Technorati Tags: spanish, spanish verb ser, spanish verb estar

You have previously learned how to use the verb Ser to describe people, places and things, and also how to ask how or what someone, something or some place is like.

Another use for the Spanish verb Ser is to describe where someone or something is from.

Note: We’re not talking about someone or something’s current physical location (in which case you’d use the verb Estar), rather where someone or something is from - the origin.

For example: Where are you from? I’m from Ann Arbor, Michigan.
In Spanish this would be:

¿De dónde eres tú? (Where are you from?)
Soy de Ann Arbor, Michigan. (I am from Ann Arbor, MI)
The literal translation is “From where are you?,” the “de” meaning “from.” (note: “de” means “of” also).
Now when you meet someone for the first time, you can ask them where they are from. This is a really great question because Spanish is spoken in so many countries. Therefore, it makes for a great icebreaker to find out where they are from.

Many people make the mistake of using the verb Estar (also means: to be) to describe where they are from. This mistake happens because in Spanish Estar is used to describe location. However, don’t fall for this simple trap — where you are from, your origination, is something permanent and cannot change, and therefore, falls under Ser, not Estar.

For starters, you can improve your understanding of English. Yes, that’s right! A lot 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 notice that as you study the language you will gain a better understanding of your native vocabulary. Similarly, both Spanish and English share Indo-European roots, so their grammar are similar. There probably isn’t a more effective way to learn English grammar than by studying the grammar of another language, since studying 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.

Make Traveling Fun!

How about traveling? Sure, it is perfectly possible to visit Mexico, Spain or South America without speaking a word of Spanish. But it isn’t close to half as much fun. By having an understanding of the Spanish language, it may allow you to see and do things that many other visitors don’t get to. Also, the best way to truly understand a culture is to be able to speak the language. Sure you can learn a lot through a Lonely Planet guide, but it’s being able to communicate with the natives and the locals that will give you the experience of a lifetime. Being able to read a Latin American or Spanish newspaper, for example, can give you great insight into the places you visit and a better vision of what is going on in other parts of the world. Not to mention, Spanish offers a wealth of literature, both modern and traditional.

Learn Other Languages

Interested in learning other languages? Well, if you can learn Spanish, you’ll have an edge in learning the other Latin-based languages such as French, Italian and Portuguese. It can even help you learn Russian and German, since both also have Indo-European roots and have some characteristics that are present in Spanish but not English. In the end, learning Spanish will help you learn any language simply because by simply learning the structure of one language can give you a reference point for learning others.

In learning a foreign language, you are not going to find any easier language to learn than Spanish. Much of its vocabulary is similar to English’s, and written Spanish is almost completely phonetic. Although mastering Spanish grammar can be a challenge, the basic grammar is straightforward enough that you will be able to communicate after just a few lessons.

Improve Your Career Opportunities

Being able to speak another language can also help you in your career. Without a doubt, if you live in the United States and you work in one of the “helping” professions like healthcare and teaching, your career options and opportunities will expand by knowing Spanish. But really, wherever you live, if you’re in any occupation that involves international trade, communications, or tourism, you’ll find similar opportunities to use your new language skills. There is a limitless range of things you can do with Spanish!

Make Life More Interesting!

And finally, whether you enjoy talking, reading, or mastering challenges, you’ll find all of them in learning Spanish. There’s something about being able to successfully speak another language that makes life more interesting. Maybe that’s why children often speak Pig Latin or create secret codes of their own. Learning a language can be work, well, a lot of hard work, but the efforts pay off quickly when you finally get to use your new skills!

We hope that OuterSpanish can make your journey into the Spanish language a more pleasant one!

Okay, it’s time to start forming sentences in Spanish!

In Spanish, when describing nouns (people, places and things) - the inherent characteristics of them - we use the verb Ser, which means “to be.” (** Note that in Spanish, there are two verbs that mean “to be,” something we will get into later.)

The Verb Ser is used for different purposes and one of them is for description.

For example:

Jane is nice, sociable and optimistic.
China is a communist country.
My dog is a German Shepard.

