Learning
a language will be a lot easier for you if you know the rules. I have worked
out some step by step rules which if adhered to strictly will make your
learning experience smooth and easier and will miraculously make you speak
Spanish in 30 minutes. Here are the rules:
1.
Spanish language as a pro-drop language
By pro-drop I mean ‘pronoun-dropping’.
Spanish language as a pro-drop language simply means that it is a language in
which certain classes of pronouns may be omitted when they are implied
practically or grammatically.
Por ejemplo (for example): Voy a la iglesia. en vez de Yo voy a la
iglesia.
I'm going to church.
¿Quieres comer? en lugar de ¿Tú quieres comer?
Do you want to eat?
You may want to drop the pronoun or not but
I will advice that you do because that’s one step closer to speaking like the
natives who normally omit the personal pronouns while speaking.
2. Minúscula o Mayúscula (Lower case or upper
case letter)
Unlike the English Language, in Spanish, the
days of the week, months of the year and nationalities start with by a lower
case letter (minúscula).
Por ejemplo (for example):
lunes - Monday
enero - January
Soy nigeriana - I am a Nigerian.
3.
Formal
and Informal (personal pronoun)
The second person pronoun singular in
Spanish language has the formal (usted) and informal (tú) form which is applied
in speaking and writing depending on the situation. The usted form uses the
conjugation of the 3rd person singular. It also has plural forms
known as vosotros-as (informal) and (ustedes) (formal) which uses the 3rd
person plural conjugation.
-Vos: In some Latin American countries
(Argentina, El Salvador, Uruguay,
Paraguay, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Eastern Bolivia, etc.) el
voseo (vos) is preferred and used instead of el tuteo (tú).
Likewise the verbs are conjugated according
to vos not tú.
Por ejemplo: Tú eres guapa. (You are beautiful)
Vos sos
guapa.
O in Chile Vos erís /soi guapa.
Ejemplo: Entraron en el rancho, se sentaron y entonces el dijo: (They
entered the ranch, sat down and then he said:
-¿No me
conocés? (Don’t you know me?)
-“El tiempo borra” de Javier
de Viana
One of the many stories of Javier de Viana,
a Uruguayan writer.
Mucho ojo: Way back, the standard formal
way to address someone whom one is not on familiar terms with or a person of
title or rank was “vuestra merced” (your grace, your worship abbreviated as
“v.m” and later as “v.d”) in the singular and “vuestras mercedes” in the
plural. Today vuestra merced has evolved into “usted” which is still
abbreviated as vd or ud.
However according to the RAE (Real Academia
Española), el tuteo (tú) is the standard form.
4.
Some alphabets (h, j y r (rr) pronunciation
According to the Spanish language alphabet
pronunciation, the letter h (hache) is always silent when speaking.
The alphabet j (jota) is pronounced as the
h in English language, so we keep making mistakes like mispronouncing José as
Jose.
The r in Spanish language is always
trilled. If it’s single r, then it is lightly trilled (pero –but) and if the letter "r" is at the beginning of a word or double rr, then it’s strongly trilled, Rita, rosa, (perro -dog).
5.
Gender –genero
In Spanish language grammatical rule,
Spanish nouns are classified to form agreement in grammatical gender with
determiners and adjectives, i.e. the nouns have a lexical gender of either
masculine or feminine which agrees with the determiners and adjectives.
Por ejemplo (For example):
La habitación esta sucia.
-La (feminine determiner) habitación (feminine noun) está sucia
( feminine adjective).
El coche está sucio.
- El (masculine determiner) coche (masculine noun) está sucio
(masculine adjective).
Esta chica es guapa.
-Esta (feminine determiner) chica (feminine noun) es guapa
(feminine adjective).
Este chico es guapo.
-Este (masculine determiner) chico (masculine noun) es guapo
(masculine adjective).
Es un hombre simpático.
-Es un (masculine determiner) hombre (masculine noun) simpático
(masculine adjective).
Es una mujer simpática.
-Es una (feminine determiner) mujer (feminine noun)
simpática (feminine adjective).
6.
Ceceo, Seseo y la distinción (distinction)
In Spain and Latin America, there exists a
difference in the pronunciation of the letters “s”, “c” (before e, i), y “z”
(before the vowels a, o y u).
-In most part of Spain, the use of ceceo is
very common.
- Ceceo is when the letters “s”, “c” and
“z” are pronounced like the English sound /ø/ (Thanks -/øæŋks/) (Mostly
used in Andalucía)
-Seseo is when the letters “s”, “c” and “z”
are pronounced like the English sound /s/. (Mostly used in Latin American
countries)
-La Distinción: This is when there is a
difference in the sounds /s/ and /ø/.
The letter “s” is pronounced as /s/ while
the letter “c” (before e, i) and the letter "z" (before "a," "o", y "u") are pronounced as the sound /ø/. And this is
normally the case in northern and central Spain.
Por ejemplos (For examples):
-El ceceo: (a) Zapato- /øapato/
(b) Fuerza- /fwɛrøa/
(c) Cielo- /øjelo/
(d) Democracia-
/demokraøja/
-El seseo: (a) Zapato- /sapato/
(b) Fuerza- /fwɛrsa/
(c) Cielo-
/sjelo/
(d) Democracia-
/demokrasja/
-La Distinción: (a) Casa- /kasa/
(b) Caza- /kaøa/(c) Cielo- /Φjelo/
(d) Cebra- /Φebra/
Text credit:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pro-d
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voseo
sites.google.com/a/geneseo.edu/spanish-linguistics/spanish-phonology/seseo-ceceo-and-distinction
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