Spanish Basics

Here’s some essential knowledge to kick-start your Spanish learning journey! This lesson is fairly long, so feel free to take breaks in between. You are expected to look up words you do not know in a dictionary.

Spanish Alphabet (el abecedario)#

Spanish uses the latin alphabet (a-z) plus some Spanish-only letters. Below is the Spanish alphabet and what they are called in Spanish. You should watch this short video to learn about the pronunciation.

• a: la a
• b: la be
• c: la ce
• d: la de
• e: la e
• f: la efe
• g: la /ge (h sound)
• h: la hache (silent)
• i: la i (pl. las íes) (long e sound; see video)
• j: la jota (h sound)
• k: la ka
• l: la ele
• m: la eme
• n: la ene
• ñ: la eñe (ñ = ni)
• o: la o (see video)
• p: la pe
• q: la cu
• r: la erre (pronounced like “l” between vowels, otherwise roll the r)
• s: la ese
• t: la te
• u: la u (“ooh” sound; see video)
• v: la uve
• w: la uve doble (lit. double v)
• x: la equis
• y: la i griega (lit. the Greek “i”)
• z: la zeta (pronounced “s”)
• ch: la che
• gu (pronounced like “g” in English)
• ll (pronounced like “y” in English)
• qu (pronounced like “k” in English; “voiceless velar plosive”; see video)
• rr: la erre doble / doble erre (roll the r)

Stress & Accents#

Stressed syllables are pronounced slightly louder, a bit longer, and higher in pitch than other syllables, e.g. “a” in dance and “u” in butterfly. In Spanish, the second-to-last syllable will be stressed unless indicated otherwise by an accent (´), e.g. “i” in la comida and “é” in el teléfono. If the word ends in a consonant (i.e. not any of a, e, i, o, u), then the last syllable is stressed unless the consonant is n or s, e.g. “u” in ayuda, “e” in carnet, “ue” in fueron, and the last “i” in escribir.

To pronounce Spanish correctly, you also need to know the difference between strong & weak vowels. The strong Spanish vowels are a, e, and o. When two strong vowels are next to each other, they are pronounced as two separate syllables. A pair of strong and weak vowels within the same syllable are called a diphthong, e.g. cuida, ciudad. They are also called gliding vowels becaused of how they are pronounced.

Gender#

Spanish nouns have gender. Usually, nouns ending in -o are masculine, like nacho, and words ending in -a are feminine like agua. This is a general pattern and you will see many exceptions to it. Other patterns will emerge as you learn more Spanish. Be mindful of this pattern as you go.

Article#

The word “the” in Spanish has two forms: el and la. The former is used with masculine nouns (e.g. el profesor), and the latter on feminine nouns (e.g. la profesora). However, when the word begins with a stressed “a” sound, you use el instead of la on singular feminine nouns (e.g. el agua instead of la agua; las aguas stay the same; la amiga does not change).

Subject Pronouns#

Instead of nouns, you can use subject pronouns as the subject of an action. For example, you can say He ate the apple instead of The trainee ate the apple. Here is a list of pronouns in Spanish.

• Spanish has two different words for “you” based on your familiarity with whomever you are talking to. If you are talking to your friend, family member, or someone younger than you, use tú. If you are talking to a stranger or an elder, for example, you should use usted to show respect.
• Note that subject pronouns ending in -a or -as applies to female(s) only! For example, you can only use ellas on a group of women but you need to use ellos when there are men in the group.

(Regular) Present Tense Verb Conjugation#

Like many other languages, you need to conjugate a verb from its infinitive form (e.g. to swim in English or nadar in Spanish) in order to use it (e.g. he swims in English and él nada in Spanish). Spanish verbs end in either -ar, -er, or -ir. How you conjugate the verb depends on the subject pronoun that is appropriate for the person taking the action, and also the ending of the verb. In the table you will find six ways to conjugate verbs (in present tense) with regards to the subject pronoun at hand.

To use the following present tense conjugation table, simply replace the ending (to get the “stem”), and then attach the correct suffix in the corresponding cell.

This can take some time to sink in. Try out this Conjuguemos.com activity to master present tense verb conjugation!

Examples:

Él nada muy bien.
He swims really well.

Yo bebo agua.
I drink water.