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Spanish is a relatively inflected language, with a two-gender system and about fifty conjugated forms per verb, but no noun declension and limited pronominal declension.

The Real Academia Española traditionally dictated the rules of the Spanish language, but since the 1960s its prestige has declined. Its decisions are taken as suggestions by the educated and ignored by the uneducated. This article first describes the most formal and standard rules that modern Spanish works by, and then goes on to detail deviations from these that one might encounter in local or colloquial varieties of the language, such as pienso de que... or la dije que....

Verbs

Spanish verbs are covered in a specific article: Spanish verbs.

Nouns

Gender

All Spanish nouns have one of two grammatical genders: masculine or feminine (mostly conventional, that is, arbitrarily assigned). Most adjectives and pronouns, and all articles and participles, indicate the gender of the noun they reference or modify.

In a sentence like "Large tables are nicer", the Spanish equivalent, Las mesas grandes son más bonitas, must use words according to the gender of the noun. The noun, mesa ("table"), is feminine in Spanish. Therefore, the article (i. e. the word for "the") must be feminine too, and so la instead of el, is required. However, mesas is plural here, so we need las rather than la. The two adjectives, whether next to the noun or after the verb, have to "agree" with the noun as well. Grande is a word which is invariable for gender, so it just takes a plural marker: grandes. Bonito is a word that can agree for both gender and number, so we say bonitas to go with mesas. A student of Spanish must keep in mind all these features when making sentences.

Types of noun (masculine, vacillant, etc)

Nouns can be grouped in the following categories:

• Applied to persons and most domesticated animals:
  • Declinable nouns. The feminine form adds a or replaces the final vowel by a. Examples: el profesor/la profesora, el presidente/la presidenta, el perro/la perra.
  • Invariant nouns (in Spanish, sustantivos de género común). The feminine form and the masculine form are identical: el artista/la artista, el testigo/la testigo, el estudiante/la estudiante.
  • Nouns with a unique gramatical gender. The noun has a fixed gender, regardless of the sex of the person it describes: el personaje, la visita. A recent politically correct usage substitutes the plural inclusive masculine (amigos, "friends, male or of any gender") with the character @ (amig@s) in writing, or with the longer form (amigos y amigas, or amigas y amigos). @ appears as a blend of o and a. This usage is unpronounceable, and mostly restricted to informal internet-speak. In leftist graffiti and posters, @ can be substituted by the anarchist symbol (), that also seems to blend O and A.
• Applied to wild and some domesticated animals:
  • Nouns where the two sexes of animals have different words to describe them: el toro/la vaca, el caballo/la yegua.
  • Epicene nouns. The gender of the noun is fixed and sex is indicated by macho (male) or hembra (female). Examples: la jirafa macho, la jirafa hembra, el rinoceronte macho, el rinoceronte hembra.
• Applied to things:
  • Masculine or inclusive: el pan.
• Feminine or exclusive: la leche.
  • Vacillant (called sustantivos ambiguos in Spanish). Either gender is acceptable: Internet is an example of this. Speakers hesitate between making it masculine like other loanwords from English, or making it feminine to agree with red, "net". Linde ("boundary") and testuz ("animal's forehead") can be either gender. Azúcar is probably the quirkiest example of such nouns. It can be masculine with el, feminine with el (bizarrely) or feminine with la. The determiner seems to go in the masculine in standard use: el, este, ese, tanto. Any adjectives agreeing with it are usually masculine in Spain and feminine in Latin America: el azúcar moreno o blanco / el azúcar negra o rubia. Mar is a special case. It is normally masculine, but in poetry and sailors' speech it is feminine. Arte is masculine in the singular and feminine in the plural, though it can be feminine in the singular when it means "art-form" and masculine in the plural in the expression los artes de pesca, "fishing gear".
  • In some cases the same word can take two genders with a different meaning for each. In that case it is better to say that there are two discrete words. El capital = "funds"; la capital = "capital city".

(Note: Some nouns ending in -e that refer to persons are declinable, e.g., presidente/a, whereas others are invariant, e. g., estudiante. More often than not, nouns that refer to positions that are traditionally held by men are declinable.)

