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Spanish is a relatively inflected language, with a two-gender system and about fifty conjugated forms per verb, but no noun declension and limited pronominal declension.
The Real Academia Española traditionally dictated the rules of the Spanish language, but since the 1960s its prestige has declined. Its decisions are taken as suggestions by the educated and ignored by the uneducated. This article first describes the most formal and standard rules that modern Spanish works by, and then goes on to detail deviations from these that one might encounter in local or colloquial varieties of the language, such as pienso de que... or la dije que....
Verbs
Spanish verbs are covered a specific article: Spanish verbs.
Nouns
Gender
All Spanish nouns have one of two genders: masculine or inclusive and feminine or exclusive. Most adjectives and pronouns, and all articles indicate the gender of the noun they reference.
Types of noun (masculine, vacillant, etc)
Nouns can be grouped in the following categories:
- Applied to persons and most domesticated animals
- Declinable nouns. The feminine form adds a or replaces the final vowel by a. Examples: el profesor/la profesora, el presidente/la presidenta, el perro/la perra.
- Invariant nouns (in Spanish, sustantivos de género común). The feminine form and the masculine form are identical: el artista/la artista, el testigo/la testigo, el estudiante/la estudiante.
- Nouns with a unique gramatical gender. The noun has a fixed gender, regardless of the sex of the person it describes: el personaje, la visita. A recent politically correct usage substitutes the plural inclusive masculine (amigos, "friends, male or of any gender") with the character @ (amig@s) in writing, or with the longer form (amigos y amigas, or amigas y amigos). @ appears as a blend of o and a. This usage is unpronounceable, and mostly restricted to informal internet-speak. In leftist graffiti and posters, @ can be substituted by the anarchist symbol (
 ), that also seems to blend O and A.
- Applied to wild and some domesticated animals
- Nouns where the two sexes of animals have different words to describe them: el león/la leona, el toro/la vaca.
- Epicene nouns. The gender of the noun is fixed and sex is indicated by macho (male) or hembra (female). Examples: la jirafa macho, la jirafa hembra, el rinoceronte macho, el rinoceronte hembra.
- Applied to things
- Masculine or inclusive: el pan.
- Feminine or exclusive: la leche.
- Vacillant (called sustantivos ambiguos in Spanish). Either gender is acceptable: Internet is an example of this. Speakers hesitate between making it masculine like other loanwords from English, or making it feminine to agree with red, "net". Linde ("boundary") and testuz ("animal's forehead") can be either gender. Azúcar is probably the quirkiest example of such nouns. It can be masculine with el, feminine with el (bizarrely) or feminine with la. The determiner seems to go in the masculine in standard use: el, este, ese, tanto. Any adjectives agreeing with it are usually masculine in Spain and feminine in Latin America: el azúcar moreno o blanco / el azúcar negra o rubia. Mar is a special case. It is normally masculine, but in poetry and sailors' speech it is feminine. Arte is masculine in the singular and feminine in the plural, though it can be feminine in the singular when it means "art-form" and masculine in the plural in the expression los artes de pesca, "fishing gear".
- In some cases the same word can take two genders with a different meaning for each. In that case it is better to say that there are two discrete words. El capital = funds; la capital = capital city.
(Note: Some nouns ending in "e" that refer to persons are declinable, e.g., "presidente/a", whereas others are invariant, e.g., "estudiante". More often than not, nouns that refer to positions that are traditionally held by men are declinable.)
Determining gender from endings
Nouns ending in o are typically masculine; a is typically feminine; other vowels and consonants are more often than not masculine, but many are feminine, particularly those referring to women (la madre) or ending in -ción or -dad (la nación, la soledad).
Words taken from foreign languages may:
- Take the gender they have in that language, with neuter taken to be the same as masculine (so English nouns are made masculine)
- Take the gender it seems to be (e.g. la coca-cola because it ends in an a)
- Take the gender of the closest-related Spanish word (e.g. la Guinness because of la cerveza)
Gender of proper nouns (names)
Names of people
People's names agree with the sex of the person, even if they appear to be the opposite:
- Chema es guapo
- Amparo es guapa
Names of settlements
Usage for places varies. You can choose between making them:
- Feminine if they end in -a, otherwise masculine:
- la Barcelona de Gaudí
- el Londres de Dickens
- Agree with the underlying noun el pueblo or la ciudad
- Nueva York (city)
- la antigua Cartago (city)
- Fraga es pequeño (village/small town)
- Always masculine: (this usage may seem wrong to some speakers)
- Barcelona no es pequeño
- Londres no es pequeño
With examples like New York, the Nueva is a fixed part of the name and so cannot be made masculine.
