Lesson 8: Por qué, venir and debo Flashcards
how to say ‘it’ for feminine and masc words
how to say ‘him/’her’
how to say them (m/f)
‘lo’ - meaning ‘him’, ‘it’ (masculine words) … or ‘you’ if you are talking to a male person formally.
‘la’ - meaning ‘her’, ‘it’ (feminine words) … or ‘you’ if you are talking to a female person formally.
‘los’ - meaning ‘them’ (a group of people who are all male or female and male / a group of objects whose name is masculine) … or ‘you’ if you are talking to a group of males (or males and females) formally.
‘las’ - meaning ‘them’ (a group of people who are all female / a group of objects whose name is feminine) … or ‘you’ if you are talking to a group of females formally.
what does casa mean and is it f/m
‘Casa’ in Spanish means ‘house’ and it is a feminine word so if we were talking about a house we would say:
what does this mean
Quiero verla
I want to see it
I want to see her
I want to see you (formal)
how to know which words are feminine
Words which end in ‘a’ (like ‘Casa’) are almost always feminine.
As always there are some exceptions but if you start here you’ll get it right most of the time.
Formal and informal in english
we often think that it is only European languages that have formal and informal versions of ‘you’ but we do have it as well.
Formal - “Does sir want the hat?”
Informal - “Do you want the hat?”
When we use the formal we use the same version of the verb as if we are sayiing he / she / it - “Does she want the hat?”.
So while ‘quiero’ means I want, ‘quiere’ means “it wants”, “he wants”, “she wants” or “you (formal) wants”.
how to say want in Formal
So while ‘quiero’ means I want,
‘quiere’ means:
- “it wants”,
- “he wants”,
- “she wants”
- or “you (formal) wants”.
what does this mean
Quiere visitarme
You (formal) want to visit me
He wants to visit me
She wants to visit me
This banding together - where the verb form is the same for it/he/she/you (formal) is true of all Spanish verbs as we’ll see when we come across new verbs.
How do you ask a Q in Spanish
Making a statement into a question is beautifully simple in Spanish. There is no changing of the word order or adding things like “Do”. We simply say the statement as a question:
Spanish EnglishEnglish
Quiere visitarme?
Do you (formal) want to visit me
Quiere visitarme?
Does he want to visit me
Quiere visitarme?
Does she want to
How do you make negative statements
To change the meaning of a sentence from positive to negative we just add ‘no’ to the front.
SpanishSpanish EnglishEnglish
No quiere visitarme
You (formal) don’t want to visit me
No quiere visitarme
He doesn’t want to visit me
No quiere visitarme
She doesn’t want to visit me
Por qué is ____ and porque is ___
Por qué is why and porque is because
What word is why
And what word is bevause
Por qué is why and porque is because
How do you say what
Por - for
Qué - what
What’s the verb for ‘to come ’
Venir
The Spanish for “Welcome” is ‘Bienvenido’. ‘Bien’ means well (as in “all is well”, “it’s good”). ‘Venido’ comes from venir so that’s a good hook for remembering this verb.
How to say
I owe / I must
Debo
In English we have a similar word - “debt” - which relates to owing someone something so you can remember Debo this way (another latin one!).
In Spanish I owe can also mean I must
