Do you know which are the 5 most common words in Spanish?

De (‘of’)                                              Que (‘that’, ‘which’, ‘who’)

La (‘the’, fem.)                                   En (‘in’)

El (‘the’, masc.)

And do you know what? Two of them are articles. To master Spanish language like a native, you need to really understand how this grammatical category works. Today’s blog post features Lucas, our Head of Studies in don Quijote Seville, talking about tips and tricks to use Spanish articles like an expert.

Keep on reading to discover some particular uses of Spanish articles or click here to switch to the Spanish translation and practice your reading skills. Let’s get started!

Masculine or feminine?

In your Spanish lessons, you’ve probably always learned that words ending in -a are usually feminine. Well, although that’s true, feminine words are not always preceded by the feminine article la. In fact, feminine names starting with a stressed letter a are introduced by masculine articles. For example:

El ala izquierda del edificio

(The left wing of the building)

El área afectada por el incendio es de 3 hectáreas

(The area affected by the fire is 7.4 acres)

Un águila

(An eagle)

With or without article?

Not all names are preceded by an article. Proper nouns are a clear example of that, both in English and in Spanish. Despite of that, in some Spanish regions and due to Catalan’s influence, it is customary to introduce people’s names with the articles el or la. Bear in mind though that in Spanish proper nouns aren’t usually introduced by articles. Here are some exceptions to the rule:

1. Very informal use of people’s names. For example:

Dile al [a + el] Antonio que baje a por pan al supermercado.

(Tell Antonio to get bread from the supermarket)

La Mari es la hija de la Antonia, la del quinto piso.

(Mari is the daughter of Antonia, the neighbor on the 5^th floor)

2. People differentiation. For example:

- ¿Ha venido Paco?

- ¿Qué Paco? ¿El de la oficina?

- No, no. El Paco amigo de Juana.

( - Has Paco come?
- Which Paco? The one from the office?

- No, no. The one (Paco) who is friends with Juana.)

3. When the proper noun becomes an adjective. For example:

Tu hijo juega increíble al fútbol, está hecho un Messi con el balón.

(Your son is great at soccer, he’s such a Messi with the ball)

Omission of the article

When we link a profession to a specific person in Spanish, we usually elide the article. Here are some examples:

- Mi padre es médico, ¿y el tuyo?

- El mío es profesor de secundaria.

                (- Mi father is a doctor. What about yours?

                 - Mine is a high school teacher.)

In newspaper headlines, dropping the articles is common technique journalists use to achieve a more expressive effect. For example:

Paro, pobreza e inestabilidad, consecuencias de la crisis económica.

(Unemployment, poverty and volatility, the consequences of the economic crisis)

Generalizations

Sometimes, the article is also used to generalize a category. In these cases, it occupies the subject position. For example:

El café y la patata son productos originarios de América Latina.

(Coffee and potatoes are original from Latin America)

El petróleo es un bien preciado porque es finito.

(Oil is a prized asset because it is finite)

Hope you found this article about articles useful ? If you want to keep learning Spanish with regular grammar pills, follow @don_Quijote on Twitter. Learning can be fun!

What date is this?

03/04/05

It could be April 3, 2005; maybe April 5, 2003; even May 4, 2003.

Whatever your answer is, you’re right! It all depends the language you are writing or reading in.

So, for you to write your birthdate correctly, and also to date historical moments or clear any doubt, today we’re talking about how to write the date in Spanish.

Continue reading this post in English or switch to the Spanish version.

The correct way to write the date in Spanish speaking countries like Mexico, Spain or Costa Rica is in ascending order: day, month, year. An example of this might be: 10 de agosto de 1992 (English: 10 of August of 1992).

This is the system to write dates in Spanish, putting always the preposition of (de in Spanish) between day and month, and between month and year. In this way, the date is so much clear and will be no doubts about the day.

If you find any date wrote like this: agosto 10, de 1992 (English: August 10, of 1992), that means that it is written in Spanish but with English order. In most English-speaking countries, you must write the dates in a descending order: month, day, year.

