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[vamosaaprender]

Spanish Grammar Basics: Sentence Components & Verb Structure

Before learning specific grammar structures in Spanish, it is important to begin with the important (yet boring) basics - sentence components. This focuses on how sentences are formed in Spanish and the parts of sentences that you will need to know and understand before moving forward.

This is the very first step of Spanish grammar learning, so it is okay if you feel confused after this post. These terms and grammatical tenses will start to make more sense to you once you learn them in context, piece by piece. For now, this is just an overview of how sentences are structured in Spanish and the types of functions words and sentences can have.

Sentence Components

What even is a sentence? A sentence is a self-contained unit of communication that can be formed with combinations of the following 8 types of words: nouns, verbs, prepositions, articles, adjectives, pronouns, conjunctions, and adverbs. Each of these types of words have specific functions in a sentence:

NOUN: can serve as the subject of a verb, its direct or indirect object, or the object of a preposition. In Spanish, equivalents of nouns (i.e., words or groups of words that can have the same function as nouns) are pronouns, infinitives, and nominalized words or groups of words.

VERB: the grammatical core of a sentence; expresses an action or a state. Its form has to agree with subject, tense, mood, aspect, and voice.

ARTICLE: accompanies and modifies a noun or its equivalent as to specificity.

ADJECTIVE: accompanies and modifies a noun or its equivalent.

ADVERB: modifies a verb, an adjective, another adverb, or a whole sentence.

PRONOUN: is used to avoid repeating a noun whose reference is clear.

PREPOSITION: relates a noun or its equivalent to another noun, to the verb, or to the rest of the sentence.

CONJUNCTION: joins two parts of a sentence. Conjunctions of subordination introduce subordinate clauses.

Verb Structure

*The examples for the indicative, conditional, and subjunctive are given in the first-person singular (yo). The example for the imperative is given in the ustedes form.

**Some grammarians consider the conditional to be a tense of the indicative mood, not its own separate mood. Because it used for contexts that are different from those in which the other moods are used, and because it has two tenses itself, here it going to be considered its own mood.

[polyglotten]

Common Spanish Verb Prefixes

I remember when I was in school one of my English teachers described learning prefixes as a cheat code to knowing a huge amount of words I realised how right she was when i noticed I could figure out the meaning of loads of Spanish words I encountered because I knew the prefixes + the meaning of the verb. So learning prefixes really is a shortcut to knowing the meaning of a huge amount of words. Here’s part one of a two part post I’ll be making on common Spanish verb prefixes. Enjoy and let me know if you spot any mistakes.

Mal-  

Meaning: bad

The prefix mal- at the beginning of a verb can be used to express that the action is being done poorly, or even that the action itself is morally bad. 

Examples:

malgastar  to waste

malpensar  to think badly of

maldecir  to curse, to speak badly of

maltratar  to mistreat

malentender  to misunderstand

malquerer  to dislike

Ben-

Meaning: good

The opposite of mal is ben. This one’s not hard to remember because it looks and sounds so similar to the Spanish words bien (well) and bueno (good). 

Examples:

bendecir  to bless, to speak well of 

beneficiar  to benefit

Des-

English equivalent: un-

Like the English prefix un-, des- implies the action of undoing something, either in a literal or a metaphorical sense.

Examples:

descubrir  to discover lit. to uncover 

deshacer  to undo

desplegar  to unfold  

descuidar  to neglect

desanimar  to discourage

descomponer to decompose

desaparecer to disappear 

Dis- 

Meaning: not

The prefix dis- helps to express opposites or the concept of not doing something.

Examples:

discontinuar  to discontinue 

disculpar  to forgive

disociar  to dissociate

dislocar  to distort

 Pre-

Meaning: before

Like in the word prefijo (prefix), this particular prefix refers to things that come before. It’s quite similar to its English equivalent prefix “pre,” as seen in words like “prepare” or “prevent.”

Examples:

presentar  to present is an interesting one because it can be understood as “to put something before someone 

predecir  to predict

presuponer  to presume

preparar  to prepare

Con-

Meaning: with, together 

The prefix con- is used for verbs that have something to do with putting things together or things working together. Don’t confuse these with verbs that actually start with the prefix contra-, which is it’s own prefix meaning “against”.

Examples:

convivir  to live together

contratar  to contract/to hire 

convenir  to be convenient

contener  to contain 

Com- 

Meaning: with, together

Similar to con, com is also used to talk about things going together or working together.

Examples: 

componer  to compose

comparar  to compare 

combinar  to combine

compartir  to share

Co-

Meaning: with, together

This third and final prefix used to mean “with” or “together” is also represented in a number of useful Spanish verbs, many of which are cognates with their English equivalents.

