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Alleviating the Nightmare: How to Learn Spanish Grammar
from:Grammar is hard! Spanish has HOW many verb conjugations? What do you mean by gender? ARRGH! This is too hard! I quit.
Any English speaker who has taken an entry level Spanish in an attempt to learn the language has likely felt similar frustrations. Learning Spanish Grammar is difficult for native speakers of English. This is, in part, because of the gendered nouns and the variety of verb conjugations
Gendered Nouns:
Unlike in English, all Spanish nouns have a gender. This is most often indicated by the article or by the way the word ends. For example, a noun like la casa that has the feminine article la and ends in an a (casa), is a feminine word and must be followed or preceded by only feminine pronouns.
To absorb this, students’ may choose to create flashcards or even place sticky notes all over their houses to help memorize the words and their gender, or simply remember that words ending in -a, -dad, -tad, -z, -ión, -ción, -umbre, or -ie are most often feminine and all others are masculine. This is a vital part in learning Spanish grammar both with regards to speaking and writing.
Verb Conjugation:
Okay, so gender is not that difficult when you put it in its simplest terms. Verb conjugation, though, is anything but easy. There are a variety of “person” possibilities that make this part of learning Spanish grammar difficult at best. It is vital, then, to know to whom you are addressing. Is it first (I), second (you) or third person (he/she) singular? Are you speaking to more than one person; if so, is it first (you as in a group), second (you as in a group and me) or third person plural (they as in a group)?
Once you have a fundamental understanding of person as it relates to learning Spanish grammar, it is time to begin practicing on verbs. It is key to understand the difference between a root and an infinitive. The root most often remains unchanged. For example, the verb hablar means “to speak”. The root is habl-, and the infinitive is –ar.
Charting:
Once you have a clear understanding of roots and infinitives, it is time to begin charting the most common verbs: hablar, comer, vivir and a few other regular verbs. To begin drop the infinitive, then add the most commonly used tense markers; these are, -o, -as, -a, -amos, and –an. Here’s how it may look:
Hablar: To Speak
Hablo Hablo ingles. I speak English
Hablas Hablas ingles. You speak English
Habla El/Ella habla ingles. She speaks English
Hablamos Hablamos ingles. We speak English
Hablan Hablan ingles. They speak English
Learning Spanish grammar is difficult, but should not be the stuff of nightmares. What a potential student needs is determination, time to create flash cards, a good Spanish to English dictionary, and a text like English Grammar for Students of Spanish, by Emily Spinelli, that will help alleviate the screams and hair-pulling by offering a step by step guide as well as Spanish and English comparisons.
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