DAY SEVEN. UN BUFÉ (A BUFFET)

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Happy Thursday!

Today is a smorgasbord, leftovers, must-goes kind of day.  In Spanish, you can say un bufé, a borrowing from French which (you guessed it) corresponds to ‘buffet’ in English.  Various different things you need to know that you don’t know yet.  I’ll start the day with some information about articles in Spanish, then some information about adjectives and nouns and pluralization.

You remember the definite article? el/los/la/las/le/les?  Well, the indefinite article is like this, with a side-by-side comparison with the definite article:

el, los = un, unos

la, las = una, unas

le, les = une, unes *** limited use

So if el libro is ‘the book’, un libro is ‘a book’

And if la mesa is ‘the table’, then una mesa is ‘a table’.

But if los libros is ‘the books’, what is unos libros?

Since we don’t pluralize ‘a(n)’ in English, we must translate it as ‘some books’ or ‘a few books’.  Likewise, unas mesas is ‘some tables’ or ‘a few tables’.

You may have guessed that un/unos/una/unas//etc. is related to the word uno.  If you want to talk about having one of something, like having one book, one computer, one phone, then you say Tengo (I have) un libro, tengo una computadora, tengo un móvil.  In order to say ‘one (thing)’, you have to make the number match the noun in terms of gender.  And tengo unos libros means ‘I have some books’.  

If you just want to say the number ‘one’, you say uno.  Saying Tengo uno means ‘I have one’, but only if you are referring to a masculine thing.  If you are referring to a feminine thing you say tengo una.  Tengo unos means ‘I have some things’ referring to masculine nouns like libros, tacos, exámenes and tengo unas means ‘I have some things’ referring to feminine nouns such as mesas, televisiones, cosas.  

As you know, in Spanish, adjectives have a gender.  So you can say televisión perfecta (perfect television), taco delicioso (delicious taco), libros rojos (red books), mesas anaranjadas (orange tables), exámenes largos (long exams) and you notice the ending of the adjective changes to match the ending of the noun.  If someone asks you if you have a perfect television, you can say Sí, tengo una meaning I have one (as in a perfect television).  If someone asks you if you have a delicious taco, you can say sí, tengo uno (as in, I have one (a delicious taco), like, maybe I have a delicious taco in my hand right now).  Do you have some red books?  Tienes unos libros rojos?  Yes, I have some.  Sí, tengo unos.  -- And so you see that when you say ‘you have some’, you need to think about the noun you are referencing and use the correct gender and number of that noun.

Some adjectives in Spanish do not vary according to gender.  Difícil (difficult), fácil (easy), emocionante (exciting) are examples.  Many of these nouns will end in a consonant or in the letter ‘e’, but for example transgénero is always masculine (because of the root word género, which is grammatically a masculine word).  Also remember that virilidad meaning ‘virility, manliness’, is in fact a grammatically feminine word.  The grammatical gender of thing nouns or concept nouns doesn’t have anything to do with the gender of people.

So un examen can be un examen difícil (a difficult exam), and una pregunta can be una pregunta difícil (a difficult question).  Notice that words like difícil stay the same whether they are modifying feminine or masculine nouns.  Difícil still changes based on number: exámenes difíciles, preguntas difíciles.  You will remember that as a rule nouns that end in consonants like examples reloj (plural relojes), sabor (plural sabores), red (plural redes) referenced on DAY FOUR are pluralized by adding -es.  Adjectives ending in consonants do the same, and do not vary based on gender (but rather only based on number).  Though of course there are certain adjectives that end in consonants and do not vary based on gender OR number.  El abrelatas, ‘can-opener’, is the singular, and los abrelatas means ‘can-openers’.  See how the noun does not change form in the plural?  The article clues you in to whether the noun is singular or plural, or something else in the context of the noun will clue you in.

Abrelatas is one of many compound words that follow the same pattern in pluralization (that is to say, they do not change form, and you can only tell whether they are singular or plural with the presence of an article or an inflected verb : Los abrelatas son versus el abrelatas es.)  El abrelatas means, literally, ‘the-opens-cans’; el rascacielos, ‘skycraper’ is literally ‘the-scrapes-skies’, and el parabrisas, ‘windshield’ is literally ‘the-stops-breezes’, and el paraguas, ‘umbrella’, is literally ‘the-stops-waters’ (although in that last example, it was originally paraaguas, and one ‘a’ dropped out for ease of pronunciation).  

