missing a fork (…a fork is missing to me)

B Noun and verb agreement

There are many nouns in Spanish which refer to numbers of people but which are in the
singular form.

Here are a few:

la gente, la familia, la policía, el grupo, el gobierno

and here are a few examples of these nouns in sentences:

La gente de esta ciudad es muy simpática The people of this city are very friendly
La policía me ayudó mucho The police helped me a lot
El grupo de estudiantes es muy inteligente The group of students is/are very intelligent
Lección 9

A Ways of expressing obligation and their differences

Compare the following sentences and study the equivalent meanings in English:

Tengo que ayudar a mi madre en casa I have to help my mother at home

Hay que ayudar a los padres en casa It’s important to help one’s parents at home
Debo ayudar a mis padres en casa I should / ought to help my parents at home

Each of these structures – tener que, hay que, deber – followed by the infinitive form of a
verb, is related to some form of obligation, but as you can see they are all slightly
different.

• ‘tener que’ refers to the obligation felt by or about one person’s obligation to do
something;

• ‘hay que’ refers more to the acceptance that something has to be done by
someone, but is not so personalized;

• ‘deber’ refers to the feeling that one ought to do something but perhaps with less
of a sense of obligation than ‘tener que’.

B Polite imperative

Sometimes when Spanish speakers translate their own way of saying something into
English, they may sound a little abrupt. Look at this example:

Deme un kilo de patatas Give me a kilo of potatoes

This is because they are using the formal imperative form in Spanish, which when
translated into English may sound a little rude. In fact the formal imperative form in
Spanish is regarded as a very polite form, so ‘deme’, instead of meaning its literal give
me means could you give me please, something rather different.

Other examples are:

!Oiga! which literally means Listen! but which in fact means Excuse me when we want to
attract someone’s (usually a stranger’s) attention.
Lección 10

A Irregular futures

Notice the following verbs, which are all irregular, are irregular in a similar way in their
future form:

poner: Pondré la mesa dentro de unos minutos I’ll set the table in a few minutes
salir: ¿Saldremos esta noche? Shall we go out tonight?
tener: Juan tendrá muchos deberes Juan will have lots of homework
poder: Lo siento; no podré venir Sorry, I won’t be able to come
valer. Este valdrá mucho dinero This will be worth a lot of money
venir: Los chicos vendrán más tarde The kids will come later on

The endings are: dré, drás, drá, dremos, dries, drán

Others have various forms of these endings: ré, rás, rá, etc.

caber: ¿Cabremos todos en el coche? Will we all fit in the car?

decir: Diré la verdad I’ll tell the truth
haber: Habrá mucha gente. There’ll be a lot of people
hacer: ¿qué harás mañana? What will you do tomorrow?
querer: Juan no querrá ir. Juan won’t want to go
saber: Carmen sabrá la hora de salida Carmen will know the departure time
Lección 11

A Greetings

When we phone a friend or buzz an apartment entry-phone and the other person
answers, we use the first person singular of ‘ser’ to introduce ourselves, as in:

Soy yo It’s me

or

Soy Juan It’s Juan

Whereas in English we would use the expression It’s, in Spanish we use the equivalent
of I’m me / Juan

Similarly, if you ring and you think you know the person who answers, you can confirm
by asking:

¿Eres tú? Is that you?

B Using ‘mismo’ for emphasis

When we want to emphasise that something is happening right now or that we are going
to do something immediately, we add ‘mismo’ to the word ‘ahora’:

A: ¿Cuándo vendrá Carmen? When is Carmen coming?

B: Ahora mismo. Right now.

A: ¿Puedes ayudarme? Can you help me?

B: Sí, ahora mismo voy. Yes, right away.

We can also add ‘mismo’ to other adverbs of time and place, as follows:

Hay un supermercado aquí mismo There’s a supermarket just here

Llegaron ayer mismo They arrived just yesterday

We can also use ‘msmo’ to stress something about ourselves:

Yo mismo fui ayer I myself went yesterday

Ella misma me lo dijo She herself told me
Lección 12

A ‘ser’ and ‘ir’ in the past

These two verbs share the same form in the past tense.