These are all descriptions.

In the previous lesson, you learned the Spanish subject pronouns. So now we are going to learn how to conjugate the verb Ser to correspond with each Spanish subject pronoun.

Conjugating the verb Ser:
Yo soy (I am)
Tú eres (You are)
Él/Ella/Usted es (He is/She is/You are)
Nosotros somos (We are)
Ellos/Ellas/Ustedes son (They are/You all are)

When you want to ask someone in Spanish what someone, something or some place is like, you say the following:

¿Cómo + conjugated form of Ser?

And to answer the question of what someone is like, you reply with the same conjugated form of the verb + an adjective(s).
For example:

¿Cómo es Linda? (What is Linda like?)
Linda (Ella) es bonita y inteligente. (Linda (She) is pretty and intelligent.)

So there you go. You now know how to ask someone what someone , something or some place is like, and how to answer such questions.

** Note: to negate a sentence, just add “no” in front of the conjugated verb. (No eres inteligente - You are not intelligent).

To practice, do the following:

Make a list of your family members and closest friends, and include yourself. Now describe them in Spanish. Then describe the city you live in.

Start making a list of Spanish adjectives this way. Hopefully you have already purchased a Spanish dictionary!

For example:

Yo soy muy sociable. (I am very sociable.)
Ann Arbor no es grande. (Ann Arbor isn’t big.)

Some Spanish adjectives to get you started:

grande (big)
pequeño/a (small)
alto/a (tall)
bajo/a (short)
inteligente (intelligent)
sociable (sociable)
divertido/a (fun)
culto/a (educated)
optimista (optimist)
amable (nice)
hermoso/a (beautiful)
gordo/a (fat, chubby)
flaco/a (skinny)
delgado/a (slender)

We’re slowly now going to start discussing Spanish grammar. Now, vital to every communication is knowing the subject (or noun) of whatever is being said or written, right? Are we talking about Mexico or Jane from the apartment below or iPods? These are all examples of nouns - person, place or thing. But most of the time we use subject pronouns to replace the noun. For example, if you and Jane are having a conversation, it would be foolish to always refer to her as Jane. For this reason, when talking to someone, we generally substitute the person’s name with “you.” This is a subject pronoun.

In English, the subject pronouns are: I, You, He/She/It, We, You (plural) and They.

Spanish also has subject pronouns:

Yo (I)
Tú (you - singular, informal)
Usted (you - singular, formal)
Él (he/it)
Ella (she/it)
Nosotros/Nosotras (We)
Vosotros/Vosotras (You - plural, informal; only used in Spain)
Ustedes (You - plural, formal; used everywhere outside of Spain)
Ellos/Ellas (They)

A couple of notes:

Tú vs. Usted

Tú is informal, and is to be used when referring to someone that you know or is younger than you. Whereas Usted is formal, and is to be used when referring to someone that you don’t know or someone that is older than you, as a way to pay respect.

Although you should keep this distinction in mind and try to abide by the customary uses of Tú and Usted, don’t fret if you always resort to using Tú. No one is going to yell at you!

Vosotros/Vosotras

Because Vosotros is used only in Spain, for purposes of this blog, I’m not going to focus on it, rather when referring to you in the plural form, I will use Ustedes only because 1) People in Spain will understand Usted; and 2) Ustedes is more commonly used because, as I mentioned, Vosotros is only used in Spain, whereas Ustedes is used everywhere else.

But in my Spanish Grammar section, I include Vosotros in the lessons there.

Gender

In Spanish every noun is either masculine or femine. Therefore, when referring to groups of people like Nosotros (We), Vosotros (You all) and Ellos (They), you have to pay attention to gender.

If they entire group is of all males or a mix of males and females (even 1 male and 100 females) then you use Nosotros, Vosotros, and Ellos. You only use Nosotras, Vosotras and Ellas when the entire group is comprised of females.

Now that you’ve developed good Spanish-alphabet pronunciation skills and feel confident in reciting the Spanish alphabet, it’s time to move on to speaking Spanish. At this point, it would logically seem like you should start learning Spanish grammar – but I advise against that. Learning a language is like learning anything else that is new and exciting. If you lose motivation, you’ll lose interest.