Rivers
Rivers are masculine because of the underlying masculine noun río. The ancient Roman belief that rivers (amnes) were male gods may also influence this. Locally, a few rivers may be feminine, but the masculine is always safe and correct.
- el [río de la] Plata = "The River Plate" (literally "the River of Silver")
- el [río] Támesis = "The River Thames"
- el [río] Tajo = "The River Tagus"
- el [río] Colorado = "The Colorado River" (literally "the Red River")
- el [río] Cinca / la Cinca = "The River Cinca" (in the Aragonese Pyrenees)
Diminutives and suffixes
Spanish nouns can be made by adding a very productive set of suffixes to existing nouns and adjectives. This usually just slightly modifies the meaning, but sometimes it creates something new entirely.
The most common subset of such suffixes are the diminutives. The most common diminutive in Spanish is -ito. It is added to the end of the end, minus its final vowel. It conveyes the idea of little.
- planta → plantita ("plant" → "little plant")
- vaso → vasito ("glass" → "little glass")
- niño → niñito ("small boy" → "little tiny boy")
Note how the suffix has the proper agreement for gender and number.
Local flavour
The choice of diminutive is often a mark of regional dialects and influence of coexistent Romance languages. Educated speakers who would use -ito or no diminutive at all in more formal speech may use local forms when they want a friendlier or more colourful way of expressing themselves, sometimes borrowing another region's diminutive.
So, instead of the standard -ito, you could find:
In fossilised forms, these can be found in standard words, such as burro → borrico, Venecia → Venezuela, etc.
Sometimes different suffixes are used for variety when more than one is used at once:
- chico → chiquito → chiquitín
- Other suffixes
As well as being an Andalusian (especially Seville) alternative to -ito, the suffix -illo is also a special diminutive with a nuance of "a funny sort of...". It is also used to create new nouns:
- palo "stick" → palillo "toothpick"
- bolso "handbag" → bolsillo "pocket"
- guerra "war" → guerrilla "hit-and-run warfare"
An example of an augmentative is -ón.
- soltero "bachelor" → solterón "confirmed bachelor"
Number
There are two grammatical numbers: singular and plural. Plural is indicated adding "s" or "es".
- The inclusive (or masculine) gender includes both sexes in the plural: los niños = the children or the boys.
- The feminine gender is exclusive in the plural: las niñas = the little girls.
Masculine gender is indicated in the plural with phrases such as los niños varones. Feminists (and their satirists) try to reverse the pattern with phrases such as las personas humanas jóvenes varones = the young male human people.
Adjectives
The feminine gender for most adjectives is formed in the same way as it is for declinable nouns, although most adjectives ending in a consonant or "e" remain unchanged: hombre superior, mujer superior (compare with el superior/la superiora); hombre importante, mujer importante (compare with el jefe, la jefa).
The superlative
Instead of putting muy, "very" before an adjective, one can use a special form called the superlative to intensify an idea. This consists of the suffix -ísimo.
- Regular forms
- muy rápido → rapidísimo
- muy guapas → guapísimas
- muy rica → riquísima
- muy lento → lentísimo
- muy duro → durísimo
- Irregular forms
- muy antiguo → antiquísimo
- muy cursi → cursilísimo
- muy inferior → ínfimo
- muy joven → jovencísimo
- muy superior → supremo
- muy bueno → óptimo
- muy malo → pésimo
- muy grande → máximo *
- muy pequeño → mínimo *
* These two forms keep the original meaning of the superlative: not "very" but "the most".