That’s it!  Nice and short today :)

DAY SIX. LAS EXPRESIONES IMPERSONALES (IMPERSONAL EXPRESSIONS)

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Welcome to another day of trying to learn Spanish!  Today’s entry is mercifully shorter...

Do you want a real challenge?  Then try learning the forms of the verb haber!  This verb is highly irregular in the way it conjugates and in the way it is used in Spanish (it can be used as an auxiliary verb). Someday soon you shall learn all the forms (and uses) of the verb haber, but today let’s just learn one VERY useful form of the verb haber, a rather special verb form called the IMPERSONAL form.  Anyways, the word is

HAY.

No, not like English hay, which is, of course, just for horses.  I’m talking Spanish hay (which, in case you needed the extra information, rhymes with English ‘spy’).  Hay can mean ‘there is’, and it can also mean ‘there are’.  And yes, for once, it is just that simple. The verb does not change form whether you are trying to say 'there is' or 'they are'. Easy! Examples --  Hay miles de lenguas en el mundo, there are thousands of languages in the world.  Hay mucho azúcar en la piña, there is a lot of sugar in pineapple (in Spanish when making general statements you use the definite article with the noun you are generalizing about, like la piña where in English you would simply use ‘pineapple’).  Hay perros en la casa, there are dogs in the house.  Hay un restaurante cerca de aquí.  There’s a restaurant close to here.

If you want to say ‘it’s necessary’ to do something, you can simply put ‘hay que’ plus an infinitive and you can communicate any given necessity.

Hay que lavar la ropa.  It is necessary to wash the clothing.

Hay que llegar temprano.  It is necessary to arrive early.

Hay que tener cuidado.  It is necessary to be cautious (literally: have caution)

--- Yesterday I had you learn the present form of the verb IR, and today I’m gonna throw another challengingly irregular verb at you, which is irregular because it was irregular in Latin, too.  The verb is SER, which means TO BE.  After I teach you SER, I’ll teach you ESTAR, which also means TO BE.  Confused?  You should be.  It’s been years and I still get confused with those two verbs sometimes.  The short explanation is SER is for permanent states and ESTAR is for temporary conditions, but the actual explanation is long, complicated, and fraught with individual instances to memorize.  So first, SER.

ser (to be, 1 of 2)

soy

eres

es

somos

sois

son

estar (to be, 2 of 2)
estoy

estás

está

estamos

estáis

están

So the good news is that in estar, the first person and second person plural are actually regular.  In the present, anyways...

One example of a use for estar is for EMOTIONS, how you are feeling (which as we know can change at the drop of a hat).  Estoy nervioso, ‘I’m nervous’; Estoy encantada, I’m charmed (shortened to encantada, it’s what you might say when you meet someone); Estoy triste, ‘I’m sad’; Estoy feliz, ‘I’m happy’; Estoy cansado, ‘I’m tired’, estoy enfadada, ‘I’m angry’; estás mal, you’re not well (as in feeling well -- mal can also mean ‘bad’); estamos cómodas, ‘we’re comfortable’ ... and so on.  Notice that I am using adjectives here and I am using various forms of adjectives in my examples.  Spanish adjectives change depending on the gender (of the speaker) and number (either singular or plural).  The rule that you learn is that women use the feminine form, men use the masculine form, and so on... but, you know, use the form you feel most comfortable with, obviously.  

Estar is used when talking about location (as in where things are), but ser is used for where things take place or occur in time, things such as parties, concerts, dates, events, etc.  Estoy en Galicia means ‘I am in Galicia’ while El evento es en el edificio nuevo means ‘The event is (taking place) in the new building’.