Determining gender from endings

Nouns ending in -o are masculine, with the only notable exception of the word mano ("hand"); -a is typically feminine; other vowels and consonants are more often than not masculine, but many are feminine, particularly those referring to women (la madre) or ending in -ción, -dad, -ez (la nación, la soledad, la vejez).

A small set of words of Greek origin and ending in -ma are masculine: problema "problem", lema "lemma, motto", tema "theme, topic", sistema "system", telegrama "telegram", etc.

Words taken from foreign languages may:

• Take the gender they have in that language, with neuter taken to be the same as masculine (so English nouns are made masculine)
• Take the gender it seems to be (e.g. la Coca-Cola because it ends in -a)
• Take the gender of the closest-related Spanish word (e.g. la Guinness because of la cerveza)

Gender of proper nouns (names)

Names of people

People's names agree with the sex of the person, even if they appear to be the opposite:

• Chema es guapo
• Amparo es guapa

Names of settlements

Usage for places varies. You can choose between making them:

• Feminine if they end in -a, otherwise masculine:
  • la Barcelona de Gaudí
  • el Londres de Dickens
• Agree with the underlying noun el pueblo or la ciudad
  • Nueva York (city)
  • la antigua Cartago (city)
  • Fraga es pequeño (village/small town)
• Always masculine: (this usage may seem wrong to some speakers)
  • Barcelona no es pequeño
  • Londres no es pequeño

With examples like New York, the Nueva is a fixed part of the name and so cannot be made masculine, but New Mexico is translated as Nuevo México and considered masculine, since México is a masculine noun.

Rivers

Rivers are masculine because of the underlying masculine noun río. The ancient Roman belief that rivers (amnes) were male gods may also influence this. Locally, a few rivers may be feminine, but the masculine is always safe and correct.

• el Plata = "The River Plate" (literally "the River of Silver")
• el Támesis = "The River Thames"
• el Tajo = "The River Tagus"
• el Colorado = "The Colorado River" (literally "the Red River")
• el Cinca / la Cinca = "The River Cinca" (in the Aragonese Pyrenees)

Diminutives and suffixes

Spanish nouns can be made by adding a very productive set of suffixes to existing nouns and adjectives. This usually just slightly modifies the meaning, but sometimes it creates something new entirely.

The most common subset of such suffixes are the diminutives, which convey the idea of smallness, delicateness, etc. (also for endearing terms). The most common diminutive in Spanish is -it-. It is added to the root of the noun, and in actual usage it takes the proper agreement for gender and number.

• planta → plantita ("plant" → "little plant")
• vaso → vasito ("glass" → "little glass")
• niño → niñito ("small boy" → "little tiny boy")

When the word does not end in a vowel, -it- becomes -cit- if the word ends in -n. Agreement marks are added to it according to the gender and number:

• botón → botoncito
• Carmen → Carmencita

When the base word ends in z, an epenthetic e is inserted (notice the orthographic change): pez → pececito. There is no fixed when the base ends in other consonants: azúcar → azuquítar or azuquita.

Local flavour

The choice of diminutive is often a mark of regional dialects and influence of coexistent Romance languages. Educated speakers who would use -ito or no diminutive at all in more formal speech may use local forms when they want a friendlier or more colourful way of expressing themselves, sometimes borrowing another region's diminutive.

So, instead of the standard -ito, you could find:

• -illo in Andalusia (’quillo for chico is a typical Seville interjection)
• -ico in Aragon
• -ín or -ino in Asturias, as in Asturian
• -iño in Galicia, as in Galician
• -uco in Cantabria
• -ete from Catalan
• -uelo

In fossilised forms, these can be found in standard words, such as burro → borrico, Venecia → Venezuela, etc.