Examples: 

colaborar  to collaborate

cooperar  to cooperate

coordinar  to coordinate

(x)  

[blacklinguist]

it may just be me, but i [still] get confused with Spanish consonants, coming from an English background when consonants can be dead silent, or make a totally different sound, or blend together ….. so these are some of my notes from class!

the ‘K’ sound

found in words that begin with:

ca- | cabeza, calcetín, café

co- | coche, colocar, cooperación

cu- | cuatro, cuadra, cuba

que- | quedar, querer, queso

qui- | quitar, quince, quízas

the ‘Z’ sound [like an ‘s’]

found in words that begin with:

za- | zapato, zapear, zapador

ce- | celular, celebrar, cerrar

ci- | ciervo, civil, cima

zo- | zoólogico, zorro, zona

zu- | zumo, whatever the heck else starts with zu-

the ‘G’ sound [hard G]

found in words that begin with:

ga- | ganar, galleta, gato

gue- | guerra, guerilla, ?

gui- | guitarra, guión, guiar

go- | gol, gordo, gorila

gu- | guapo, guava, gusto

the ‘J’ sound [like an ‘h’]

found in words that begin with:

ja- | jamón, jardín, japonés

ge- | geminar, gente, general

gi- | giraffa, girar, gigante

jo- | joven, jovial, joya

ju- | jugar, jueves, junto

[vamosaaprender]

Spanish Grammar Basics: Sentence Structure

Recommended reading before this | 1

A sentence can be composed of one or many clauses. A clause can be identified by the fact that it has a verb that is conjugated (i.e. not in the infinitive or participle form).

When you look at a sentence, you can tell how many clauses it has based on the number of conjugated verbs:

In the above sentences, the conjugated verbs are in bold, and the clauses are separated by a slash. The number in parentheses indicates how many clauses there are in the sentence, which correlates to the amount of conjugated verbs.

1. Independent Clauses

Independent clauses are not dependent on each other, nor do they have other clauses depending on them. They can stand alone:

or they can be attached to one another by means of conjunctions (“y” in the following sentence):

2. Main or Principal Clauses

A main clause is a clause that could be independent according to its meaning but that has one or more clauses that are its dependents. All of the rest of the clauses depend on the main clause.

3. Dependent or Subordinate Clauses

In Spanish, a dependent or subordinate clause is introduced by a conjunction of subordination or adverbial phrase (que, porque, cuando, tan pronto como…) or by a relative pronoun (que, lo que, la que, cuyo…). As its name implies, a dependent clause depends on a main clause. The relationship between the dependent clause and main clause varies on the type of dependent clause it might be: nominal, adverbial, or adjectival.

Nominal Clause: behaves like a noun and can serve the function of subject, direct object of the verb of the main clause, or object of a preposition.

In these sentences, the noun chocolate and the nominal clause que me ayudes have the same grammatical function as the direct object of the main verb Quiero. Both are the “thing” that’s wanted.

Adverbial Clause: behaves like an adverb and modifies the verb of the main clause by indicating manner (how?), purpose (what for?), reason (why?), time (when?), condition (under what condition?), etc.

In these sentences, the adverb rapidamente and the adverbial clause tan pronto como pudo both modify the main verb Salió by indicating the manner in which (the “how?”) the action took place.

Adjectival Clause: behaves like an adjective and modifies a noun. Adjectival clauses are also called relative clauses because they each begin with a relative pronoun, which replaces a noun in the main clause (its antecedent) and introduces the subordinate clause that modifies the antecedent.

In these sentences, the adjective triste and the adjectival clause que me haga llorar both modify the noun película.

The following chart compares different types of clauses as to the types of words that introduce them, and their grammatical functions within the sentences:

The following chart gives examples of main and dependent or subordinate clauses:

[vamosaaprender]

Spanish Grammar Basics: Sentence Components & Verb Structure

Before learning specific grammar structures in Spanish, it is important to begin with the important (yet boring) basics - sentence components. This focuses on how sentences are formed in Spanish and the parts of sentences that you will need to know and understand before moving forward.

This is the very first step of Spanish grammar learning, so it is okay if you feel confused after this post. These terms and grammatical tenses will start to make more sense to you once you learn them in context, piece by piece. For now, this is just an overview of how sentences are structured in Spanish and the types of functions words and sentences can have.

Sentence Components

What even is a sentence? A sentence is a self-contained unit of communication that can be formed with combinations of the following 8 types of words: nouns, verbs, prepositions, articles, adjectives, pronouns, conjunctions, and adverbs. Each of these types of words have specific functions in a sentence:

NOUN: can serve as the subject of a verb, its direct or indirect object, or the object of a preposition. In Spanish, equivalents of nouns (i.e., words or groups of words that can have the same function as nouns) are pronouns, infinitives, and nominalized words or groups of words.

VERB: the grammatical core of a sentence; expresses an action or a state. Its form has to agree with subject, tense, mood, aspect, and voice.

ARTICLE: accompanies and modifies a noun or its equivalent as to specificity.

ADJECTIVE: accompanies and modifies a noun or its equivalent.

ADVERB: modifies a verb, an adjective, another adverb, or a whole sentence.

PRONOUN: is used to avoid repeating a noun whose reference is clear.

PREPOSITION: relates a noun or its equivalent to another noun, to the verb, or to the rest of the sentence.

CONJUNCTION: joins two parts of a sentence. Conjunctions of subordination introduce subordinate clauses.

Verb Structure

*The examples for the indicative, conditional, and subjunctive are given in the first-person singular (yo). The example for the imperative is given in the ustedes form.

**Some grammarians consider the conditional to be a tense of the indicative mood, not its own separate mood. Because it used for contexts that are different from those in which the other moods are used, and because it has two tenses itself, here it going to be considered its own mood.