Affirmative and Negative words

This lecture covers affirmative and negative words, these are words like "something" and "nothing" or "someone" and "no one".

Expressing frequency using adverbs

When you want to say how often you do something you will use adverbs. Here are some adverbs in Spanish (obviously). Now your can die happy!!!

Conocer vs Conocer a

Since the last post contained the verb "conocer" which means "to know a person/place" I thought today would be a good day to include a lesson on the difference between knowing a person and a place. Remember, conocer is a verb with an irregular "yo" form.

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The verbs Conocer, Hacer, Oír

These 3 verbs have irregularities. Conocer (to know a person/place) and Hacer (to do/make) both have irregular "yo" forms, other than that, they are totally regular, so the endings will match those of -er verbs. Oír (to hear) not only has an irregular "yo" form, but it also has some irregular forms. Now it adds a "y" in the verb, and in a sense it's a stem-changing verb since the stem goes from o- to oy-.

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Reflexive verbs (verbs that reflect back on the subject)

Reflexive verbs are very common and important. Bottom line, when the subject of the sentence receives the action of the verb, then it is reflexive. For an example, "I bathe myself" in this case, I am doing the bathing and I am also the one receiving the bath. This example is reflexive. If I were to say "I bathe my baby", then I am doing the bathing and the baby is receiving the bath, not reflexive. "I look at myself in the mirror" is reflexive and "I look at you in the mirror" is not only uber creepy, but also not reflexive.

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Possessive Adjectives

Happy Monday, I'm sure you all woke up this morning and thought, "I think that I would like to learn how to use possessive adjective in Spanish today!" Well, I have some good news for you! Enjoy!

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Making Comparisons

Here is another lecture! This one is about making comparisons in Spanish. The focus on the words "más...que" for more (of something) than. You need to use "menos...que" for less (of something) than. Please post any questions you might have.

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Forming questions and interrogatives

OK, you are in for a treat!!! A 14 minute lecture! If any of you ever plan on asking a question to someone in Spanish, then this post is for you! It covers the way questions are worded in Spanish, but also I go through the interrogatives, or question words, ex: who what when etc. Keep it awesome!

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Using "ir + a" to say what you are "going to do"

Here is another lecture using the verb "ir" which means "to go". This lesson was taught after students learned how to use the verb "ir + a" when saying where someone is going. This one is more like the statement "I am going to eat" in which case you will learn to use the correct conjugation plus the "a" and then the verb in the infinitive.

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The verb "gustar" saying what someone likes

This verb "gustar" is kind of a weird word. It is not used like a regular conjugation, it is used with an indirect object pronoun, or the words "me,te,le,nos and les". A way to think about it's difference with English is that we will say "I like to sleep" when in Spanish they say "It pleases me to sleep OR To me it pleases to sleep". In this case, remember the sleeping is what is doing the pleasing. Many of my students try to conjugate this verb traditionally, like "Yo gusto el cine" the problem with this is that it translates to "I please the movies", to which I usually respond "I know you think you are so great, but I think the movies could care less whether or not you are there!" I know, I try to do my part to build self esteem!!!

The verb "tener"

This verb is a very useful one. It means "to have" and has some irregular/stem-changing conjugations. Not only is it used to describe possession, but can also be used to describe something that you "have to do" it will be used followed by the word "que" for example "yo tengo que estudiar" (I have to study). It will follow the "2 verb rule" where you have 2 sentences in the same clause, or 2 verbs sharing the same subject, the first one is conjugated then the second one will not be.

O to UE Stem-Changing Verbs

Here is a lesson that for some reason is more popular than some of my other You Tube posts. It goes over some "stem-changing" verbs. There are some verbs that experience a change in the stem when you conjugate them. Remember, normally when you conjugate the verb, the stem stays the same, it's the ending that changes, but these verbs are exceptions to the rule. But when the verb is stem-changing, the Nosotros form will NOT experience the change.

Adjective Agreement

At first I didn't want to post this lesson yet, but had a very busy weekend, and my next "intended" post is still in my dropbox and never had a chance to actually post them...but I think Adjective Agreement is an AWESOME replacement lesson. This is an extremely important concept. Now a difference between Spanish and English is that in English, we tend to place the adjective before the noun. ie: Red shirt. But in Spanish it's the opposite: Shirt red. One of the reasons for this is by placing the noun first, you are establishing the number and gender of the noun so the adjective will just follow suit. Please post any questions you might have.

