Personal information: name, age, family, where you live
Your own life, in Spanish. Everything this week should be true about you.
Colours live this week
7 of 10 in playA thing, a person or a place.
An action or a state — what is happening.
Stands in for a noun — I, you, he, it.
the / a / some — and possessives like mon, ma.
Links words together — to, in, of, for.
Describes a noun.
Learn it whole. Do not take it apart.
Articles arrive as grey, carrying gender through bold and slanted. Adjectives come a week earlier than in the French course, because Spanish says estoy jubilado — an adjective — where French says à la retraite, a noun phrase. Conjunctions like y stay plain until Week 4.
About you and your family
- Me llamo…My name is…Me llamo David.My name is David.
- Soy de…I'm from…Soy de Inglaterra.I'm from England.
- Vivo en…I live in…Vivo en Wateringbury.I live in Wateringbury.
- Tengo … añosI am … years oldTengo sesenta años.I am sixty years old.
Literally I have sixty years — the same idea as French.
- un hijoa sonTengo un hijo.I have a son.
- una hijaa daughterTengo dos hijas.I have two daughters.
- un maridoa husband
- una mujera wife / a woman
One word for both, exactly like French femme.
- un nietoa grandson
- una nietaa granddaughter
Los nietos covers grandchildren of either sort.
- la familiathe familymi familiamy family
- un amigo / una amigaa friend (m / f)
The -o and -a endings do the gender work for you here.
- el trabajoworkTrabajo en casa.I work at home.
- jubilado / jubiladaretiredEstoy jubilado.I am retired.
Estoy, not soy — retirement is a state you are in, not what you are.
Spanish possessives do not show gender
Mi hijo and mi hija — the same mi either way. That is a genuine simplification over French, where mon and ma change. So mi stays grey and plain, and the gender is carried by the noun's own style and by its -o or -a ending. Only nuestro and nuestra behave like the French ones.
Sentence frames
- 1
Me llamo name y vivo en place.
I'm ___ and I live in ___.
- 2
Tengo number años y estoy jubilado.
I'm ___ and I'm retired.
Use jubilada if you are female.
- 3
Tengo un hijo / dos hijas y number nietos.
I have ___ and ___ grandchildren.
Daily mini-tasks
Listening this week
Dreaming Spanish — the Superbeginner videos
YouTube
Slow, heavily illustrated, no English. Designed to be understood before you can produce anything, which suits this week exactly.