Complete Spanish

Track 24

1. dar, to give Vocabulary

Dar is to give, and I give is doy, ending -oy like boy. You have met that ending before in voy.

dar
to give
doy
I give
da
he/she/it gives, you (formal) give
dan
they give, you (plural) give
das
you (informal) give

Lo doy · Los doy · Las doy · Él da · Ella da · Ellos dan · Tú das

2. Two little words: the personal one first Grammar

Where English says they give it to me, Spanish says they give me it. The personal word comes first, and the position rule is the one you already know.

me lo dan (they give it to me)

Él me da algo · Me dan algo · Ellos me lo dan · Te lo doy mañana · ¿Me lo da mañana? · ¿Nos lo dan mañana?

Te lo doy mañana is a very common, very Spanish-sounding sentence. I give you it tomorrow sounds strange in English but is perfect Spanish, using future context instead of a future tense.

3. Work out who is doing what, and to whom Method

Sentences that look complicated in English are not complicated in Spanish. Are you giving it to me tomorrow? has a lot going on grammatically in English and almost none in Spanish.

Work out who is doing what, and to whom or to what they are doing it. Build that, and it is very simple. The verb is the first thing to settle.

For I want to give it to you: settle quiero dar first, then the te and the lo, then the order → te lo quiero dar.

Note the trap: to give you is not you give. The student reaches for "das" and has to come back to dar.

4. Consonant plural: add -es Rule

If a word ends in a consonant, you do not just add -s, you add -es.

usted → ustedes
usted
you (formal, one person)
ustedes
you guys, formal you plural

¿Ustedes nos lo dan mañana?

5. The subject words are extremely flexible Grammar

Usted, yo, él and ella can move around the sentence for different emphasis. All three of these are fine:

¿Usted me lo da mañana? · ¿Me lo da usted mañana? · ¿Me lo da mañana usted?

The nuances of that emphasis are deliberately not taught, because they change depending on the dialect. You pick them up in real life, where moving the word is accompanied by a change in voice and hand expression, and then you understand intuitively which is emphatic.

6. Guessing versus establishing the process Method

When the student answers with a guess, the teacher can tell from the look on their face. The instruction is to establish your own thought process for finding the answer, rather than producing something and checking whether it lands.

Ellas me lo dan works exactly as ellos me lo dan, for a female they.