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.