Sometimes different suffixes are used for variety when more than one is used at once:

• chico → chiquito → chiquitín

Other suffixes

As well as being an Andalusian (especially Seville) alternative to -ito, the suffix -illo is also a special diminutive with a nuance of "a funny sort of...". It is also used to create new nouns:

• palo "stick" → palillo "toothpick"
• bolso "handbag" → bolsillo "pocket"
• guerra "war" → guerrilla "hit-and-run warfare"

An example of the same phenomenon, but using an augmentative, is -ón:

• soltero "bachelor" → solterón "confirmed bachelor"
• soltera "single woman" → solterona "spinster"

Number

There are two grammatical numbers: singular and plural. The singular form is the one found in dictionaries (base form). The plural is indicated in most words by adding -s (if the base form ends in a vowel) or -es otherwise. Note that final y in words like rey, though phonetically a vowel, counts as a consonant (rey → reyes).

The masculine gender is used for plural forms of mixed sexes (it is inclusive): los niños, grammatically masculine, may mean "the children" or "the boys". The feminine gender is exclusive in the plural: las niñas = "the little girls". When male sex needs to be shown exclusively in the plural, phrases such as los niños varones are used. Feminists (and their satirists) try to reverse the pattern with phrases such as las personas humanas jóvenes varones = "the young male human people".

Some words are formally always grammatically plural: pantalones "trousers", tijeras "scissors". In many dialects, however, these words are taken to be semantic plurals, and their singular forms are used instead: pantalón, tijera.

In expressions with an indefinite determiner, singular forms are used (unlike English, where "some" and "any" tend to modify plural nouns).

• Si hay algún árbol, lo derribaremos = "If there are any trees, we will fell them"
• Por cualquier medio = "By any means"

Forms of ninguno ("no") always take singular noun phrases, even where plurality might be intended:

• Ningún obstáculo se interpone = "No obstacle is in our way", "There are no obstacles in our way"
• No vi ninguna mujer = "I saw no women", "I didn't see any women"

The determiner cualquiera has a plural form (cualesquiera), but it is never used outside formal or technical contexts.

Adjectives

The feminine gender for most adjectives is formed in the same way as it is for declinable nouns, although most adjectives ending in a consonant or "e" remain unchanged: hombre superior, mujer superior (compare with el superior/la superiora); hombre importante, mujer importante (compare with el jefe, la jefa).

The superlative

Instead of putting muy, "very" before an adjective, one can use a special form called the superlative to intensify an idea. This consists of the suffix -ísimo.

Regular forms

• muy rápido → rapidísimo
• muy guapas → guapísimas
• muy rica → riquísima
• muy lento → lentísimo
• muy duro → durísimo

Irregular forms

• muy antiguo → antiquísimo
• muy cursi → cursilísimo
• muy inferior → ínfimo
• muy joven → jovencísimo
• muy superior → supremo
• muy bueno → óptimo
• muy malo → pésimo
• muy grande → máximo *
• muy pequeño → mínimo *

(*) These two forms keep the original meaning of the superlative: not "very" but "the most".

Forms that are irregular in high literary style, and regular normally

• muy amigo → amicísimo / amiguísimo
• muy áspero → aspérrimo / asperísimo
• muy benévolo → benevolentísimo / not used
• muy célebre → celebérrimo / not used
• muy cruel → crudelísimo / cruelísimo
• muy difícil → dificílimo / dificilísimo
• muy fácil → facílimo / facilísimo
• muy fiel → fidelísimo / fielísimo
• muy frío → frigidísimo / friísimo
• muy íntegro → integérrimo / integrísimo
• muy libre → libérrimo / librísimo (familiar)
• muy magnífico → magnificentísimo / not used
• muy mísero → misérrimo / not used
• muy munífico → munificentísimo / not used
• muy pobre → paupérrimo / pobrísimo
• muy sabio → sapientísimo / not used
• muy sagrado → sacratísimo / not used

Forms that are not felt a superlative anymore

• muy agrio ("very bitter") → acérrimo ("strong, zealous, fanatic")

Applying -ísimo to nouns is not frequent, but there is the famous case of Generalísimo.

As in English and other languages influenced by it, a teenspeak superlative can be formed by the prefix super-, or sometimes hiper-, ultra-, re- or requete-. They can also be written as adverbs separate from the word.