But so that there is no room for error in official or international documents, the ISO 8601 (acronym for International Organization for Standardization) says that it is better to point out first the longer periods of time and end with the shortest. That is year, month, day: 1992-08-10.

In Spanish, you can write the date only in letters and it would look like this: diez de agosto de mil novecientos noventa y dos (English: ten of August, nineteen ninety-two). But this is used exclusively in legal or very solemn documents.

The most common is to see the date written in the shortened format, that is, only with numbers, so you have to separate each figure with dashes, bars or dots, and the year written with the four figures or only with the last two. It would be as follows:

• With dashes: 10-08-1992 or 10-08-92

• With bars: 08/10/1992 or 08/10/92

• With points: 10.08.1992 or 10.08.92

In Spanish, the years do not have points or spaces separating the digits, that is, 1992 is correct, but 1,992 or 1,992 is not.

When writing dates in Spanish or English, you have to take into account a small difference that not everyone has in mind. Both the names of the days of the week and those of the months of the year are always written in initial lowercase letters, but in English they are capitalized. And while in Spanish the week starts on Monday and ends on Sunday, in English it starts on Sunday and ends on Saturday.

So after all this, if you want to continue learning Spanish, come to don Quijote whenever you want!

Spanish language is full of challenges for those who give it a try. For example, many English speakers have a tough time trying to conjugate verbs. Another instance: French people find the sounds of letter j /x/ and double r /r̄/ very hard to pronounce. This is one of the most difficult things to achieve for them.

However, all our students agree on one thing: Spanish vowels are relatively simple to use. There are only five vowel sounds, one for each letter, and they are always pronounced in exactly the same way, no matter their position in the word. Even so, Spanish vowels can be a bit tricky when combined in a certain way.

In today’s blog post we are going to discover a little bit more about Spanish diphthongs and hiatus. In addition to that, we will learn how to identify those who use accents. Click here to switch to the Spanish version of this post. Let’s do it!

What is a diphthong?

First things first: do you know what a diphthong is? A diphthong or glinding vowel is the combination of two vowel sounds within the same syllable. There are several case scenarios given two open vowel sounds (a, e, o) or close ones (i, u):

• Close vowel sound (toneless, without accent) + open vowel: fue-go (fire), tie-rra (land), or pio-jo (louse).
• Open vowel sound + close vowel: pau-sa (pause), pai-sa-je (landscape), or pei-ne (comb).
• Close vowel sound + close vowel: gra-tui-to (free), cons-truir (to build), or je-sui-ta (Jesuit).

When do Spanish diphthongs use accents?

Spanish diphthongs follow the general rules for accents. In addition to that, please consider the following:

• If a close vowel + open vowel combination occurs, the accent mark should be on the open vowel: a-diós (farewell), des-pués (later), or náu-ti-co (nautical).
• If the diphthong is formed by two close vowel sounds, they won’t use any accent. Why? Because for it to become a diphthong, both vowel sounds must be toneless, i.e. lack voice stress: rui-do (noise), triun-fo (victory), or Sui-za (Switzerland).

What is a hiatus?

A hiatus or diaeresis is a combination of two vowel sounds occurring in different adjacent syllables. There are three kinds of hiatus in Spanish, depending on the open-close vowel sound combination:

• Open vowel sound + close vowel (and vice versa): frí-o (cold), etí-ope (Ethiopian), or geología (Geology).
• Open vowel sound + open vowel: ca-er (to fall), lí-ne-a (line), or te-a-tro (theater).
• Identic vowel sounds: chi-ita (Shiite), zoo-ló-gi-co (zoo), or cre-er (believe).

When do Spanish hiatus use accents?

Depending on the open-close vowel combination, hiatus behave just like any other sound regarding accent rules or not:

Combinations that DO follow the rule

• Open vowel sound + open vowel:

a-é-reo (air) uses accent, just like any other word stressed on the third-to-last syllable in Spanish.

Ja-én (a region in Spain) and re-hén (hostage) must use an accent because they are both words stressed in the last syllable and have a -n ending.

• The close vowel sound is stressed:

Ra-úl (male Spanish name), pa-ís (country), or dí-a (day).

