Complete Spanish

Track 12

1. /e/ is the key sound for -er and -ir verbs Rule

-ar verbs use /a/ as their principal sound. For the closed historic group of -er and -ir verbs, the key sound is /e/. Everything else you do is identical: add n for they and you plural, s for informal you.

-ar: organizo, organiza, organizan, organizas
-er/-ir: vendo, vende, venden, vendes
vender
to sell (vending machine, street vender)
contaminar
to contaminate

Contamina · Contaminan · Contaminas · No venden · Vende algo · ¿Por qué no lo venden?

2. Work out the verb first, then the other bits Method

When building a sentence, take your time to understand who is doing what. Split it into two thoughts: first work out the verb, then work out the object.

Doing that split is what stops you producing a salad. Many times you will simply switch them: you mean to say she has them and out comes they have her. Think about those bits separately.

I sell → vendo. I sell them → los vendo.

A sentence with an us, an it and a they in it could look hugely complicated if you took the whole package and tried to translate it. Think about the verb first, then the other pieces, and you get the sentence you want with confidence.

3. Two little words together: the personal one first Grammar

Where English says they sell it to me, Spanish identifies an it and a me and puts the personal one first. You are effectively saying they sell me it.

me / nos + lo / los / la / las + verb
nos
us

Me lo venden · No me lo venden · ¿Por qué no me lo venden? · Nos lo venden · No nos lo venden · ¿Por qué no nos lo venden?

Algo is not one of these little words, so it comes afterwards instead: nos venden algo.

4. Feminine endings: -a, -ión and -idad Grammar

Words ending in a are feminine, with a few exceptions. Two more endings are reliably feminine, and words with them take la without exception.

-ity → -idad
la administración
the administration
la opinión
the opinion
la asociación
the association
la celebración
the celebration
la diversidad
the diversity
la nacionalidad
the nationality
la creatividad
the creativity
la electricidad
the electricity
la generosidad
the generosity
la comunidad
the community
la oportunidad
the opportunity
la claridad
the clarity
la personalidad
the personality
la sinceridad
the sincerity

Both la casa and the noun itself go plural together: las casas.

Vendo las casas · Las vendo

Many learners remember to change gender for people but put all objects with lo and los. Get out of that habit before it starts: think of the houses and refer to them as las.

5. Strip the ending to guess the related word Method

Once you have a word like electricidad, you can assume electric is probably similar in Spanish too. There is no rule for it, but you can assume it and try.

eléctrico
electric
generoso / generosa
generous
oportuno / oportuna
opportune
claro
clear, and also "of course"
sincero
sincere
persona
person (a feminine word)
común
common (accent on the end)

The skill is to get rid of the ending. The -idad is what makes it a noun, so la claridad gives you claro, not "clarido". Claro is used a lot conversationally, like of course, to show agreement or understanding.

Común could not be worked out: there is no rule, so there is no irregularity either. You might guess "comuno", get corrected, and then you have it. If you never take the guess, you never get the word. You will learn a lot of vocabulary very quickly this way.

Adjectives go feminine and plural too: generoso, generosa, generosos, generosas.

6. The word has the gender, not the thing Concept

Worth repeating, because it explains persona. Persona is a feminine word, so a man saying it about himself still says persona. The word is feminine, not him.

Listening is what really develops the intuition for these guesses, because you may well have heard the word before without realising it.