One example of a use for ser is for professions.  For professions, use ser.  In Spanish, when stating the professions of people, you do not use any article of any kind.  So what do I mean?  I mean, you don’t say ‘I’m a pastor’, you just say

Soy pastor (masculine form) ; Soy pastora (feminine form) ; Soy pastore (neutral form) ---

Necesario is an adjective, and it means necessary (this is easy to remember).  It’s an adjective, so of course when I say necesario means necessary, you have to keep in mind that there are more forms for this adjective; necesario is just the masculine singular form.  Es necesario means ‘it is necessary’; the ‘it’ is implied in the verb.  Note here that the masculine singular form must be used (the implied ‘it’ in the verb form es is considered to be masculine singular.  Es bueno, es malo, es innecesario, es importante, es esencial, es recomendable ... there are other impersonal expressions that work the same way; you see that masculine singular form appear (although you must make sure to note in the last three examples I just gave you, the adjectives have the same form in the masculine as in the feminine).  Another way of expressing this is to say hace falta, literally ‘it makes a shortage/scarcity’, and you’ll notice ‘it’ is implied in the verb hace (from the infinitive hacer, ‘to make/to do’ which has an irregular yo-form, hago).  If you want to say that it is necessary to do something, you need to add the infinitive form, and a direct object after that, if desired.

Es necesario escuchar.  It’s necessary to listen.

Hace falta comer.   It’s necessary to eat.

Es necesario comprar ropa nueva.  It’s necessary to buy new clothes.

Hace falta ir al supermercado.  It’s necessary to go to the supermarket.

You should note that in the examples es necesario comer, hace falta comer, hay que comer... you are saying the same thing! All three of these ways of saying that it is necessary to do something are used in Spanish.

You may notice that in the last example the verb ir (to go) was followed not by a noun, but by a prepositional phrase.  Like in English’s ‘to go’, ir is followed by the preposition a (to) to indicate directions towards.  Al is actually a contraction of a + el.  Del is a contraction of de + el ------ and believe it or not, those are the only contractions in Spanish!  Galician-Portuguese has more. But I'll teach you that on another day.
That's all for now, so long!

DAY FIVE. VAMOS A CONJUGAR MÁS (LET'S CONJUGATE SOME MORE!)

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Welcome to a new day of learning languages with me, Gabu.  I am so excited to be teaching you things today! I wrote this the other day but I didn't think to post it. So here you have it...

Today for el almuerzo I had some lovely pollo with arroz and a little bit of lechuga (lunch, chicken, rice, lettuce --- all things I love to eat!)  As you know, my favorite food is macarrones con queso or maybe pizza (mac and cheese and pizza, don’t you know it!)  Speaking of food, the word for ‘to eat’ is ‘comer’ from the Latin comedere, which comes from com + edere (the com bit was like an intensifier added to Latin words to give them more umph, and the edere was just the infinitive which was highly inflected [see earlier blog post which mentions inflection], as Latin verbs are wont to, and one inflected form was ESUS, which sounds suspiciously like German ESSEN, which means [surprise surprise] ‘to eat’ ]did you remember that from your limited experience with German?]).  If that haphazard divulgence helps you remember, more power to you.  If not, it in any case sure was fun).

So.  Comer is a regular -ER verb.  Can you guess how we conjugate it in the present?

como

comes

come

comemos

coméis

comen

Today I will explain some irregularities in verbs.  Let’s see how you like them.

Spanish does this thing I think is really cool where it takes the infinitive form of certain verbs and, when inflecting the verb in certain instances, it changes the stem of that infinitive verb form.  We call verbs that do this stem-changing verbs.  (now is the appropriate time to link you with the following webpage, which also endeavors to explain this phenomenon: http://www.studyspanish.com/lessons/stemie.htm). Okay so now comer is a 100 percent regular verb, as in, not a stem-changer.  Therefore, the stem of comer, com-, can simply be thrust together with the endings -o, -es, -e, -emos, -éis, -en, with no muss and no fuss.  

But so now let’s look at the verb ENTENDER, which means COMPRENDER, which is a cognate with the English word ‘to comprehend’.  Now COMPRENDER is a regular verb, but ENTENDER is a stem-changing verb.  The stem of ENTENDER is entend- and this stem is gonna change when conjugating the verb in certain forms.  For now, since we have already cracked open this particular case, we will stick with our amigo the present tense.  When you conjugate stem-changing verbs in the present tense, the stem will change for all the verb forms EXCEPT the first person plural and the second person plural.  

This rule holds true for all stem-changers.  What we call ENTENDER is an ‘e-to-ie-stem-changing verb’.  Or e>ie stem changer.  Or something along those lines.  This means that our stem entend- is gonna change.  But only the latter syllable of the stem is gonna change.  ENTENDER conjugates to

entiendo

entiendes

entiende

entendemos

entendéis

entienden

So you notice the irregularity, and that the nosotr@s and vosotr@s forms (the first person plural and second person plural) remained regular, as I promised you they would?

