spine=.3840” Foreign Language/Spanish ™ Making Everything Easier! Presenting the core concepts Open the book and find: you need to write and speak Spanish correctly • The parts of speech Spanish Essentials If you have some knowledge of Spanish and need a • How to determine a noun’s refresher or want a quick reference for grammar and gender Spanish verb conjugation, Spanish Essentials For Dummies • How to use “de” to show contains what you need to communicate effectively. possession With its focus on everything from constructing sentences to conjugating verbs, this easy-to-follow • How to select the correct preposition guide will help you ace writing assignments and tests, Essentials and master conversations. • Rules for making adjectives agree • Spanish 101 — get the lowdown on the basics, • Tips for asking and answering from expressing the date and time to counting yes/no questions to one million • Ways to spice up your • The here and now — learn how to communicate descriptions in the present tense with verbs and subject pronouns, and how to form the present • Ten important verb distinctions progressive • Way back when — get guidance on working with the past tense, including hints about when to use the preterit and when to use the imperfect Learn: • What lies ahead — discover the different ways • The basics of Spanish grammar and to express the future, whether you need to form sentence construction the future tense of a regular verb or just want to Go to Dummies.com® predict what may happen for videos, step-by-step photos, • How to conjugate regular, how-to articles, or to shop! irregular, and stem-changing verbs • To express ideas about the past, present, and future $9.99 US / $11.99 CN / £6.99 UK Gail Stein, MA Gail Stein, MA, was a foreign language ISBN 978-0-470-63751-7 instructor for more than 30 years and Retired foreign language instructor wrote Intermediate Spanish For Dummies. and author, Intermediate Spanish Cecie Kraynak, MA, is a Spanish teacher For Dummies and authored Spanish Verbs For Dummies. Cecie Kraynak, MA Spanish instructor and author, Stein Kraynak Spanish Verbs For Dummies spine=.3840” ™ Making Everything Easier! Spanish Essentials Learn: • The basics of Spanish grammar and sentence construction • How to conjugate regular, irregular, and stem-changing verbs • To express ideas about the past, present, and future Gail Stein, MA Retired foreign language instructor and author, Intermediate Spanish For Dummies Cecie Kraynak, MA Spanish instructor and author, Stein Spanish Verbs For Dummies Spanish Essentials FOR DUMmIES‰ by Gail Stein, MA, and Cecie Kraynak, MA 01_637517-ffirs.indd i 4/6/10 12:37 AM Spanish Essentials For Dummies® Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc. 111 River St. Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774 www.wiley.com Copyright © 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published simultaneously in Canada No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appro- priate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600. 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Library of Congress Control Number: 2010924598 ISBN: 978-0-470-63751-7 Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 01_637517-ffirs.indd ii 4/6/10 12:37 AM About the Authors Gail Stein, MA, is a retired language instructor who taught in New York City public junior and senior high schools for more than 33 years. She has authored many French and Spanish books, including CliffsQuickReview French I and II, CliffsStudySolver Spanish I and II, 575+ French Verbs, Webster’s Spanish Grammar Handbook, and Intermediate Spanish For Dummies. Gail is a multiple-time honoree in Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers. Cecie Kraynak, MA, earned her bachelor’s degree in Spanish and secondary education in literature from Purdue University, and also received her master’s degree in Spanish literature from Purdue. After graduating in 1983, Cecie began what was to become a 20-year career teaching Spanish to junior-high and high-school students. She continues to teach and travel and has served as a consultant on several Spanish learning guides, including Teach Yourself Spanish in 24 Hours (MacMillan) and Spanish for Healthcare Professionals (Barron’s). She is the author of Spanish Verbs For Dummies (Wiley). 01_637517-ffirs.indd iii 4/6/10 12:37 AM Publisher’s Acknowledgments We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments at http://dummies. custhelp.com. For other comments, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax 317-572-4002. Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following: Acquisitions, Editorial, and Media Composition Services Development Project Coordinator: Katie Crocker Project Editor: Victoria M. Adang Layout and Graphics: Claudia Bell, Senior Acquisitions Editor: Carrie A. Cesavice, Christine Williams Lindsay Sandman Lefevere Proofreaders: ConText Editorial Copy Editor: Megan Knoll Services, Inc., Rebecca Denoncour Assistant Editor: Erin Calligan Mooney Indexer: Potomac Indexing, LLC Senior Editorial Assistant: David Lutton Technical Editors: Greg Harris; Language Training Center, Inc. Editorial Manager: Michelle Hacker Editorial Supervisor and Reprint Editor: Carmen Krikorian Editorial Assistants: Rachelle Amick, Jennette ElNaggar Cover Photo: © Corbis RF/Alamy Cartoons: Rich Tennant (www.the5th wave.com) Publishing and Editorial for Consumer Dummies Diane Graves Steele, Vice President and Publisher, Consumer Dummies Kristin Ferguson-Wagstaffe, Product Development Director, Consumer Dummies Ensley Eikenburg, Associate Publisher, Travel Kelly Regan, Editorial Director, Travel Publishing for Technology Dummies Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher, Dummies Technology/ General User Composition Services Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services 01_637517-ffirs.indd iv 4/6/10 12:37 AM Contents at a Glance Introduction ............................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1: Brushing Up on the Basics .................................................... 5 Chapter 2: Closing the Gender Gap .......................................................19 Chapter 3: It’s Happening in the Present.............................................. 43 Chapter 4: Spicing Up Your Descriptions with Adjectives, Adverbs, and Prepositions .............................................................. 67 Chapter 5: Making Inquiries ................................................................... 89 Chapter 6: Revealing the Past .............................................................. 103 Chapter 7: Looking to the Future ........................................................ 121 Chapter 8: Identifying Verb Moods .....................................................127