Contents, Practical Spanish Grammar

Contents About the Spanish language ..................................................................................10 Written language and pronunciation ...................................................................... 11 I Letters .................................................................................................... 11 II Stress and written accent .......................................................................17 0

Articles ..........................................................................................................20 1 Indefinite article ....................................................................................20 2 Definite article .......................................................................................20 3 Use of article .........................................................................................21

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Nouns.............................................................................................................25 11 The gender of nouns ..............................................................................25 12 The plural ..............................................................................................27 13 The preposition de .................................................................................29 14 Shortening (apocope) ............................................................................29 15 Diminutives and augmentatives ............................................................30

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Adjectives ......................................................................................................31 21 Endings ..................................................................................................31 22 The plural ..............................................................................................33 23 Position of the adjective ........................................................................34 24 Comparison of adjectives ......................................................................37 24.1 Irregular comparison ...................................................................38 24.2 Comparing ...................................................................................40 24.3 Intensive form .............................................................................40 25 Mucho, poco, demasiado, bastante, tanto..............................................41 26 Adjectives used as nouns.......................................................................43 27 Diminutives and augmentatives ............................................................43 28 Shortening (apocope) ............................................................................43

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Numerals .......................................................................................................44 31 Cardinal numbers ..................................................................................44 32 Ordinal numbers ....................................................................................45 33 Telling the time ......................................................................................46 34 Dates ......................................................................................................47 35 Years ......................................................................................................47 36 Mathematics ..........................................................................................47

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Pronouns ........................................................................................................48 41

Personal pronouns .................................................................................48 41.1 Subject forms ..............................................................................49 41.2 Prepositional forms .....................................................................50 41.3 Direct object forms ......................................................................50 41.4 Indirect object forms ...................................................................51 41.5 Reflexive pronouns .....................................................................52 41.6 Position of the bound pronouns...................................................54 41.7 Duplication of direct or indirect object .......................................56

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Possessive pronouns ..............................................................................59 42.1 Mi, tu, su... .................................................................................59 42.2 Mío, tuyo, suyo… .......................................................................60

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Demonstrative pronouns .......................................................................62

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Interrogative pronouns ..........................................................................64

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Relative pronouns ..................................................................................65 45.1 Que ..............................................................................................65 45.2 Quien, el que, el cual ...................................................................65 45.3 Cuyo ............................................................................................67

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Indefinite pronouns ...............................................................................68

Verbs ..............................................................................................................73 51

Verb forms .............................................................................................73 51.1 Paradigms, regular verbs .............................................................77 51.2 Paradigms, irregular verbs ..........................................................84 51.3 Regular verbs, diphthongization, vowel change .........................92 51.4 Irregular verbs, remarks ..............................................................96

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Indicative tenses ....................................................................................97 52.1 Present .........................................................................................97 52.2 Perfect .........................................................................................98 52.3 Periphrastic future .......................................................................99 52.4 Pretérito simple >< imperfecto .................................................100 52.5 Pluperfect ..................................................................................102 52.6 Futuro ........................................................................................102 52.7 Condicional ...............................................................................103 52.8 Other perfect tenses ...................................................................103 CONTENTS

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Subjunctive >< indicative....................................................................105 53.1 Mood in completive subordinate clauses ..................................105 53.2 Mood in interrogative subordinate clauses ...............................108 53.3 Mood in relative subordinate clauses ........................................109 53.4 Mood in adverbial subordinate clauses ..................................... 110 53.4.1 Temporal subordinate clauses ..................................... 110 53.4.2 Conditional subordinate clauses ................................. 112 53.4.3 Causal subordinate clauses.......................................... 113 53.4.4 Subordinate clauses of purpose ................................... 114 53.4.5 Subordinate clauses of consequence ........................... 114 53.4.6 Concessive subordinate clauses .................................. 115 53.4.7 Subordinate clauses of comparison ............................. 115 53.4.8 Other subordinate clauses ........................................... 116 53.5 The mood with certain adverbs ................................................. 117 53.6 Other use of subjunctive............................................................ 118

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Orders .................................................................................................. 119 54.1 Imperative for positive orders ................................................... 119 54.2 Subjunctive for negative orders ................................................120 54.3 Positive orders with usted, nosotros, ustedes ............................121 54.4 Positive and negative orders......................................................122 54.5 Special cases..............................................................................123

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Active >< passive voice ......................................................................125

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Infinite forms .......................................................................................126 56.1 Infinitive ....................................................................................126 56.2 Participio ...................................................................................129 56.3 Gerundio ....................................................................................130

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Ser/estar, haber ....................................................................................131 57.1 Only ser .....................................................................................131 57.2 Only estar ..................................................................................132 57.3 With an adjective .......................................................................133 57.4 With participio ...........................................................................136 57.5 With a preposition .....................................................................138 57.6 Ser/estar without anything to follow.........................................139 57.7 Haber .........................................................................................139

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Time expressions with hace, desde, llevar ..........................................141

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Other word classes.......................................................................................142 61

Adverbs ...............................................................................................142 61.1 Characteristics of adverbs .........................................................142 61.2 No and the double negative .......................................................143 61.3 Adverbs ending in -mente .........................................................144 61.4 Comparison ...............................................................................145 61.5 Mucho/muy, tanto/tan, poco ......................................................146 61.6 Interrogative adverbs .................................................................147 61.7 Relative adverbs ........................................................................148

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Prepositions .........................................................................................149 62.1 The preposition a.......................................................................150 62.2 The preposition de .....................................................................152 62.3 The prepositions para and por ..................................................152 62.4 Special cases..............................................................................153

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Conjunctions........................................................................................154 63.1 Coordinating conjunctions ........................................................154 63.2 Subordinating conjunctions .......................................................157

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Interjections .........................................................................................158

The functions of the sentence ......................................................................159 71 72 73 74 75 76

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Subject and verb ..................................................................................159 Direct and indirect object ....................................................................162 Subject predicative ..............................................................................165 Adverbial .............................................................................................166 Other sentence functions .....................................................................167 The inner composition of the functions...............................................168 76.1 The verb phrase .........................................................................168 76.2 Subordination ............................................................................169 76.3 Relation of solidarity .................................................................169 Complete sentence and subordinate clause .........................................170 Comma in Spanish ..............................................................................174

Differences in Spanish .................................................................................175

Literature and web pages .....................................................................................176 Index ....................................................................................................................177 CONTENTS

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