Your Spanish questions answered: gender rules, when to use para, what’s an adjective, and more. – Episode 94

Your Spanish questions answered: gender rules, when to use para, what’s an adjective, and more.

Podcast episode 94 – SEE ALL EPISODES

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

---

Today I’m answering some questions that my students have posted.

See also: Maria’s step-by-step Spanish courses.

Shona asked the first question. She says:

Are there any good Spanish gender rules?

In my experience as a Spanish teacher, there are only three gender rules you need to remember:

Rule number 1 is: Most Spanish nouns ending in O are masculine
Rule number 2 is: Most Spanish nouns ending in A are feminine
And rule number 3 is: All Spanish nouns ending in ‘dad’, ‘tad’, ‘tud’, ‘ción’ ‘sión’, ‘gión’, ‘triz’ and ‘umbre’ are feminine.

This third rule is a golden rule. It has no exceptions.

But in rules 1 and 2 the word to watch out for is ‘most’: most Spanish nouns ending in O are masculine, and most Spanish nouns ending in A are feminine.

That’s why it’s good practice to learn all new nouns with their article, rather than on their own.

The main problem with these two rules is that there are many everyday nouns that don’t follow them. For example:

la mano – the hand

la foto – the photograph

la moto – the motorcycle

la radio – the radio

el problema – the problem

el día – the day

el mapa – the map

el programa – the program, the programme

el tranvía – the tramway, the streetcar

So, my advice is: even though you can guess the gender of most nouns ending in O and A, it’s better to learn them with their article. That way you’ll avoid lots of mistakes and frustration.

Have a look at
Maria’s step-by-step Spanish courses

The second question we’ve got today is from David. He asks:

What’s the best way to learn Spanish grammar?

To get to a high level in Spanish, you don’t need to know all the grammar.

You also don’t have to bore yourself silly with mind-numbing drills and exercises.

The best way to approach learning grammar, is to focus on the main topics. And combine mastering them with expanding your vocabulary, listening to conversations, and doing the speaking drills in your course.

In other words, never focus ONLY on learning grammar.

The Spanish grammar topics you should focus on are:

1. The gender rules
2. How articles, nouns and adjectives work together
3. How to build the regular verb forms
4. The main irregular verbs
5. How to build questions and statements
6. And basic word order

As you get familiar with those topics, you’ll become curious about others like: the prepositions, negative words, pronouns, adverbs, etc.

Once you know the basic topics well, you’ll find it much easier to tackle the more difficult ones.

From my experience learning foreign languages, I’ll give you this advice: Make sure your Spanish course has grammar drills and exercises that you like.

There’s nothing more boring that grammar drills that use convoluted words and sentences. Words and sentences that you’re never going to hear in everyday conversations.

Your grammar drills should always use real-life Spanish.

Have a look at
Maria’s step-by-step Spanish courses

Let’s move on to the third question. It was posted by Dorothy. She asks:

Are there any learning mistakes I should avoid?

In my experience as a Spanish language teacher, there are three top mistakes that you must avoid.

Mistake number 1 is: Rushing through your first Spanish lessons in your course

When you rush through your first lessons, you’re left with big gaps. And those big gaps will make you waste a lot of time later on. And they will eventually kill your confidence.

It’s always good to concentrate on each and every lesson in your course, from the beginning. And not to rush yourself.

Having a sound knowledge of the basics will allow you to make fast progress. And it’ll boost your motivation to continue learning.

Mistake number 2 is: Ignoring the pronunciation

Having a bad Spanish pronunciation will make it difficult for native speakers to understand you. You’ll find yourself having to repeat yourself all the time. And that’s really demotivating.

On the other hand, having a good pronunciation will help you understand other people better. Because you know what sounds to expect.

To develop a good Spanish accent, listen to the recordings in your course as often as you can.

Repeat the conversations and speaking drills regularly.

Also, make the most of the pronunciation assessments. They’ll give you plenty of clues as to what pronunciation mistakes you’re making, and how to avoid them.

And mistake number 3 is: Learning the Spanish nouns without EL or LA.

All good Spanish courses teach you Spanish nouns with their article: EL or LA.

Learning nouns with their article will help you avoid basic mistakes. And basic mistakes soon become really frustrating.

Don’t rely on the Spanish gender rules. They’ll often let you down. Instead, make sure learn and practise all nouns with EL and LA.

To recap, these are the three top learning mistakes you should avoid:

1. Rushing through your first Spanish lessons in your course

2. Ignoring the pronunciation

3. Learning the Spanish nouns without EL or LA

And this is the fourth question. It was posted by Alan. He asks:

Have a look at
Maria’s step-by-step Spanish courses

What is an adjective?

I’m going to focus on the two most common uses of adjectives in Spanish.

Adjectives are words used to describe nouns.

Here’s an example in English: The black cat is on the sofa

In this sentence, the adjective is the word: black. The black cat is on the sofa

In Spanish, this sentence is: El gato negro está en el sofá

Notice that, in English, adjectives go before the noun: The black cat

Whereas, in Spanish, they tend to be placed after the noun: El gato negro

Apart from describing nouns, adjectives have another important function. They express possession.

For example, in English you’d say: My cat is here

In this sentence, the adjective is: my. My cat is here

In Spanish, that sentence is: Mi gato está aquí

Here, the possessive adjective is: mi. Mi gato está aquí

Notice that possessive adjectives go BEFORE the noun in both English and Spanish:

My cat – Mi gato

To recap, adjectives have two main functions:

1. They describe nouns
2. They express possession

The fifth, and final question in today’s lesson comes from Susanne. She asks:

When do you use the word PARA?

The Spanish preposition PARA is not easy to master. It can be translated as: for, to, in order to, by. Its translation depends on the context.

These are the most common uses of the preposition PARA:

1. To indicate an aim, goal, intention or purpose. For example in:

¿Para qué vamos a ir allí? – What are we going to go there for?

2. PARA can also be used in comparisons. For instance:

Está muy alto para su edad – He’s very tall for his age

3. A third use of PARA is with deadlines. Here’s an example:

Lo necesitan para el lunes – They need it for Monday

4. Another way you can use PARA is with destinations or directions. For instance:

¿Vais para el centro? – Are you going to the centre?

5. And a fifth way you can use PARA is to express an opinion or point of view. For example:

Para mí eso no es importante – For me that’s not important

There are other ways of using PARA. Mainly in set phrases and expressions.

Here are five very common Spanish expressions with the preposition PARA:

Para entonces – By then

Para mi sorpresa – To my surprise

Para otra vez – For another occasion

Para siempre – Forever

No es para tanto – It’s not that bad

To recap, the Spanish preposition PARA can be used in these situations:

1. To indicate an aim, goal, intention or purpose
2. In comparisons
3. With deadlines
4. With destinations or directions
5. To express an opinion or point of view

And it can also be used in many set phrases and expressions.

Find out more about my Spanish courses.