4 Giving and Learning Basic Information About Yourself and Others
Chapter Objectives
In this chapter you will learn how to:
- Give information about your family
- Use nouns that refer to people
- Use nouns that refer to objects, places & ideas
- Talk about our families and colleagues using
- the verb tener
- possessive adjectives
- the possesive ‘de’
- numbers 31-100 to talk about age
La familia
Listen, repeat, and learn vocabulary to refer to family members.
Articles & Nouns
Nouns are words that identify people, animals, places, objects, and ideas. In Spanish, all nouns have a gender that is classified as masculine or feminine. Because nouns have gender, the articles that accompany them also have gender, as well as number. First we will look at nouns that refer to people. Pay attention to the gender of articles and common endings for these kinds of nouns.
Práctica escrita 4.1
Screenshot your completed work the practice exercise on slide 2 of the above presentation, or from the summary page.
The Verb TENER
The verb TENER (to have) is irregular. We can use it to talk about the family members and relationships we have just like you would use the verb have in English. However, we also use TENER to express a person’s age.
Possessive Adjectives
Práctica oral – 4.2
Record yourself answering the following questions orally. Use the example answers as a model for your own sentences.
- ¿Cómo se llama tu papá?
Mi papá se llama Greg. - ¿Cómo se llama tu mejor amigo/a? (mejor amigo/a = best friend)
Mi mejor amiga se llama Amira.
- ¿A qué se dedica tu madre? (What does your mother do for work?)
Mi madre está jubilada (is retired). / Mi madre es enfermera. (nurse) - ¿Tienes hermanos? (Do you have siblings?)
Tengo dos hermanos y una hermana. / No tengo hermanos. - ¿Cuántos primos tienes? (How many cousins do you have?)
Tengo diez primos. - ¿Tienes novio/a o pareja?
No tengo pareja. / Tengo novia. Ella se llama Nicole.
The Possessive ‘de’
In English we use the possessive apostrophe + s (‘s) to indicate possession & relation. However, we never use an apostrophe this way in Spanish. Instead we use the possessive ‘de’. See how it works below.
Práctica escrita 4.3
Complete the drag-and-drop exercise from slide two of the above presentation. Screenshot your completed work when finished.
Práctica oral 4.4
View the below image and then record yourself stating 5 different relationships in the style of the example, but don’t repeat the example.
MODELO: Ana Sánchez es la madre de Juan Guzmán Sanchez.
Talking About Age (numbers 31-100)
Learn and practice numbers 31 through 100.