SpanishLesson 1 of 2 in the course Spanish syntax

Spanish Grammar: Inflection, Verb Moods, Pronouns, and Syntax

5 flashcards · 5 quiz questions · 5 match pairs · 5 fill-in sentences · English

Save course
Lesson progress
0 / 5

Your progress is kept in this browser only.Sign up to save it

Summary

Spanish grammar relies on inflection: small changes to words often show how they function in a sentence. This lesson introduces the main patterns of inflection and explains how nouns, adjectives, determiners, and adverbs work together.

Spanish is a grammatically inflected language. Word endings can change to show features such as person, number, tense, or gender. Verbs have especially extensive patterns of inflection, while nouns are marked for number and belong to one of two grammatical genders: masculine or feminine. For many nouns referring to people, grammatical gender corresponds to biological gender, but grammatical gender is a feature of the noun itself.

All flashcards

What is grammatical inflection?
A change in a word's form that expresses grammatical information such as person, number, gender, or tense.
How do the preterite and imperfect differ?
The preterite frames a past event as completed or bounded; the imperfect presents past actions or states as ongoing, habitual, or background.
What is the subjunctive mood?
A verb mood commonly used when a speaker presents an idea through desire, demand, emotion, doubt, denial, or uncertainty.
What is voseo?
The use of vos instead of tú for familiar singular address, with regional variation in meaning and verb forms.
How are clitics placed in Spanish commands?
Clitics follow affirmative commands and precede negative commands.

Quiz questions

  1. How does the preterite typically present a past event compared with the imperfect?Answer: The preterite frames a completed event; the imperfect frames ongoing, habitual, or background action.
  2. Which infinitive endings identify the three Spanish verb classes?Answer: -ar, -er, and -ir
  3. In an affirmative assertion such as “Creo que ella sabe,” which mood is generally used in the subordinate clause?Answer: The indicative mood
  4. In Latin America, which form commonly serves for both familiar and formal plural address?Answer: Ustedes, with third-person plural verb forms
  5. When does the conjunction y commonly change to e in Spanish?Answer: Before a following word that begins with the /i/ sound

Based on the Wikipedia article Spanish grammar, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Adapted into a summary, flashcards and quizzes.

More in Spanish

All Spanish lessons
SpanishYeísmo: Phonemic Merger, Regional Patterns, and Spelling Effects5 flashcards · 5 quiz questions · 4 gamesPlay free →SpanishSpanish Verb Conjugation: Regular Groups, Irregular Patterns, and Constructions5 flashcards · 5 quiz questions · 4 gamesPlay free →SpanishSpanish Verb Irregularities: Spelling, Stem Changes, and Irregular Forms5 flashcards · 5 quiz questions · 4 gamesPlay free →SpanishSpanish Prepositions: Uses, Contractions, and Multiword Constructions5 flashcards · 5 quiz questions · 4 gamesPlay free →SpanishSpanish Coronal Fricatives: Historical Change and Dialect Patterns5 flashcards · 5 quiz questions · 4 gamesPlay free →SpanishAndalusian Spanish: Regional Variation, Sound Patterns, and Grammar5 flashcards · 5 quiz questions · 4 gamesPlay free →