- Forms that are irregular in high literary style, and regular normally
- muy amigo → amicísimo / amiguísimo
- muy áspero → aspérrimo / asperísimo
- muy benévolo → benevolentísimo / not used
- muy célebre → celebérrimo / not used
- muy cruel → crudelísimo / cruelísimo
- muy difícil → dificílimo / dificilísimo
- muy fácil → facílimo / facilísimo
- muy fiel → fidelísimo / fielísimo
- muy frío → frigidísimo / friísimo
- muy íntegro → integérrimo / integrísimo
- muy libre → libérrimo / librísimo (familiar)
- muy magnífico → magnificentísimo / not used
- muy mísero → misérrimo / not used
- muy munífico → munificentísimo / not used
- muy pobre → paupérrimo / pobrísimo
- muy sabio → sapientísimo / not used
- muy sagrado → sacratísimo / not used
- Forms that are not felt a superlative anymore
Applying -ísimo to nouns is not frequent, but there is the famous case of Generalísimo.
As in English and other languages influenced by it, a teenspeak superlative can be formed by the prefix super-, or sometimes hiper-, ultra- or requete-. They can also be written as adverbs separate from the word.
- Superlargo or súper largo = "super-long", "way long"
- Requeteguay = "totally cool"
Determiners
Demonstrative determiners
- este, esta, estos, estas
- ese, esa, esos, esas
- aquel, aquella, aquellos, aquellas
Spanish has three levels of demonstratives. English also used to: we could talk of this hill (here), that hill (there) or yon hill (yonder) — esta colina, esa colina, aquella colina.
Nowadays, we have lost the third level, and so "that"/"there" covers the ground of "yon"/"yonder". Spanish, however, conserves the distinction.
Este therefore refers to something near the speaker. Ese refers to something near the person spoken to, or just not near the speaker. Aquel refers to something quite far away from both. The three levels therefore roughly correspond to the first, second and third persons that we find in the forms of verbs and personal pronouns.
Articles
Definite articles
The definite article in Spanish, corresponding to "the", is el. It agrees for gender and number as follows:
- el hombre = "[the] man"
- los hombres = "[the] men"
- la mujer = "[the] woman"
- las mujeres = "[the] women"
The usually masculine form el is used instead of la before feminine nouns beginning with a stressed a sound:
- el águila (pequeña)
- el agua (fresca)
- el hacha (afilada)
Exceptions: la is used despite this when use of el would imply a man:
- la ácrata (because el ácrata would be a male anarchist)
- la árabe (because el árabe would be a male Arab, or the Arabic language)
Azúcar is a very special case. Its a is unstressed, and yet it usually takes el even when feminine:
- el azúcar refinada (el azúcar refinado and la azúcar refinada are also possible)
N.B.: this feminine el does not have the same origin as the masculine el. The latter is from the Old Castilian ele, whereas the former is from ela, just as la is.
This historic finesse is lost to those who use unstandard forms like los águilas.
There is also a "neuter article", used before adjectives:
- lo bueno = "what is good, the good stuff"
- lo importante = "the important thing"
- lo indefinible = "the indefinable"
- lo desconocido = "the unknown"
Indefinite articles
- un hombre = "a man"
- una mujer = "a woman"
- unos hombres = "some men"
- unas mujeres = "some women"
Near synonyms of unos include: unos cuantos, algunos and unos pocos.
As in English, the plural indefinite article is not always required.
- Hay [unas] cosas en la mesa = "There are [some] things on the table"
Possessive determiners
These are often known as possessive or genitive pronouns.
- mi(s), tu(s), su(s), su(s), nuestro/a(s), vuestro/a(s), su(s)
Pronouns
Personal pronouns
- Subject ("Nominative case")
- yo, tú, él/ella, nosotros/nosotras, vosotros/vosotras, ellos/ellas
- Direct object ("Accusative case")
- me, te, lo/le/la/se, nos, os, los/las/se
- Indirect object ("Dative case")
- me, te, le/se, nos, os, les/se
- Object of a preposition
- mí, ti, él/ella/sí, nosotros/nosotras, vosotros/vosotras, ellos/ellas/sí
- Possessive ("Genitive case")
- el mío / la mía / los míos / las mías
- el tuyo / la tuya / los tuyos / las tuyas,
- el suyo / la suya / los suyos / las suyas
- el nuestro / la nuestra / los nuestros / las nuestras
- el vuestro / la vuestra / los vuestros / las vuestras
- el suyo / la suya / los suyos / las suyas
Direct-object le/les
Demonstrative pronouns
- éste, ésta, esto, éstos, éstas
- ése, ésa, eso, ésos, ésas
- aquél, aquélla, aquello, aquéllos, aquéllas
N.B.: According to a decisión of the Real Academia from the 1960s, the accents on these forms are only to be used when necessary to avoid ambiguity with the demonstrative determiners. However, the normal educated standard is still as above.
