La Escuela: The School
Welcome to the second lesson in the About.com Spanish Language online course. Don't be concerned if you missed the first one—just follow the link here or at the bottom of the page.| Read, listen and learn in the About.com
virtual Spanish classroom:
1. You're free to join the class at any time and study on your own schedule. For textbook and other organizational information, see the class introduction. 2. Listen to a brief spoken version of this lesson, which includes the pronunciation of many of the words in the text. With most computer configurations, clicking on the above link will download and/or play an MP3 sound file. If you need software for playing MP3 files, see the About.com MP3 Music site. The sound file (246 KB) may take several minutes to download unless you have a high-speed connection. 3. To ask questions, the best way is to post them on the About.com Spanish Language bulletin board. 4. Feel free to email the instructor, although answers to questions of interest to others in the class will probably be posted on the bulletin board rather than be sent individually. |
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As you may have noticed if you've studied Spanish before, these lessons are introducing new material slowly. So if you haven't purchased the textbook yet, you'll have time to catch up once you receive it. These initial lessons merely introduce some basic concepts; we'll go over the concepts again in a few weeks.
Assignment
First, review the pronunciation guide on page xi. Pay special attention to the pronunciation of the vowels.Next, complete Preparatory Lesson 2 on pages xvi and xvii of the textbook. Although the grammar used here if fairly simple, if it doesn't make sense be sure to go back to Preparatory Lesson 1 for a review.
Third, look for any patterns you might see in how un and una are used. Are words with certain endings usually preceded by un or una?
Background
Un and una are what is known as the indefinite articles in Spanish. They are usually translated in English as "a" or "an," the English article depending on the word that follows.You will learn later that the word for "one" is uno, and un and una are variations of that. Thus, there are occasions where you could translate un or una as "one." Tengo un cuaderno could be translated either as "I have a notebook" or "I have one notebook," depending on the context. There's no real difference in meaning—it's just that one translation may "sound" better in its context.
As you may remember, nouns in Spanish can be either masculine or feminine. Un goes with masculine nouns, while una goes with feminine ones. Therefore, if we use el with a given word, we also would use un: el alumno, the male student; un alumno, a male student. Also: la alumna, the female student; una alumna, a female student. (Exception: There are a very small number of cases where el is used with a masculine word that begins with an a, as in el agua.)
Vocabulary note: The words used in the diagram aren't the only ones that can be used. Just as "student" and "pupil" have similar meanings in English, there are also other words in Spanish for "student," such as estudiante. Also, while pluma is usually given as the Spanish word for "(writing) pen," in some places lapicero is used. Pluma also is the word for "feather."
Pronunciation tip
In Latin American Spanish, the z is pronounced like the "s" usually is in English, while in much of Spain it is pronounced like the "th" in "think." It is not pronounced like the z in English. Listen to the sound (see box above for information on sound files).Coming up:
In the next lesson we'll review the concepts we've learned to far and learn some more vocabulary words.
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