1. Las personas (People)

1. Las personas en la clase (People in the classroom)

Click on the vocabulary list of las personas (persons) below to learn what they mean in English.

2. Otras personas (Other people)

Click on the vocabulary list of las personas (people) below to learn what they mean in English.

2. Preguntas para conversar con personas
(Questions to converse with people)

In Spanish, we can ask preguntas (questions) formales or informales.

Las preguntas formales (formal questions) are used to engage with a single person whose social role or identity requires formal treatment.

For example:

• a person in a position of authority (teachers, law officers, supervisors, public figures, etc.)
• a stranger (people we are meeting for the first time)
• an acquaintance (people we do not know very well)
• an elder (senior person or a person who may appear older than we are)

Las preguntas informales (informal questions) are used to engage with a single person whose social role or identity requires informal treatment.

For example:

• a close friend
• a family member^[1] that may be of close age or similar social role
• a younger person (a child or someone who may appear younger than we are)

In Spanish we can ask preguntas to more than one person or to a group of people. They are known as preguntas en plural.

Listen and look at the table below with the 3 types of preguntas in Spanish:

3. Respuestas para conversar con personas
(Answers to converse with people)

The following respuestas (answers) can be used to respond to the 3 types of preguntas learned above:

• ¡Bien, gracias! (good, thank you!)
• Mal / más o menos / no muy bien (not good / so, so / not so good)
• Nada / no mucho (nothing / not much)
• ¡Muy bien, gracias! (very well, thank you!)
• Regular / terrible / ¡fatal! (regular, terrible, awful!)

4. Preguntas y respuestas para dar información personal
(Questions and answers to give personal information)

As learned above, when conversing with a single person las preguntas (questions) can be formales o informales.

Click on the link below to access a list of preguntas and respuestas (answers) to ask and give personal information:

Dar información personal [PDF] (Give personal information)

1. Los números en español (Numbers in Spanish)

Click on the link below to learn how to say and write numbers in Spanish. Listen to the audio to learn how to pronounce them:

Los números en español [PDF] (The numbers in Spanish)

Cómo usarlo
(How to use it)

Cuántos / Cuántas. (How many)

We can use los números (numbers) to say the quantity of things as in:

• Latinoamérica tiene 19 países hispanohablantes (Latin-American has 19 Spanish-speaking countries)
• Hay 25 personas en la clase de español (There are 25 people in the Spanish classroom)

2. La tilde en español (Written accent mark in Spanish)

When a word (palabra) in Spanish has a written accent mark (tilde) on a vowel the speaker must stress the syllable where the tilde is.

For example:

• ¡Qué!
• ¿Cómo?
• Número
• Día
• País
• Habló
• Teléfono
• Mamá

The tilde in Spanish IS NOT OPTIONAL. In addition to an emphasis on where the stress falls in a word, the tilde is important to distinguish between two words that are pronounced the same but have different meanings. For example: sí (yes) vs. si (if) / él (he) vs. el (the -singular masculine)

The tilde will never be put on a consonant or unstressed syllable.

Words (palabras) that carry a tilde can never have more than one tilde.

In Spanish, the tilde is always written from lower left to upper right.

 3. Reglas generales para pronunciar palabras en español
(General rules to pronounce words in Spanish)

Every word (palabra) in Spanish has a tonic syllable. A tonic syllable is where the “stress” or “tone” rises.

Listen to the words in Spanish below where the tonic syllable is indicated in bold.

Cómo identificar la sílaba tónica (How to identify the tonic syllable)

• If a palabra (word) carries a tilde (written accent mark), the voice rises in that syllable. For example: mamá, papá, México, Panamá.
• If a palabra ends in a vowel a, e, i, o, u or in the consonants n, s, the voice rises in the second to last (penultimate) syllable. For example: Argentina, nada, mucho, estudiante, buenas, examen.
• If a palabra ends in any consonant, except n, s, the voice rises in the last syllable. For example: universidad, español.

Relación entre lengua y cultura (Language and culture relationship)

Nombres y apellidos de personas en el mundo hispanohablante
(Peoples’ names and last names in the Spanish-speaking world)

1. Los apellidos (Last names)

Las personas hispanohablantes (Spanish-speaking people) are ethnically diverse due to thousands of years of cultural contact as a result of colonization and human migration.

Los apellidos (last names) de las personas hispanohablantes are important palabras (words) in Spanish that represent this cultural contact. Hence, muchos apellidos (many last names) de personas hispanohablantes come from a Spanish background, Arabic background, Indigenous background as well as other ethnolinguistic backgrounds.

Por ejemplo (for example):

• Domínguez
• Ponce
• Villalón
• Pavón
• Rojas
• Urzúa
• Hernández
• González
• Albornoz
• Farías

2. Los nombres (The names)

In most Spanish-speaking countries las personas (people) have 2 nombres (names), first and middle name^[2], and 2 apellidos (last names). The first apellido is genereally el apellido paterno (father’s last name) and the second apellido is usually el apellido materno (mother’s last name). However, both apellidos paterno and materno are given from the paternal side of the family.

Por ejemplo (for example):

• Reya Constanza Rojas Primus
  • Reya and Constanza are los 2 nombres (the two names). Rojas is el apellido paterno. Primus es el apellido materno.
•  José Alonso Valenzuela Jiménez
  • José and Alonso are los 2 nombres (the two names). Valenzuela is el apellido paterno. Jiménez es el apellido materno.
•  María Antonieta Godoy Poblete
  • María and Antonieta are los 2 nombres (the two names). Godoy is el apellido paterno. Poblete es el apellido materno.

If women choose to marry, they do not lose their apellidos (last names)^[3].

Por ejemplo (for example):

• Mi nombres es Reya Constanza Rojas Primus. My mom´s name is Reya Carmen Primus Correa. My dad´s name is Leonidas Edgardo Rojas Albornoz. Hence, my parents gave me 2 nombres and 2 apellidos that come from their dad’s side.

If kids are born the parents usually follow the same tradition of giving them 2 nombres and 2 apellidos, paterno and materno.