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.

Today we are going to cover some characteristics of some indefinite adjectives and pronouns in Spanish. Are you familiar with any of them! ? Click here to read this post in Spanish. Let’s go for it!

Algún, alguno

They both express an undefined quantity somehow relatable to the speaker or an indeterminate fact.

1. Algún, as well as alguna/algunos/algunas, is a determiner (in this case masculine and singular). It refers to someone or to something and it precedes a noun that must be masculine and singular as well. It occupies the first position in the sentence.

¿Algún huevo para hacer la tortilla?

(Do you have) any egg to make a Spanish omelet?

 Algún año viajaré a Chile.

One day I will travel to Chile.

2. Alguno (not algún) is a masculine, singular pronoun that refers to someone and specifies the gender and number of the word that follows.

En Andalucía no todo el mundo pronuncia la “z” como una “s”. Yo sé de alguno que lo hace con el sonido “z” también.

In Andalusia, not everyone pronounces the letter “z” as an “s”. I know some people who do use the sound “z” as well.

3. Besides, alguno can also have the same role as algún + [pronoun]. It can be used this way when the speaker does not want to repeat the name.

- ¿Tienes algún libro de gramática?

- Aquí no, pero creo que tengo alguno (= algún libro de gramática) en casa.

- Do you have any grammar books?

- Not here, but I believe I have some (=grammar books) at home.

Ningún, ninguno

They are both indefinite adjectives. However, these two words have different meanings and they can’t be used in the same way. Let’s find out why:

1. Ningún and ninguna mean not one, and therefore they must be used in plural. You’ll find them always placed before a masculine, singular noun.

No queda ningún bombón en la caja. (There is not even one chocolate left in the box)

No hay ningún cliente en la tienda. (There are no customers in the store)

2. Ninguno has the same meaning as ningún + [nombre], but we use it when we don’t want to repeat the name we are referring to.

- ¿Tienes algún libro de gramática?

- No, aquí no tengo ninguno (= ningún libro de gramática).

3. When talking about people, we use nadie instead of ninguno. But we’ll get deeper into that in our next blog post.

We thank Lucas, Head of Studies at our Spanish school in Seville, for his contribution to our blog. Keep on learning with don Quijote!

This week we would like to give you the last details you need to get a full overview of the Spanish adjective placement. Let us refresh your memory! We encourage you to go back to our first article on the topic and keep on reading this post in English or in Spanish to upgrade the way you use adjectives.

Before or after the noun?

Usually, we place adjectives that express order before the noun. These include primero (first), segundo (second), último (last), próximo (next), siguiente (following), nuevo (new), antiguo (old). For example:

Espero hacerlo mejor en el próximo examen. (I hope to do better on the next exam.)

However, when we talk about the chapters of a book, the episodes of a TV series or the floors of a building, these adjectives can also be placed after the noun. For example:

El segundo capítulo es mejor que el primero. = El capítulo segundo es mejor que el primero. (The second episode is better than the first one.)

La ropa de deporte está en la tercera planta. = La ropa de deporte está en la planta tercera. (Sports clothes are on the third floor.)

Changing form and meaning

We must consider that some adjectives change their form regarding their position before or after the noun. Grande (big), bueno (good), malo (bad), primero (first) and tercero (third) do so. Let’s have a look at how some of them vary in form:

Un chico bueno = un buen chico (A good boy)

Un consejo malo = un mal consejo (A bad piece of advice)

El capítulo primero = el primer capítulo (The first episode)

El tercer piso = el piso tercero (The third floor)

In all the cases above, adjectives keep the same meaning regardless their position in the sentence. However, the adjective grande (big) has different meanings depending on whether it goes before or after the noun:

Barcelona es una ciudad grande. (Barcelona is a big city.)

Barcelona es una gran ciudad. (Barcelona is great city.)

In the first sentence, grande describes the city’s dimensions, i. e., its size, while in the second example gran talks more about its character: a great, wonderful city. In this case, it talks about the quality of Barcelona, not about its size.

Please note that all the adjectives above change their form to agree with masculine singular nouns, but the word grande has also a different spelling for feminine singular nouns, as we have seen in the example Barcelona es una gran ciudad. The reason behind is that grande is built in the same way both for masculine and feminine nouns, so if the form changes in masculine it must also do it in feminine.

Thanks to Ignacio Sellés from our school in Alicante for bringing some extra light to the topic.

If you want to improve your knowledge about specific topics such as adjectives, we encourage you to try our don Quijote private Spanish lessons. With them, you’ll have the opportunity to focus on the topics that most interest you.

In our last few academic posts, we studied how to spot the difference between masculine and feminine nouns and adjectives. That probably wasn’t completely new to you, but today we’re going to cover a topic that students are always asking about. It usually doesn’t get the attention it deserves in the classroom.

Now that we know when an adjective is masculine or feminine, where do we put it? There’s no easy answer because in Spanish, adjectives can go before or after the noun.

Read this post in Spanish.

Some adjectives always go after the noun. These adjectives express:

• Color: ¿Te gusta mi vestido azul? (Do you like my blue dress?)
• Form: Me he comprado una mesa redonda. (I bought myself a round table.)
• State or condition: En esta casa hay muchas cosas rotas. (In this house there are many broken things.)
• Type: Quiero un teléfono móvil. (I want a mobile phone.)
• Origin: Me gusta la música española. (I like Spanish music.)

However, there’s an exception: in poetic language, these types of adjectives can go before the noun.

• Me enamoré de sus rojos labios (I fell in love with his/her red lips).

All other adjectives (the ones that don’t fit into the categories listed above) can be placed before or after the noun, depending on the situation.

• When a Spanish adjective comes after the noun, it is usually being used to distinguish the thing we’re talking about from something else.
  •  Vamos por el camino grande. Parece más seguro que el camino pequeño.

(Let’s take the big road. It looks safer than the small road.)

• When a Spanish adjective comes before the noun, it’s not being used to distinguish the noun from other nouns. Instead, the adjective is being used to highlight a quality of the noun.
  •  El pequeño camino que lleva a la cima de la montaña es peligroso.

(The small road that leads to the top of the mountain is dangerous.)

In this case, there is only one road. The adjective pequeño is being used to describe a characteristic of the road. We don’t need to distinguish between a big road and a small road because there is only one.

These adjectives that can be used before the noun usually describe a characteristic whose meaning is relative. That is to say, the characteristic they describe depends on making a comparison. For example, grande-pequeño (big-small), rápido-lento (fast-slow), bonito-feo (pretty-ugly), fuerte-débil (strong-weak), largo-corto (long-short), cercano-lejano (near-far), etc. Something is big or small, pretty or ugly, fast or slow, etc., depending on what we compare it to.

Usually, you will see these adjectives with relative meanings placed before a noun in formal writing. For example, Los testigos dicen que se asustaron porque escucharon una fuerte explosión (The witnesses say they were frightened because they heard a loud explosión).

To learn more, sign up for one of the Spanish courses we offer at our schools.

Thanks to Ignacio Sellés from our school in Alicante for teaching us where to put our Spanish adjectives.