This document discusses several grammatical concepts in Spanish including:
1) Indirect object pronouns and examples of clear vs confusing usage.
2) Redundant direct and indirect object pronouns and the rule for when they are used.
3) How some Spanish verbs like querer, saber, and poder change meaning in the preterite tense.
4) Common attributive phrases in Spanish like "como nota" and "según".
5) Adverbial verbs like "volver" and "soler" that express ideas usually conveyed by adverbs in English.
Present Perfect: “there is/ there are”
Future tense of “have to”
Introduction to the passive voice
Present simple passive
Past perfect tense + yet / already
Quantifiers
Must / Might
Past simple of “can”
Reported speech
Verbs can, mustn’t, have to
Top ten spanish verb mysteries unraveledJudy Hochberg
Find out why "hay" is always singular, why there are so many more irregulars in the preterite than the imperfect, where "boot" and "-zco" irregulars come from, and much more.
3. Indirect Object Pronouns
• The third person pronouns, particularly the
indirect object pronouns, are sometimes
ambiguous.
• Remember that “me” “te” and “nos” have
really clear referents.
4. A Clear Example
• Mi esposo me dio el perro como regalo de
Navidad = My husband gave me the dog as a
Christmas present.
• There is no question in anybody’s mind, who
the “me” refers to.
5. A Confusing Example
• Mi esposo le dio el perro como regalo de Navidad
= My husband gave (him/her/you-formally? –
WHO????) the dog as a Christmas present.)
• See the problem?
• Thus, in many situations, Spanish doubles up and
uses both the pronoun and a phrase that explains
the pronoun.
• Mi esposo le dio el perro a su amigo como regalo
de Navidad.
6. The Next Question
• So why not just skip the pronoun and say the
following?
• Mi esposo dio a su hermano el perro como
regalo de Navidad.
• This seems simple, and clear --- and no need
to use a pronoun.
7. The answer
• In some parts of the Spanish speaking
world, you may see the structure without the
pronoun.
• But overall, if there is an explanatory “a”
phrase, there is usually a pronoun as well in
front of the verb.
• This structure is called the “redundant indirect
pronoun” structure.
• It is designed to drive you crazy!
8. Redundant direct object pronouns
• This redundancy doesn’t just happen with
indirect object pronouns.
• There is also a redundant direct object
pronoun structure.
• Thankfully it is more rule governed than the
dialect-driven structure of the indirect object.
9. The rule
• In cases where the speaker has put the direct
object IN FRONT of the verb, a redundant
direct object pronoun must be used.
• As we know from our previous
studies, subjects can move around a lot --- but
so can direct objects.
• We’ve already run into this once --- and you
successfully navigated it!
10. Example
• Sus últimos años los pasó como vigilante
nocturno de la ciudad.
• The underlying SVO structure here is:
• Chase pasó sus últimos años como . . .
• But the writer wrote an OV structure instead.
• Sus últimos años pasó . . .
• So a direct object pronoun must ALSO appear in
front of the verb:
• Sus últimos años los pasó
11. The Preterite
• Most verbs in Spanish mean the same thing in
the preterite as they mean in the present.
• Example: caminar (to walk)
• Yo camino mucho cada día.
• Yo caminé mucho ayer.
• In both of these sentences the idea conveyed
by the form of “caminar” is “walk.”
12. Exceptions
• There are some verbs (thankfully not many)
that actually change a bit when used in the
past.
13. Querer
• Querer is one of these verbs. In the present, it
means “want.” In the preterite, it means “tried”
(often unsuccessfully). In the negative preterite,
it means “refused.”
• Yo quiero hablar español con el mesero. (I want to
speak Spanish with the waiter.)
• Yo quise hablar español con el mesero. (I tried to
speak Spanish with the waiter.)
• Yo no quise hablar español con el mesero. (I
refused to speak Spanish with the waiter.)
14. Example
• Chase quiso proseguir su carrera en la mar
pero . . . = Chase tried to pursue his sea career
but . . .
15. Saber
• In the present, saber means to know (as in to
know facts).
• In the preterite, it means “to learn, to learn
of, to find out about.”
• Yo sé que los perros tienen colas = I know that
dogs have tails.
• Yo supe que unos perros no tienen colas = I
found out that some dogs don’t have tails.
16. Example
• . . . nunca más se supo de ellos. . . = Never
more were they learned of = nothing more
was learned about them . . . Nothing more
was discovered of them. . .
17. Poder
• In the present poder means to be able to.
• In the preterite, it means “to manage to” (as
in to manage to achieve something).
• Yo puedo hablar portugués = I can speak
Portuguese.
• Yo pude hablar en portugués = I managed to
speak in Portuguese.
18. Attributive Phrases
• In English, the two most common attributive
phrases are “in x” and “according to x.”
• In Moby Dick, Melville tells the story of some
sailors chasing a whale.
• According to Melville, whales are fish!
19. Spanish Attributive Phrases
• Here are a couple of phrases that you’ll want
to learn cold.
• Como nota. This means “as noted” and refers
to something previously mentioned.
• Según. Most of the time, this functions like
the English prepositional compound
“according to.”
• Según él, las ballenas cantan. (According to
him, whales sing).
20. More on Según
• Unlike “according to” in English, según can be
followed by a clause, in which case the word is
translated as “according to what . . .”.
• Example:
• Según dice la maestra, hay un examen
mañana.
• According to what the teacher says, there is
an exam tomorrow.
21. Adverbial Verbs
• For lack of a better term, these are verbs that
express ideas usually expressed by an adverb
(not a verb) in English.
• Two common verbs that do this are “volver”
and “soler.”
22. Soler
• This stem-changing verb
(suelo, sueles, suele, solemos, suelen), means
(roughly) “to usually.”
• Thus, it is always followed by a verb.
• Example: Suele pasar = It usually happens.
23. Volver
• Volver can be a stand-alone verb with the
meaning of “to return” (as in volvió a
Nantucket = he returned to Nantucket).
• Used with a preposition a and an infinitive, it
means “to again” (volvió a naufragar = he
again shipwrecked . . .)