POST: Week 1, Day 1, Friday, August 29, 2008

This is how I post. I use the word POST in the title for posts done AFTER class and PRE for posts done BEFORE class.

Today we had a fundamental introduction to the class. Please see the syllabus at www.wsu.edu/~mejia/Spanish_600_Homepage.htm for more. We did the diagnostic, which consisted of identification of noun phrases.

I. About Articles

One good way to look for noun phrases is to search for the presence of articles. Not all noun phrases start with articles, but a lot do!

Spanish has four definite articles you'll see a lot: la/las/el/los. There is another one that is used less commonly: lo. All of these can be translated as "the." "Lo" is used in rare cases when an adjective is used as a noun: lo visible (the visible).

Spanish ahs four indefinite articles: una/unas/un/unos. "Una" and "un" can be translated as "a" and "unas" and "unos" as "some."

II. About Nouns

Nouns follow articles in Spanish. Look for them to the right of the article. Spanish, like English, has a lot of ways of forming nouns. Mostly you need to look at the end of the word to see if the word is a noun.

Spanish nouns are divided into two categories referred to as masculine and feminine. Masculine nouns generally end in –o and feminine nouns in –a, although there are other endings for each category. When you look up a noun in a Spanish-English dictionary, the gender will be noted. The common abbreviations are m for masculine and f for feminine.

These genders have nothing to do with sex but they are important to note because you need this information to decipher complex noun phrases.

Like English nouns, Spanish nouns often have particular word endings that indicate that they are nouns.

-(c) ion (English: ion): articulacion, reaccion, decision, revision, elaboracion, construccion
-dad (English: ity): felicidad, capacidad, habilidad, complejidad, modernidad,
- mento/miento (English: ment/ing ): apartamento, establecimiento, pensamiento
-ista (English: ist): revisionista, cientista
-ismo (English: -ism) : comunismo, catolicismo
-cia (English: -nce): importancia, consecuencia
-gia (English: -gy): tecnologia

Like English, Spanish nouns are pluralized, with either -s or -es, to show the plural.

Examples: construcciones, capacidades, departamentos, cientistas, comunismos, consecencias, tecnologias.

III. About Adjectives

Spanish adjectives change to “agree” with the number (singular or plural) of the noun they modify. They also change to “agree” with the gender (masculine or feminine). Spanish adjectives are often, but not always, found to the right of the noun!

Like English adjectives, they have a number of productive word endings:

- able/ible (English: -ble): visible
- al (English: al): visual
- ico/a (English: ic): septico(a)
- ivo/a (English: ive): masivo (a)
- oso/a (English: ous): adventuroso(a)
- nte (English: -ing/(and other endings): creciente

- (a)ido/(a)/ito(a) (English: -ed): ilustrada. This is called the past participle form. As in English this is a very productive adjective - formation pattern. Many verbs can be moved into the past participle form and changed into adjectives in Spanish. In all these examples, the word “politica” means “policy.”

to detail: detallar: detallado(a): una politica detalloda
to revise: modificar: modificado(a): una politica modificada
to articulate: articulado(a): una politica articulada
to write: escribir: escrito(a): una politica escrita

IV. About Adverbs

Spanish adverbs, like English adverbs, are often derived from adjectives. They are formed by adding the ending –mente to the feminine adjective form:

Examples: -mente: rapidamente, pesadamente, dulcemente

NOTE: In English and Spanish the adverb modifies the adjective. The adverb comes in front of the adjective. So in Spanish when the adjective moves to the right of the noun, the adverb moves to the right of the noun too but stays to the left of the adjective.

Example: A tediously written policy; una politica pesadamente escrita

HOMEWORK: Look at the diagnostic we did in class today -- and do it again, considering the explanation given above. The diagnostic can be found at : www.wsu.edu/~mejia/Spanish 600 diagnostic.doc
Print a copy and bring it to class next week.

After next week, I like homework to be submitted in GOOGLE documents. This way, I can correct it easily. To use GOOGLE documents, you can do one of these two things:

A. Use Google documents attached to a gmail account (if you use gmail). Click on Documents in the upper left part of the screen.

OR

B. Create a Google documents account by going to www.google.com. Go to "more" and then to "documents." Follow the links to set up an account -- but be sure to give the email address you use most frequently. You can have a Google documents account without having a gmail account!

I'd appreciate if you could set up a GOOGLE documents account BEFORE class next week so we can maximize our time in class on Spanish.