Future

20. Future with ir a

• Just like English says, "I am going to...", Spanish uses the verb ir and the preposition a followed by the infinitive:

Voy a cantar mañana. ¿Cuándo vas a entenderme? ¿Qué va a ocurrir?

Vamos a decidir la semana que viene. No vais a ver nada. No van a ir.

• Some useful terms to indicate future occurrences:

después later	mañana tomorrow	pasado mañana the day after tomorrow
más tarde later	esta tarde this afternoon	esta noche tonight
esta semana this week	la próxima semana  next week	el mes, el año próximo next month, year
este mes this month	la próxima vez next time	el año, el mes que viene next year, month

For the exercises, click here.

Stem-changing verbs

All Spanish verbs have a stem (la raíz) and an ending (-ar, -er, -ir): pensar, volver, pedir. There is a large group of verbs that change their stem in the present tense when the stem vowel is stressed. There are three types: those that change -e to -ie-, those that change -o- to -ue- and those that change -e- to -i-:

to think:	to come back:	to ask (for):
pensar (ie) pienso piensas piensa pensamos pensáis piensan	volver (ue) vuelvo vuelves vuelve volvemos volvéis vuelven	pedir (i) pido pides pide pedimos pedís piden

Common verbs following these patterns in the present tense:
e > ie: cerrar, comenzar, empezar, entender, pensar, perder, preferir, querer, sentir
e > i: elegir, (im)pedir, seguir, servir, (son)reír
o > ue: contar, dormir, encontrar, morir, mostrar, poder, resolver, volar, volver

Jugar has a different stem change, from u to ue in the same places:
juego, juegas, juega, jugamos, jugáis, juegan.

Note: All -ir stem-changing verbs change their stems in other tenses (see appendix A).

For exercises, click here. Do also 'Ponte a punto' exercises 1 and 2 in page 88 in the grammar book.

Exámenes de A levels

Aquí tenéis un enlace a la página de Edexcel donde podéis descargar exámenes desde 2008 hasta la actualidad. Me gustaría hacer el examen de 'January 2010' para el lunes que viene, 29 de septiembre.

Verbos reflexivos

There are a considerable number of verbs whose meanings change when used 

reflexively, although many can be used as transitive verbs, too. An interesting case 

is sentir, to feel, which takes a reflexive pronoun with adjectives and adverbs (se 

siente alegre, se siente bien), but not otherwise (siente alegría). Here are some other 

verbs (see also general list):

comunicarse (con) dormirse (ue) enamorarse (de) esforzarse (por) (ue) irse llevarse preocuparse (por) quedarse quejarse (de)

to communicate (with) (comunicar: to communicate something) to go to sleep (dormir: to sleep) to fall in love (with) (enamorar: to seduce) to make an effort to (only used reflexively) to go away, leave (ir: to go somewhere) to carry off something (llevar: to carry somewhere) to be worried (about) (preocupar: to worry someone) to stay (quedar: to remain, to be or have left). to complain (about) (only used reflexively)

If you want to do some exercises or extend the explanation, follow this link to the page were this text was found.

Música en español

Fusión de flamenco y jazz latino. Bebo Valdés y Diego el Cigala, del disco ´Lágrimas Negras´

Heavy Metal. Versión de Rata Blanca de un clásico de Baron Rojo, del album ´Larga vida al... volumen brutal´


Reggae. Manu Chao, disco completo ´Clandestino´


Y aquí tenéis una lista con algunos de las mejores bandas españolas de rap. Espero que os guste.

La tilde

Written accents (tildes) 

Overview - text from SpanishDict - do some online practice here

What are all those little "accents" for? Tildes (written accent marks) let the reader know where to place the intonation when a rule is broken. Without the tilde, we would just have to guess like we do in English:
I love that record vs. He loves to record music.

When to Use an Accent

There are lots of heteronyms like record in English and the rules for pronunciation are a little vague. But not in Spanish! Knowing the four categories of words makes positioning the tilde super easy. There are only 2 rules if you already know your word stress rules.