• Superlargo or súper largo = "super-long", "way long"
• Requeteguay = "totally cool"

Determiners

Demonstrative determiners

Spanish has three levels of demonstrative pronouns (see deixis):

1. Closest to the speaker (proximal): este, esta, estos, estas
2. Closest to the hearer (distal): ese, esa, esos, esas
3. Far from both (distal): aquel, aquella, aquellos, aquellas

English also used to have a three-way system like this: this hill (here), that hill (there) or yon hill (yonder) — in Spanish, esta colina, esa colina, aquella colina. English lost the third level, so that the that, there series covers the ground of yon, yonder.

Este refers to something near the speaker (the first person). Ese refers to something nearer the hearer (the second person). Aquel refers to something away from both the speaker and the hearer.

A similar system is found in other Romance languages, as well as in Japanese.

Articles

Definite articles

The definite article in Spanish, corresponding to "the", is el. It agrees for gender and number as follows:

• el hombre = " man"
• los hombres = " men"
• la mujer = " woman"
• las mujeres = " women"

The usually masculine form el is used instead of la before feminine nouns beginning with a stressed a sound:

• el águila (pequeña)
• el agua (fresca)
• el hacha (afilada)

Exceptions: la is used despite this when use of el would imply a man:

• la ácrata (because el ácrata would be a male anarchist)
• la árabe (because el árabe would be a male Arab, or the Arabic language)

Azúcar is a very special case. Its a is unstressed, and yet it usually takes el even when feminine:

• el azúcar refinada (el azúcar refinado and la azúcar refinada are also possible)

N.B.: this feminine el does not have the same origin as the masculine el. The latter is from the Old Castilian ele, whereas the former is from ela, just as la is. This historic finesse is lost to those who use unstandard forms like los águilas.

There is also a "neuter article", used before adjectives, that make them work like nouns:

• lo bueno = "what is good, the good stuff"
• lo importante = "the important thing"
• lo indefinible = "the indefinable"
• lo desconocido = "the unknown"

Indefinite articles

• un hombre = "a man"
• una mujer = "a woman"
• unos hombres = "some men"
• unas mujeres = "some women"

Near synonyms of unos include: unos cuantos, algunos and unos pocos.

As in English, the plural indefinite article is not always required.

• Hay cosas en la mesa = "There are things on the table"

Possessive determiners

These are often known as possessive or genitive determiners. They are used before the noun they possess (and before the rest of the whole noun phrase, for example when an adjective precedes the noun). They agree in number with the noun, and sometimes in gender too.

• 1st person singular (yo): mi(s)
• 2nd person singular (tú, vos): tu(s)
• 3rd person singular (él, ella): su(s)
• 1st person plural (nosotros/as): nuestro/a(s)
• 2nd person plural, in Spain (vosotros/as): vuestro/a(s)
• 3rd person plural (ellos/as): su(s)

Note the following:

• There is no distinction in number for the third person possessives.
• The second person singular possessive is the same (tu) regardless of whether the dialect in question uses tú or vos.
• The possessive vuestro corresponds to vosotros, and as such it is only used in Spain. Elsewhere the second person pronoun is ustedes and there is no simple possessive — instead the phrase de ustedes is used (treating ustedes the same as a common noun).

Pronouns

Personal pronouns

Subject ("Nominative case")

• yo, tú, él/ella, nosotros/nosotras, vosotros/vosotras, ellos/ellas

Direct object ("Accusative case")

• me, te, lo/le/la/se, nos, os, los/las/se

Indirect object ("Dative case")

• me, te, le/se, nos, os, les/se

Object of a preposition

• mí, ti, él/ella/sí, nosotros/nosotras, vosotros/vosotras, ellos/ellas/sí

When the preposition is con the first, second and third person singular take the following forms:

• con mí → conmigo = "with me"
• con ti → contigo = "with you"
• con sí → consigo = "with him/her/it"

Possessive ("Genitive case")

• el mío / la mía / los míos / las mías
• el tuyo / la tuya / los tuyos / las tuyas,
• el suyo / la suya / los suyos / las suyas
• el nuestro / la nuestra / los nuestros / las nuestras
• el vuestro / la vuestra / los vuestros / las vuestras
• el suyo / la suya / los suyos / las suyas

Prepositions with personal pronouns

In some cases, if the object of a preposition is more than one pronoun, the preposition has to be repeated or a plural pronoun must be used.

