There are a couple of things that you need to know before studying any language. We have different types of words, and being able to recognise them will allow you to form your phrases accurately. You need to distinguish between articles, nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, prepositions, connectives and pronouns. Let’s see one by one.
Articles (artículos): we have the definite or determinate article (the: el, la, los, las) and the indefinite or indeterminate article (a: un, una, and in the plural, some: unos, unas). Be careful, we say always the same in English, but in Spanish you have to change:
The house: la casa (feminine words take la)
The houses: las casas (feminine plural words take las)
The roof: el techo (masculine words take el)
The roofs: los techos (masculine plural words take los)
A house: una casa (feminine words take una)
Some houses: unas casas (feminine plural words take unas)
A roof: un techo (masculine words take un)
Some roofs: unos techos (masculine plural words take unos)
Nouns (sustantivos): these are words that designate people, places, objects, animals (Mary, London, table, dog: María, Londres, mesa, perro), and also abstract ideas, like feelings, emotions or general concepts (pain, love, government: pena, amor, gobierno). When they are not proper names, they are usually preceded by an article (the table: la mesa, the dog: el perro).
Adjectives (adjetivos): these are words that modify nouns. They could be descriptive (black dog, bad dog, big dog: perro negro, perro malo, perro grande), but there are also other non-descriptive adjectives (this dog, my dog, any dog: este perro, mi perro, cualquier perro). Descriptive adjectives tend to be located after and not before the noun, for instance: black dog is perro negro and not negro perro.
Verbs (verbos): these are words that change according to the tense (past, present or future) and the person who is performing the verbal action (I speak: yo hablo, he speaks: él habla). Although the vast majority of verbs are action words, it is not true that all of them refer to actions. For instance, in I am Laura (yo soy Laura), there is no action involved, but there is a verb. You can recognise verbs in Spanish because all of them end either with -ar: trabajar, estudiar (to work, to study), with -er: correr, aprender (to run, to learn), or with -ir: dormir, salir (to sleep, to go out or to leave).
Adverbs (adverbios): in latin, “ad + verb” means “next to the verb, related to the verb”. Adverbs tell you when, where or how an action is performed. For instance, I work today, I work here, I work a lot (trabajo hoy, trabajo aquí, trabajo mucho). There are more types of adverbs, you will see all of them later.
Prepositions (preposiciones): “pre + position” means “placed before something else”. This is strictly true in Spanish, but it is not always the case in English, where we frequently see prepositions at the end of the phrase, as in ‘what are you looking at?’ or ‘where are you from?’ You cannot do this in Spanish. Some English prepositions are ‘at, in, on, by, for, from, with, without’. The problem with these words is that you cannot translate them directly from one language to another, and also, we do not use them as in English. For example, maybe you say something using a preposition in English, and the same phrase is translated into Spanish without any preposition. One of the most common mistakes that we hear is when foreign people try to speak Spanish and put prepositions in the phrase because they have one in the English equivalent. Don’t do that.
Connectives (conectores): these are words like and, or, but (y, o, pero).
Pronouns (pronombres): now bear with me, because we have different groups of pronouns. A pronoun is a word that is used instead of a noun (hence the name. In latin, “pro-noun”). We have:
Personal Pronouns (pronombres personales): for example I, you, he, she, etc. (yo, tú, él, ella, etc.).
Possessive Pronouns (pronombres posesivos): for example mine, yours, his or hers, etc. (mío, tuyo, suyo, etc.).
Demonstrative Pronouns (pronombres demostrativos): this, that, that over there (esto, eso, aquello).
Relative Pronouns (pronombres relativos): roughly, because we need to make some distinctions, they are that, what, who, which, whose, how, where, when, how much (que, quien, cual, cuyo, como, donde, cuando, cuanto).
Indefinite Pronouns (pronombres indefinidos): they are called indefinidos because they refer to something that is difficult to quantify, as in a lot, a bit, something (mucho, poco, algo). How much is it exactly? We cannot say.
Numeral Pronouns (pronombres numerales): these are the numbers, when they are used instead of nouns, as in I want the first one (quiero el primero).
Interrogative and Exclamative Pronouns (pronombres interrogativos y exclamativos): these are the relative pronouns (except cuyo), but they carry an accent in this case: qué, quién, cuál, cómo, dónde, cuándo, cuánto. They are used in questions or exclamatory phrases.
