The Everything Spanish Grammar Book: All The Rules You Need To Master Espanol (Everything®) (12 page)

Las frutas en el almacén no son tan frescas como en el mercado.

The fruit at the grocery store aren’t as fresh as at the market.

In addition to these three constructions, you can use
mejor/
mejores
(better),
peor/peores
(worse),
mayor/mayores
(older), and
menor/menores
(younger):

Las obras de Shakespeare son mejores que muchas obras
modernas.

Shakespeare’s plays are better than many modern plays.

Mi escritura es peor que la suya.

My handwriting is worse than hers.

Todos mis primos son mayores que yo.

All of my cousins are older than me.

Su gerente es menor que él.

His manager is younger than him.

From Best to Worst

In addition to comparative forms, English also has a superlative form: compare “better” and “best,” “more” and “most,” “higher” and “highest,” and so on. Only longer English adjectives require use of another word: “more interesting” and “most interesting,” “more frequent” and “most frequent.”

In Spanish, all adjectives require the use of
más
(most) and
menos
(least):

Tengo el amigo más amable del mundo.

I have the nicest friend in the world.

Ella es la pintora menos talentosa de la universidad.

She is the least talented painter in the university.

Forming Adverbs

Now that you understand adjectives, let’s go on to adverbs. Actually, a few Spanish adjectives also act as adverbs. For example, take a look at how the word
mejor
can be used in both capacities:

In the first example,
mejor
is an adjective modifying the noun
estudiante.
In the second example,
mejor
is an adverb that modifies the verb
estudiar.
The adjective
peor
(worse) works the same way.

Other adjectives become adverbs with the addition of suffix –
mente
to the feminine singular form. (In English, we have a similar construction that works by adding the suffix –ly to the adjective.)

However, not all adverbs work in this way. There are quite a few you will have to memorize.

ESSENTIAL

How Adverbs Are Used

As its name suggests, an adverb may be used to modify a verb:

Ellos trabajan mucho.

They work a lot.

In this example, the adverb
mucho
modifies the verb
tra-bajan
—that is, it clarifies how “they” work, how the action of the verb is carried out. Adverbs also modify adjectives:

Ellos son estudiantes muy trabajadores.

They are very hardworking students.

In this example, the adverb
muy
modifies the adjective
tra-bajadores,
specifying exactly how hardworking the students are. Thirdly, adverbs modify other adverbs:

Ellos trabajan muy bien.

They work very well.

In this example, both
muy
and
bien
are adverbs.
Bien
modifies
trabajan,
because it describes how “they” work;
muy
modifies
bien,
because it describes how well the work is being done.

And that’s not all. One other application of the adverb is to modify an entire verb phrase:

Probablemente ellos trabajan en la fábrica.

They probably work at the factory.

In the last example,
probablemente
is an adverb that modifies the verb phrase
trabajan en la fábrica.

Seven Adverbial Categories

You know how adverbs work, but can you recognize them? If you’re having trouble, see if a word fits into one of the following seven categories:

1. Adverbs of place:
alrededor
(around),
cerca
(close),
adentro
(inside)

2. Adverbs of time:
antes
(before),
temprano
(early),
ya
(already, now)

3. Adverbs of manner:
mejor
(better),
estupendamente
(stupendously),
tal
(such)

4. Adverbs of quantity:
bastante
(enough),
tanto
(so much),
muy
(very)

5. Positive adverbs:
sí
(yes),
también
(too),
verdaderamente
(really)

6. Negative adverbs:
no
(no),
tampoco
(neither),
de ninguna
manera
(no way)

7. Adverbs of doubt:
quizá
(maybe),
posiblemente
(possibly),
tal vez
(maybe)

Practice Makes Perfect

For each of the following nouns, add an appropriate adjective:

Combine the adjective and noun in the right order:

Fill in the blanks with the right adjective of nationality.

1.
Dirk es de Alemania.
Es ______________________________________.

2.
Fabrizio y Kachina son del Brasil.
Son ______________________________________.

3.
Patrick es del Canadá.
Es ______________________________________.

4.
María es de Chile.
Es ______________________________________.

5.
Daniel y Carlos son de Costa Rica.
Son ______________________________________.

6.
Aziza es de Egipto.
Es ______________________________________.

7.
Kathryn y Janet son de los Estados Unidos.
Son ______________________________________.

8.
Michel es de Francia.
Es ______________________________________.

Turn the following adjectives into adverbs:

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

C
HAPTER
7
Introducing
the Verb

THE VERB IS ARGUABLY the most important part of the sentence. In fact, many Spanish verbs can form a complete sentence all by themselves:
¡Siéntate!
(Sit down!)
Caminan.
(They are walking.)

Spanish verbs contain much more information in their endings than English verbs, but the flipside is that there are many more endings to choose from. This is why many non-native students have difficulty mastering Spanish verbs. In English, there are just a few basic forms and endings, like the –ed ending to represent past tense. In Spanish, each verb has as many as 106 forms.

Fortunately, verb conjugations follow a set of rules with only a few exceptions, so being able to conjugate many verbs doesn’t actually involve memorizing conjugations for each one separately.

Action or State of Being

A verb is a part of speech that refers to the action or state of the subject—what the subject does, what is happening to it, or what it is. In addition to meaning, which remains in the stem (or root) of the verb, the verb is conjugated according to its person, number, voice, mood, tense, and aspect. For example, the verbs
discutir,
discutirán,
and
discutan
all carry the inherent meaning of “discussing,” but each of the endings carries additional information about the verb and how it acts together with the subject.

In Person

Spanish verbs may appear in one of three grammatical persons. The first person represents the speaker, the second person the addressee, and the third person the object of speech.

I.
yo
(I),
nosotros
(we),
nosotras
(we, feminine)

II.
tú
(you, informal),
vosotros
(you, informal/plural),
vosotras
(you, informal/plural/feminine)

III.
él
(he),
ella
(she),
ello
(it),
ellos
(they),
ellas
(they, feminine)
.

English grammar works the same way—we also have three persons— but our verbs rarely change form accordingly. The one exception is the verb “to be.” In the present tense, its forms are “am,” “are,” and “is,” depending on the person (and number, explained next).

ALERT

Singular and Plural

Verbs are also conjugated according to number:

1.
Singular:
yo, tú, él, ella, ello,
and
usted

2.
Plural:
nosotros, nosotras, vosotros, vosotras, ellos, ellas,
and
ustedes