The Everything Spanish Grammar Book: All The Rules You Need To Master Espanol (Everything®) (32 page)

BOOK: The Everything Spanish Grammar Book: All The Rules You Need To Master Espanol (Everything®)
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Es la una.

It’s one o’clock.

Son las dos.

It’s two o’clock.

Son las once.

It’s eleven o’clock.

QUESTION?

What about a.m. and p.m.?
In Spanish, the twenty-four hours are divided into morning, afternoon, and night. From 1 a.m. until 11 a.m., use
de la
mañana;
from 1 p.m. until around 7 or 8 p.m. you can say
de
la tarde;
the rest of the time, the right phrase is
de la noche.

To Be More Specific

Let’s review the phrases for giving more exact times. If it’s a few minutes past the hour, simply use
y
(and) to add the minutes:

Son las cuatro y diez de la tarde.

It’s ten minutes past four in the afternoon (4:10 P.M.).

If it’s just a few minutes before the hour, you can either add the minutes or you may round up with the help of the word
menos
(minus):

Son las cuatro y cincuenta.

It’s four fifty (4:50).

Son las cinco menos diez.

It’s ten minutes to five.

And here are additional options for saying 4:15, 4:30, and 4:45:

Son las cuatro y cuarto.

It’s four and a quarter (4:15).

Son las cuatro y media.

It’s four and a half (4:30).

Son las cinco menos cuarto.

It’s a quarter to five (4:45).

The following examples contain phrases associated with noon and midnight:

Son las doce de la noche. Es medianoche.

It’s twelve at night. It’s midnight.

Son las doce del día. Es mediodía.

It’s twelve noon. It’s noontime.

Other Frequently Asked Questions

Now that we’ve reviewed the basic question formats and the question words, let’s end the chapter with a review of frequently asked questions.

¿Cómo te llamas? ¿Cómo se llama?

What’s your name? (informal and formal)

¿Cuál es la fecha de hoy?

What day is it today?

¿Cuánto cuesta el pan? ¿Cuánto cuestan las piñas?

How much is the bread? How much are the pineapples?

¿Cúantos años tienes? ¿Cuántos años tiene usted?

How old are you? (informal and formal)

¿Qué significa esto?

What does this mean?

¿Me entiendes? ¿Me entiende?

Do you understand me? (informal and formal)

If you didn’t understand the answer, you can say
¿Cómo?
(What?) to clarify.

Practice Makes Perfect

Answer the following questions:

1.
¿Es Bogotá la capital de Colombia?

_________________________________________

2.
¿Qué vas a hacer hoy?

_________________________________________

3.
¿De qué color es tu cabello?

_________________________________________

4.
¿Por qué estudias este idioma?

_________________________________________

5.
¿Quién era el presidente de los Estados Unidos durante la
Guerra Civil?

_________________________________________

6.
¿De quién es este libro?

_________________________________________

7.
¿Con quiénes te gustaría viajar a España?

_________________________________________

8.
¿Dónde vives?

_________________________________________

9.
¿Adónde vas de vacaciones?

_________________________________________

10.
¿Cuánto cuesta este libro?

_________________________________________

11.
¿Cuántos hermanos tienes?

_________________________________________

12.
¿Cuál es la fecha de hoy?

_________________________________________

13.
¿Cuál es la capital de Francia?

_________________________________________

14.
¿Cómo se dice “generous” en español?

_________________________________________

15.
¿Cuándo empezaste a estudiar español?

_________________________________________

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

C
HAPTER
17
Building
Vocabulary

THE MOST OBVIOUS WAY TO IMPROVE your Spanish vocabulary is through memorization and practice. You cannot avoid memorizing words—it’s the only sure way of increasing your vocabulary, and you won’t be able to assimilate these words if you don’t practice using them. However, additional strategies are available to you as well. For instance, by learning the meanings of common prefixes and suffixes, you’ll be able to understand many more words than you have committed to memory. If you know that cantar means “to sing,” and you know that –ción is a suffix equivalent to the English “–tion” and may be used to turn verbs into nouns, you might be able to guess that canción means “song.”

The Structure of a Spanish Word

A Spanish word may be made up of one or two parts—a lexeme (
lexema)
and/or a morpheme (
morfema).
The lexeme is the word’s basic meaning, so it is generally the word’s root. For example, take the following words:

cocina
kitchen
cocinar
to cook
cocinero
cook, chef
cocineta
kitchenette
precocinado
precooked

These five words share the root
–cocin–,
a lexeme that conveys the meaning of “cooking.” The particles –a, –ar, –ero, –eta, pre–, and –ado (a prefix and five suffixes) may be called morphemes— they don’t have a meaning on their own but do add meaning when presented together with the root.

ESSENTIAL

Endings that are used to show agreement and tense—like
–án
in
cantarán
(they will sing) or
–s
in
pedazos
(pieces)—are not morfemes. For example, in the word
cocineros, cocin-
is a lexeme of meaning,
–ero
is a suffix, and
–s
is an ending.

You can use lexemes and morphemes to your advantage. For example, once you understand that
cocin
is a root that has to do with cooking, you’ll be able to guess the meaning of other words with the same lexeme, such as
cocido
(cooked) and
recocido
(overcooked)—as long as you are familiar with the prefix
re–
(over–) and suffix
–ido
(–ed)
.

Presenting the Prefix

A prefix
(prefijo)
is a morpheme that is attached to the front end of a word. In the word “prefix,” for example, the prefix is “pre–.” In Spanish
prefijo,
the prefix is the same:
pre–.
The following list of Spanish prefixes is by no means complete, but it does include the more commonly used prefixes.


a–
deprivation or negation; may have other meanings

ateísmo
atheism, rejection of theism
acabar
to end, to finish
atraer
to attract


ante–
previously, beforehand, pre-, fore-

anteayer
day before yesterday
antemano
beforehand
antebrazo
forearm


anti–
a prefix of opposition, anti-

antinatural
unnatural
antipatía
antipathy
antisudoral
antiperspirant


auto–
self-, auto-, by oneself

autobiografía
autobiography, a biography of one’s own life
autodefensa
self-defense
autorización
authorization


contra–
a prefix of opposition

contracubierta
back cover
contragolpe
counter-blow
contrapelo
against the grain, the wrong way; literally “against the hair”


con–
(also
con–
or
co–
) a prefix of addition or association

conmover
to move, to touch
consagrar
to consecrate
consorte
consort, accomplice
compadecer
to sympathize with
coautor
coauthor


de–
(also
des–
) downward motion, separation, origin, opposite of the root meaning, emphasis

descender
to descend
denuncio
denunciation
derivar
to derive from
decolorado
discolored
demandar
to demand
desabrochar
to undo

ALERT

You may have noticed that some prefixes have the same or a similar meaning in English and in Spanish. That’s because these prefixes have the same origin—they’ve come to us from Latin or Greek. However, be aware that some prefixes may look the same but don’t necessarily have the same meanings.


en–
(
em–
before “b” or “p”) inside, on the interior; the prefix of connecting, enclosing

enlazar
to link
enmicar
to cover in plastic
embarazo
pregnancy


ex–
outside of, further (over space or time); may not have a specific meaning

extraer
extract, draw
expansivo
expansive
explicar
to explain

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