Portál španělského jazyka
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- Contrasting por and para
- Vosotros imperative: -ar for -ad
- Superfluous -s on tú form
- The imperfect subjunctive
Prepositions[edit] List of common prepositionsThe full list of Spanish prepositions is traditionally recited as follows: a, ante, bajo, cabe, con, contra, de, desde, durante, en, entre, hacia, hasta, mediante, para, por, según, sin, so, sobre, tras. Two of the above prepositions (cabe and so) are arcaic and never heard in the spoken language. Durante ("during") and mediante ("by means of") are more or less restricted to formal use, and hacia ("towards") is often replaced by shorter a (with the meaning of "to"). Bajo, sobre, tras may be found in written language but are rare in speaking. Usually they are replaced with phrases (compound prepositions): abajo de or debajo de, arriba de or encima de, detrás de or atrás de. Like English, Spanish has an assortment of such replacements for most prepositions (por medio de instead of mediante, de acuerdo con for según, en dirección a for hacia, etc.). [edit] Personal aLike in English, in Spanish the direct object of a sentence usually gets no preposition. The only exception to this is when the direct object is a person, in wich case it gets the preposition a.
As an extension of this rule, when something is perceived to share some human qualities it may also get the preposition a. Pets are very likely to get it, while other animals won't. Organizations made out of people such as political parties or associations will also get it.
[edit] Contrasting por and paraThe prepositions por and para cause much confusion for English speakers, as they both translate for in English. According to Cassell's Contemporary Spanish, in general, por indicates cause or reason (looks backwards), while para indicates purpose or destination (looks forwards). Common instances of para and por are indicated below. para
por
[edit] Miscellaneous[edit] Cleft sentencesA Spanish cleft sentence is formed thus: conjugated form of ser ("to be") + X + subordinate clause where X is generally a noun phrase, and the main verb ser agrees with X. The meaning of the cleft sentence is the same as the meaning of the equivalent simple sentence, but together with a special intonation, the syntactic form of the cleft sentence focuses on (emphasizes) either X or (part of) the subordinate clause. For example:
Note that, unlike the English equivalent, there is no dummy pronoun (it) as the subject of ser, and ser not only shows tense, but also agrees with the following constituent X in person and number. Moreover, other types of constituents besides nouns, noun phrases and pronouns are allowed:
The constituent X need not be the subject of the subordinate clause. However, when this is the case (as in the examples below), the verb agreement is neutralized to the third person singular. Note that the preposition always remains in the main clause (while in English it is possible to move it to the en of the subordinate clause):
Note that the simple relative pronoun que (without an article) is preferred. The alternate form, using the proper relative pronoun, usually needs a restatement of the preposition and the other arguments:
This form is seldom used, and similar or longer forms of the same are never found in everyday spoken language or anywhere else besides formal or legal language. Spanish can also emphasize a constituent without clefting, using only intonation. While English can do this too, it is far more common in Spanish. (In the examples, UPPERCASE = emphatic intonation):
[edit] Dialectal variations[edit] Forms of addressThe use of usted and ustedes as a polite form of address is fairly universal. However, there are variations in informal address. Ustedes replaces vosotros in much of Andalusia, the Canary Islands and Latin America, except in the most liturgical or poetic of styles. In some parts of Andalusia, the pronoun ustedes is used with the standard vosotros endings. Depending on the region, Latin Americans may also replace the singular tú with usted or vos. The choice of pronoun is a tricky issue and can even vary from village to village. Travellers are often advised to play it safe and call everyone usted. A feature of the speech of the Dominican Republic and other areas where syllable-final /s/ is completely silent is that there is no audible difference between the second and third person singular form of the verb. This leads to redundant pronoun use, for example, the tagging on of ¿tú ves? (pronounced tuve) to the ends of sentences, where other speakers would say ¿ves?. [edit] VoseoVos was used in medieval Castilian as a polite form, like the French vous and the Italian voi, and it used the same forms as vosotros. This gave three levels of formality:
Whereas vos was lost in standard Spanish, some dialects lost tú, and began using vos as the informal pronoun. The exact connotations of the use of vos depend on the exact dialect. In most places it is associated with low socio-economic levels. In Argentina, however, it is used by everyone and is fully accepted. Argentinian voseo uses the pronoun vos for tú, but maintains te as an object pronoun and tu and tuyo as possessives. Verb forms are half-way between tú and vosotros forms, as exemplified by vos hablás, vos temés and vos partís. Other combinations are possible. Chileans may use standard vosotros endings for vos. [edit]
[edit] Superfluous -s on tú formA centuries-old tendency in uneducated speech throughout the Spanish-speaking world is the addition of an -s to the second person singular of the preterite or simple past. For example, lo hicistes for lo hiciste; hablastes tú for hablaste tú. This is due to the fact that this is the only tense in which the tú form does not end in an -s. This solecism removes this irregularity. Ladino has gone further with hablates. [edit] The imperfect subjunctiveThe two forms of the imperfect subjunctive are largely interchangeable. The use of one or the other is largely a matter of personal taste and dialect. Many speakers only use the -ra forms. Many only use the -ra forms in speech, but vary between the two in writing. Many, especially in Castile, may spontaneously use either, or even prefer the rarer -se forms. [edit] The gender of nounsSome nouns in Spanish can be either masculine or feminine, for example, Internet or azúcar. Some dialects have their own gender quirks, giving apparently incorrect forms such as la esperma, el índole, la aceite, la calor, la color, etc. [edit] Directory: download download -> Performance Tuning Guidelines for Windows Server 2008 May 20, 2009 Abstract download -> Northern England’s set-jetting locations download -> Bbc archives: Beyond the programme download download -> Occupational health and safety download -> Dynatest 3031 lwd light Weight Deflectometer download -> Forth coming competitive exams download -> English Olympiad Tasks: 10 th form Аудіювання, 10 клас. Текст download -> Brush High School Morning Announcements Friday, September 05, 2014 all school download -> Year 9 The Arts — Music download -> Years 7 and 8 standard elaborations — Australian Curriculum: Music draft Download 1.14 Mb. Share with your friends:
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