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Student's Quick Guide to Grammar Terms

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Student's Quick Guide to Grammar Terms Oxford Spanish Dictionary Skills Resource Pack Oxford Spanish Dictionary Skills Resource Pack Glossary H Review and questions Abbreviation A shortened form of a word Conjunction conj A word used to join indirectly affected by the verb: le escribí or phrase: Sr. = Mr clauses together: y = and; pero = but; una carta a mi madre = I wrote a letter to porque = Active In the active form the subject of the because my mother Finally, a brief review of the topics covered in the lecture: verb performs the action: Pedro besa a Consonant All the letters of the alphabet Indirect speech A report of what someone Ana = Pedro kisses Ana. See Passive. other than a, e, i, o, u has said which does not reproduce the • Important factors to bear in mind when choosing a bilingual [show slide 35] Adjectival phrase loc adj A phrase that Countable (count) noun [C] A noun that exact words: dijo que habían salido = she dictionary functions as an adjective: a ultranza = out- forms a plural and can take the indefinite said that they had gone out; he told me to • Navigating through an entry – English-Spanish, then Spanish-English and-out, fanatical; es nacionalista a article, e.g. a book, two books. See be quiet = me dijo que me callara ultranza = o Uncountable noun. he's a fanatical out-and-out Infinitive The base form of a verb: cantar = • Explaining abbreviations and symbols: nationalist, he's a nationalist through-and- Definite article def art: el/la/los/las = the to sing - common grammatical categories through Demonstrative adjective adj dem An Inflect To change the ending or form of a - hyphen and swung dash (or tilde) Adjective adj A word describing a noun or adjective indicating the person or thing word to show its tense or its grammatical pronoun: un lápiz rojo = a red pencil - subject field labels referred to: esta mesa = this table relation to other words: canto and Adverb adv A word that modifies a verb, an - regional labels Demonstrative pronoun pron dem A cantaba are inflected forms of cantar adjective, or another adverb: corrió - register labels pronoun indicating the person or thing Interjection A sound, word, or remark rápidamente = he ran quickly; muy bonito interj referred to: ésta es mi hermana = this is - sentence patterns = very pretty; canta muy mal = she sings expressing feelings (such as anger, fear, or my sister joy), or attracting attention: ¡ay! = ; - phonetics very badly ouch! Direct object The noun or pronoun directly ¡Dios mío! = good heavens! Adverbial phrase loc adv A phrase that affected by the verb: compré un libro = I functions as an adverb: motu proprio: lo Interrogative An adjective, adverb, or • How the dictionary can help you with: bought a book hizo (de) motu proprio = he did it on his pronoun that asks a question: ¿qué? = - plurals own initiative Direct speech A speaker’s actual words or what?; ¿cuánto? = how much?; ¿quién? = the use of these in writing: He said, "Be - gender Apocope The omission of the final sound of who? quiet!" = Dijo «¡Cállense!» - idioms a word, as in Spanish algún (alguno), tan Intransitive verb vi A verb without a direct Elliptical Having a word or words omitted, (tanto) object: murió repentinamente = he died - word order especially where the sense can be guessed Article The definite article, el/la/los/las suddenly - the subjunctive art from the context = the, and indefinite article, un/una = a/an Invariable adjective An adjective Ending Letters added to the stem of a word adj inv are used before the noun that is unchanged in the singular and the • How the dictionary can help you with verbs: [show slide 36] to show a change in function, e.g. verb Attributive An adjective or noun is amar; stem am-; in amaba, -aba is the plural, as in the Spanish beige - tense, subject, and object attributive when it is used directly before a Lecturer notes ending Invariable noun n inv A noun that is noun: un buen vino = a good wine. See - direct and indirect objects unchanged in the singular and the plural, Predicative. Feminine f One of the genders in Spanish, - transitive and intransitive verbs applied to nouns, pronouns, adjectives, as in English sheep, species Auxiliary verb A verb used with v aux and articles: la casa blanca = the white - reflexive verbs another verb to form compound tenses; in Irregular verb A verb not following one of house; ella = she - impersonal verbs Spanish haber and estar: he comido = I the set patterns, which has its own individual forms, e.g. Spanish ser; English - phrasal verbs have eaten; estaba durmiendo = he was Future tense The verb tense that refers to sleeping something that will happen: llegará tarde to be - verb tables = he will arrive late Cardinal number A whole number Masculine m One of the genders in Spanish Lecturer Lecturer notes - verb complementation representing a quantity: uno/dos/tres = Gender Spanish nouns, pronouns, applied to