Learn to Read Spanish and Learning Grammar

How To Learn Grammar Fast and Easy

As argued before, grammar should be acquired, not learned. This doesn't mean you can ignore grammar, but studying grammar before experiencing the language is simply doing it the unnecessary hard way. It's good to have an idea of the grammatical components of Spanish before starting to read. That way you know what you can encounter. And when you start reading, and refer back to the grammar, you pick up the rules fast and easy.

Like French or Italian (If That Helps)

Spanish Grammar is similar to French grammar, which is also a Roman language. That means it has the same sort of verb conjugations (present, past, perfect, subjunctive, future, conditional, imperative to give the short list) and noun inflections (female, male/neuter). An example for Nouns is "el hombre", the man, and "la mujer", the woman. Different for verbs is that for Spanish the personal pronoun (yo, tú, ella, nosostros, vosotros, ellas; I, you, she, we, you, they (f)) is omitted unless emphasized. Like in French conjugation differs for -ir -er and -tre verbs, in Spanish we have -ar -er and -ir.

Regular Verbs "-ar"

Reading and Grammar

Here is an example of the Spanish Fairytales. As you can see most of the verbs used are in past tense. Try to recognise the conjugations given! Just like in our products move over a word to see it's translation. Here the "title" component of a http link is used while in our products the pop-up translation is immediate, by the way:

EL   PRÍNCIPE   OSO  

Había   una   vez   un   comerciante   que   tenía   tres   hijas   muy   bonitas,   sobre todo   la   más   pequeña   a   quien   quería   mucho.   Toda   su   fortuna   consistía   en   un   barco   que   tenía   en   el   mar,   con   el   que   hacía   sus   negocios.

Por   entonces   lo   había   mandado   muy   lejos   y   estaba   aguardándolo,   cuando   le   dieron   la   noticia   de   que   se   había   ido   a pique.   El   pobre   hombre   se puso   muy   triste   porque,   como   no   poseía   más   que   aquel   barco,   estaba   arruinado.

Así   pasó   algún   tiempo   y   gastaron   lo   poco   que   tenía,   cuando   supo   que   el   barco,   que   sólo   había   estado   perdido,   había   encontrado   el   camino   y   estaba   en   un   puerto   aguardando   sus   órdenes.

El   hombre   estaba   muy   contento   y   dispuso   ir   al   puerto   donde   estaba   el   barco   y   preguntó   a   sus   hijas   qué   querían   que   les   trajese.

"A   mí,   un   vestido   de   seda,"   dijo   la   mayor.

"Y   a   mí,"   dijo   la   segunda, "un   pañuelo   bordado."

"¿Y   tú,   qué   quieres?"   dijo   a   la   hija   menor.

"Yo   quiero   una   flor de lis   del   huerto   que   encuentre   Usted   en   el   camino."  

Se fue   mi   hombre,   llegó   al   puerto   y   vendió   el   cargamento.   Compró   el   vestido   y   el   pañuelo,   pero   no   pudo   encontrar   la   flor de lis.

Como   volvía   a   su   casa,   vio   una   casa   con   unos   jardines   tan   hermosos,   que   dijo :    "Voy   a   ver   si   en   estos   jardines   tienen   la   flor de lis   y   me   la   venden."

Some Lessons While Reading

1. "Había" is the 3rd person singular past tense of one of the most common verbs, "to have". In Spanish instead of saying "There was", they will say "It had", like in French ("Il y a", litterally, "It there had"). "Tenía" from "Tener", "to have" as in to have received for example a cup of tea ("Tenemos una copa de vino", "(Let's) have a glass of wine"), or to "have" children, in this case. "Poseía" would be "had" as in "possessed" but isn't used very often (just like our "possessed").

2. "ido" in "ido a pique" (went missing) is the past participle of "ír".

3. "estaba" as in "estaba aguardándolo", means "was". In Spanish there are two forms of "to be". They are "Estar" and "Ser". The first one defines a temporary condition, while the second one defines a permanent one. "Ser" as in "Soy Kees" means "I am Kees" which is a permanent affliction. While "Estar" as in "Estoy loco" which means "I'm crazy" is most often used to define a state of being which can pass. It would be "Es un barco y esta marrón." if you describe a boat by saying "(It) is a ship and (it) is brown." which shows the two states of this boat (permanent, a boat and temporary, brown).