The Everything Spanish Grammar Book: All The Rules You Need To Master Espanol (Everything®) (8 page)

The Rules of Possession

“Possession” is a big word for a simple concept: a relationship of ownership. If you ask the question “whose?” the answer—mine, Jane’s, the high school students’—is the possessor.

In English, possession is indicated by adding an apostrophe and “s” (’s) to the noun representing the possessor:

Jane’s car (car owned by Jane)

Student’s notebooks (notebooks of the student)

As you can see, in the English construction, the possessor (Jane, student) comes before what is possessed (car, notebooks). In Spanish, this construction does not exist. Instead, people use the Spanish equivalent of the preposition “of” (
de
), and say
el coche de Jane
(literally, “the car of Jane”). In this construction, the object possessed always comes before the possessor:

los zapatos de Enrique

Enrique’s shoes

el libro de la chica con pelo negro

the girl with black hair’s book

la amiga de la hermana de Diana

Diana’s sister’s friend

In Spanish, the object or person possessed (shoes, girl, friend) carry a definite article. Possession can also be signaled with possessive pronouns, covered in the next chapter.

Practice Makes Perfect

Indicate whether each of the following nouns is masculine or feminine:

Write down the plural form:

Insert the correct definite and indefinite article, where necessary (and don’t forget about the rules of agreement):

1.
Me gusta tomar una siesta
________________________
domingos.

2.
Escribí
________________________
poemas para ella.

3.
Me duele
________________________
cabeza.

4.
Mi papá es
________________________
abogado.

5.
Tengo
________________________
regalo para ti.

6.
Ya pasaron
________________________
semanas desde que te vi
________________________
por
última vez.

7. ________________
Sánchez me invitaron a su casa a cenar con
____________
ellos.

8.
¡Qué
_________________
bebé más dulce!

Translate into Spanish:

To check your answers, refer to the answer key in Appendix D.

C
HAPTER
5
Making Sense
of Pronouns

A PRONOUN IS A GRAMMATICAL DESIGNATION for words used to replace nouns and noun phrases. Some pronouns are easy to recognize: ella (she) is a pronoun that may be used instead of Marina or la chica de la calle Central (the girl from Central Street). Other pronouns are more difficult because they’re really other parts of speech working as pronouns. For example, compare Mucha gente cree que el castellano es difícil de aprender (Many people believe Spanish is difficult to learn) with Muchos lo creen (Many believe that). In the second example,
muchos
is an adjective that serves as a pronoun referring to
gente
and
lo
is a pronoun referring to
que el
castellano es difícil de aprender
. Confused? Don’t despair. This chapter will help you see how pronouns work.

From Noun to Pronoun

In the simplest terms, a pronoun takes the place of a noun to make a switch from a specific noun or noun phrase to a more “generic” word. Pronouns don’t carry meaning in and of themselves. What they do is refer to something that has already been said. For example, “the gray cat” can be referred to simply as “it,” as long as it is clear what the pronoun “it” refers to.

There are eight types of pronouns in Spanish:

1.
Personal pronouns
(
pronombres personales
): Pronouns that replace personal nouns, like
yo
(I) and
nosotros
(us).

2.
Possessive pronouns
(
pronombres posesivos
): Pronouns that represent the possessor in a possessive construction, like
mi
(my) and
tuyo
(yours).

3.
Demonstrative pronouns
(
pronombres demonstrativos
):
Pronouns that demonstrate or refer to a noun, particularly in terms of its location in respect to the speakers, like
éste
(this) and
aquéllas
(those).

4.
Numeral pronouns
(
pronombres numerales
): Numbers used as pronouns, like
primero
(first one) and
par
(pair).

5.
Indefinite pronouns
(
pronombres indefinidos
): Pronouns that refer to nouns in terms of their quantity, like
algún
(some) and
todo
(all).

6.
Relative pronouns
(
pronombres relativos
):
Que
(that),
cual/cuales
(which), and
quien/quienes
(who, that), used as pronouns.

7.
Interrogative pronouns
(
pronombres interrogativos
):
Relative pronouns used as question words. To differentiate relative and interrogative pronouns, the latter are spelled with accent marks:
qué, cuál, cuáles, quién,
and
quiénes.

8.
Exclamation pronouns
(
pronombres exclamativos
): The same five pronouns, but used in exclamations. For example:
¡Qúe
bonito!
(How pretty!)

Numeral pronouns, or numerals used as pronouns, are covered in Chapter 3. Relative and interrogative pronouns are reviewed in Chapter 2, which explains the structure of the Spanish question and exclamation.

It’s Personal

There are four types of personal pronouns: subject pronouns, direct object pronouns, indirect object pronouns, and reflexive pronouns. Subject pronouns are pronouns representing nouns that serve as the subject of the verb.

Subject pronouns in English and Spanish differ in a few important ways. First of all, subject pronouns are often dropped in Spanish. The explanation is simple: If the verb is present, its ending will reflect the person and number of its subject, so that it is obvious what the subject pronoun would be. This means
yo
busco
(I look for) can simply be stated as
busco.
The –o ending makes it clear the subject pronoun is
yo .
Even in the third person singular, where the subject pronoun could be
él, ella,
ello,
or
usted,
the pronoun is dropped when the subject is obvious from context:

Dolores es de Madrid. Es madrileña.

Dolores is from Madrid. She is a
madrileña
.

Also note that some of the Spanish subject pronouns reflect the gender of the noun they represent, which does not occur in English (except in the case of “he” and “she”):
nosotras
is a feminine form of “we,”
vosotras
is a feminine form of the informal “you” used in Spain, and
ellas
is a feminine form of “they.” As you’ve already learned, when speaking of a mixed-gender group, the masculine form should be used.

ESSENTIAL

Hey, You!

Arguably the most important difference between subject pronouns (and other personal pronouns) in English and Spanish is the use of the second person pronouns. In English, “you” is used any time you address another person or group of people, regardless of whether you’re being casual or polite. In Spanish, you’ll need to choose one of several different pronouns depending on the situation at hand.

When addressing one person, you have to choose between a casual and a polite “you.” When speaking to friends or people much younger than yourself, you can use the casual form,
tú.
In all other cases, it’s best to err on the side of politeness and choose the polite form,
usted.
If the person you’re speaking with finds this form too formal, he’ll invite you to switch to
tú.
(The verb for speaking in the
tú
form is
tutearse.)

In most of Argentina and Uruguay, as well as in a few other regions of Latin America,
vos
is used instead of
tú
in addressing a person informally. When this occurs, the verb ending is different as well. For example, in the present tense, “you have” is
vos tenés
and not
tú tienes.

In the plural, your pronoun usage will depend on whether you’re speaking Spanish in Spain or in Latin America. In Spain, there are two more words meaning “you”:
vosotros
(or
vosotras
for feminine nouns) is the informal form, the plural equivalent of
tú,
whereas
ustedes
is the more formal version, the plural of
usted
. In Latin America, no distinction is made between formal and informal address in the plural. When speaking to more than one person, Latin Americans always use
ustedes.

FACT