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Outline of Spanish Grammar

Nombre or substantivo (noun)

A nombre or substantivo (noun) is an object, e.g., person, place, or thing, that can serve as a subject, direct object, or indirect object.

Subject—the performer of the action.                           

Direct object—what or whom the action is performed on.

Indirect object—to or for whom or what the action is performed.

Pronombres (pronouns)

Below, ellipsis stand for ‘—pronouns that’.

Subject (personal) pronouns—…take the place of the doer

Yo (I), tú (you singular, informal), el (he), ella (she), usted (you singular, formal), nosotros/nosotras (we), vosotros/vosotras (you plural, informal), ellos/ellas (they), and ustedes (you plural, formal).

Direct object pronouns… take the place of the object of the action

Me (me), te (you singular, informal), lo (him or you masculine, singular, formal), la (her or you feminine, singular, formal), nos (us), os (you plural, informal), and los/las (them or you plural, formal).

Indirect object pronouns… take the place of the recipient of the action

Me (to/for me), te (to/for you singular, informal), le (to/for him, her, it, or you singular, formal), nos (to/for us), os (to/for you plural, informal), and les (to/for them or you plural, formal).

Reflexive pronouns… take the place of the recipient of a reflexive action

Note—a reflexive action is an action that the subject of a sentence performs on itself

Me (myself), te (yourself), se (himself, herself, or yourself), nos (ourselves), os (yourselves), and se (themselves or yourselves).

Interrogative pronouns… take the place of nouns given in the answers to these questions

Note—suffixes in brackets below indicate plural form.

¿Quién(es)? (Who?), ¿Cuál(es)? (What? or Which one[s]?) ¿Que? (What?), ¿Cuanto(a)? (How much?), and ¿Cuantos(as)? (How many?).

Articulos (articles)

Abbreviations—m, f – masculine, feminine; s, p – singular, plural.

Definite articles—el (m, s), la (f, s), los (m, p), and las (f, p) (the).

Indefinite articles—un (m) and una (f) (a, an) and unos (m) and unas (f) (some).

Verbos (verbs)

Example—

In Selena canta (Selena sings), Selena is the subject and canta is the verb.

Adjectives (adjetivos) and adverbs (adverbios)

Adjectives describe nouns.

Adverbs describe verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs.

Examples—

El edificio se derrumbó. (The building collapsed.)

El edificio alto poco a poco se derrumbó. (The tall building collapsed slowly).

Example of a comparison with an adjective—

Susana es más alta que Ricardo. (Susana is taller than Ricardo).

Preposiciónes (prepositions)

A preposición (preposition) typically describes a relationship for a noun in time, space, or direction. Simple prepositions included a (to or at), ante (before or in the presence of), contra (against), durante (during), hasta (until), and tras (after).

Example—

Ella va a la tienda. (She is going to the store).

Conjunciones (conjunctions)

Conjuctions connect words and phrases in a sentence. Some common conjunctions are y and e (and), ni (neither/nor), o and u (or/either), pero (but), porque (because), and que (that).

How to

In Word and Outlook, you can use accent marks (or diacritical marks) in a document, such as an acute accent, cedilla, circumflex, diaeresis or umlaut, grave accent, or tilde.

For keyboard shortcuts in which you press two or more keys simultaneously, the keys to press are separated by a plus sign (+) in the tables. For example, to type a copyright symbol © , hold down the Alt key and type 0169.

For keyboard shortcuts in which you press one key immediately followed by another key, the keys to press are separated by a comma (,). For example, for è you would press Ctrl + ` , release and then type e.

To type a lowercase character by using a key combination that includes the SHIFT key, hold down the CTRL+SHIFT+symbol keys simultaneously, and then release them before you type the letter. For example, to type a ô, hold down CTRL, SHIFT and ^, release and type o.