Unit 5 · A Whole Thought in Spanish

Picture Leo at the soccer game. He opens his mouth and sings. In Spanish we say "Leo canta" (Leo sings). This short sentence has two parts. Leo is the person. Canta is what he does.

The person or thing doing the action is called the sujeto (subject). The action word is called the verbo (verb). In "Ana baila" (Ana dances), Ana is the subject. Baila is the verb. A sentence needs both parts to be a whole thought.

"Leo" alone is not a sentence. It does not tell us what Leo does. "Canta" alone asks a question: who sings? Put them together and you have a whole thought: "Leo canta." Now we know who and what.

Sometimes we use a short word instead of a name. In English we say I, you, he and she. These are called subject pronouns. A pronoun takes the place of a name. Spanish has its own set of these words.

Yo means I. It is not written with a capital letter unless it starts a sentence. Tú means you when you talk to a friend or a family member. Tú has an accent mark. Without the accent, tu means your, a different word.

Él means he, and ella means she. Él needs its accent too. Without it, el means the. So "Leo canta" can become "Él canta" (He sings). "Ana baila" can become "Ella baila" (She dances).

At the game, Sofía talks about her whole team. She is part of the group, so she says nosotros (we). "Nosotros jugamos" means we play. If the whole group is girls, she says nosotras.

Now Sofía talks about the other team. She is not part of that group. She says ellos (they). "Ellos corren" means they run. For a group of only girls, Spanish uses ellas.

English speakers often forget that Spanish has a boy and girl form here. Use ellos for a group of boys or a mixed group of boys and girls. Use ellas only when every person in the group is a girl or woman.

Sofía wants to say she talks with Grandpa. The verb is hablar (to speak or to talk). This whole form, with -ar on the end, is the name of the verb. It means to talk, not who talks.

To use it, we conjugate the verb. That means we change the ending to match the person. First, drop -ar. That leaves habl-. Then add an ending. Yo hablo (I talk). Tú hablas (you talk). Él habla, ella habla (he talks, she talks).

A common mistake is to keep the -ar: "yo hablar." That sounds like "I to talk." Another mistake is using -o for everyone: "ella hablo." The -o ending only belongs to yo.

Sofía’s team talks in the huddle. She says "Nosotros hablamos" (We talk). The ending is -amos. Drop -ar from hablar, and add -amos: hablamos. Everyone in the huddle is included.

Then she looks at the other team. "Ellos hablan" (They talk). The ending is -an. It is just -a with an n added. That n is a little sign that means more than one person.

Now you have five endings. Yo hablo. Tú hablas. Él and ella habla. Nosotros hablamos. Ellos and ellas hablan. Say them out loud like a chant. Your ear will start to catch a wrong ending.

Look again at Sofía’s last line: "Hablo con mi abuelo" (I talk with my grandpa). She did not write yo. The -o ending already says I. Only yo uses -o with these verbs, so nobody gets confused.

This is normal in Spanish. "Cantas muy bien" means you sing very well. The -as ending shows it is tú. "Bailamos" means we dance. The -amos ending shows it is nosotros.

In English you cannot drop I. "Talk with my grandpa" sounds like an order. That is why English speakers put yo in every sentence. It is not wrong, but it can sound extra strong, like saying "I myself talk."

After the goal, the Tigers dance. Sofía writes "Ellos bailan" (They dance). The verb is bailar (to dance). It ends in -ar, so it works just like hablar: bailo, bailas, baila, bailamos, bailan.

Leo sings before every game. The verb is cantar (to sing). Drop -ar and add endings: canto, cantas, canta, cantamos, cantan. "Leo canta" means Leo sings.

These are called regular verbs. Regular means they follow the pattern with no surprises. Once you know hablar, you already know many verbs. Learn one pattern, and you can use it again and again.

Sofía walks to the field. She writes "Camino al campo" (I walk to the field). The verb is caminar (to walk). Drop -ar, add -o: camino. The -o tells us it is Sofía herself.

In Chicago, many families walk to the corner store or the park. You might hear "Caminamos al parque" (We walk to the park). Al means to the. It is a joined form of a plus el.

Here is the whole set: camino, caminas, camina, caminamos, caminan. Notice something? Every form keeps camin- at the front. Only the ending changes. The front part is called the raíz (stem).

Most Spanish sentences look like English ones. Subject first, then verb, then the rest. "Ana canta una canción" (Ana sings a song). "Leo camina al parque" (Leo walks to the park).

One difference is describing words. In English we say "the big dog." In Spanish the describing word usually comes after: el perro grande (the big dog). An English speaker might say "el grande perro." That sounds odd in Spanish.

Another difference is no. It goes right before the verb: "Leo no canta" (Leo does not sing). Spanish has no word for does. You will learn more about no in the next chapter.

Now you can do what Sofía did. Pick a person. Pick an action. Match the ending. "Yo camino." "Leo canta." "Nosotros hablamos." "Ellos bailan." Each one is a whole thought.

Check each sentence with three questions. Who does it? What do they do? Does the ending match the person? If ella goes with bailo, fix it: ella baila.

Spanish is spoken in 20 countries as an official language, from Mexico to Argentina to Spain. Kids in all of them build sentences this same way. Your soccer story would make sense to all of them.

