"Rumillajta", grupo de música andina.
The elements of a sentence.
Noun / el sustantivo. Nouns are
the names of things, persons, places, and abstract entities. In Spanish
the noun is called sustantivo (or substantivo in traditional
spelling) because in Aristotelic logic a noun is the name of a substance,
that which remains the same through contingency or change. In Spanish
all nouns are feminine or masculine, singular or plural; they are subject
to change according to gender and number. Examples: things
/ cosas, wheel / rueda, George, Eloísa, Argentina, sweetness
/ dulzura, amazement / asombro, sand / arena, insanity / locura, excellency
/ excelencia, pity / piedad, screwdrivers / desarmadores.
Article / el artículo. It
adds specificity or unspecificity to the noun. In Spanish all articles
are feminine or masculine, singular or plural. Examples: the
beach / la playa, a beach / una playa, the
beaches / las playas, the radish / el rábano.
Adjective / el adjetivo. Adjectives
qualify nouns, that is to say, they add information about the noun.
There are several categories of adjectives, among others, (1) possessive,
for example: my guitar / mi guitarra; (2) demonstrative,
for example: that circumstance / esa circunstancia; (3)
predicate (called qualifyers in Spanish, or adjetivos calificativos),
for example a magnificent concert / un concierto magnífico,
the new car / el coche nuevo, the bad news / la mala noticia.
In Spanish all adjectives are variable; they are feminine or
masculine, singular or plural.
Verb / el verbo. Verbs are the
highly variable names of actions or a state of being. By varying
part of their structure they convey who the subject of the action
is (this is why we conjugate verbs), and whether the action happened
in the past, is happening now, or will happen in the future. They are
the most flexible parts of speech and carry the full dynamism of language.
For example, we thought / nosotros pensamos, she will
ski, / ella esquiará, I consider / yo considero.
There are verbal moods or modes: (a) infinitive, or the
name of the verb (to paint); (b) indicative, or the mode of the
verb that indicates actual action or state of being (I painted, I will
paint, I paint); (c) subjunctive, or the mode of the verb that
conveys possible, desirable, undesirable or contingent action, that
is, action dependent on other factors (she requested that you paint
the chairs) (d) imperative, or the command mode (paint those
chairs!, all right?). There are verbal tenses in the indicative
and subjunctive, indicating time: past or preterite, present,
future, conditional, imperfect. There are verbal voices: active
(she climbed the Everest) and passive (the portrait was copied
by a master forger).
Pronoun / el pronombre. As their
name indicates, pronouns stand for nouns; they take their place. Pronouns
belong in several categories, among them: (1) personal or subject
pronouns, for example: they / ellas; (2) possessive
pronouns, for example: hers / suya; (3) demonstrative
pronouns, for example: that one over there / aquél;
(4) reflexive pronouns, for example: she prepared herself
/ ella se preparó; (5) direct object pronouns,
for example: are you bringing it? / lo vas a traer? (6)
indirect object pronouns, for example: they told her
that... / le dijeron que... Pronouns are variable according
to gender, number and persons.
Adverb / el adverbio. An adverb
is an invariable part of the sentence in both Spanish and English.
Adverbs qualify verbs in the same way that adjectives qualify nouns.
You can see the parallel: a tall man, a short man (adjectives);
to walk fast, to walk slowly (adverbs). In addition to
qualifying verbs, adverbs also qualify adjectives and other adverbs.
For example: exceedingly funny / excesivamente chistoso
(an adverb qualifying an adjective); we play soccer unbelievably
well / jugamos futbol increíblemente bien (an adverb qualifying
another adverb, and both adverbs quialifying the verb). Adverbs also
belong in categories: (1) adverbs of time, for example: I rise
early / me levanto temprano; (2) adverbs of quantity
(or intensity), for example: Julian talks too much; Julian habla
demasiado; or Julian is very talkative / Julian
es muy hablador; (3) adverbs of place, for example: sit
here, please / siéntese aquí, por favor;
(4) adverbs of modality, which are the most abundant, for example:
you are doubly wrong, my friend / estás doblemente
equivocado, amigo mío. Almost any adjective can be turned into
an adverb with the addition of the suffix -ly in English and -mente
in Spanish, for example, tender > tenderly / tierno
/ tiernamente.
Preposition / la preposición. These
are invariable particles in both languages that serve to indicate
direction (to, toward, from / a, hacia, de), position (in, under, at, over, above / en, abajo de, a, encima de, por arriba de),
relation (with, without, of, between / con, sin, entre), or temporal limitations (since,
until / desde, hasta) for nouns and verbs.
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