Spanish: An Essential Grammar

(avery) #1
Notes:
1 Una poca de, used by some speakers with feminine nouns, is best avoided.
2 The forms poquísimoand muchísimostrengthen the original word, ‘very little’,
‘very much’. Pocois also strengthened when preceded by muy: Se ven muy pocos/
poquísimos Ferraris aquí‘You see very few Ferraris here’.

Bastante, suficiente


As an adjective or pronoun each is invariable for gender but has a regular
plural form:
¿Crees que hay bastantes sillas? Do you think there are
enough chairs?
No hay suficientes. There aren’t enough.

They can also be used as invariable neuter pronouns: Esto es suficiente/
bastante para mí‘This is enough for me’.
Bastanteis also an invariable adverb (the corresponding invariable form
for suficienteis suficientemente):
Los ganchos no son bastante grandes.
The hooks are not big enough.

No pensaron suficientemente en el resultado.
They did not think enough about the result.
Note: In speech bastanteis commonly used to indicate moderately large quantity
or extent: Tiene bastante dinero‘He has quite a lot of money’, Su casa es bastante
grande‘Their house is quite big’.

Varios


As an indefinite adjective and pronoun with the meaning of ‘several’, it is
found only in the plural with a regular feminine form:

Varios invitados no comieron nada.
Several guests did not eat anything.

Las desventajas son varias.
There are several disadvantages.
Note: When placed after a noun, vario(normally in the plural) can mean ‘varied’,
‘different’: carpetas de colores varios‘folders of different colours’.

9.7


9.6


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1011


1


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3 4 5 6 7 8 9


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40


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9


Indefinite
adjectives,
pronouns and
adverbs


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