Spanish: An Essential Grammar

They are formed by attaching the suffix -menteto the feminineform of the corresponding adjective or past participle (or to the i ...

Adverbs not ending in -mente Adverbs of manner These include items such as bien‘well’, mal‘badly’, despacio‘slowly’, deprisa‘qui ...

Tu padre está fuera [SP]/afuera[LA]. Your father is outside. Los niños están dentro [SP]/adentro[LA]. The children are inside. ¡ ...

Ya no vive aquí. He doesn’t live here any more. Nadie quiere estudiar ya. No one wants to study any more. Yaalso has a variety o ...

Adverbs meaning ‘even’ These comprise an additional category of adverbs, which does not fit within the classification into manne ...

Adjectives used as adverbs The masculine singular form of the following adjectives may be used as adverbs of manner: barato chea ...

Personal pronouns are used either to refer to the participants in a conver- sation (‘I/me’, ‘you’, ‘we/us’) or in place of nouns ...

Table 8.1 Subject and object pronouns Person Subject Direct object Indirect object Prepositional object Singular1st yo (I) me (m ...

Subject pronouns Subject pronouns of the 2nd person Contemporary Spanish retains the singular forms tú, usted and vos[LA], and t ...

An appropriate form of mismo ‘myself’, ‘yourself’ etc. can be added as appropriate for extra emphasis: Tú y yo somos muy parecid ...

Ello Ello is a neuter pronoun (translated as ‘it’, ‘this’ or ‘that’) which refers back to something to which no gender can be as ...

Direct object pronouns No lo conozco muy bien. I don’t know him very well. Me criticaron. They criticized me. Nos han visto. The ...

Indirect object pronouns can also indicate the personforwhose benefit or gain something is done: Le ha hecho un favor. She has d ...

Prepositional object pronouns General uses of prepositional object pronouns These must generally be used when the pronoun is gov ...

When the preposition aindicates movement, direction or destination, usually only the prepositional object pronoun is used (notin ...

The prepositionalforms are used after a preposition, often in addition to a weak reflexive pronoun. An appropriate form of mismo ...

The position and order of personal pronouns The weak pronouns (i.e. direct and indirect object pronouns, together with non-prepo ...

empezar a to begin tener que to have to hacer to make terminar de to finish ir a to be going tratar de/ to try to intentar neces ...

Whenever two pronouns of the 3rd person come together, the indirect object (leor les) is always replaced by se in initial positi ...

No sé cómo esto le va a afectar a usted. I do not know how this is going to affect you. Encantado de conocerles. Pleased to meet ...