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"
| conjugations | conjugation name: description | in English: Example sentence |
| (yo) bailo, (tú) bailas, (ella/él) baila, (nosotras/nosotros) bailamos, (vosotras/vosotros) bailáis, (ellas/ellos) bailan | present: Something happening now. | dance: She dances around the room. |
| (yo) bailé, (tú) bailaste, (ella/él) bailó, (nosotras/nosotros) bailamos, (vosotras/vosotros) bailasteis, (ellas/ellos) bailaron | past perfect: Happened (literary). | danced: She danced for me on Valentine last year. |
| (yo) bailaba, (tú) bailabas, (ella/él) bailaba, (nosotras/nosotros) bailábamos,(vosotras/vosotros) bailabais, (ellas/ellos) bailaban | past imperfect: Ongoing or habitual. | danced: She always danced as if she were a butterfly. |
| (yo) he bailado, (tú) has bailado, (ella/él) ha bailado, (nosotras/nosotros) hemos bailado, (vosotras/vosotros) habéis bailado, (ellas/ellos) han bailado | perfect: Something finished just now. | (have) danced: I have danced (I danced) the night away. |
| (yo) había bailado, (tú) habías bailado, (ella/él) había bailado, (nosotras/nosotros) habíamos bailado, (vosotras/vosotros) habíais bailado, (ellas/ellos) habían bailado | past/plu- perfect: Past habitual. | had danced: On Fridays, after we had danced, we had a drink. |
| (yo) hube bailado, (tú) hubiste bailado, (ella/él) hubo bailado, (nosotras/nosotros) hubimos bailado, (vosotras/vosotros) hubisteis bailado, (ellas/ellos) hubieron bailado | past anterior: Finished in the past. | had danced: I had danced for her on Valentine's day last year. |
| (yo) bailaré, (tú) bailarás, (ella/él) bailará, (nosotras/nosotros) bailaremos, (vosotras/vosotros) bailaréis, (ellas/ellos) bailarán | future: Do something in the future. | will dance: I will dance for her tomorrow. |
| (yo) habré bailado, (tú) habrás bailado, (ella/él) habrá bailado, (nosotras/nosotros) habremos bailado, (vosotras/vosotros) habréis bailado, (ellas/ellos) habrán bailado | future anterior: Future finished. | will have danced: I will have danced for her by next week. |
| (yo) bailaría, (tú) bailarías, (ella/él) bailaría, (nosotras/nosotros) bailaríamos, (vosotras/vosotros) bailaríais, (ellas/ellos) bailarían | conditional: Wish or necessity in the future. | should dance: I should dance with you alone. |
| (yo) habría bailado, (tú) habrías bailado, (ella/él) habría bailado, (nosotras/nosotros) habríamos bailado, (vosotras/vosotros) habríais bailado, (ellas/ellos) habrían bailado | past conditional: Finished wish or obligation. | should have danced: I should have danced with you. |
| (yo) baile, (tú) bailes, (ella/él) baile, (nosotras/nosotros) bailemos, (vosotras/vosotros) bailéis, (ellas/ellos) bailen | subjunctive: Wish or necessity. | (that) I dance: You know that I dance only with you. |
| (yo) bailara, (tú) bailaras, (ella/él) bailara, (nosotras/nosotros) bailáramos, (vosotras/vosotros) bailarais, (ellas/ellos) bailaran | imperfect subjunctive: Habitual or ongoing. | (that) I danced: I loved that we danced on Fridays. |
| (yo) bailase, (tú) bailases, (ella/él) bailase, (nosotras/nosotros) bailásemos, (vosotras/vosotros) bailaseis, (ellas/ellos) bailasen | imperfect subjunctive: Habitual or ongoing. Second form (literature). | (that) I danced: I loved that we danced on Fridays. |
| (yo) haya bailado, (tú) hayas bailado, (ella/él) haya bailado, (nosotras/nosotros) hayamos bailado, (vosotras/vosotros) hayáis bailado, (ellas/ellos) hayan bailado | perfect subjunctive: Finished. | (that) I have danced: Is it true that we have danced? |
| (yo) hubiera bailado, (tú) hubieras bailado, (ella/él) hubiera bailado, (nosotras/nosotros) hubiéramos bailado, (vosotras/vosotros) hubierais bailado, (ellas/ellos) hubieran bailado | pluperfect subjunctive: Finished in the past. | (that) I had danced: You knew I had danced with him! |
| (yo) hubiese bailado, (tú) hubieses bailado, (ella/él) hubiese bailado, (nosotras/nosotros) hubiésemos bailado, (vosotras/vosotros) hubieseis bailado, (ellas/ellos) hubiesen bailado | pluperfect subjunctive: Finished in the past. Second form used (literature). | (that) I had danced: You knew I had danced with him! |
| (yo) bailare, (tú) bailares, (ella/él) bailare, (nosotras/nosotros) bailáremos, (vosotras/vosotros) bailareis, (ellas/ellos) bailaren | future subjunctive: that it will happen | (that) I will dance |
| (yo) hubiere bailado, (tú) hubieres bailado, (ella/él) hubiere bailado, (nosotras/nosotros) hubiéremos bailado, (vosotras/vosotros) hubiereis bailado, (ellas/ellos) hubieren bailado | future perfect subjunctive: that it will have happened | (that) I will have danced |
| tú baila, ella/él baile, nosotras/nosotros bailemos, vosotras/vosotros bailad, ellas/ellos bailen | imperative: Something forced. | dance!: Let's dance! Dance little sister! |
| bailando | continuous: Something going on now. | We're dancing till we drop. |
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:
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).