Learning spanish is a different approach to learn English, because it's better understanding of English. Much of the vocabulary of English has Latin origins, much of which came to English by way of French. Since Spanish is also a Latin language, you will find as you study Spanish that you have a better understanding of your English vocabulary. Similarly, both Spanish and English share Indo-European roots, so their grammars are similar. There is perhaps no more effective way to learn English grammar than by studying the grammar of Spanish, for the study forces you to think about how your language is structured. It's not unusual, for example, to gain an understanding of English verbs' tenses and moods by learning how those verbs are used in Spanish.
If you’re a grammar novice, here’s a quick break-down of the types of words you’ll come across:
Nouns
Nouns are naming words, words that indicate a thing or a person. Cow, happiness and Susan are all nouns, though different types. In Spanish, nouns are either masculine or feminine, and are usually used with the article “el” for masculine words and “la” for feminine ones. For example “table” is “la mesa” and “fork” is “el tenedor”. Make sure you learn “el” or “la” as part of all nouns you’re studying.
Verbs
Verbs are action words, and change according to the person who is doing the action. “Run” is a verb and in English there are only two forms in the present simple tense: “I run” (you, we and they also “run”) and “he runs” (so does she and it). In Spanish there are a lot more forms: Yo corro, tu corres, el corre, nosotros corremos, ellos corren.
When you first start to study verbs, just learn the infinitive form – that’s the basic form of the verb that hasn’t been changed for a certain person or time. In English, an example of an infinitive is “to run”. In Spanish, they all end in -AR, -ER or -IR, like hablar, correr and vivir (to speak, to run, and to live).
Adjectives
Adjectives are words which describe nouns – if you say “the park is beautiful” you’re using “beautiful” to give more information about the park.
In Spanish, most adjectives change their endings depending on whether the noun is masculine or feminine, so you have “la mesa roja” (the red table) and “el tenedor rojo” (the red fork). Some adjectives don’t change though, they’re the same for all nouns – “la mesa grande” (the big table) and “el tenedor grande” (the big fork).
Adverbs
Adverbs are words that describe an adjective or a verb. For example, if you say “I walk slowly” you are describing how you walk, and “walk” is a verb. In English a lot of our adverbs end in -ly: quickly, sadly, easily. Spanish has a similar system, most adverbs end in -mente. So “quickly” is “rapidamente”, “sadly” is “tristemente”, and “easily” is “facilmente”. However, in both languages there are words (the most common ones, sadly) that don’t follow this pattern such as “well” (“bien”).
Conjunctions
Conjunctions are linking words like “and”, “or” and “but”. This is a good group to learn early since they don’t change and there aren’t too many of them.
Prepositions
Prepositions are words that describe where something is, or when something happens. The most common ones in English are “in”, “on” and “at”, all of which can be used for time or place. Others include “under”, “beside”, or “opposite”. In Spanish, prepositions are used in a similar way to in English, I suggest you start by learning the prepositions of place, and later go on to prepositions of time.
Articles
Articles are little words like “a” “an” and “the” which help keep the structure of the sentence together. They always go with a noun, and in Spanish change according to whether the noun is a masculine or feminine noun, and whether it is singular or plural. So “the table” is “la mesa” but “the tables” are “las mesas”. Similarly, we have “el tenedor” and “los tenedores”. So “the” in English translates as el, la, los or las.
“A” and “an” in English translate as un, una, unos, or unas following the same pattern.
Pronouns
Pronouns are words that replace nouns, like “he”, “it” and “them”. I say “I” instead of “Linda” and “she” instead of “my mother”. Pronouns work in the same way in Spanish, and it’s important to learn them early on, though you can sometimes leave them out of a sentence since the form of the verb is different for each person who is doing it, so it’s clear who is doing the action without using the actual pronoun.
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