Personal information: name, age, family, where you live
Your own life, in Spanish. Everything this week should be true about you.
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.
What the colours above mean
7 of 10 colours so farA 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 arrive a week earlier than the usual rollout, because Spanish says estoy jubilado — an adjective — where other languages use a noun phrase. Conjunctions like y stay plain until Week 4.
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.
The gear icon in the player sets the speed — 0.75× is the one to start with. Nothing from YouTube loads until you press play.
What stuck?
Check it before you close the page.
Up to 10 of this week's words and frames. Say each one out loud before you look, and say whether you think you have it. Guessing first and then checking is what makes it stick — reading the answer feels better and does less.