Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Lesson 3: Basic Expressions


You already know some Spanish words, here are some international words that we can use also in Spanish.


Bar, Sandwich, Taxi, Parking, Manager, Marketing, Pub, Stress, Cafeteria (Cafe), Gas, ticket

also names of minerals and elements in Latin, sciences and medical specialities (Cardiologia,

Urologia etc...) it only changes slightly the end.


The words of Latin origin are changed very easily from English: Action= Accion,

Extraction= extraccion, constelation= constelacion etc.


Latin and greek adverbs such as Rarely, Purely, Naturally etc change into -amente.


Rarely= raramente Purely= puramente Naturally= naturalmente.


Latin expressions don´t change: Gratis, Pro forma, Quid pro quo.


The latin and greek prefixes and sufixes are also in Spanish:


Re= again Re-make= Rehacer (only changes the verb as its natural)


Anti= Against Antiterrorista Trans= through transporte etc.


Word finishing in the greek sufix -ist in English are in Spanish -ista (except for some exceptions like scientist).


Usually these words ending in T in English (latin-greek ones) come to Spanish as -Te


President= Presidente Important= Importante etc.


Words like Impact, Tact, Contact etc will be done like:

Impacto, Tacto, Contacto.


It will take you some time to identify these latin words in other languages, but once you know

the method, a phrase like "A taxi normally transports a person" would be "Un taxi

normalmente transporta una persona" .


Starting with the initial words.


. The days of the week from Monday to Sunday: Lunes (monday), Martes, Miercoles, Jueves, Viernes, Sabado, Domingo (sunday).


. The seasons: Primavera, Verano, Otoño, Invierno (Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter)


. The colours: Rojo (Red) Amarillo (Yellow) Naranja (orange) Verde (Green) Azul

(Blue) Marron (brown) Blanco (white) Negro (black) Gris (Grey)


The plural and gender of the colours: Rojo is masculine, to make the feminine we simply put an A


Roja= Red (feminine names) To make the feminine plural we put an S Rojas.


La casa= The house (finishes in A, so house is feminine)


La casa es roja= the house is red Las casas son rojas= the houses are red


ES= IS SON= ARE


Naranja already finishes in the masculine case in A, so we don´t have to change anything.


It´s the same for masculine and feminine.


El libro es naranja= the book is orange Una casa es naranja= a house is orange

For plural:


Los libros son naranjas= the books are orange Las casas son naranjas= the houses are orange


Verde finishes in E, another ending we don´t have to worry about, because it´s the same for

masculine and feminine.


Un libro verde La casa es verde Los libros son verdes Unas casas son verdes


Azul also doesn´t finish in O or A, so it also doesn´t change, notice how we make the plural

adding -ES, because it ends in a consonant (it would be very difficult to pronounce AZULS, so we

add an E, AZULES

This happens with all the plurals when there is a consonant in the end.


El libro es azul La casa es azul Los libros son azules Las casas son azules


Marron= Marrones (Las casas son marrones, Los libros son marrones)


Gris= Grises (Las casas son grises, los libros son grises) La casa es gris, El libro es gris.


Negro finishes in an O, it makes the feminine in A and the plural with S


Las casas negras= the black houses Unos libros negros= some black books

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