OVERVIEW

Do you want to learn some interesting things about Spanish?

Here I take you step by step through three sections: Important Notes, You May Wonder, Spanish Words With Similarities.

By the time you reach the bottom of this page, you’ll be familiar with some essential points about the Spanish language.

1. IMPORTANT NOTES

Note 1:

‘El‘/’la‘ and ‘the‘: you may have noticed that sometimes you have ‘el’ or ‘la’ in the Spanish conversation (as in ‘y les voy a traer también la sal y la pimienta’), but no ‘the’ in the English translation ‘and I’m also going to bring you salt and pepper’.

For the moment, let’s just say that it is more common to use ‘el’ and ‘la’ in Spanish than ‘the’ in English, but there are also occasions in which you use ‘the’ but not ‘el’ or ‘la’.

We will see examples of this throughout the course.

Note 2:

‘De‘: Notice the way you say ‘fish soup’, ‘beef steak’ or ‘wine list’ in Spanish: ‘sopa de pescado’, ‘filete de vaca’, ‘carta de vinos’.

You are actually saying: soup of fish, steak of beef, list of wines.

Note 3:

‘Al‘ = ‘a + el‘ (to the). That is why we say ‘al hotel’ (to the hotel), but ‘a la playa’ (to the beach).

Note 4:

Other useful expressions: ‘dentro de una hora‘ (in an hour), ‘de primero‘ (as a starter), ‘de segundo‘ (for the main course), ‘¿algo más?‘ (anything else?), ‘eso es todo‘ (that’s all), ‘¿me puede decir … ?‘ (can you tell me …?), ‘al fondo‘ (at the end), ‘a la derecha‘ (on the right), ‘por aquí‘ (this way), ‘¿qué nos recomienda?‘ (what do you recommend), ‘¿nos puede traer …?‘ (can you bring us …?), ‘¡cómo no!‘ (of course!), ‘más tarde‘ (later on).

2. YOU MAY WONDER …

Note 1:

Are all nouns ending in ‘o’ masculine, and in ‘a’ feminine?

No. The majority are but there are exceptions, like ‘la radio’.

Note 2:

Could you say ‘perdón’ instead of ‘lo siento’?

Yes. ‘Perdón’ and ‘lo siento’ both mean ‘I’m sorry’.

3. WORDS WITH SIMILARITIES

Note 1:

‘Asado‘ and ‘asadas‘.

‘Asado‘ (grilled, baked, roasted) is used with masculine singular words (un pollo asado) and ‘asadas‘ (grilled, baked, roasted) with feminine plural words (las sardinas asadas).

They work just like ‘todo/todas’, which we saw in Lesson 3.

Note 2:

‘Sí‘ and ‘si‘.

‘Sí‘ (with a written accent) (yes) and ‘si‘ (with no accent) (if).

Note 3:

‘Nos recomienda‘ and ‘les recomiendo‘.

‘Nos recomienda‘ (he/she/it recommends [to us], you (usted) recommend [to us]) and ‘les recomiendo‘ (I recommend [to you – you = ustedes]).

Note 4:

‘Voy a‘, ‘vamos a‘ and ‘van a‘.

‘Voy a‘ (I go to, I’m going to), ‘vamos a‘ (we go to, we’re going to) and ‘van a‘ (you [ustedes] go to/are going to, they go to/are going to).

Note 5:

‘Quiero‘ and ‘quieren‘.

‘Quiero‘ (I want) and ‘quieren‘ (you [ustedes] want, they want).

Note 6:

‘Está‘ and ‘están‘.

‘Está‘ (he/she/it is, you [usted] are) and ‘están‘ (you [ustedes] are, they are).

HOW TO MASTER SPANISH FAST

All the issues I’ve raised here will help you become familiar with Spanish at a fast and steady pace.

Re-read the notes on this page from time to time to make sure you don’t forget them.

SPEAKING PRACTICE

Now that you’ve gone through the notes above, it’s a good time to have another look at the conversations in this lesson.

Say the 3 conversations out loud, along with the native speakers.

Pay particular attention to the words and expressions I’ve talked about on this page.

CONGRATULATIONS!

You’ve gone through the Lesson 4 Curiosities. Don’t forget to mark this page as Complete.

Now you’re going to move on to the Building Sentences section.