Concepts
This section is dedicated to some language learning concepts that are very useful when learning and talking about learning Spanish. Some concepts, like grammar or parts of speech, you may remember from your grade school English class. Some concepts will relate to the Spanish language itself--like gender agreement, for example--and other concepts may not have English equivalents.
Conjugation
"To conjugate" a verb is to inflect it for mood and tense. In Spanish, conjugated verbs also reflect the person and number of the subject. We do this with a unique suffix.
Learning to conjugate verbs properly in Spanish is often one of the biggest challenges for English-speaking learners of Spanish. Luckily, the vast majority of Spanish verbs follow predictable patterns:
Regular Verbs. There are three classes of regular verbs; they are usually referred to by their infinitive endings: -ar verbs, -er verbs, and -ir verbs.
True irregular verbs. Some very high frequency verbs like ser (to be) and ir (to go) have highly unpredictable forms. These forms must be learned by rote memory, which is made easier by the fact that they are so high frequency.
Other So-called “irregular verbs.” There are some Spanish verbs whose forms in the simple tenses are not predictable; that is, they are not follow regular rules of conjugation. These are often sloppily labeled “irregular” and are presented haphazardly to the dismay of the students. However, some of the so-called “irregular” verbs do follow a pattern; these verbs that pattern together will be presented together and given a nifty SpanishPod name, to indicate that they are not true irregulars.
On this site, we will use the word “irregular” only in the strictest sense; that is, only for verbs that do not follow conjugation patterns.Gender Agreement
In Spanish, all nouns are classified as having feminine and masculine grammatical gender. The adjectives that modify these nouns must reflect their gender, as do the pronouns that replace them.
The most common way nouns and adjectives show their gender is through their endings (see examples below).The terms "masculine" and "feminine" refer primarily to grammatical classifications; they may or may not refer to the biological gender of the item in question. In fact, the masculine plural is used to refer to groups that include people or objects of both genders. For example, when you talk about "mis amigos," your listener will immediately assume that your friends are a group of both men and women.Number
In Spanish all nouns are classified as having plural and singular grammatical number. The adjectives that modify these nouns must reflect their number, as do the pronouns that replace them.Spanish verbs, when conjugated also reflect the number of the subject of the sentence.Parts of Speech
It's very useful to be able to talk about parts of speech when studying language. These are the terms we will be using on the website and in the podcasts to explain what grammatical roles a given word is playing in any given sentence.
A verb is a the part of speech that usually denotes an action (bring, read), an occurrence (decompose, glitter), or a state of being (exist, stand).
A noun is a word that can be the subject or object of a verb. Nouns are often described as people, places, things, concepts, or ideas.
An adjective is a word that describes, quantifies, or otherwise modifies a noun. Take, for example, the noun “street;” some adjectives for “street” might be long, busy, crowded, empty, dangerous, charming, etc.
Articles are a class of words that grammatically identifies a noun.
Pronouns are words that substitute for nouns in a sentence.
Other concepts may be related to language learning by podcast; specifically to SpanishPod's method and learning philosophy.
