Important Spanish Nouns And Pronouns
Spanish is one of the most beautiful languages and for anyone who speaks French or English, it is a language that is fairly easy to learn. There are many ways to learn Spanish, but no matter which way you choose, you should learn Spanish grammar as it will allow you to build a strong foundation going forward.
Spanish grammar consists of nouns, verbs, adjectives, pronouns, and so forth. Consider Spanish nouns and pronouns as a good place to start.
Pronouns
A pronoun is a small word that conveys a particular meaning or replaces a noun. For example, you can say, “Betty is pretty. Betty is smart”. You can also say, “Betty is pretty. She is smart”. Betty is a noun that in the second part of the sentence can replaced by the pronoun, “she”. We simply use pronouns, in this instance, to avoid repeating someone’s name more than once. This can be extremely beneficial if you do not know the person’s name or if they have a name that is either particularly long or unpronounceable.
However, caution is required because if you use the wrong pronoun it can cause confusion. For example, in Spanish you may say that “ella es guapo”. The confusion would be that guapo is masculine and therefore would suggest a male whereas ella is female. Nevertheless, once you get your head around how Spanish pronouns work then you will be able to say and write them properly.
It is important to note that when you speak using the wrong Spanish pronoun, you will be able to make more mistakes because people will normally understand what you’re trying to say because of verbal cues. However, when you write the wrong Spanish pronoun, it can get you into serious trouble with the person who is reading it.
Spanish Subject Pronouns
To avoid saying a person, thing, or place over and over, you can use a Spanish subject pronoun. The Spanish subject pronouns are I (yo), you (tú/usted – informal/formal), he/she (él/ella), we (nosotros/nosotras), you (vosotros/vosotras – plural, informal), you (ustedes – plural, formal), and they (ellos/ellas).
Spanish Nouns
All Spanish nouns, including feelings, ideas, people, animals, places, and things, have a female or male gender. This does not mean that inanimate objects, such as books or movies, have a gender but rather that they use a gender in a grammatical format that can be used with adjectives and articles that match their gender. There are a few basic rules that will determine whether a noun is masculine or feminine.
Masculine Spanish Nouns
Most nouns that end in “O” are masculine such as el cartero (the mailman/postman), el teatro (the theater), el niño (the child/son), el dormitorio (the bedroom) or el tío (the uncle).
Words that have an ending in the following combinations are often masculine, a consonant other than d, z, an accented vowel á, é, í, ó, ú, ma, or e.
However, there are exceptions to most of the above endings. Such as la foto (photo), la llave (key), la miel (honey), la radio (radio), la gente (people), la nieve (snow), etc.
Spanish Feminine Nouns
The majority of feminine nouns end in “a”. A word ending in an “a” will indicate that an animal, person, or thing is grammatically feminine.
Feminine nouns with an “a” ending include la enfermera (the nurse), la hija (the daughter), la piscina (the pool), la guitarra (the guitar), to name a few. Nouns that have an ending in in d, z, or -ión are also feminine.
Yes, learning Spanish nouns and pronouns will help you become more fluent in Spanish.