[Accents] [Pronouns] [Gender] [Forming Plural] [Articles] [Some Sound Spelling] [Typing Accents] 

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ACCENTS IN SPANISH
 

1.	If word ends in -n -s or a vowel, the stress falls on next-to-last syllabus.  If you remember that these - está, están, estás - are exceptions, than you remember the rule.
2.	Words with all the other endings have an accent on the last syllabus.
3.	Question and exclamation words - comó, dónde, qué - always have accents.
4.	Demonstrative pronouns have an accent as opposed to demonstrative adjectives.  éste -- este libro, éstas -- estas blusas
5.	Certain words change their meaning when written with an accent. cómo how como like dé give (command) de of, from él he/him el the más more mas but mí me mi my sé I know se 3rd person pronoun sí yes si if sólo only (adverb) solo alone té tea te you tú you tu your

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PRONOUNS IN SPANISH
 

Personal	Direct	Indirect	Reflexive	Unstressed  Posessive	Stressed Possessive	After Preposition
Yo	me	me	me	mi/mis	mío/a/os/as	mí
Tú	te	te	te	tu/tus	tuyo/a/os/as	ti
Él/Ella/Ud	lo/la	le	se	su/sus	suyo/a/os/as	él/ella/Ud
Nosotros/as	nos	nos	nos	nuestro/a/os/as	nuestro/a/os/as	nosotros/as
Vosotros/as	os	os	os	vuestro/a/os/as	vuestro/a/os/as	vosotros/as
Ellos/Ellas/Uds	los/las	les	se	su/sus	suyo/a/os/as	ellos/ellas/Uds

For details see Object Pronouns -- Direct, Indirect and Reflexive.

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GENDER IN SPANISH:
 

A	Referring to males and/or ending in -o	hombre, libro
B	Referring to females and/or ending in -a -ción -tad-dad	mujer, mesa, nación, libertad, universidad
C	Ones referring neither to males or females  and having different endings can be of either gender	el lápiz, la clase, la tarde, la noche
D	Many nouns change gender by changing the last vowel  or by adding -a to the last consonant	el compañero, la compañera, un profesor, la profesora
E	Many nouns have the same form and differ only by the article	el estudiante, la estudiante
!!!	Some nouns ending in -e change gender by changing it to -a	el presidente, la presidenta
!!!	El día is MASCULINE	el día
!!!	Many words ending in -ma are MASCULINE	el problema, el sistema, el programa

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FORMING PLURAL IN SPANISH:
 

1) ending in vowel	vowel + s	el/un libro  la/una mesa	los/unos libros  las/unas mesas
2) ending in consonant	consonant + es	un papel  la universidad	unos papeles  las universidades
3) ending in consonant z	z -> ces	el lapiz	los lapices
!!! to refer to a group consisting of both  males and females masculine plural is used	.	el amigo  la amiga	los amigos

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ARTICLES IN SPANISH
 

SINGULAR	Masculine Nouns	Feminine Nouns
Definite  Articles	el hombre -- the man  el libro -- the book	la mujer -- the woman  la mesa -- the table
Indefinite  Articles	un hombre -- a (one) man  un libro -- a (one) book	una mujer -- a (one) woman  una mesa -- a (one) table

 

PLURAL	Masculine Nouns	Feminine Nouns
Definite  Articles	los hombres -- the men  los libros -- the books	las mujeras -- the women  las mesas -- the tables
Indefinite  Articles	unos hombres -- some men  unos libros -- some books	unas mujeras -- some woman  unas mesas -- some table

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SOME SOUND SPELLINGS
 

Hard C sound	ca que qui co cu	sacar, saque
S/Z sound	za ce ci zo zu	cazar, cace
Hard G sound	ga gue gui go gu	pagar, pague
Soft G sound	ja ge gi jo ju	elija, elegir

As you see, two vowels -- e and i -- are exceptional. To remember them, remember two words -- que and quien.

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TYPING ACCENTS:
 

á	alt 160	alt 0225	ctrl ', a
é	alt 130	alt 0233	ctrl ', e
í	alt 161	alt 0237	ctrl ', i
ó	alt162	alt 0243	ctrl ', o
ú	alt 163	alt 0250	ctrl ', u
ñ	alt 164	alt 0241	shift + ctrl+~, n
Á		alt 0193	ctrl ', A
É	alt 144	alt 0201	ctrl ', E
Í		alt 0205	ctrl ', I
Ó		alt 0211	ctrl ', O
Ú		alt 0218	ctrl ', U
Ñ	alt 165	alt 0209	shift + ctrl+~, N
¿	alt 168	alt 0191	alt+shift + ctrl + ?
¡	alt 173	alt 0161	alt+shift + ctrl + !

  The first two options wotk with the Number Pad which is located on the right hand side of a keyboard. The last ones work only for MS Word.

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