Now let’s look at more verbs.  Cerrar (meaning ‘to close’) is an e>ie stem-changing verb like entender, but it’s from the first conjugation (or you could say paradigm) rather than the second one.  In other words, it’s an -AR verb rather than an -ER verb.  SO how is cerrar conjugated?

cierro

cierras

cierra

cerramos

cerráis

cierran

mentir (meaning ‘to lie’, as in to not tell the truth) is an e>ie stem-changer from the third conjugation, the -IR verbs.  Here is how it is conjugated:

miento

mientes

miente

mentimos

mentís

mienten

And more...

pensar (to think, to plan)

pienso

piensas

piensa

pensamos

pensáis

piensan

almorzar (to eat lunch, to have lunch, to luncheon [boy is that a weird word]) (this one isn’t e>ie, but rather o>ue; nevertheless, it follows the same exact principle!)

almuerzo

almuerzas

almuerza

almorzamos

almorzáis

almuerzan

When I was young and used to read Spanish textbooks like they were manna from heaven and my eyes hungry bellies, I would notice that in the glossary at the back of the textbook it would actually list verbs like mentir and pensar with the added text ‘e>ie stem change’ so that I would know that they were stem-changers, and what kind of stem-changers they were.  Of course, in a dictionary like wordreference, it’s not going to tell you that in the entry for the word, but in wordreference you can also conjugate any and all verbs and it will indicate irregularities in the conjugation tables with blue letters.  Huzzah!

In English we say ‘can’ or ‘be able to’ quite a lot, and the equivalent in Spanish is also used quite often; also, it’s relevant to what I have just been talking about.  For the purposes of clarity I will tell you that PODER means ‘to be able’ (as in, to be able to do something).  I could tell you it means ‘can’ but the thing is that you can’t really make ‘can’ into an infinitive; you have to make it into ‘to be able’, and the thing is that PODER is an infinitive.  It does mean ‘to be able’... although when you conjugate it you can sometime translate the resultant forms as ‘can’ (as in, ‘can do something’).  Now PODER is an o>ue stem changing verb, like the following other verbs:

dormir (to sleep)

duermo

duermes

duerme

dormimos

dormís

duermen

contar (to count, to tell)

cuento

cuentas

cuenta

contamos

contáis

cuentan

costar (to cost)

cuesto

cuestas

cuesta

costamos

costáis

cuestan

almorzar (to have lunch.  Wait, this is already available for your viewing pleasure above!)

So poder (to be able) is conjugated like ...

puedo -- I am able ...

puedes -- you are able ...

puede

podemos

podéis

pueden

You will notice that after you say to ‘be able’ in English, your tongue seems to search for the word ‘to’ to insert afterwards.  To be able to walk, to be able to drive, to be able to speak Spanish, etc.  The reason for this is that the English verb ‘to be able’ is followed by an infinitive, and Spanish does the same thing.  Remember that infinitives are single words always ending in the letter ‘r’.  So if puedo is ‘I am able’, then puedo hablar is ‘I am able to speak’, and puedes hablar is ‘you are able to speak’ and poder hablar is ‘to be able to speak’.

Dad, for your reference, I believe this verb largely corresponds to French pouvoir.

Shoot, this is fun.

Puedo                     ver                   algo

I am able                to see              something

Puedes                   hablar               español

I can                      speak               Spanish

Pueden                   entender           mucho

They can                understand        a lot

Podéis                   venir                 mañana

You all are able       to come           tomorrow.

And now, to get it over with, I will throw an entirely irregular verb for you (with multiple similarities to the French verb aller, mi papá (my dad).

IR (to go)

voy

vas

va

vamos

vais

van

--- The conjugated forms have absolutely nothing in common with the infinitive for the simple reason that IR is the product of not one, not two, but THREE verbs in Latin that got condensed into one by virtue of tons of years passing and things changing.  So, this is just the tip of the iceberg, IR gets even more complicated.

But hey, now, if you can remember, you can say

Voy a Galicia en dos mil diecisiete (2017)

I’m going to Galicia in 2017!!!
And I hope you do :)