Back To Basics lunes el veintiuno de noviembre Tú Vosotros Ellos Nosotros Ellas Yo Él Ella You (sing) You (pl) They (m) We They (f) I He She She I They (f) We You (sing) You (pl) They (m) He Back To Basics

Personal Pronouns Personal pronouns in English are; I, you, he, she, we, they. We use personal pronouns in English in order to establish who is completing an action; he talks However, in Spanish these personal pronouns usually are not needed. This is because the ending of the verb tells us exactly who is completing an action; habla the ‘a’ ending tells us that the action is being completed by the third person i.e. he or she. It is not incorrect to use personal pronouns but it sounds less Spanish as they are usually only used for emphasis.

El artículo definido The definite article is simply the word ‘the’. It is used when talking about something specific, e.g. ‘the chair’ meaning one chair in particular. Although in English we only have one word for ‘the’, in Spanish there are four. This is because the article changes depending on the gender and number of the noun that it precedes: El = the, masculine and singular La = the, feminine and singular Los = the, masculine and plural Las = the, feminine and plural

La práctica Create a table with the following headings: El, La, Los, Las. Put the following words into the correct column on your table depending on their gender and number. suelo pelo mochila ojos puerta hoja rotuladores lapiz luces cortinas gatos mesas pizarra estuche manzanas silla goma ordenador profesores ventanas

El artículo indefinido The indefinite article is simply the word ‘a’ in English and as with the definite article it changes depending on the gender and number of the word it precedes. The reason it is called the indefinite article is because it does not refer to something specific, e.g. ‘a chair’ could be any chair in the room. Un = a, masculine and singular Una = a, feminine and singular Unos = some, masculine and plural Unas = some, feminine and plural

Los adjetivos Agreeing adjectives in gender and number with the noun that they are describing is essential for achieving high marks for accuracy. With a maximum of 5 marks available for accuracy in your writing and speaking assessments this is the difference between going up or down a grade! Agreeing adjectives is one of the first grammatical points that we learn in Spanish, let’s see some examples to refresh our memories…

Ejemplos Un perro viejo If a noun is masculine and singular, the adjective must be too: Un perro viejo ‘Un’ tells us that the following noun is both singular and masculine ‘o’ is the masculine singular ending for an adjective

If the noun becomes plural, so must the adjective in order to agree with the noun. Unos perros viejos All endings must agree with the noun in both gender and number in order for the sentence to be accurate.

Una abuela vieja Unas abuelas viejas If a noun is feminine the same rules apply and the adjective must change in order to agree with the noun: Una abuela vieja Unas abuelas viejas

Happy Sentences! When all of the nouns and adjectives agree and get along we have happy sentences Always check through your written work to ensure that all of your sentences are happy ones. Marks for accuracy are easily lost if you forget to make sure that your words agree in gender and number. Some adjectives end in –e such as ‘importante’, ‘verde’ and ‘interesante’ These adjectives are known as the lazy man’s adjective because the endings do not change in gender, you simply have to add an –s to make them plural.

La práctica Make these sentences happy ones… Tengo los ojos verde y el pelo larga La película era muy aburrido y tonto La mujer es muy feo pero tiene tres hijos mono Me gusta las matemáticas porque son interesante Tengo los ojos verdes y el pelo largo La película era muy aburrida y tonta La mujer es muy fea pero tiene tres hijos monos Me gusta las matemáticas porque son interesantes