El inglés

Los articulos y el género / (Articles and Gender):

In Spanish, all nouns have a gender, that is, they are either masculine or feminine.  Normally, a noun ending in "o" is masculine and a noun ending in "a" is feminine although there are exceptions to this rule.

                masculine - libro

                feminine - fruta

In addition to masculine and feminine nouns, there are masculine and feminine articles that mean "the" in English.  The masculine article "el" is used with masculine nouns, and the feminine article "la" is used with feminine nouns.

               masculine - el libro

                feminine - la fruta

Letras mayúsculas / (Capital letters):

English and Spanish follow some of the same capitalization rules, however, the following are NOT capitalized in Spanish:

1.  nationalities

2.  religions

3.  languages

4.  months

5. days

Una carta informal / (A Friendly Letter):

Querido Mateo,          Dear Matt,

¡Hola!  - Hi!

¿Qué tal? - What’s up?

¿Qué pasa? – What’s going on?

Mucho gusto. – Nice to meet you.

¿Cómo estás?  - How are you?

Estoy (bien, etc.) – I am (fine, etc.)

Me gusta recibir noticias tuyas. – It was nice to hear from you.

Espero que te vaya bien. – I hope that all is well.

Gracias  por escribirme. – Thanks for writing to me.

¡Escibeme pronto! – Write soon!

¡Adios! – Goodbye!

¡Hasta luego! – See you later!

Hasta la vista! – See you!

Tu amigo/a por correspondencia, – Your pen-pal,

Atentamente, - Sincerely,

Atentos saludos, - Sincerely,

Tu amigo/a del sexto grado, - Your sixth grade friend,

Los plurales / (Plurals):

1.    When a noun ends in a vowel (a,e,i,o,u), add s.

pintura          ---          pinturas

2.    When a noun ends in a consonant (any letter except a, e, i, o, u), add es.

sillón                    ---          sillones

3.    When a noun ends in z, change the z to c and add es.

Los adjetivos posesivos y personales / (Possessive and Personal Adjectives):

Los adjetivos personales:

1.    yo - I                    

2.    tú - you (informal)       

3.    él - he                                  

4.    ella - she                   

5.    usted (Ud.) - you (formal)                

6.    nosotros/nosotras - we  

7.    ustedes (Uds.) - you (plural)              

8.    ellos/ellas - they

Los adjetivos posesivos:

     In Spanish, possessive adjectives must agree with the nouns they are describing.

                nuestra familia - singular, feminine

                nuestro hermano - singular, masculine

                nuestras abuelas - plural, feminine

                nuestros abuelos - plural, masculine

1.    mi/mis - my                  

2.    tu/tus - your                      

3.    su/sus - his/her/their/your (formal)             

4. nuestro/nuestros - our (masculine)   

Los cognados / (Cognates):

Spanish and English have many cognates, words that are basically the same in both languages in form and meaning. For example:

1.  fantástico - fantastic

2.  inteligente - intelligent

3.  popular - popular

4.  la medicina - medicine

There are also false cognates which are words that appear to be the same, but have very different meanings.  For example:

1.  bizarro - brave

2.  sopa - soup

3.  fábrica - factory

4.  once - eleven