Combinatinos that DO NOT follow the rule

The rest of vowel combinations.

We would like to thank Lucas, Head of Studies at our Spanish School in Seville, for contributing to don Quijote’s blog with this post. Our academic team works hard to provide us with educational materials that may be helpful to everyone who is interested in Spanish. Follow us and don’t miss a word!

Te invito a un té

The sentence above, which means I’ll buy you a cup of tea, is the perfect starting point to begin with today’s post. Te and té are very similar words. In fact, their only difference is a little orthographic mark, which can go unnoticed. Do you want to know why this acute accent is so important? Keep on reading to understand how diacritics work in Spanish.

You can also read this post in Spanish.

What are diacritics?

Diacritic marks are often used in Spanish to tell the meaning of two similar words apart, usually monosyllables. As a general rule, words with only one syllable must never be emphasized with an accent. However, to avoid confusions and ambiguities, sometimes we do use diacritic marks.

These are the most common word pairs in Spanish that use diacritic marks to differentiate their meanings. Have a look at the following examples.

We hope you found this post useful for understanding Spanish diacritics. Thank you very much to Ramon, Head of Studies at our Spanish school in Malaga, for helping us with this article. Keep on learning Spanish with don Quijote!

In other languages, such as English or French, when a sentence contains a negative expression (e.g. never or jamais), we don’t add the usual negative adverb (not in English or pas in French). Why? Because we would be creating a double negative sentence, which is incorrect in these languages. In Spanish, however, grammar works differently in this regard.

Do you want to know more? Don’t worry, after reading the explanation below you won’t be in doubt anymore. Keep on reading this article in Spanish or click here to switch to the Spanish version.

When not to use double negatives in Spanish

When words such as nunca or jamás (never), tampoco (neither), nadie (no one), and ninguno (none) precede a verb, then we don’t add the adverb no, as it occurs in other languages. For example:

Nunca hago deporte (I never do sports)

INCORRECT: Nunca no hago deporte*

Yo tampoco hago deporte (I don’t do sports either)

INCORRECT: Yo tampoco no hago deporte*

En mi familia nadie hace deporte (No one in my family does sports)

INCORRECT: En mi familia nadie no hace deporte*

Nada de lo que haces puede considerarse deporte (Nothing you do can be considered sports)

INCORRECT: Nada de lo que haces no puede considerarse deporte*

Ninguno de ellos hace deporte (None of them does sports)

INCORRECT: Ninguno de ellos no hace deporte*

When to use double negatives in Spanish

On the contrary, when these negative words go after the verb, we must place the word no before the adverb. For example:

No hago deporte nunca (I never do sports)

INCORRECT: Hago deporte nunca*

Yo no hago deporte tampoco (I don’t do sports either)

INCORRECT: Yo hago deporte tampoco*

En mi familia no hace deporte nadie (No one does sports in my family)

INCORRECT: En mi familia hace deporte nadie*

No puede considerarse deporte nada de lo que haces (Nothing you do can be considered sports)

INCORRECT: Puede considerarse deporte nada de lo que haces*

No hace deporte ninguno de ellos (None of them does sports)

INCORRECT: Hace deporte ninguno de ellos*

In any case, the core message does not change. The only difference is a reinforced negative nuance.

Surely you won’t ever have any more doubts about double negatives in Spanish!

(Also: surely you will never have any more doubts about double negatives in Spanish!) ?

Thank you very much to Ignacio Sellés, Spanish teacher at don Quijote Alicante, for contributing to the blog with today’s article. Keep posted to continue receiving Spanish language tips and tricks weekly.

In today’s blog post, we are going to learn how to express quantity for nouns. You’ll see this topic is not too complicated, and surely you will have very few questions after we are done with the explanation. ?

Click here to keep on reading in Spanish.

Bastante / bastantes (enough)

These quantifiers express a sufficient amount of something. For example:

¿Tenemos bastante comida para todos? ¡Somos 20!

Do we have enough food for all of us? We are 20 people!

No quiero discutir contigo. Ya he tenido bastantes problemas por hoy.