• Este vino es solamente para mí y ti. This wine is only for me and you. (not acceptable in Spanish)
• Este vino es solamente para mí y para ti. This wine is only for me and for you.
• Este vino es solamente para nosotros. This wine is only for us.

• El gato va conmigo y tigo. El gato va con mí y ti. El gato va conmigo y ti The cat goes with me and you. (not acceptable in Spanish)
• El gato va conmigo y contigo. The cat goes with me and with you.
• El gato va con nosotros. The cat goes with us.

Direct-object le/les

The pronouns le (singular) and les (plural) are used to replace the indirect object of a sentence. As an exception, when the direct object is also replaced by a pronoun (lo/los, la/las) the indirect object is replaced by the pronoun se.

• Le di el libro. = "I gave the book to her/him."
• Se lo di. = "I gave it to her/him."

As a rule, the direct object must be replaced by the pronouns lo/los (masculine) or la/las (feminine). However, the use of le for replacing the direct object is allowed when the direct object is an animate of the masculine gender (i. e. usually a male person). This usage is typical of Spain, not of most other Spanish-speaking countries. Many speakers will use le also with a woman, but this is considered to be incorrect (see leísmo).

Demonstrative pronouns

• éste, ésta, esto, éstos, éstas
• ése, ésa, eso, ésos, ésas
• aquél, aquélla, aquello, aquéllos, aquéllas

N.B.: According to a decision of the Real Academia from the 1960s, the accents on these forms are only to be used when necessary to avoid ambiguity with the demonstrative determiners. However, the normal educated standard is still as above. Nowadays the use or not use of the accents is free.

Note also that there is never an accent on the neuter forms esto, eso and aquello.

Relative pronouns

The main relative pronoun in Spanish que, from the Latin quid. Others include el cual, quien and donde.

Que

Que covers "that", "which", "who", "whom" and the null pronoun in their functions of subject and direct-object relative pronouns.

• La carta que te envié era larga = "The letter I sent you was long" (defining direct object)
• La carta, que te envié, era larga = "The letter, which I did send you, was long" (non-defining direct object)
• La gente que no sabe leer ni escribir se llama analfabeta = "People who can't read or write are called illiterate" (defining subject)
• Esa persona, que conozco yo muy bien, no es de fiar = "That person, whom I know very well, is not to be trusted"

El que

When the relative pronoun is the object of a preposition, the definite article is added to que, and this agrees for number and gender, giving us el que, la que, los que, las que and the neuter lo que. Note that in English we have two options: the preposition can go to the end of the sentence, or we can put it right before the relative pronoun "which" or "whom".

• Ella es la persona a la que le di el dinero = "She's the person I gave the money to" / "She's the person to whom I gave the money"
• Es el camino por el que caminabais = "It's the path you were all walking along" / "It's the path along which you were all walking"

In some people's style of speaking, this definite article may be omitted after a, con and de, particularly when the antecedent is abstract or neuter:

• La aspereza con que la trataba = "The harshness with which he treated her"
• No tengo nada en que creer = "I haven't got anything to believe in" / "I have nothing in which to believe"

After en, the article tends to be omitted if precise spatial location is not intended.

• Lo hiciste de la misma forma en que lo hizo él = "You did it the same way he did it" (note also how "in" with the word forma is translated as de when used directly, but then changes to en when used with the relative pronoun)
• La casa en que vivo = "The house I live in" (as opposed to the following:)
• La casa en la que estoy encerrado = "The house inside which I am trapped"

El cual

The pronoun el cual can replace que. It is generally more emphatic and formal than que. Note than it always includes the article. It derives from the Latin qualis.

It has the following forms: el cual, la cual, los cuales, las cuales and the neuter lo cual.

For subjects & direct objects

It can be used as a formal, emphatic replacement for que in non-defining clauses, for either subjects or direct objects. The fact that it agrees for gender and number can make it clearer to what it refers. The fact that it cannot be used for defining clauses also makes it clear that a defining clause is not intended.

