The verbs INTERESAR, ENCANTAR and GUSTAR

There is a special class of verbs in Spanish language, where the conjugation is different than what we are used to otherwise in Spanish. Three examples of such words are interesar, gustar and encantar. Meaning of all three verbs is related to the liking of something; interesar means "to be interested in", gustar means "to like" and encantar means "to like very much/to love".

These three verbs follow exactly the same grammar structure. For example, let us say "The grammar course is interesting for me" in Spanish:

• (a mí) me interesa el curso de gramática

In this structure, (a mí) part is optional.

The negative sentence is formed as 

• no me interesa el curso de gramática (the grammar course does not interest me)

But if you would like to say more than one thing is interesting for you you say "interesan":

• me interesan el curso de gramática y el curso de literatura (The grammar and literature courses are interesting for me)

So, when used for plural things, interesar becomes interesan.  

This was the form for the first person singular. The correct forms for all subject pronouns are given as

a mí	me	interesa(n)
a ti	te	interesa(n)
a él/ella/usted	le	interesa(n)
a nosotros/nosotras	nos	interesa(n)
a vosotros/vosotras	os	interesa(n)
a ellos/ellas/ustedes	les	interesa(n)

The structure for the question sentences:

• ¿ Te interesa esta actividad ? (Is this activity interesting for you?)
• ¿ Te interesan estas actividades ? (Are these activities interesting for you?)

Encantar and Gustar are used exactly the same way. For example, you can say "I like cats" like

• me gustan los gatos

To inrease the degree of liking

• me gustan mucho los gatos (I like cats a lot)

and also

• me gustan demasiado los gatos (I like cats very much)
• me gustan bastante los gatos (I quite like cats)

The negative sentences are constructed as

• no me gustan demasiado los gatos (I don't like cats very much)
• no me gustan mucho los gatos (I don't like cats much)
• no me gustan nada los gatos (I don't like cats at all)

The adverbs demasiado (very much), mucho (much) and nada (not at all) are very useful for expressing liking degrees. That's why they are used together with "interesar" as well:

• me interesa demasiado ...
• me interesa mucho ...
• me interesa bastante ....

and in the negative form

• no me interesa demasiado
• no me interesa mucho
• no me interesa nada 

The verb "encantar" is not used with these adverbs. Because it means already that you like something very much. So, it is unlogical to use one them with encantar. You simply say

• me encantar mi trabajo (I like my job very much)

While talking on the likings, the following phrases are very useful. Imagine someone says he likes singing much and in turn he asks if you also like. How would you answer shortly in Spanish, if you like singing much too?

• Me gusta mucho cantar (I like singing much). ¿ y a ti ? (and you?)
• a mí tambien (Me too)

Now, suppose you don't like singing. What would you say?

• a mí no (Me not; I don't like singing much)

Now think that the first person says he does not like singing and asking you again if you like or not?

• No me gusta cantar (I don't like singing) ¿ y a ti ? (and you?)
• a mí tampoco (Me neither; I don't like singing either)

But, if you on the contrary like singing you would answer:

• a mí sí  (I do like singing)

So there are four possibilities for such a situation: a mí tambien, a mí si, a tampoco, a mí no.

Also note that when the person asks "and you",  he does not say "? y tú ?", but he says ¿ y a ti ?
(I said these verbs represent a special class of Spanish:) )

Look at the table given on the top of the article. Instead of the subject pronouns (yo, tú...), a mí, a ti... are used. That's is the reason why in the questions above " ¿ y a ti ? " is used. You may construct your sentences for the other subject pronouns as given in that table.

All of these verbs is an integral part of beginner Spanish vocabulary

Conjugation of QUERER and Its Use To Express Plans in Spanish

One of the most commonly used Spanish verbs is the verb "Querer". If you look up the meaning of the verb "Querer" in a dictionary, you see that it has many meanings. Among others, it means "to want".  

Querer is an irregular verb and its conjugation is as follows

escuchar y cantar: Spanish verb Querer can be
used to say you want to do different activities 

yo	quiero
tú	quieres
él/ella/usted	quiere
nosotros/nosotras	queremos
vosotros/vosotras	queréis
ellos/ellas/ustedes	quieren

Look at the parts colored with green. Apart from them, the conjugation of "querer" is just like that of a regular verb ending with "er".

When "querer" is used together with the infinitive form of another verb,  it describes an intention. That's why querer is especially useful when you want to explain what you plan/want/intend to do.

Structure:

Querer + Infinito      

Examples:

• yo quiero ir a un concierto (ir: to go, "I want to go to a concert")
• ella quiere ver la tele (ver: to watch, "She wants to watch television")
• él quiere leer un libro (leer: to read, "He wants to read a book")
• ellos quieren descansar (descansar: to rest, "They want to rest")

In the class, we practised the same structure with some basic Spanish verbs. Below, I summarized those verbs which express activities and hobbies. Obviously, these are the verbs we are expected to know as beginners. You will see in the table that some Spanish verbs are used with prepositions, but we have not covered those verbs up to now in the class. That's why, at the moment I'm memorizing them just as they are without taking too much care about the grammar.

cocinar	to cook
ver la tele	to watch TV.
ir al gimnasio	to go to gymnasium
collecionar sellos	to collect stamps
cantar	to sing
salir de noche	to go out at night
leer novelas	to read novels
jugar al futbol	to play football
descansar	to rest
escuchar musica	to listen to music
estudiar español	to study Spanish
hacer fotos	to make photos
basear	to go for a walk
ver un partido de futbol	to watch a football match
ir a un concierto	to go to a concert
aprender otros idiomas	to learn other languages