1. Esdrújulas and sobresdrújulas always have a tilde on the syllable with the most stress.
2. Agudas and graves have a tilde when they violate the intonation rules (see below)

Basic Intonation Rules

1. If the stress is on the last syllable (aguda) and the word ends in vowel, n, or s, it must have a tilde.

• Panamá
• ratón
• cortés

2. If the stress is on the penultimate syllable (grave) and the word ends in a consonant other than n or s, it must have a tilde

• árbol
• azúcar
• ángel

Expanded Intonation Rules

If you do not know what agudas, graves, etc. are, the rules for using tildes, you can read our article on word stress, or continue reading below.

1. Words that end in a vowel, an -n, or an -s will be stressed on the second to last (penultimate) syllable and will not have a tilde.

• ga’-to
• ca’-sa
• za-pa’-tos
• o-ri’-gen

2. Words that end in a consonant other than -n or -s will be stressed on the last syllable and will not have a tilde.

• doc-tor’
• ciu-dad’
• a-zul’
• ha-blar’

If a word violates either of these two rules, it will need a tilde to show the reader where to pronounce the word.

• fácil - This word ends in a consonant (so it would be stressed on the last syllable, but it is stressed on the penultimate syllable, so it needs a tilde.)
• está - This word ends in a vowel (so it would be stressed on the penultimate syllable, but it is stressed on the last vowel, so it needs a tilde.)

Also, if a word is stressed on any syllable other than the last or 2nd to last, it will always require a tilde.

• América - This word ends in a vowel (so it would be stressed on the penultimate syllable, but it is stressed on the 3rd to last (ante-penultimate) syllable, so it needs a tilde.)
• Mándamelo - This word ends in a vowel (so it would be stressed on the penultimate syllable, but it is stressed on the 4th to last (ante-penultimate) syllable, so it needs a tilde.

Exceptions

Now, if you´ve ever taken a language course before, you know there are always (dreaded word) exceptions to the rules. Spanish has fewer exceptions than a lot of languages. These are all here because the tilde differentiates two words that are spelled and pronounced the same way, but mean different things. It´s all obvious in context, but when writing things out, it's nice to have the extra little signal up there.

Possessive adjectives	Personal pronouns
mi (my)	mí (me)
tu (your)	tú (you)

Examples:

• Mi amor me dio la rosa a mí. (My love gave me a rose.)
• Tienes un gato. Es tu gato. (You have a cat. It is your cat.)

Interrogatives/Question Words

All interrogative (question) words have a written accent to signal that someone is asking a question and not just making a statement.

¿Cómo?	How/What?
¿Cuál(es)?	Which (ones)?
¿Cuándo?	When?
¿Cuánto(s)/a(s)?	How much/many?
¿Dónde?	Where?
¿Qué?	What?
¿Quién?	Who/whom?
¿Por qué?	Why?

There are also several other words that "just have" accents to differentiate them other similar words. The tilde makes a big difference when written, but in speech, although they share the same sounds, the one with the tilde is pronounced with more stress.

él (he)	el (the)	Él le gusta el queso. (He likes the cheese.)
té (tea)	te (you - direct object)	Te recomiendo que bebas el té. (I recommend that you drink the tea.)
sí (yes)	si (if)	Sí, quiero ir al cafe si tienen la pizza. (Yes, I want to go to the cafe if they have pizza.)
más (more)	mas (but)	Quiero más chocolate, mas es mala idea. (I want more chocolate, but it´s a bad idea.)
aún (still, yet)	aun (even)	Aun después de una cita buena, aún él no me ha llamado. (Even after a good date, he still has not called me.)
cómo (how/what)	como (like, as)	¿Cómo se llama él? ¿Es alto como Pablo? (What is his name? Is he tall like Pablo?)
sólo (only)	solo (alone)	Iré sólo si tú vas también; no quiero ir solo. (I will go only if you go; I don't want to go alone.)

Escuchando vasco, catalán y gallego

Escuchando vasco, catalán y gallego, lenguas co-oficiales de España.

Crystal Palace es mejor equipo que Manchester United

Una razón por la que el equipo de Manchester United es peor que el equipo del Crystal Palace sería porque el Crystal Palace gana contra los equipos menores y Manchester United no lo hace. Esto ha sido demostrado en las últimas semanas. Por ejemplo, Arsenal es mucho mejor que Swansea City. Ambos equipos perdieron, pero Manchester United perdió contra Swansea City, el peor equipo.  Manchester United empato hasta contra Burnley F.C, posiblemente el equipo más malo en la liga. El Crystal Palace anoto tres goles contra un equipo de la parte más alta de la clasificación en la liga.