• Los niños y sus madres, las cuales eran de Valencia, me impresionaron = "The children and their mothers, who were from Valencia, impressed me" (los cuales would have referred to the children too, and not just their mothers)

When used for direct objects, "personal a" is required if the antecedent is human.

• Esa persona, a la cual conozco yo muy bien, no es de fiar = "That person, whom I know very well, is not to be trusted"

As the object of a preposition

It can be used as a formal, emphatic replacement for el que, usually in non-defining clauses, as the object of a preposition (including a representing the indirect object). There are three main situations in which this happens.

Firstly, it can be purely a matter of high style. This is used sparingly in Spanish, and so foreigners should avoid over-using it.

• Es el asunto al cual se refería Vd. = "It is the matter to which you were referring"

In more everyday style, this might be phrased as:

• Es el asunto al que te referías = "It's the matter you were referring to"

Secondly, el cual is often preferred after propositions of more than syllable (para, contra, entre, mediante...) and after prepositional phrases (a pesar de, debajo de, a causa de, frente a, en virtud de, gracias a, por consecuencia de...).

• Un régimen bajo el cual es imposible vivir = "A régime under which it is impossible to live"
• Estas cláusulas, sin perjuicio de las cuales... = "These clauses, notwithstanding which..."

Thirdly, el cual is preferred when it is separated from its antecedent by intervening words. The more words that intervene, the more the use of el cual is practically obligatory.

• Es un billete con el que se puede viajar pero por el cual se paga sólo 2€ = "It is a ticket that you can travel with but for which you pay just €2"

Quien

The pronoun quien comes from the Latin quem, "whom", i.e. the accusative of qui, "who".

It too can replace que in certain circumstances. Like the English pronouns "who" and "whom", it can only be used to refer to people.

It is invariable for gender, and was originally invariable for number. However, by analogy with other words, the form quienes was invented. Quien as a plural form survives as an archaism that is now considered non-standard.

For subjects

It can represent a subject. In this case it is rather formal and is largely restricted to non-defining clauses.

Unlike el cual, it does not indicate gender, but it does indicate number, and also specifies that a person is referred to.

• Los niños con sus mochilas, quienes eran de Valencia, me impresionaron = "The children with their rucksacks, who were from Valencia, impressed me" (The use of quienes makes it clear that los niños is referred to. Que could refer to the rucksacks, the children, or both. Los cuales would refer to either the children or both. Las cuales would refer only to the rucksacks.

For direct objects

"Personal a" is required for direct objects because quien always refers to people.

• Esa persona, a quien conozco yo muy bien, no es de fiar = "That person, whom I know very well, is not to be trusted" (formal; que would be more usual)

As the object of a preposition

Quien is particularly common as the object of a proposition when the clause is non-defining, but is also possible in defining clauses.

• Ella es la persona a quien le di el dinero = "She's the person to whom I gave the money"
• José, gracias a quien tengo el dinero, es muy generoso = "José, thanks to whom I have the money, is very generous"

Donde, adonde, como & cuando

Location & movement

Donde can be used instead of other relative pronouns when location is referred to. Adonde is a variant that can be used when motion to the location is intended.

• El lugar en que / en el que / en el cual / donde estoy = "The place where I am" / "The place that I'm in"
• Voy a donde está él = Voy al lugar en el que está él = "I'm going where he is"
• Iré adonde me lleven = Iré al lugar al que me lleven = "I'll go wherever they take me" / "I'll go to whatever place they take me to"

Manner

Como can be used instead of other relative pronouns when manner is referred to.

• La forma/manera en que / en la que / como reaccionasteis = "The way that / in which / how you all reacted" (En que is the most common and natural, like "that" or the null pronoun in English; but como is possible, as "how" is in English.)

Note that for some reason mismo tends to require que:

• Lo dijo del mismo modo que lo dije yo = "She said it the same way I did"

Time

Cuando tends to replace the use of other relative pronouns when time is referred to, almost always in non-defining clauses.