Don’t forget that as children we naturally learn to speak our native language first and then we attend school and learn all the grammar rules. This is no different.It’s safe to say that most people learning Spanish are doing so to be able to speak it. That’s the fun part – being able to orally communicate with others. So instead of getting into the heavy stuff like Spanish grammar, we’re going to start off by learning how to meet and greet others in Spanish.Note that in Spanish there is a formal way of addressing “you” and an informal way. We’re going to focus on the informal way for now.

We’re not going to start worrying about why this or why that in terms of Spanish grammar. For now we don’t need to know anything about Spanish grammar. What I want you to do is simply memorize these phrases and practice using them. Know these phrases inside and out and become comfortable. Trust me, once we get into Spanish grammar, everything will come together and you’ll say, just as I once did, “Ahhhh, now I see why this is like that! Makes total sense!”

Note: when you see “a/” it means that you subsitute the “o” with an “a” when it’s a female speaking. Gender plays a role in the Spanish language.

Hola (Hi, hello)
Buenos días (Good morning)
Buenas tardes (Good afternoon/evening – use this from 11am – 7pm)
Buenas noches (Good evening/night)
¿Cómo estás tú? (How are you?)
Me llamo Nancy (My name is Nancy)
Mucho gusto (Nice to meet you)
¿Cómo te llamas? (What’s your name?)
¡Estoy excelente! (I’m excellent!)
¡Estoy maravilloso/a! (I’m wonderful)
Estoy contento/a (I’m happy)
Estoy bien (I’m okay, I’m fine)
No estoy bien (I’m not okay, I’m not fine)
Estoy malo/a (I’m doing bad)
Estoy así así (I’m so-so)
Estoy triste (I’m sad)
Adiós (bye)
Chau (bye)
Nos vemos (See you around, until we see each other again)
Nos hablamos (We’ll talk soon)
Hasta pronto (See you soon)
Hasta luego (See you later)
Hasta mañana (See you tomorrow)
So there you go, now you are ready to meet and greet any Spanish-speaker! To listen to some audio pronunciation of some of these phrases and to learn more of them, visit Spanish Meeting People Phrases.

Technorati Tags: spanish, spanish alphabet, speak spanish, spanish grammar, spanish phrases

Many foreign language students make the mistake of rushing into a new language. Well, I can’t blame them. It’s exciting to learn a new language. However, there’s no point to learning a new language if no one is going to understand you. In some languages, just being slightly off can change the meaning of what you want to say. For example, with Chinese, a language spoken in four tones. But even if you’re studying a straightforward language like Spanish, which has one and only one way to pronounce each letter (unlike English!) you still want to be able to pronounce well and sounds as close as possible to a native speaker. Not only does it make the communication process much easier, but it builds confidence when others are complementing you on your pronunciation skills. You’ll feel more native and have more motivation to keep going.

There’s nothing worse than putting in a lot of hard work studying a language – and it’s hard work – and being asked to repeat what you’re trying to say. Maybe I would be able to understand others, but then again, maybe I wouldn’t have been able to. We tend to become accustomed to the sounds that we hear and so, if we are continuously pronouncing a word incorrectly, we’re only going to become used to that sound and when we hear it pronounced correctly, it may come across wrong.

So, I definitely recommend learning how to pronounce words correctly, as close to as native as possible! Spanish pronunciation is not that difficult except for the famous rolling “r” sound.

Click here to review Spanish pronunciation.

So, your first lesson is to review the Spanish alphabet and learn how to pronounce each letter correctly. The key is repetition. When I started learning Spanish, I made this my priority. Start slow through the alphabet and try to pronounce each letter correctly, then as you get better, speed up!

But don’t worry, this takes time and if you keep at it, and you really focus on your Spanish pronunciation, you will get it and you’ll feel great when you get compliments from native Spanish speakers telling you how well you speak. Trust me, it feels great!

Technorati Tags: spanish, learning spanish, spanish pronunciation