The verb "Ir" which means "to go"

So here is a video on the verb "Ir". "Ir" means "to go" is an irregular verb, since if you drop the ending, you have nothing left!!! Now you may begin to notice that every verb you want to use seems irregular in some way, but the reality of the situation is that most verbs are in face regular, it's just the most commonly used verbs are the ones that will have irregularities, that stems from the fact that a language will evolve faster through use. And so the most used verbs are the ones most likely to go through changes over time...anyway, now I am rambling! Enjoy and let me know if you have any more questions! Adiós

Definite and Indefinite articles

Here are 2 lessons on the definite and indefinite articles in Spanish. The definite articles are "el", "la", "los" and "las". When translated, these words mean "the", but are categorized in masculine/feminine, and singular/plural. You can also use indefinite articles, which follow the exact same concept, but instead of use "un" for "el", "una" for "la", "unos" for "los" and "unas" for "las". The difference is that instead of meaning "the" the indefinite articles mean "a/an" or "some".

Ser vs Estar

Since the verb's "ser" and "estar" both in English mean "to be" but in reality are two different words, I gave this lecture on the difference between their uses. In reality there are more circumstances where you can use either one, but the method I taught included some of the main ideas. If you do have any further questions please leave a comment/question and I will respond. The video is a little fuzzy so here are the conjugations if you need Ser: yo soy, tú eres, él/ella/ud. es, nosotros somos, ellos/ellas/uds. son. And for Estar: yo estoy, tú estás, él/ella/ud está, nosotros estamos, ellos/ellas/uds. están.

Informal vs Formal (tú vs usted)

In Spanish, there are 2 ways to address someone, in a formal way or an informal way. When in English, a lot of our formal/informal speaking will depend on how we say things, in Spanish, it's indicated more on what we say. This lesson explains more about speaking formally vs informally in Spanish.

Conjugating regular verbs!

Here are a few videos on conjugating regular verbs. Normally I teach them separately, but with this post I think I will keep them all together. Time to saturate yourself with conjugations!!! In my second year Spanish class I did go over them all together, only because it was a review. My advice is to watch the -ar verb conjugations first, then the -er/-ir one, and then you can watch the one which covers all of them...but that's just me!!!

The verb "estar"

The next verb here is the verb "estar". Like the verb "ser" it also means "to be", but even though it's translated to the same thing in English, it really is a different word since it cannot be used interchangeably.

The verb "ser" and subject pronouns

 I have decided to start out this blog with the verb "ser" and the subject pronouns. The video explains them well, but the verb "ser" is one of the most common verbs you will use. In it's non-conjugated form, or the infinitive, it means "to be". I also taught the subject pronouns, or the words I, You, He, She, We, They etc. Please let me know if you have any questions or comments about it. Thanks

Welcome to the Blog!

Hola, welcome to my blog. Let me introduce myself. My name is Steve Funk and I am a Spanish teacher. I am in my eighth year teaching Spanish right now and I absolutely love the language. As an instructor in education, I have been amazed on how much learning has been impacted by technology and so I decided that I would create this blog with the intent to give anyone who would like to learn a foreign language an opportunity to do so, for FREE! In my years as a Spanish speaker; I learned Spanish in 1997 when I lived in Chile for a couple of years, so many people have said "Man, I wish I learned another language" or "Now that I am older, I wish I listened more in Spanish class in high school". I have never heard however, "Man I wish I learned math better" or "I wish I understood photosynthesis more". I also earned my Master's Degree in Spanish Literature, Linguistics and Civilization from California State University San Bernardino in 2009. Well, the videos I post are from me actually teaching at Redlands East Valley High School in Redlands Ca. So here is your chance to finally listen in Spanish class. I also want to encourage questions you might have regarding any concept and I will try to keep up with the blog and answer the questions. Also, you can always send me an email stevefunk78@gmail.com and I would be happy to answer any questions you have. This is a work in progress, and my goal is to make it the most effective blog on learning Spanish in existence! ¡Disfruten!