Non-defining

• En agosto, cuando la gente tiene vacaciones, la ciudad estará vacía = "In August, when people have their holidays, the town will be empty"

Defining

• Sólo salgo los días que no trabajo = "I only go out the days I'm not working"

Note that just que, or at the most en que, is normal with defining clauses referring to time. En el que and cuando are rarer.

Cuyo

Note on personal a in relative clauses

Note on relative and interrogative pronouns

Reflexive pronouns and impersonal se

Reflexive meaning

Reciprocal meaning

Intransitive/passive/impersonal meaning

Prepositions

List of common prepositions

The 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.

Cabe ("alongside") is archaic, and is not used in modern spoken Spanish; so is almost as rare, surviving only in certain set phrases such as so pena de muerte... ("on pain of death"). The two do not even appear in many Spanish-English dictionaries. Mediante ("by means of") is more or less restricted to formal use (it is comfortably replaced by por medio de) and hacia ("towards") is often replaced by shorter a (with the meaning of "to").

Tras ("behind") may be found in written language but is rare in speaking. It, and the much more common prepositions bajo ("beneath") and sobre ("on"), can also be replaced with phrases (compound prepositions): detrás de or atrás de, abajo de or debajo de, arriba de or encima de. Like English, Spanish has an assortment of such replacements for most prepositions: de acuerdo con for según, en dirección a for hacia, etc. Sobre ("on") is often preferred as a less ambiguous alternative to en, which can mean either "on" or "in".

Personal a

Like 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.

• Veo el árbol. = "I see the tree."
• Veo a María. = "I see María."

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.

• Veo al perro. "I see the dog."
• Aprecia mucho a su empresa. "He esteems his company very much."

The confusion of a as preposition for personal direct objects and for indirect objects has led to leísmo.

Contrasting por and para

The 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

• Purpose (intended for)
• Destination (towards)
• Until, by (a certain time)

por

• Refers to time or place in a general sense
• In exchange for, in place of
• Per (day, hour, mile, etc.)
• By means of
• Cause (on account of)
• For the sake or benefit of
• In favor of

Miscellaneous

Cleft sentences

A 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:

• Fue Juan el que perdió las llaves. "It was John who lost the keys."
• Son sólo tres días los que te quedan. "It is only three days that you have left."
• Seré yo quien se lo diga. "It will be I who tells him."

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:

• Son pocos los que vienen y se quedan. (lit. "It is few ones who come and stay")
• Es debido a su incompetencia que lo despido. ("It is due to his incompetence that I'm firing him.")

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):

• Fue a mí que me dio permiso. ("It was me that he gave permission to.")
• Es para nosotros que se hizo esto. ("It is us that this was made for.")

Note that the simple relative pronoun que (without an article) is not preferred. The alternate form, using the proper relative pronoun, usually needs a restatement of the preposition and the other arguments:

• Fue a mí a quien me dio permiso. (lit. *"It was to me to whom he gave permission.")

This form is far more commonly used, but like similar or longer forms of the same are never found in everyday spoken language or anywhere but formal or legal language, because people prefer using active forms.

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):

• JUAN fue el que perdió las llaves.
• Sólo TRES DÍAS son los que te quedan.
• YO seré quien se lo diga.

Dialectal variations

Forms of address

The 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?.

Voseo

Vos 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:

• Tú quieres
• Vos queréis (originally queredes)
• Vuestra merced quiere (today usted)

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.

Vosotros imperative: -ar for -ad

Colloquially, the infinitive is used instead of the true imperative for vosotros. Not to be imitated by learners.

• ¡Venir! for ¡Venid!
• ¡Callaros! for ¡Callaos!
• ¡Iros! for ¡Idos!

Superfluous -s on tú form

A 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.

The imperfect subjunctive

The 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.

The gender of nouns

Some 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.

External link

• Lista de Errores

References

• A New Reference Grammar of Modern Spanish — ISBN 0-340-58390-8
• Diccionario esencial Santillana de la lengua española — ISBN 84-294-3415-1
• Manual de dialectología hispánica — ISBN 84-344-8218-5
• Cassell's Contemporary Spanish — ISBN 0-02-595915-8

• Spanish language
• Grammars of specific languages