gender, articles, plural forms
DESCRIPTION
TRANSCRIPT
Nouns
In English, a noun is the name of something.
It can be a-person – John, Ana, Mr. García-place – Colombia, Chile, school-thing – desk, class, book-idea – love, liberty, nature
It’s the same in Spanish.
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Nouns and gender
In English, nouns can be-masculine – boy, John, Mr. García-feminine– girl, Ana, lady
-neuter – school, class, book
It’s not the same in Spanish
or
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Gender of nouns
In Spanish, nouns are eithermasculine or feminine
But how will we know?There are rules and clues.Let’s look at a few. 3
Masculine nouns
-Refer to malesmuchacho, padre (father), hombre (man)
-Usually end in the letter ocolegio, curso, otoño Note: there are exceptions
-Have the definite article el or losel café, el inglés, los meses
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Feminine nouns
-Refer to femalesmuchacha, madre (mother), mujer (woman)
-Usually end in the letter aescuela, primavera, personaNote: there are exceptions
-Have the definite article la or lasla clase, las nochesNote: there are exceptions
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Oh, dear me!!What do I do if I don’t see an “o”
or an “a”?What do I do?
Ay, mi amigo, you are out of suerte (luck), UNLESS you learned the gender of the noun when you were learning the word in the first place.
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ArticlesThere are two (2) types of articles:
definite and indefinite•definite = the
the book, the appleYou are definite; you know which one•indefinite = a, an
a book, an appleYou are not definite; any one will do
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Articles in Spanish
In Spanish, there are four (4) definite articles :
el lalos las and
four (4) indefinite articles:un unaunos unas
= the
= a, an
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Práctica
_____ carros_____ casa_____ cuaderno_____ mochila_____ bolígrafo_____ plumas_____ libros_____ clases
_____ limonada_____ blusas_____ refresco_____ mesa_____ vestidos_____ camisas_____ zapatos_____ día
Write the definite article
Write the indefinite article
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Nouns have number
There are only two (2) basic rules to form the plural of nouns:1. If the word ends in a vowel,
add –s
2. If the word ends in a consonant, add –es
Except: If the consonant is a “z”,change it to “c” before addingthe –es
The fine print: leave days of the week that end in “s” alone. 10
la escuelael veranoel estudiantela señorael amigola muchachala claseel cursola semana
Basic rule #1
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el profesorel señorel españolla nacionalidadel mesla estación
Basic rule #2
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la actrizla luzla narizla pazel pezla vezla vozle lápiz
Exception to Basic rule #2
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Adjectives
An adjective describes a nounIn Spanish, adjectives agree with the
noun they modify innumber (singular / plural) and ingender (masculine / feminine)
Descriptive adjectives usually follow the noun they modify.
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Adjective Plurals
Adjectives form their plurals like nouns do.
If you know how to form the plural of a noun, you can form the plural of an adjective.
Note: see the two (2) Basic Rules 5 slides back
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Adjective Plurals
Adjectives that end in o have four forms:
alto, alta, altos, altas
rubio, rubia, rubios, rubias
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Adjective Plurals
Adjectives of nationality that do not end in o, add a to form the feminine
These also have four formsespañol españolaespañoles españolas
The same is true for adjectives that end in -dor
hablador habladorahabladores habladoras
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Adjective Plurals
Adjectives (other that those previously noted) ending in a consonant, or in an vowel other than –o, have the same form for the masculine and feminine.
These will agree only in number with the nouns they modify and, therefore, have only two forms
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Adjetivos
Una chica ________________(American)Unos alumnos ______________(serious)Unas muchachas ____________ (pretty)Un día ______________________(good)Unas profesoras _____________(Cuban)Unos cursos ______________(required)Una clase ___________________(small)Un chico ___________________(funny)
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Adjetivos
Laura es _________________(intelligent)Juan y Marcos son ______________ (tall)El chico es ____________________ (fat)Los estudiantes son_____________ (good)La muchacha es _______________ (short)Raúl y Marta son_____________(popular)La clase es____________________(hard)Las profesoras son __________________
(interesting)20
¿Cierto o falso?
Nouns in Spanish are either masculine or feminine.
If a noun ends in a vowel, add –es to form the plural.
If a nouns ends in z, change the z to cbefore adding –es in the plural.
There are four definite and three indefinite articles in Spanish.
All nouns ending in a are feminine.21