3. Talking about specific times of day
• You can’t use a.m. and p.m. in Spanish
• de la mañana – morning
• de la tarde – afternoon
• de la noche – night
• use “cuarto” for “quarter past” when telling time
• use “media” for the half hour when telling time
** a la for anything 1:00-1:59
** a las for anything 2:00 – 12:59
Yo tengo la clase de inglés a las ocho de la mañana.
Yo tengo la clase de histora a la una y diez de la tarde.
Yo tengo la clase de matemáticas a las tres y cuarto de la
tarde. (3:15).
Yo tengo la clase de coro a las diez y media de la mañana
(10:30).
5. Change the ending of the ordinal number if the noun that follows it is feminine.
6. CONJUGATING VERBS
The verb “to study” in Spanish is
Estudiar
Simply leaving the verb like this……estudiar…..is called the infinitive
form.
That’s a fancy way of saying
you haven’t done anything to it yet.
You can’t walk around saying “I to study” or “We to study.” It doesn’t
make sense!
We have to conjugate it.
But first we need review the subject pronouns…
7. Do you remember what the subject pronouns are?
We don’t use “vosotros” in
this course. Vosotros is like
saying “ya’ll” and it is used
primarily in Spain. Since our
course is centered around
the Central American
country of Costa Rica, you
will never use vosotros in
your responses.
friend
adult
If you don’t know the subject
pronouns, how will you know
who you are talking about?
If the sentence says a girl’s name like Maria, that would be “ella”
(she)
If the sentence says a boy’s name like Jose, that would be “él.” (he)
If the sentence says “yo y Jose,” that would be “nosotros” (we)
8. A Few Differences In Spanish…
In English, we say “they” for boys, girls, or a combination of both. Not in
Spanish….
If you are talking about one boy use él
If you are talking about one girl use ella
If you are talking about more then one boy use ellos
If you are talking about more than one girl use ellas
If you have a group that is mixed use ellos
él with accent = he
el without accent = the
(masculine)
9. When you conjugate a verb, there are 3 things you need to ask yourself…
1. Does the verb end in “ar,” “er,” or “ir?”
2. What is the subject pronoun that the verb needs to match? (yo, tú…)
3. Is the verb a regular verb?
**How will you know if it is regular? As you learn how different verbs are conjugated,
you will see that some follow a simple pattern where as others follow a different pattern.
The weird verbs are called “irregular.”
Here is the regular verb chart. Copy it, put it next to your computer, MEMORIZE IT!
We learn verbs that end in –ar in
Unidad 2.
We expand to verbs that end in –
er and –ir in Unidad 3.
10. Estudiar – to study
We want to say
“I study history in my history class.”
1. Does the verb end in “ar,” “er,” or “ir?” ar
2. What is the subject pronoun that the verb needs to match? (yo, tú…) yo (I)
3. Is the verb a regular verb? Yes
Take off the last two letters (ar) and replace with the ending that matches “yo.”
Yo estudio historia en mi clase de historia.
We study math in math class.
Nosotros estudiamos matemáticas en la clase
de matemáticas.
11. Leer = To Read
1. Does the verb end in “ar,” “er,” or “ir?” er
2. What is the subject pronoun that the verb needs to
match? (yo, tú…)
3. Is the verb a regular verb? Yes
Take off the last two letters (er) and replace with the
ending that matches the pronoun.
Roberto and Timothy read a book in English class.
Roberto y Timothy leen un libro en la clase de inglés.
I read some books at my school.
Yo leo unos libros a mi escuela.
un = a (masculine)
una = a (feminine)
unos = some plural (masculine)
unas = some plural (feminine)
12. Every verb you learn, write it in your notes and conjugate it.
Make notecards or do other creative activities to practice conjugating the
verbs
The more you write them, the more they get in your head!
Tener = To Have (irregular verb)
What about this one? Hablar = To Speak (regular verb)
13. In English we only have one way to say the word “the.” In
Spanish, we have four. These are the definite articles…
Remember how nouns are either masculine (el, los) or
feminine (la, las).
