Understanding Spanish Grammar: Nouns, Verbs, and More

Spanish Grammar: Key Components

Nouns

A noun is a word that refers to animals, people, concepts, and things. Nouns are classified:

• According to their form:
  • Gender: Masculine and feminine
  • Number: Singular and plural
• According to their meaning:
  • Common or proper
  • Concrete or abstract
  • Individual or collective
  • Countable or uncountable
  • Animate or inanimate
• By function: Nucleus of the nominal group

Determinants

Determinants accompany the noun. They are classified as:

• Articles
• Demonstratives
• Possessives
• Indefinites
• Numerals
• Interrogatives

Pronouns

A pronoun refers to the noun and assumes all of its syntactic functions in a sentence. Types of pronouns include:

• Personal
• Demonstrative
• Possessive
• Indefinite
• Numeral
• Interrogative
• Relative

Adjectives

An adjective expresses the qualities of nouns. Adjectives are classified:

• According to their form:
  • Gender: Two terminations (e.g., unassuming) or one termination (e.g., smart)
  • Number: Adds "s" if it ends in a vowel (e.g., pequeña/s); adds "es" if it ends in a consonant
  • Grade: Positive, comparative, or superlative (some adjectives are irregular)
• According to their meaning:
  • Explanatory (unnecessarily enrich)
  • Specifying
• According to their function:
  • Adjacency
  • Attribute
  • Predicative

Adverbs

An adverb is an invariable word that accompanies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb, indicating circumstances. Adverbs are classified as simple or compound.

Adverbial Phrases

An adverbial phrase is an invariant set of words equivalent to a single adverb, functioning as a whole in a sentence. Functions include:

• Adverbial complement of the verb
• Modification of an adjective
• Adverbial complement of another adverb
• Indirect object
• Agent complement

Verbs

A verb is a word that indicates actions, states, or processes located in time. Verbs are classified by:

• Person: First, second, or third
• Number: Singular or plural
• Tense: Present, past, or future
• Mood: Indicative, subjunctive, or imperative
• Aspect: Perfect or imperfect
• Voice: Active or passive

Impersonal forms of the verb include the infinitive, gerund, and participle.

Periphrasis

Periphrasis uses verb forms to express modal or aspectual values of verb actions. It consists of:

• A main verb
• A conjugated auxiliary verb
• A relational element

Modal Periphrasis

Modal periphrasis indicates the speaker's attitude:

• Obligation: (tener + infinitive +.../ deber +....../ haber + de + tener + que + ..)
• Hypothetical: (deber + de + infinitive +.../ venir + a +.../ poder +.../ poder + que + puede + ser +.....)

Aspectual Periphrasis

Aspectual periphrasis provides information about the development of the verbal action.