Basics of Spanish

[TeMato796]

Spanish is a relatively inflected language, with a two-gender system and about fifty conjugated forms per verb, but limited inflection of nouns, adjectives, and determiners. (For a detailed overview of verbs, see Spanish verbs and Spanish irregular verbs.)

It is right-branching, uses prepositions, and usually, though not always, places adjectives after nouns - as most other Romance languages. Its syntax is generally Subject Verb Object, though variations are common. It is a pro-drop language (or null subject language), that is, it allows the deletion of pronouns which are pragmatically unnecessary, and is verb-framed.

Spanish or Castilian (español or castellano) is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that originated in northern Spain and gradually spread in the Kingdom of Castile, evolving into the principal language of government and trade in the Iberian peninsula. It was taken most notably to the Americas as well as to Africa and Asia Pacific with the expansion of the Spanish Empire between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Castilian evolved from several dialects and languages, now collectively termed Spanish. Latin, which comprises about 95% of Spanish, was introduced to the Iberian Peninsula by Romans during the Second Punic War around 210 BC. During the 5th century, Hispania was invaded by Germanic Vandals, Suevi, Alans, and Visigoths, resulting in numerous dialects of Vulgar Latin. After the Moorish Conquest in the 8th century, Arabic became a powerful influence in the evolution of Iberian languages, of which Castilian is thought to have evolved on the northern fringes of the Iberian Peninsula in the Christian Kingdom of Castile during the 10th century. Modern Spanish developed with the Readjustment of the Consonants (es:Reajuste de las sibilantes del castellano) that began in 15th-century Castile. The language continues to adopt foreign words from a variety of other languages, as well as developing new words.

Today, 329 million people speak Spanish as a native language, making it the world's second most spoken language in terms of native speakers.[1][2] Mexico contains the largest population of Spanish speakers. Spanish is one of the six official languages of the United Nations.

Spanish - Español
Yes - Si
No - No
Hello - Hola
How are you? - ¿Cómo estás (tú)? (informal)
¿Cómo está (usted)? (formal)
Good morning - Buenos días
Good afternoon/evening - Buenas tardes
Good night - Buenas noches
Goodbye - Adiós
Please - Por favor
Thank you - Gracious

[mitko1251]

Actually I know to count from one to ten on Spanish. I was watching "Los hombres de Paco" (still watching it) and I learned them from it.

Uno - one
Dos - two
Tres - three
Cuatro - four
Cinco - five
Seis - six
Siete - seven
Ocho - eight
Nueve - nine
Diez - ten

If you wonder how I learn them just from watching here how I did:
For example some is saying: I have "Diez" fingers, so diez = ten
I have "Dos" friends and they show 2 guys...etc

P.S: Excuse me if I made any mistakes.

[TeMato796]

Spanish is a relatively inflected language, with a two-gender system and about fifty conjugated forms per verb, but limited inflection of nouns, adjectives, and determiners. (For a detailed overview of verbs, see Spanish verbs and Spanish irregular verbs.)

It is right-branching, uses prepositions, and usually, though not always, places adjectives after nouns - as most other Romance languages. Its syntax is generally Subject Verb Object, though variations are common. It is a pro-drop language (or null subject language), that is, it allows the deletion of pronouns which are pragmatically unnecessary, and is verb-framed.

In some senses, employing Spanish verbs correctly is difficult for native speakers of English. There are seven indicative tenses with more-or-less direct English equivalents; for example present tense (I walk, I do walk), preterite (-ed or did, ie. I walked or I did walk), the imperfect (was, were, or used to), perfect (I have _____), future (will) and conditional (would). What is difficult in this area are the six different spellings for each tense; English grammar, in this respect, is simpler—in English, eat has two forms in the present tense (eat and eats), while in Spanish eat has six forms. In Latin American Spanish, Vosotros is usually replaced with Ustedes and the conjugation of that pronoun is the same as the third-person plural (i.e, ustedes comen, "You (plural) eat"). In Argentina, tú is generally replaced with vos, and is conjugated by replacing the infinitive -ar, -er, -ir with -ás, -és, -ís
(Yo) Como (Nosotros/as) Comemos
(Tú) Comes (Vosotros/as) Coméis
(Él, Ella, Ud.) Come (Ellos, Ellas, Uds.) Comen

Spanish generally uses adjectives in a similar way to English and most other Indo-European languages. However, there are three key differences between English and Spanish adjectives.

* In Spanish, adjectives usually go after the noun they modify. The exception is when the writer/speaker is being slightly emphatic, or even poetic, about a particular quality of an object (rather than the mundane use of using the quality to specify which particular object they are referring to).
o Mi casa roja could either mean that there are many red houses in the world but I wish to talk about the one that I happen to own, or that I have many houses but am referring to the red one. Mi casa roja = My house, the red one.
o Mi roja casa means that I am stressing how red my particular house is (probably the only house I have). Mi roja casa = My house, which is obviously red.
* In Spanish, adjectives agree with what they refer to in terms of both number (singular/plural) and gender (masculine/feminine). For example, taza (cup) is feminine, so "the red cup" is la taza roja, but vaso (glass) is masculine, so "the red glass" is el vaso rojo.
* In Spanish, it is perfectly normal to let an adjective stand in for a noun or pronoun—with (where people are involved) no implication of condescension or rudeness. For example, los altos means "the tall ones" or "the tall men". El grande means "the big one" or "the big man".

[mitko1251]

Actually, I'm in class learning English as first language. There is possibility that we'll be studying Spanish as third (2'nd is German blaah). It's nice to know things before starting further learning of it. It's not good to start from 0.