The Everything Spanish Grammar Book: All The Rules You Need To Master Espanol (Everything®) (28 page)

_________________________________________

2.
Tú habrás ___________________ (ver) la película antes de la
clase mañana.

_________________________________________

3.
Vosotros vos habíais ___________________ (levantar) antes que
yo llegué aquí.

_________________________________________

4.
Yo habría ___________________ (decir) la verdad si me hubieran
(preguntar).

_________________________________________

5.
Hemos ___________________ (escribir) un ensayo juntos.

_________________________________________

6.
No era cierto que tú hubieras ___________________ (ir) por allá.

_________________________________________

7.
Ellos habían ___________________ (terminar) sus estudios
cuando se apagó la luz.

_________________________________________

8.
Todos esperan que yo haya ___________________ (hacer) el
trabajo por mí mismo.

_________________________________________

9.
He ___________________ (poner) la mochila debajo del escritorio.

_________________________________________

10.
Ellos han ___________________ (ser) estudiantes por muchos
años.

_________________________________________

To check your answers, refer to the answer key in Appendix D.

C
HAPTER
15
Not to Be
Overlooked

WE’RE NOW ALMOST DONE with reviewing parts of speech— nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and so on. The remaining parts of speech will be covered in this chapter. These include the conjunction, preposition, and interjection. The last section presents a review of affirmative and negative words and phrases (and their correct usage).

In Conjunction

Conjunctions are words that serve a specific grammatical purpose— they help connect single words and phrases within the sentence. Some grammarians subdivide conjunctions into three categories: coordinating, correlative, and subordinating.

Coordinating Conjunctions

Coordinating conjunctions are words that are used to relate like terms, whether each term is a single word or a clause. The most common example of a proper conjunction is
y
(and). You can use
y
to combine a group of nouns, adjectives, or clauses:

Voy a comprar frutas, vegetales y pan.

I’m going to buy fruits, vegetables, and bread.

La película era interesante y divertida.

The movie was interesting and fun.

A mi hermana le gustan los dulces y a mí me gusta el chocolate.

My sister likes candy and I like chocolate.

When
y
precedes a word that begins with a sound
i
(ee), it changes in pronunciation—and spelling—to
e.
For example:
Aprendo castellano e italiano.
(I study Spanish and Italian.) The change has a reasonable explanation: the sound of
e
is different enough from
y
and does not blend in with the beginning of the following word and can be heard distinctly. Another frequently used coordinating conjunction is
o
(or).
O
works similarly to
y—
it may be used to relate single words or clauses:

Me gustaría comer dulces o chocolate.

I would like to eat candy or chocolate.

¿Puede ser o no puede ser?

Could it be or not?

ESSENTIAL

Correlative Conjunctions

Correlative conjunctions come in pairs. In English, these are “either . . . or” and “neither . . . nor,” and even native English speakers often have trouble choosing between the two pairs. Here is the basic rule: “Either . . . or” is used in affirmative (positive) sentences—“either one or another.” “Neither . . . nor” is only used in negative sentences, when it’s “neither one nor the other—none of the two.”

In Spanish, use
o . . . o
in the case of “either . . . or” and
ni . . . ni
in the case of “neither . . . nor.”

Quisiera o dulces o chocolate.

I would like either candy or chocolate.

No quisiera ni dulces ni chocolate.

I would like neither candy nor chocolate.

In the second example, there’s an extra
no
in the Spanish that is dropped in English. That’s because Spanish is a language of double negatives. (Double negatives are to be reviewed at the end of this chapter.)

Subordinating Conjunctions

Subordinating conjunctions are used to introduce a dependent clause. You have already seen some examples of how this works from Chapter 13, where the conjunction
que
is used to introduce a clause with a subjunctive mood verb.

Here are some common words that may be used as subordinating conjunctions:

Pero
Versus Sino

In Spanish, there are two different versions of the conjunction “but”:
pero
and
sino. Sino
is used following a negative clause that is negated to a positive statement. What does that mean? Take a look at the following example:

Ella no tiene un coche, sino una motocicleta.

She doesn’t have a car, but (rather) a motorcycle.

In this example, “but” negates a negative, so
sino
is required. In all other situations, you can use the conjunction
pero:

Ella tiene un coche, pero no tiene motocicleta.

She has a car, but she doesn’t have a motorcycle.

Lo siento, pero lo que digo es la verdad.

I’m sorry, but what I’m saying is the truth.

Commonly Used Prepositions

Simply put, a preposition is a word that signals position. In English, “of,” “to,” for,” “from,” “in,” below, and “above” are common prepositions. As you can see, some prepositions may be used to signal spatial position (“above,” “below”), while others (“of” and “for”) are more about the relation of something to something else.

The preposition generally appears at the helm of the prepositional phrase, which also includes the object of the preposition (a noun or pronoun) plus article and/or adjective. Here are a few examples of what a prepositional phrase is:

inside the yellow box

over the top

behind me

from that foreign country

In Spanish, prepositions work in the same manner, with one caveat. Spanish and English prepositions often don’t have a one-to-one correspondence. For example, the preposition
a
may be translated as “to,” but it may also be used before direct objects that represent a person or people (as opposed to inanimate objects). Conversely, another word for “to” (as in “toward”) in Spanish is
hacia.

The Versatile
A

You can use
a
to indicate direction or movement, as we do in English with the preposition “to”:

Vamos a la panadería para comprar galletas.

We are going to the bakery to buy cookies.

Ella corrió al centro para buscar al perro perdido.

She ran downtown to look for the lost dog.

A
may also be used to mean “per,” “a,” or “at” when describing rate or cost:

Hacemos ejercicios tres veces a la semana.

We work out three times a week.

Se venden los zapatos a treinta dólares cada par.

The shoes are on sale for thirty dollars a pair.

This versatile preposition may also be combined with other words to show spatial location. For example,
a la izquierda
and
a la derecha
mean “on the left” and “on the right.”

ESSENTIAL

Placed before a direct object, the preposition
a
shows that the direct object is a person—in this case, it is known as the personal
a.
It’s important to understand that the personal
a
does not “mean” anything—its only purpose is grammatical. Here are a few examples:

Encontré a Luis en la librería.

I found Luis at the bookstore.

Conozco a aquellos estudiantes;son Silvia y Ramón.

I know those students—they are Silvia and Ramon.

Furthermore, certain verbs may be followed by the preposition
a,
which connects them to another infinitive. For example:

Ayudo a cargar el camión de mudanza.

I am helping to load the moving truck.

Comenzamos a caminar a las siete de la mañana.

We started walking at seven in the morning.

Here are some other verbs commonly paired with the preposition
a: