pluperfect (tense) a past tense formed with the imperfect tense of haber and the past
participle, corresponding to the English ‘had (done)’, e.g. habíamos escrito (we had
written), había contestado (I had answered)
possessive adjective used with a noun to indicate the person or thing to which that noun
is related, e.g. mi amigo (my friend), su casa (your house) sus ventanas (its windows)
possessive pronoun used to indicate possession when the noun is not mentioned both
speakers know what is being referred to, e.g. Este es mío no tuyo (this is mine not
yours)
preterite simple past tense, corresponding to English ‘I went’, ‘he saw’, etc.
pronoun a short form replacing a noun when the speakers know what or who is being
referred to, e.g. El lo cogió (he took it)
radical changing refers to verbs that have a spelling change in their stem, i.e. the part of
the verb before the endings indicating person or tense are added, e.g. puedo/podemos
reflexive referring back to the subject of the action, e.g. me lavaba (I was washing
myself)
subject the person or object carrying out the action of the verb, e.g. Juan condujo el
coche (John drove the car), los niños rompieron la ventana (the boys broke the
window)
superlative a way of describing the biggest/best/most extreme, e.g. el edificio más
grande del mundo (the tallest building in the world)
verb a word describing an action or a state, e.g. Juan bebe vino (John drinks wine), los
niños están contentos (the children are happy)
Glossary of grammatical terms 156