Ana’s new friend asks what languages she speaks. Ana speaks English and Spanish, but not French. She says, "No hablo francés" (I don’t speak French). She just put no in front of hablo.

Making a sentence mean not is called negation. In Spanish it takes one step. Find the verb. Put no right before it. "Leo canta" (Leo sings) becomes "Leo no canta" (Leo does not sing).

English uses extra words: do not, does not, don’t. Spanish has no word for do here. A common mistake is to put no after the verb: "Leo canta no." Another is to look for a word for don’t. Just use no before the verb.

At the sleepover, Ana asks, "¿Canta?" Tomás says, "No, no canta." It looks like he said no twice by accident. He did not. Each no has its own job in the sentence.

The first no is the answer, like English no. It comes before a comma. The second no makes the verb negative, like English not. "No, no canta" means "No, it does not sing."

English speakers sometimes drop the second no and say "No, canta." That actually means "No, it sings!" The comma and the second no matter. Say both, and pause at the comma.

When Tomás says yes, Lucía writes sí on her notepad. She puts an accent mark on the i. Without the mark, si means if. It is a different word with a different meaning.

A yes answer in a full sentence looks like this: "Sí, es grande" (Yes, it is big). Put sí first, then a comma, then the sentence. No extra word is needed.

Many heritage speakers say sí every day but forget the accent when they write. Your ear cannot hear it, but a reader can see it. Sí is yes. Si is if, as in "si llueve" (if it rains).

Say "Es grande" in a flat voice. It is a statement: it is big. Now say it again, but let your voice rise at the end: "¿Es grande?" Now it asks: is it big? The words did not change.

In English we often add do or does to ask. "Do you dance?" Spanish does not need that. "Bailas" means you dance. "¿Bailas?" with a rising voice means do you dance?

This rising sound is called la entonación (intonation). It is the music of your voice. Listening for it helps you know if someone is telling you something or asking you something.

Lucía writes "¿Es grande?" The first mark is upside down: ¿. It is called the signo de interrogación (question mark). Spanish puts one at the start and one at the end.

Why? In a long sentence, you learn early that a question is coming. Then you can raise your voice in the right place when you read aloud. Exclamations work the same way: "¡Sí!" (Yes!) and "¡Qué bien!" (How great!)

A very common mistake is to write only the end mark: "Es grande?" That is missing a piece. Another is to put ¿ at the start of the whole line instead of where the question starts: "Tomás, ¿hablas francés?"

Your teacher asks, "¿Hablas español?" (Do you speak Spanish?) A short answer is "Sí." A full answer is "Sí, hablo español." Full answers help you practice verbs.

Watch the ending change. The question uses hablas because it is about tú. Your answer is about yo, so it uses hablo. A common mistake is to copy the question: "Sí, hablas español." That means yes, you speak Spanish.

It works for groups too. "¿Bailan ustedes?" (Do you all dance?) "Sí, bailamos." (Yes, we dance.) Ustedes means you all. The answer uses nosotros, so the ending is -amos.

At the sleepover, Lucía says, "Me gusta este juego" (I like this game). Me gusta is how you say I like. It is a very useful phrase. It does not follow the hablo pattern, so learn it as a chunk.

Put a thing after it with el or la: "Me gusta el fútbol" (I like soccer). "Me gusta la pizza" (I like pizza). Or put an action after it, still ending in -ar: "Me gusta bailar" (I like to dance).

A common mistake is "Yo gusto el fútbol." It feels like English "I like," but in Spanish it is wrong. Stick with the chunk: me gusta. Leave the verb in its -ar form after it: me gusta cantar, not me gusta canto.

Ana does not want to sleep. She says, "No me gusta dormir" (I don’t like to sleep). She put no in front of me gusta. It is the same idea as "no hablo." No goes first.

Watch the order: no, then me, then gusta. A common mistake is "Me no gusta." English speakers put not near the verb, so no ends up in the middle. In Spanish, no comes before the whole chunk.

You can answer with the double no too. "¿Te gusta el brócoli?" (Do you like broccoli?) "No, no me gusta." (No, I don’t like it.) The first no answers. The second one makes it negative.

Lucía turns to Marisol. "¿Te gusta el juego?" (Do you like the game?) Te gusta means you like. With a rising voice and question marks, it asks do you like?

Here is the swap to remember. The question uses te, because it is about you. The answer uses me, because it is about me. "¿Te gusta cantar?" "Sí, me gusta cantar."

A common mistake is to answer "Sí, te gusta." That means yes, you like it, which is about the other person. Switch te to me when you answer about yourself. It is like switching hablas to hablo.

Now you have all the tools from the sleepover. You can ask with a rising voice and ¿ ?. You can answer sí or no. You can say no before a verb. You can talk about what you like.

Try the game. One person thinks of an animal. Others ask: "¿Es grande?" "¿Es pequeño?" (Is it small?) "¿Canta?" The answers must be full: "Sí, es pequeño." "No, no canta."

Keep count on your fingers. Twenty questions is the limit. When you are ready, guess with a question: "¿Es un gato?" (Is it a cat?) End with "¡Me gusta este juego!" if you had fun.