CLASE 1. Presentación – Presentation. Gramática

Personal Pronouns

The system of personal pronouns in Spanish is richer than in English:

It´s noticeable that all plural forms except ustedes change their endings according to the gender:
nosotros – we, men (or men and women); nosotras – we, women;
vosotros – you, men (or men and women); vosotras – you, women
ellos – they, men (or men and women); ellas – they, women

The second important difference is the abundance of equivalents of you: Spanish distinguishes between one interlocutor (singular) and some interlocutors (plural), and also between a courtesy treatment (usted, ustedes) and a familiar one (tú, vosotros).

To read more, see this page.

Verbs ser, hablar, llamarse: Singular

Spanish verbs undergo inflection according person, number and tense. Let´s study Present Singular of the verbs ser – to be and llamarse – lit. "be called":

Examples:

Soy Javier. Hablo inglés y español. – I am Javier. I speak English and Spanish.
¿Te llamas Juan? ¿Hablas francés? – Is your name Juan? Do you speak French?
Se llama Emi. Es japonesa. – Her name es Emi. She is Japanese.

Spanish is a prodrop language, that means that pronoun as a subject is usually omitted, compare: I am Marta. – Soy Marta. (literally, Am Marta). But one should use personal pronouns when there´s an opposition between two different subjects:
Yo soy español, y ella es francesa. – I am Spanish, and she is French.
This oposition can be hidden:
– Soy Javier. – Yo soy Marta. – I´m Javier. – And I am Marta.

General questions and negation

Asking a question you shouldn´t change the word order:

Te llamas Andrés. Eres español. – Your name es Andres. You are Spanish.

¿Te llamas Andrés? ¿Eres español? – Is your name Andres? Are you Spanish?

Responding a question, use sí (yes) and no (no).

&ndash? ¿Hablas español?
– No.

To form a negation, put no just before the verb:

– ¿Eres español? . – Are you Spanish?
– No, no soy español – No, I am not Spanish.

Conjunctions y, o, pero

The "and" conjunction should be translated as y (it is pronounced as [i]):

Juan y Ana – Juan and Ana
Soy español y hablo español – I am Spanish and I speak Spanish

The "or" conjunction is translated as o:

Juan o Ana – Juan or Ana

English "but" should be translated aspero:

Juan es español pero no habla español – Juan is Spanish, but he doesn't speak Spanish