I don’t want to keep fighting with you. I’ve had enough for today.

The only variant of this quantifier is its plural form, bastantes, as it lacks a feminine form.

Mucho / mucha / muchos / muchas (too, many, a lot of)

We have have already talked about the use of these words in previous posts. They are used to describe a quantity which is greater than needed. For example:

En verano, al mediodía hace mucho calor. Prefiero pasear por la noche.

During the summer, it’s too hot at noon. I prefer walking at night.

Aquí hay mucha gente. Busquemos otro restaurante.

There are many people here. Let’s find another restaurant.

If you want to intensify the message, you’ll be tempted to use a direct translation of the word combo ‘too many’. However, it is important for you to know that the phrase *muy mucho is not correct in Spanish. Instead, we can use the word muchísimo and feminine variant muchísima. This is one of those things you won’t easily find on the Internet, but that a real Spanish teacher can help you learn with a Spanish course.

Aquí hay muchísima gente.

There are way too many people here.

Sometimes, we also use bastante to define a quantity which is greater than needed but lower than the one we express with the word mucho. Let us help you understand:

1. Tengo bastantes dudas. ¿Puedes ayudarme? / I have several questions. Can you help?

2. Tengo muchas dudas. ¿Puedes ayudarme? / I have many questions. Can you help?

In the first instance, we are saying that we have some questions, and that they are not few. But, in any case, they are less than the ones I have in the second example.

Demasiado / demasiada / demasiados / demasiadas (too much, too many)

All the words above express a quantity that is greater than expected and, in addition to that, greater than what is defined by mucho. In other words, when using these quantifiers, we are talking about an excess, which has negative connotations. For example:

Hay demasiada comida. Solo somos 5 y seguro que tiraremos casi todo a la basura.

There is too much food. We are only 5 people and most of it will be thrown away.

Tu hijo tiene demasiados videojuegos. Podrías comprarle algún libro.

Your son has too many videogames. You could get him some books.

Poco / poca / pocos / pocas (few, little, not many)

Unlike the previous quantifiers, poco expresses a quantity which is lower than usual. However, it doesn’t necessarily have negative connotations. For example:

Me gusta esta playa porque siempre hay muy poca gente.

I like this beach because there are not many people.

Quedan pocos huevos. ¿Puedes comprar por favor?

There are few eggs left. Could you buy some, please?

Please note that, opposite to mucho, in this case we can add the word muy to intensify the concept of poco. So, it is correct to say:

Tengo muy poco papel en la oficina.

I have very little paper left at the office.

Many thanks to Ignacio Sellés for preparing this explanation, which was as enlighting as the bright sun of Alicante, the city where he teaches Spanish at our partner school.

We have already talked about the linguistic economy in Spanish, for example, about abbreviations and apocopes. As you know, in order to save time and space, sometimes we shorten the words, or even join several to create a single word. Today, it's time to tell you what contractions are, and also to show you some examples so that you learn to use them properly. Thus, it will be easier for you to learn Spanish and, above all, to use it accurately.

Read this blog post in Spanish.

What is a grammar contraction?

The contraction in grammar is a morphological resource (morphology is the branch of linguistics that studies the structure of words) in which the union of two words occurs (the second usually begins with a vowel) to form a single one. The contraction resorts to the rhetorical figure of the diction (alteration of the composition of the words or phrases), and primarily to the transformation or metaplasm (alteration of the writing or pronunciation of the words without changing their meaning).

Types of contractions in Spanish

1. Preposition + article

This is the most frequent type of contraction in the Spanish language:

• A + el = al

• De + el = del

* Example: "Marta fue al médico porque se encontraba mal."

We don't say: "Marta fue a el médico porque se encontraba mal.”

2. Preposition “para”

Although they have a very colloquial use and have not yet been accepted by the RAE (Royal Academy of the Spanish Language), it is possible that, in some informal conversation or colloquial piece of speech, you will hear the following contractions with the preposition “para”. However, never write these constructions in a contracted way or use them in situations that are not quite informal or for a very specific purpose.