As you learn new vocabulary, be sure to write the definite
article that goes with it. For example
la clase el lapiz el cuaderno
el libro
la computadora la silla
la regla
la mochila el reloj la ventana
When the masculine word is plural, make the definite article plural like this
el los
When the feminine word is plural, make the definite article plural like this
la las
14. In English we only have one way to say the word “a or an.”
In Spanish, we have four. These are the indefinite
articles…
Remember how nouns are either masculine (un,unos) or feminine (una,unas).
As you learn new vocabulary, be sure to write the indefinite article that goes with
it. For example
una clase un lapiz un cuaderno un libro
una computadora una silla una regla
una mochila un reloj una ventana
Never use the definite and indefinite article
Together – that doesn’t make sense!
El Un lapíz or La una computadora. PICK ONE!
16. Unidad 3 Irregular Verbs You Need To Know….Write These Down.
Use ser for “is” or “are” to tell where you
are from or physical description.
I am from Raleigh. Soy de Raleigh.
He is tall. Él es alto.
We use “ser” for things that don’t
change.
Use estar for “is” or “are” to describe location or
feelings.
I am very happy. Yo estoy muy feliz.
My house is in a big city. Mi casa está en una ciudad
grande.
17. Review Directional Words For Unidad 3
encima de – on top of/above
enfrente de – in front
of
a lado de - beside
a la derecha – to the right
a la izquierda – to the
left
18. Putting It All Together…
El libro está en frente de la
computadora.
La maestra está a la izquierda de la
estudiante.
La casa está cerca del supermercado.
de + el = del
de + la = de la
de + las = de las
de + los = de los
Be sure to use the
verb Estar (está)
when talking about
location of
something.
19. Let’s look at some new
describing words…
viejo = old
nuevo = new
barato = cheap/inexpensive
Everything Must Agree -
What Does That Mean?
20. You need to ask yourself these questions when creating sentences when you have describing words:
(1) Is the subject masculine or feminine?
(2) Is the subject singular or plural?
Let’s say I want to create the sentence “The school is old.”
(1) The subject (school) is feminine (la escuela)
(2) The subject (school) is singular (one school)
The word for old is viejo.
I am going to use the verb Ser.
I need to change the end of the adjective “viejo” to “a” to match feminine school (vieja).
I don’t need to add a letter “s” to the end because it is just one school.
So my sentence would be:
La escuela es vieja.
21. More Practice
La escuela es nueva. (escuelas) Las escuelas son nuevas.
El lápiz es negro. (lapices) Los lapices son negros.
El estudiante es viejo. (estudiantes) Los estudiantes son viejos.
Un libro es rojo. (libros) Unos libros son rojos.
Una pluma es azul. (plumas) Unas plumas son azules.
22. Dormir – To Sleep
Be sure you are writing
down in your notes those
verbs that are Irregular
or don’t follow the
regular conjugation rules
we have learned.
23. In Unidad 3, you learn about rooms in your house, objects found in the rooms and what you might do in those
rooms.
There are three verbs you learn that are what we call reflexive verbs. Write them down in case you want to
use them in your Unidad 3, Leccíon 3 Hablar (speaking) assignment.
Bañarme (to bath yourself)
Ducharme (to take a shower)
Vestirme (to get dressed)
In order to say “I….” with these verbs, move the “me” to the front and then conjugate it like this. Don’t put
“yo” in the front.
Me baño (I take a bath.) Me baño en el baño en mi casa (I take a bath in the bathroom in my house.)
Me ducho (I take a shower.) Me ducho en el baño a mi casa. (I take a shower in the bathroom at my house)
Me visto (I get dressed.) Me visto en mi dormitorio. (I get dressed in my bedroom.)
24. Using the word “hay” to talk about things in each room…
Hay una cómoda en mi
dormitorio.
Hay una lámpara en la sala.
Hay una bañera en el baño.
Hay una cama en el dormitorio.
Hay una alfombra en la sala.
25. Be sure to answer your Actividad Cultural
thoroughly and with details and examples…
Don’t just say “I think the subjects covered were interesting.” Tell what you
thought was interesting and why.
Don’t just say “We have many things in common.” List several specific
examples of what we have in common (or different).
Don’t just say “I don’t have any experiences with people who are from Costa
Rica.” Say why you think you would or would not like to visit this beautiful
Central American country.