Introduction to Spanish Articles

In Spanish, every noun has an article. There are two types of articles: masculine and feminine. That means a spanish noun is either feminine or masculine. Therefore, when we learn a spanish noun, we have to learn its article as well. The masculine article is called "el" and the feminine article is called "la". In most cases, we have to memorize the article, that means there is no way to guess if it is a feminine word or a masculine word. On the other hand, in some cases there are rules we can rely on to guess the correct gender:

1. The nouns which end with "o" are 99% masculine: el libro, el monumento
2. The nouns which end with "a" are 99% feminine: la mesa, la fiesta

There are some exceptions to points 1&2. Examples:

• la mano, la radio, la foto, la moto
• el clima, el idioma, el planeta

If the word ends with "ema"  its article is most probably "el", not "la"

• el tema, el problema, el sistema

    3.  The nouns which end with "sión" and "ción" are feminine: la tradición, la televisión

    4.  The nouns which end with "dad" are feminine: la cantidad, la universidad   

    5.  The nouns which end with "or" are generally masculine: el señor, el profesor. This is expected, because the words ending with "or" are mostly used in order to describe professions for males (el pescador, el director etc.). For a woman, you would for example say "la  profesora". I will write an article on the desciption of professions in Spanish very soon.

And, of course, if the natural gender is male, then the article is "el" and if it is female, the article is "la". Examples:

• el niño (boyfriend) & la niña (girlfriend)
• el padre (father) & la madre (mother)

In Spanish there are many words which end with "e". If a noun ends with "e", unfortunately there is no rule whether its article is feminine or masculine.

Plural Form

The articles "el" and "la" are used for the singular forms of the nouns. In the plural form, "el" becomes "los" and "la" becomes "las":

• el niño (boy friend), los niños (boy friends)
• la mesa (table), las mesas (tables)

Conjugations of SER, TENER and HABLAR

The verb "SER" is the "to be" verb in spanish language. The verb "TENER" means "to have". Both verbs are irregular. Hence, we have to know the conjugations by heart. The verb "HABLAR" means "to speak" and it is regular. Therefore, it is conjugated based on the rules for verbs ending with -ar.

In the following I give the conjugations of these spanish verbs and also explain their usage with examples.

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El Verbo SER

This irregular spanish verb is used for

1. Expressing nationality: soy español (I am spanish)
2. Expressing the Profession: soy ingeniera (I am an engineer)
3. Description: Mi casa es azul (my house is blue)
4. Identification:  Esta es Alicia y esta as Paquita (This is Alicia and this is Paquita)

! An important difference from the english language is that from the sentence structure point of view there is no difference between statement and question sentences. This of course is valid for any other verb; I explain it here for SER. For example:

• tú eres de Madrid (you are from Madrid)

but

• ¿ tú eres de Madrid ? (are you from Madrid?)

So, something like eres tú de Madrid? is wrong. Instead,  in written language, an inverse question mark is put at the beginning of the sentence to make it clear that it's handled there with a question. While speaking, it is easy to change your voice accordingly so that it is understood that you are actually asking something and not making a statement.

Furthermore, as I had mentioned before on  spanish subject pronouns, in spanish the subject pronouns are rarely used. Hence, it is more common to just say

• eres de Madrid or ¿eres de Madrid?

The verb "ser"is conjugated as follows

yo	soy
tú	eres
él/ella/usted	es
nosotros/nosotras	somos
vosotros/vosotras	sois
ellos/ellas/ustedes	son

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El Verbo TENER

Do you remember one of the first things you learnt in spanish: ¿Cuántos años tienes? ---How old are you?.

by using this sentence you were actually telling "how many years do you have? So, you already know one of the uses of the verb tener:

1. asking and telling your age: tengo veintisiete años (I'm 27 years old)

Tener means to have, to have got. So, it is used in the other cases, just as we use have/have got in English

    2. expressing /asking things you have got or not. For example:

¿Tienes móvil? (do you have mobile phone?)

Sí, es el 123432 (yes, it is 123432)

As mentioned above, it is irregular and conjugated as follows

yo	tengo
tú	tienes
él/ella/usted	tiene
nosotros/nosotras	tenemos
vosotros/vosotras	tenéis
ellos/ellas/ustedes	tienen

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El Verbo HABLAR

It means to speak. it is  a regular verb, so its conjugation is

yo	hablo
tú	hablas
él/ella/usted	habla
nosotros/nosotras	hablamos
vosotros/vosotras	habláis
ellos/ellas/ustedes	hablan

You may wish to look here to learn the rules about regular spanish verbs

Examples on hablar:

¿ Qué idiomas hablas ? ---or ¿ Qué lenguas hablas ? ---(Which languages do you speak?)

hablo inglés    porque es mi lengua materna.....(I speak English because it's my mother language)

hablo alemán   muy bien.....(I speak German very well)

hablo italiano  bastante bien....(I speak italian quite well)

hablo francés  regular= hablo  un poco de francés....(I speak French a little bit)

hablo español, pero muy mal ...(I speak Spanish, but very badly)

If you would like to learn how different languages are called in Spanish, please look at Nationalities and Languages

no hablo español...(I don't speak Spanish)

Some phrases are very useful to explain how much you can speak a language