• Para + el/la = pal/pa’la (use only in very informal situations).

*Example: "El poder, pal pueblo".

• Para + allá = pa’llá (use only in very informal situations).

*Example: “Vete pa’llá.”

• Para + que/qué = pa’que / pa’qué (use only in very informal situations).

*Example: “Pa’que veas.”

• Para + arriba = pa’rriba (use only in very informal situations).

*Example: “Venga p’arriba.”

• Para + delante = pa´lante (use only in very informal situations).

*Example: “Un pasito pa’lante, María.”

• Para + abajo = pa’bajo (use only in very informal situations).

*Example: “Tira pa’bajo.”

• Para + atrás = pa’trás (use only in very informal situations).

*Example: “Ni in paso pa’tras.”

• Para + dentro = pa’dentro (use only in very informal situations).

*Example: “¡Arriba, abajo, al centro… y pa’dentro!”

3. Other cases 

• Donde + quiera= doquiera = doquier

*Example: “Hay gente por doquier.”

• Otra + hora = otrora

*Example: “Esta ciudad era otrora campo…”

• Entre + ambos = entrambos

*Example: “Entrambos hermanos construyeron una casa.”

At don Quijote, we know that facing the challenge of learning a new language is never easy and can be almost heroic. However, we hope that this post is useful for you and that you can practice grammar contractions when you visit Spain or Latin America.

How do you call this?

And what about this?

Spanish has words for everything. And as we love to speak very quickly, we need to shorten the words we use. This is called linguistic economy. Click here to switch to the Spanish version of this post and keep on learning!

Probably you’ve learned Spanish with the help of a profe (teacher), and very likely last night you were watching the tele (TV). Maybe you went to work by bus (bus) yesterday and took some notes with a boli (pen). Do you remember what was the last peli (movie) you watched at the cine (cinema)?

Well, these words are a few examples of what apocopes are.

What is an apocope?

‘To apocopate’ is to shorten a word. That it to say, to cut off a sound at the end of it. This sound can either be a letter or a whole syllable. As in other languages, in Spanish this is a very common linguistic phenomenon.

When apocopes occur, short words keep the same meaning as their longer counterparts. Let’s see some examples of what we are talking about.

Spanish Apocopes

Nouns

We can apocopate both proper names and common names. Do you know anyone whose name is Manu or Isa? Well, in case you haven't been told yet, but their full names are Manuel and Isabel.

As we said before, when we speak Spanish, we use words like profe, bus, cine, boli, moto, bici… Well, next time you pronounce them you’ll know that you are using apocopated words, because these are their longer versions:

Profe is short for profesor, which means teacher.

Bus is short for autobús, which means bus.

Cine is short for cinematógrafo, which means cinema.

Boli is short for bolígrafo, which means pen.

Moto is short for motoclicleta, which means motorcycle.

Bici is short for bicicleta, which means bike.

Pronouns

Talking about pronouns, it is very common thing to use them shortened. When you say that algún díra irás a la playa (one day you’ll go to the beach), or that no te ha tocado nunca ningún sorteo (you have never won a raffle), you are using apocopated pronouns without realizing.

When we talk about possessions, we say that this is tu libro (your book) or that this is mi mesa (my table). But do you know which are the longer counterparts of these words?

Algún is short for alguno, which means some.

Ningún is short for ninguno, which means none.

Mi is short for mío, which means ‘of mine’.

Tu is short for tuyo, which means ‘of yours.

Adverbs

Did you know that adverbs can also be apocopated?

If one day we set the alarm much earlier than usual, we say that we woke up muy temprano (too early). Or, for example, if we compare the height of two brothers, we say that one of them is almost tan alto como el otro (as tall as the other one).

Muy is short for mucho, which means ‘too’, ‘very’ or ‘a lot of’, depending on the context.

Tan is short for tanto, which means ‘as much as’.

These are just a few of the many examples you can use of apocopated words. If you want to learn more, come and learn Spanish at our schools in Spain or Latin America.

How to express quantity and quality

In today’s blog post we are going to go over the main intensity and quantity expressions used in Spanish: muy (very), mucho (much/very) and poco (few). You’ll realize that not many explanations are needed and that it’s a very easy topic to understand.

