Possessive Adjectives

Spanish Possessive Adjective

Possessive adjectives let us know who possesses what.

Examples of the possessive adjectives in English are:

• my
• your
• his 
• her

Examples of these look like this:

• That's my tiramisu
• Yes, it's your tiramisu
• Are you sure it is not her tiramisu

The Spanish possessive adjectives are tu mi su ( sounds a lot like tiramisu)

Masculine Nouns

Spanish nouns that end in  -aje -an -or and -ambre are masculine

A few examples are:
el equipaje
el amor
el  pan
el hambre


Coincidentally, a good man should take care of  your luggage, love, bread, and hunger.



To use a poor representation of this, think of a Buddha ( a masculine archetype for peace lovers) meditating and for his mantra he can't decide between OHM or AHH. As a result it sounds like, "OM (ambre) and (an) or (or)  AHH (aje).

Unexpected Masculine Spanish Nouns

Most of the time,  Spanish nouns ending with the letter A are feminine. The exception is when the noun ends in MA, PA, or TA.  If the noun has one of these endings, there is a good chance the word is masculine. Therefore,  the following  Spanish words require masculine articles:

el tema

el planeta

el mapa

As luck would have it MA PA TA can easily be shortened  to MPT...which sounds like EMPTY......which can be associated with masculinity.

Capitalization Rules In Spanish

In Spanish, it is incorrect to capitalize nationalities, religions , days of the week and months of the year. This may be hard for some types 

Spanish Verbs At A Glance

 Here are the Spanish verbs with names that are self explanatory:

However, the rest are not as cool. Below, I have attached  more meaningful names to the rest of the Spanish verb tenses so that their purpose is crystal clear.

The Past Subjunctve And The Conditional Together

One common use of the Past Subjunctive is to put it with the Conditional. The part of the statement that has the ify word is the part of  the sentence  that gets the  Past Subjunctive. For many, anything that has to do with the Subjunctive is ify.

When the Past Subjunctive is combined with the Conditional tense, you create a power house that can help you weasel out of anything.

For example:

 weasel out of social conflicts

I would kiss you if you had more hair

....Weasel out of  overtime hours

I would work if  I wasn't sick

...weasel out of picking up the check

If  I made more money, I would pay for the  meal.

IF

The Spanish Past Subjunctive

To form the Spanish Past Subjunctive

First you find the past plural form of the 3rd person (the ustedes verb).  Remove the ron ending and add  one of the following endings (yo/ra, tu/ras, usted/ra, nosotros/ramos, or ustedes/ran) 

...or to put it more simply:

Put the ustedes verb in the  past.

Get rid of  RON.

Do the Cheer!

Typing ñ and ü

Typing the Spanish letters ñ  and   ü is much like typing the Spanish letters in the previous post. That is to say, hold down the Alt key and type the four number code. The first two numbers are 02 for both letters. With that in mind, you only have to remember the last two digits.

The code for typing ñ: Alt+0241

The code for typing ü: Alt+0252

I attach ages to the numbers that relate to the Spanish letters.

 The ñ  is a dead ringer for a head with a toupee. 41 is an average age when men lose their hair and go with this bad judgment.

ñ = Alt+0241

The ü resembles a smiley face because when you are 52 there are a few more things to smile about.

ü=Alt+0252

 .

Typing á, é, í, ó And ú

Typing the lower case Spanish vowels when they  have accents marks.

 Just like the previous post, you could configure your keyboard so that you don't have to type

á, é, í, ó, and  ú the long way but it is not always possible. 

• Alt+0225= á
• Alt+0233= é
• Alt+0237= í
• Alt+0243=ó
• Alt+0250=ú

Notice each of the number codes begin with a zero and a two. If you can remember that, all you have to do is come up with the last two digits. I think of a timeline with ages on it to stick in my memory.

Typing The Characters ¡ and ¿

¡ and ¿

Many Spanish students opt to configure their keyboards so that they can type the characters unique to Spanish. However, this is not always appropriate  when using someone else's computer. I learned that the hard way doing work in the business center of a B & B in Okoboji, IA.

The code to type the ¡  is Alt key + 0191

The code to type the ¿ is Alt key+ 0161

At first, the code may look random and easy to forget. But look again and you'll see the obvious connection.

The zero is your head sitting down at the computer. 

The 1s represent the keyboard.

... and the 9 looks like the upside down exclamation mark and the 6 looks like the upside down question mark

See what I mean: 12345 ¿78¡ 

Practice The Subjunctive With Gael García Bernal

I Want You To Want Me    is an old song from the late 70s that happens to be a good way to practice one of the more challenging tenses in Spanish.

Every line of the chorus is in the Subjunctive tense.

I want you to want me.
I need you to need me.
I'd love you to love me.
I'm beggin' you to beg me.
I want you to want me.
I need you to need me.
I'd love you to love me.


Luckily there is a Spanish version of this song Quiero Que Me Quieras. 

Here are the lyrics so you can sing along with dishy Gael Garcia Bernal

Quiero que me quieras 
quiero que me adores 
quiero que me sientas 
que urge que me ames 

Words in bold are in the subjunctive tense.

Spanish Conditional Tense/ Conjugate

Conjugating the Spanish Conditional

Add the following endings to the end of the infinative

yo ía

tú  ías

usted ía

nosotros íamos

ustedes ían

 Use a bucket full of ís and as.  It looks like a bunch of popcorn which works nicely because  the conditional tense is frequently spoken  in  a movie theater  setting.

Would you like to see a movie?

We should see a horror movie.

Would you prefer to see a comedy?

Would you eat popcorn?

Could we arrive on time?

You should sit down.

Would you be quite.

Would you like to fight?

The Spanish Conditional is a lot nicer than saying "shut the fuck up"