nouns, pronouns, adjectives, one/two/three. See Ordinal number. adjectives, and articles almost all fall into and articles: el perro negro = the black • Avoiding mistakes: two genders, masculine and feminine; in dog; él= he Clause A self-contained section of a addition, Spanish uses the neuter pronouns - adapting examples sentence that contains a subject and a verb esto, eso, and aquello, and the neuter Modal verb v mod A verb used with another - cross-checking Collective noun A noun that is singular in article lo verb to express necessity or possibility, e.g. form but refers to a group of individual might, should, will Gerund ger The part of a verb used in persons or things, e.g. realeza, gobierno Spanish to form continuous tenses: Mood A category of verb use, expressing • Extra features = royalty, government muriendo = dying; cantando = singing. fact (indicative), command (imperative), or Collocate A word that regularly occurs with See Present participle. wish or conditionality (subjunctive) another; for example, typical collocates of Imperative A verb form that expresses a Negative neg Expressing refusal or denial the verb leer in Spanish are <libro/texto>; in command: ¡ven aquí! = come here! the Oxford Spanish Dictionary, subject Neuter One of the genders in Spanish, used collocates are shown in double angled Imperfect tense The tense that refers to an only in the pronouns esto, eso, and Time for questions brackets and object collocates are shown in uncompleted or habitual action in the past: aquello, and the article lo single angled brackets. los niños jugaban = the children were Noun A word that names a person or a An opportunity to discuss, review, and explore what students have learned in the seminar playing; iba allí los lunes = I went/used to n Comparative comp The form of an adjective thing or a concept or adverb that makes it “more” or "less": go there on Mondays más/menos pequeño = smaller/less small Impersonal verb v impers A verb used Number The state of being either singular without a personal pronoun: está or plural Compound A unit of two or more separate lloviendo = words with a specific meaning: zona cero it is raining Object The word or words naming the = ground zero; cirugía estética = cosmetic Indefinite article indef art: un/una = a/an. person or thing acted on by a verb: John surgery There is no plural form. estudia geografía = John studies Object collocates are shown in Compound tense A tense made up of two Indefinite pronoun A pronoun that does geography. parts, auxiliary verb and past participle: lo not identify a specific person or object: single angled brackets. ha comido = he has eaten it uno, alguien = one, someone Ordinal number A number that shows a Conditional tense A tense that expresses Indicative form The verb form used when person’s or thing’s position in a series: what might happen if something else making a statement of fact or asking primero = first. See cardinal number occurred: iría, si… = he would go, if … questions in various tenses: no tengo Part of speech The name for the function of hambre = Conjugation Variation of the form of a verb I’m not hungry a word: noun, verb, adjective, etc., are to show tense, person, mood, etc. Indirect object The noun or pronoun parts of speech Additional exercises are available online at: www.askoxford.com/languages/dictionaryskills Additional exercises are available online at: www.askoxford.com/languages/dictionaryskills 18 © Oxford University Press 2005 © Oxford University Press 2005 19 Oxford Spanish Dictionary Skills Resource Pack Glossary Passive In the passive, the subject of the Pronominal verb v pron A Spanish verb Uncountable (uncount) noun [U] A noun verb experiences the action rather than conjugated using the pronouns me, te, se, without a plural in ordinary usage, which performs it; it is used more in English than nos, and os, in which the pronoun refers cannot take the indefinite article; furniture in Spanish: Ana is kissed by Pedro = Ana to the subject of the verb: (yo) me and news are uncountable in English, but es besada por Pedro. See Active. equivoqué = I was wrong. A subgroup of their translations muebles mpl, noticia f these verbs are Reflexive verbs. are countable in Spanish Past participle past p The part of a verb used to form past compound tenses: she Pronoun pron A word that stands instead of Verb v, vb A word or group of words that had gone = había ido a noun: él/ella = he/she; alguien = someone; describes an action: los niños están Perfect tense The perfect tense in Spanish el mío/la mía = mine jugando = the children are playing is used to refer to events in the recent past: Proper noun The name of a person, place, Vowel One of the following letters: a, e, i, he comido = I have eaten institution, etc., generally written with an o, u Person Any of the three groups of personal initial capital letter: Spain, the Atlantic, pronouns and forms taken by verbs; the London, Juan, Madrid, el Ebro are all proper nouns first person (e.g.
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