Relative pronouns
Reflexive pronouns and impersonal se
Reflexive meaning
Reciprocal meaning
Intransitive/passive/impersonal meaning
Prepositions
List of common prepositions
Personal a
Contrasting por and para
The prepositions por and para cause much confusion for English speakers, as they both translate for in English. According to Cassell's Contemporary Spanish, in general, por indicates cause or reason (looks backwards), while para indicates purpose or destination (looks forwards). Common instances of para and por are indicated below.
para
- Purpose (intended for)
- Destination (towards)
- Until, by (a certain time)
por
- Refers to time or place in a general sense
- In exchange for, in place of
- Per (day, hour, mile, etc.)
- By means of
- Cause (on account of)
- For the sake or benefit of
- In favor of
Miscellaneous
Cleft sentences
Dialectal variations
Forms of address
The use of usted and ustedes as a polite form of address is fairly universal. However, there are variations in informal address. Ustedes replaces vosotros in much of Andalusia, the Canary Islands and Latin America, except in the most liturgical or poetic of styles. In some parts of Andalusia, the pronoun ustedes is used with the standard vosotros endings.
Depending on the region, Latin Americans may also replace the singular tú with usted or vos. The choice of pronoun is a tricky issue and can even vary from village to village. Travellers are often advised to play it safe and call everyone usted.
A feature of the speech of the Dominican Republic and other areas where syllable-final /s/ is completely silent is that there is no audible difference between the second and third person singular form of the verb. This leads to redundant pronoun use, for example, the tagging on of ¿tú ves? (pronounced tuve) to the ends of sentences, where other speakers would say ¿ves?.
Voseo
Vos was used in mediaeval Castilian as a polite form, like the French vous and the Italian voi, and it used the same forms as vosotros. This gave three levels of formality:
- Tú quieres
- Vos queréis (originally queredes)
- Vuestra merced quiere (today usted)
Whereas vos was lost in standard Spanish, some dialects lost tú, and began using vos as the informal pronoun. The exact connotations of the use of vos depend on the exact dialect. In most places it is associated with low socio-economic levels. In Argentina, however, it is used by everyone and is fully accepted. Argentinian voseo uses the pronoun vos for tú, but maintains te as an object pronoun and tu and tuyo as possessives. Verb forms are half-way between tú and vosotros forms, as exemplified by vos hablás, vos temés and vos partís.
Other combinations are possible. Chileans may use standard vosotros endings for vos.
Vosotros imperative: -ar for -ad
Colloquially, the infinitive is used instead of the true imperative for vosotros.
Not to be imitated by learners.
- ¡Venir! for ¡Venid!
- ¡Callaros! for ¡Callaos!
- ¡Iros! for ¡Idos!
Superfluous -s on tú form
A centuries-old tendency in uneducated speech throughout the Spanish-speaking world is the addition of an -s to the second person singular of the preterite or simple past. For example, lo hicistes for lo hiciste; hablastes tú for hablaste tú. This is due to the fact that this is the only tense in which the tú form does not end in an -s. This solecism removes this irregularity.
Judaeo-Spanish has gone further with hablates.
The imperfect subjunctive
The two forms of the imperfect subjunctive are largely interchangeable. The use of one or the other is largely a matter of personal taste and dialect. Many speakers only use the -ra forms. Many only use the -ra forms in speech, but vary between the two in writing. Many, especially in Castile, may spontaneously use either, or even prefer the rarer -se forms.
The gender of nouns
Some nouns in Spanish can be either masculine or feminine, for example, Internet or azúcar. Some dialects have their own gender quirks, giving apparently incorrect forms such as la esperma, el índole, la aceite, la calor, la color, etc.
References
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