Duolingo: Spanish

Basics #1
Lesson 1:
La nina the girl La mujer the woman La manzana the apple El nino the boy El hombre The man

La and una feminine El and un masculine Una/un a Yo soy I am

Lesson 2:
El hombre come una manzana The man eats an apple. Ella come She eats. Usted es una nina you are a girl. Tu eres un hombre You are a man. Ella she Es/eres is/are. El the El he/him Tu - you Tu comes pan You eat bread. Tu bebes You drink. La leche the milk. Yo bebo I drink. Tu comes You eat. Come/comes/como eat.

Lesson 3:
El agua the water. El pan the bread El bebe agua He drinks El nino come pan The boy eats bread. La nina come pan The girl eats bread. El hombre bebe The man drinks. Yo como pan I eat bread.

Masculine and Feminine Nouns

In Spanish all nouns are masculine or feminine. Usually, nouns that end with an "o" are masculine, and nouns that end with an "a" are feminine. For example, "manzana" (apple) is feminine and "diario" (newspaper) is masculine. The articles "el" and "un" are used with masculine nouns, and the articles "la" and "una" are used with feminine nouns. "The apple" is "la manzana" and "a newspaper" is "un diario."

Accent Marks
Vowels in Spanish can have an accent mark, such as the "u" in "men" (menu). One use of the accent mark is to indicate which syllable should be stressed in the pronunciation. For example, in "telfono" (telephone), the second "e" has the most stress. Accent marks are also used to distinguish homophones. For example, "l" and "el" are homophones because they have the same pronunciation. However, "l" is a masculine pronoun (meaning "he" or "him") and "el" is a masculine article (meaning "the").

The Second Person Singular

"T," "usted" and "vos" are different ways of referring to the second person singular (you). "Usted" is the formal way of saying "you," and "vos" is used in informal speech in certain countries instead of "t." The three pronouns are synonyms, but they change the way verbs are conjugated. For instance, for the verb "comer" (to eat), it is "t comes," "usted come," and "vos coms." The decision of which form of "you" to use is regional and cultural, but you can typically use "usted" when referring to strangers.

Verb Conjugation
Verb conjugation in Spanish is more complicated than in English. In Spanish, the verb endings change in order to describe who is doing the action and when. For example, for "comer," "I eat" is "yo como" and "you eat" is "t comes." Because the conjugations indicate who is doing the action, it is usually possible to omit the pronoun. For instance instead of saying "yo como arroz" (I eat rice), you can say "como arroz."

Basics #2:
Lesson 1:
Ustedes son hombres you are men. Ustedes son mujeres you are women. Nosotros bebemos agua we drink water Nosotras bebemos leche we drink milk. Nosotros somos hombres we are men. Nosotras somos mujeres we are women. Nosotros bebemos el agua we drink the water. We only use el if the noun begins with a or ha when using feminine pronouns. Ustedes you (you) son are (we) somos are Nosotras we (fem)

Nosotros we (mas) Bebemos drink.

Ellas they (fem)

Lesson 2:
Ellas son mujeres they are women Nosotras somos ninas we are girls Ustedes beben leche you drink milk Los ninos beben agua the boys drink water. Ellos son ninos they are boys. Estedes beben you drink.

Los the (mas) Las the (fem) Ellos they (mas).

Lesson 3:
El libro the book. El vino the wine. El diario the newspaper Una carta a letter Nosotros escribimos we write. Ustedes beben vino you drink wine. Nosotras escribimos un libro we write a book. Usted escribe/tu escribes you write. Yo escribo un libro I write a book. El nino escribe una carta the boy writes a letter. Ellos beben vino they drink wine. Yo escribo I write.

Lesson 4:
Leen read (we) leemos read Leo - (i) read (you) lee/lees read Persona person Los ninos escriben the boys write. Los ninos leen the boys read. Nosotras leemos un libro we read a book. Yo leo un libra I read a book. Yo leo el diario I read the newspaper. Tu lees un libro/usted lee un libro you read a book. Usted lee you read. Ella es una persona she is a person. La persona lee el diario the person reads the newspaper. Nosotras leemos el diario we read the newspaper. Yo soy una persona I am a person.

The Second Person Plural

In Latin America the pronoun for the second person plural is "ustedes, and in Spain it is "vosotros." The two pronouns are synonyms, but they change the way of conjugating verbs. For example, to say you guys eat, in Latin America you would say "ustedes comen," and in Spain "vosotros comis."

Common Phrases:
Lesson 1:
Adis good bye Buenas noches good evening/night Mucho gusto nice to meet you Hola hello Gracias thanks Buenos das good morning.

Lesson 2:
De nada youre welcome Perdn sorry Eres bienvenida/eres bienvenido youre welcome Yo no soy una nia I am not a girl No, lo siento no, I am sorry Por favor please Ella no es una nia she is not a girl Yo so un hombre I am a man Tu no bebes you do not drink Yo no bebo I do not drink si - yes. Hablas tu ingles do you speak English? Hablas espanol do you speak Spanish? Yo hablo ingles I speak English

Lesson 3:
Disculpe excuse me Yo no hablo I do not speak espanol Spanish tu no hablas espanol you do not speak Spanish

Tardes and Noches

In English, "afternoon" comes before "evening," which in turn comes before "night." In Spanish there are only two words that cover these times of the day: "tarde" which means "afternoon," but overlaps

with "evening," and "noche," which means "night" but also overlaps with "evening." Therefore, at 6:30pm it is ok to say either "buenas tardes" or "buenas noches."

Buenos Das
Even though "buenos das" literally means "good days," it is used in the mornings to mean "good morning."