culturealley.com/spanish : Learn Spanish for free using self-paced audio-visual lessons and interactive practice exercises - CultureAlley - master conversations, grammar, vocabulary and more! This lesson covers conversations around introducing oneself, asking and telling name, gender, place of origin and profession. It will cover conversations like 'What is your name?', 'My name is __', 'I am from ___', 'I am a student' and many more.To study this at your own pace, take quizzes and explore more lessons go to www.culturealley.com. See you at the Alley!
4. I am Yo soy We are
Nosotros
somos
You are Tú eres You are
(plural)
Vosotros sois
You are
(formal)
Usted es You are
(plural, formal)
Ustedes son
He / She is Él / Ella es They are
Ellos / ellas
son
Revision
6. English Spanish
What? ¿Qué?
Which? ¿Cuál?
Interrogations used today
There are exceptions to these translations, we
will learn these as we go along
7. In Spanish, it is necessary to use the
question marks at the start and end of
a question
This is done to communicate the tone of the
statement (question tone)
¿ ?
¿Cuántos años tienes? (How old are you?)
Grammar tip
8. Interrogative words have a written accent (á / é)
because they are used, unaccented, in other ways
such as:
La veo a ella cuando voy a la escuela
(I see her when I go to school)
¿Cuándo vas a la escuela?
(When do you go to the school?)
Grammar tip
11. ‘Qué’ and 'Cúal' are both used as translations for 'what'
Although, ‘Cuál’ is literally closer to ‘which’; it is used as 'what' to
ask for answers which may have several possibilities
Eg: ¿Cuál es tu problema? (What is your problem?)
Cuál is usually used to indicate a selection, or choice of possibilities
while Qué is generally used to elicit a definition
Eg: ¿Qué significa 'talanquera'? (What does
'talanquera' mean?)
Cuál is usually used before 'es' and other forms of 'ser' when not
seeking a definition
Grammar tip : Why we don’t use ‘Qué’
12. Since 'What is your name' may have any possible
answer and is not really seeking a definition,
we use Cúal
Grammar tip : Why we don’t use ‘Qué’
24. Yo soy = I am
In Spanish ‘yo’ can be omitted as it's
understood that when we use ‘soy’, we are
referring to ‘I’
I am = Soy (am)
Grammar tip
25. A student can also be translated as
‘un/ una estudiante’ to make it more complete
By using ‘un/una’ you reveal
the gender = male/ female student
Soy un estudiante = I am a (male) student
Soy una estudiante = I am a (female) student
Grammar Tip
26. The 'u' in Un is pronounced
as ‘oo’ as in Ubuntu and not like the 'u'
in Umbrella
Pronunciation tip
27. Introductions - Professions
profesor is spelled with
a single ‘s’
English Spanish Tip
I'm an Engineer (Yo) soy ingeniero/a
ingeniero = male
ingeniera = female
I am a Doctor (Yo) soy médico/a
médico = male
médica = female
I am a Teacher/
Professor
(Yo) soy profesor/ora
profesor = male
profesora = female
28. Did you notice the pronunciation
of ingeniero?
'g' when followed by 'e/i' takes up the sound
of a stressed 'h'
Pronunciation tip
29. Note that the names of professions like
ingeniero / profesor etc. are
not capitalized?
This is because introductory titles are not
capitalized in Spanish although their
common abbreviations (such as Dr.
for doctor) are!
Grammar tip
31. We don't add un / una before professions
such as ingeniero / ingeniera (engineer) or
words such as chico / chica as the last letter
of the word itself reveals gender
However in case of ‘estudiante’ the word
itself does not reveal gender hence
we added un / una
Grammar tip
35. Let's revise!
English Spanish Tip
I am Mark Yo soy Mark Can also omit pronoun
My name is Lisa Mi nombre es Lisa
I am a boy Soy chico
I am a student Soy una estudiante Female student
I am a girl Soy chica
I'm from Chicago Yo soy de Chicago Can also omit pronoun
36. 1 2 3
Male student
Try yourself
estudiante Un estudiante Una estudiante
37. 1 2 3
Male student
Solution
estudiante Un estudiante Una estudiante
38. 1 2 3
Doctor (female)
Try yourself
Una médica médica Un médica
39. 1 2 3
Doctor (female)
Solution
Una médica médica Un médica
40. Now that you know how to introduce
yourself and talk about what you do…let’s
look at some other basic phrases while
asking for introductions
Let’s move on…
42. Cuál is used to indicate a selection, or choice
of possibilities while Qué is generally used to
elicit a definition
Since questions like 'What is your name' and
'What is your telephone number' are not
seeking a definition we use Cuál
Which form of 'what' to use?
45. English Spanish
Name Nombre
Student estudiante
Boy Chico
Engineer ingeniero /a
Doctor médico /a
Teacher profesor /ora
Phone number Número de teléfono
Revision - Word list
47. Revision
English Spanish Tip
I am Mark Yo soy Mark
Can also omit
pronoun
What is your name? ¿Cuál es tu nombre?
¿Cómo te llamas?
can also be used
My name is Lisa Mi nombre es Lisa
I'm from Chicago Yo soy de Chicago
Can also omit
pronoun
49. Culture leaf
La Tomatina festival is held in the
Valencian town of Buñol,
in Spain
Participants throw tomatoes and
get involved in a tomato fight
purely for fun. It is held on the last
Wednesday of August
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomatina
50. In the next lesson we will learn some basic
verbs to build our vocabulary and some
conversations around them!
What’s next?