Compare these sentences:

Fui al cine anoche con mis amigos I went to the cinema last night
La película fue muy buena The film was very good
Después fuimos a cenar Afterwards we went to have dinner
Los camareros fueron muy simpáticos The waiters were very nice

However be careful to distinguish between ‘ser’ and ‘estar’ when recounting something
you did. For example, you might say in this case:

La cena estaba muy buena The dinner was very good

We use ‘estar’ because we are talking about the quality of one particular meal on one
particular occasion. On another occasion it might not be so good, unlike the film which
will always be the same film and so uses ‘ser’: La película era muy Buena.
Note that in the example above, we use the imperfect form of the verb ‘estar’: estaba.

B Other common irregular forms in the simple past tense (preterite)

Look at the way the stem changes in each of these verbs:

The following verbs follow a recognisable pattern:

estar (to be) estuve, estuviste, estuvo, estuvimos, estuvisteis, estuvieron

tener (to have) tuve, tuviste, tuvo, tuvimos, tuvisteis, tuvieron
obtener (to obtain) obtuve, obtuviste, obtuvo, obtuvimos, obtuvisteis, obtuvieron
andar (to walk) anduve, anduviste, anduvo, anduvimos, anduvisteis, anduvieron

dar (to give) di, diste, dio, dimos, disteis, dieron

hacer (to do) hice, hiciste, hizo, hicimos, hicisteis, hicieron

venir (to come) vine, viniste, vino, vinimos, vinisteis, vinieron

querer (to want) quise, quisiste, quiso, quisimos, quisisteis, quisieron

poder (to be able) pude, pudiste, pudo, pudimos, pudisteis, pudieron.

poner (to put) puse, pusiste, puso, pusimos, pusisteis, pusieron

haber hubo (only used in the 3rd person)

Lección 13

A Ways of saying you feel unwell

Me duele la cabeza I have a headache

Tengo dolor de cabeza
Me encuentro mal I feel bad
Me siento mal

Me mareo I feel faint

Note that when we refer to a part of the body, we use the definite article; in other words,
instead of saying the equivalent of ‘it hurts me my head’, we say ‘it hurts me the head’
(me duele la cabeza). Here are some other examples:

Me hace daño la rodilla My knee hurts (the knee hurts me)

Me escuece la espalda My back stings (the back stings me)
Me duele el estómago My stomach aches (my stomach hurts me)

B Describing what you did

Notice the use of ‘me’ with the present perfect tense in these sentences. In each one
‘me’ means myself. We can use ‘te’, ‘se’, etc. for the other persons.

Me he quemado I (have) burnt myself

Me he cortado I (have) cut myself
Me he hecho daño I (have) hurt myself
¿Te has roto la pierna? Have you broken your leg?
Se ha dado un golpe He (has) banged himself
Lección 14

A ¿adónde? vs ¿dónde? & adonde vs donde

Notice that with question words involving location, we use ‘¿adónde?’ to indicate the
question is about where we are going, and ‘¿dónde?’ to indicate the question is about
where someone or something is. Look at the examples:

A: ¿Adónde vais? Where are you going?

B: Vamos a la piscina. We’re going to the swimming pool.
A: ¿Dónde está la piscina? Where is the swimming pool?
B: Está en la calle Goya. It’s in Goya Street.

So ‘¿adónde?’ is always used with a verb of motion, usually ‘ir’. Note: it can also be
written separately: ¿A dónde?

B To say that something is missing.

To express that something we should have is missing, we use the verb ‘faltar’. We can
use this with an object pronoun or on its own, as in these examples:

Me falta un vaso I’m missing a glass

Falta un vaso There’s a glass missing

We can use it to mean I need something, or to indicate that something is missing from a
group of objects or people. Look at these examples:

A: Oiga, me falta un tenedor. Excuse me, I need a fork.

B: Perdone, ahora le traigo uno. I’m sorry, I’ll bring you one right away.

A: ¿Estamos todos? Are we all here?

B: No. Falta Juan. No, Juan isn’t here (yet).