Click here to continue reading in Spanish.

Muy, poco

We place muy (very) and poco, poca (few) before adjectives and adverbs to describe the intensity of a quality or a feature. For example:

El examen fue muy difícil.

(The exam was very difficult)

In the previous example muy gives us a hint of how difficult the exam was. In other words, muy modifies the adjective difícil.

Mi profesor habla muy rápido

(My teacher talks very fast)

Muy refers now to the adjective rápido, giving us more information on how fast the teacher speaks.

Es una persona poco habladora

(He or she is not a very talkative person)

In the example above, poco describes the intensity of the adjective habladora.

Mucho, poco

However, we place the words mucho, mucha, muchos, muchas and poco, poca, pocos, pocas next to nouns and verbs. We do it to indicate the quantity or quality of an action. For example:

Tenemos muchas preguntas.

(We’ve got many questions)

In this case, the word muchas helps us understand how many questions they have, and the word preguntas is not an adjective, but a noun.

Ahora hay poco trabajo en mi ciudad

(There’s few work in my town).

In the previous example, poco refers to the quantity of available jobs and it also accompanies a noun.

Hablas mucho, pero escuchas poco.

(You talk a lot, but you listen very few)

However, here mucho and poco don’t modify a noun. On the contrary, they express the intensity of two actions: hablar and escuchar, which are both verbs.

Note that when they modify verbs, that is to say, actions, mucho and poco are only used in their singular and masculine form.

Hope everything is very clear by now and you have very few doubts left. ?

Thanks to Ignacio, from our Spanish school in Alicante, for clarifying many of our doubts.

Last week, we talked about Spanish indefinite adjectives. In today’s blog post, we are going to dive deeper into the topic by learning how to use algo (something), alguien (someone), nadie (no one) and nada (nothing). Click here if you want to keep on reading in Spanish. Let’s do it!

Algo (something)

Algo is a very frequent indefinite adjective. It can refer to an animate and to an inanimate object, as well as to a non-specific action.

Examples:

- ¡Cuidado! Creo que hay algo detrás de la cortina. (Watch out! I think there’s something behind the curtain)

[algo = animate / inanimate object]

- Juan quedó en llamarme cuando llegara a Sevilla y todavía no lo ha hecho, ¿crees que le habrá pasado algo? (Juan said he would call me as soon as he arrived in Seville, but he hasn’t done it yet. Do you think something happened to him?)

[algo = non-specific action]

Alguien (someone)

This word is always used to talk about a non-specific person, no matter singular or plural.

Examples:

- Hoy la avenida principal estaba llena de coches oficiales, así que creo que alguien muy importante ha venido a la ciudad. (Today the main avenue was full of official cars, so I guess someone very important must be in town)

[alguien = singular non-specific person]

- Alguien ha entrado en casa porque todo está desordenado (Someone has been home, because everything is a mess)

[alguien = singular or plural person]

Nada (nothing)

Nada refers to things, and it means ‘nothing’ We could say it is the opposite of something.

Examples:

- ¿Tiene algo que ofrecerme por este precio? (Do you have something to offer for that price?)

-Lo siento, por ese precio no podemos ofrecerle nada. (Sorry, we can’t offer you anything for that price)

-He ido a la nevera a por un yogur y no hay nada. Tenemos que hacer la compra hoy mismo. (I wanted to grab a yogurt from the fridge but there was nothing. We need to go grocery shopping today)

Nadie (no one)

It refers to people again but meaning ‘no one’. It is the counterpart of the word alguien.

Example:

- A veces pienso que nadie me entiende cuando hablo en inglés, ¡es una sensación horrible! (Sometimes I think no one understands me when I speak English. It’s such a horrible feeling!)

- El año pasado nadie vino a mi cumpleaños, así que este año no pienso celebrarlo. (Last year no one came to my birthday party, so I’m not celebrating it this time)

Thank you very much to Lucas, one of our teachers in Seville’s Spanish school, for helping us better understand how indefinite adjectives work.