The basic rules governing the uses of lo and le are quite well defined. Unfortunately however they are not universally followed. Variations are especially prominent in Spain compared to the rest of the Spanish speaking world. So let’s examine where the confusion arises.

The Use of Le for Lo  in Spain

As you may or may not be aware, le/les are indirect object pronouns while lo/la/los/las are direct object pronouns. Throughout Spain however, the indirect object pronoun le is often used in place of the more ‘correct’ lo for male direct objects. This phenomenon is known as leísmo as is very prominent in Spain despite being somewhat frowned upon by the Academía Real Española. Students of Latin American Spanish should stick to the standard rules of using lo.

Note that the Latin American version is perfectly valid throughout Spain and indeed preferred by the Academía Real Española. In Spain however, expect to hear the le version frequently. It’s also worth noting that only the third person singular male is affected here, la is used as the direct object for the third person female object throughout the Spanish speaking world.

It is said that the letter ‘ñ’ was born in the Middle Ages. Monks living in monasteries were often given the task of making copies of large texts completely by hand; the printing press still had not been invented. To save time the monks used to economize the texts by creating their own symbols to represent such things as double letters. In the 12th century they used a kind of tilde above the letter ‘n’ to simplify the writing of such letters as ‘nn’, ‘gn’, ‘ny’ and ‘nh’. 

Some Latin consonant groups ‘gn’, ‘nn’ and ‘ni’ evolved into a nasal sound. Each romance language represents this sound differently: it became ‘gn’ in Italian and French, ‘ny’ in Catalan and ‘nh’ in Portuguese. Medieval Castilian (Spanish) represented the sound with the double ‘nn’, which was usually abbreviated with a single ‘n’ with a tilde on the top; this became the standard form that exists today and it is called ‘enye’ (ñ). This new handwritten form was also utilized on other letters such as ‘aa’ which was replaced by ‘ã’, thought this didn’t survive into modern Spanish. 

This linguistic evolution can be observed through some Latin words such as  ‘annus’ which became ‘año’ in Spanish.

When it comes to translating the word ‘whatever’ into Spanish, we often come across a little known phenomena known as the ‘Forma Reduplicativa’ or the Redoubled Form. The ‘Forma Reduplicativa’ is recognised by the repeated use of a verb in the subjunctive:

Digan lo que digan…	Whatever they say…
Hagas lo que hagas…	Whatever you do…
Sea lo que sea…	Whatever it is…
Pase lo que pase…	Whatever happens…

Interrogatives are words which introduce a question. In English these are words such as, how, what, why, when, where etc.

¿ Qué ?	What ?
¿ Cuándo ?	When ?
¿ Dónde ?	Where ?
¿ Adonde ?	To where ?
¿ Cuánto ? / ¿ Cuántos ?	How much ? / How many ?
¿ Quién ? / ¿ Quiénes ?	Who ?
¿ A quién ? / ¿ A quiénes ?	Whom ?
¿ Cómo ?	How ?

Note that in Spanish all interrogatives carry an accent. For information on the ‘qué’ and ‘cuál’, consult article: An Explaination of ‘Cuál’

In English we tend not to distinguish between the preterite and the imperfect tenses. It is easy to see why then, that these particular two tenses can cause English speakers a real problem. The uses of these two tenses however are really quite well defined; a proper understanding from the outset will enable one to correctly use the preterite and imperfect without problems.

The Definition

Before examining the two tenses in more detail, it is important to lay down a brief yet concise definition of the two tenses and their uses:

The above diagram should help one to visualize the key points. Preterite is used for events which always have a definite or implied start and end point. The imperfect is used with events with no implied start nor end.

Preterite Examples:

El desierto del Sáhara se terminó de formar hace tan sólo 2.700 años	The Sahara desert formed just 2,700 years ago (definite end point)
le grité y se asustó	I shouted and he got scared (end point)
Más de 1.500 personas encontraron trabajo a través de Trabajos Online	More than 1,500 people found work through ‘Trabajos Online’ (implied end point [i.e. they already have found work])
en 1975, trabajó como profesora de Economía Internacional en la Universidad de Sevilla	in 1975, he worked as an international economics professor at the university of Sevilla (specific moment in time)

Imperfect Examples:

El arrestado trabajaba como empleado en todas las empresas donde robaba	The arrested man worked as an employee for the company that he robbed (habitual actions, he worked there while he was robbing the business)
Volví a casa, pero ya no estaba.	I returned home, but she wasn’t there (background action)
Mi coche era azul	My car was blue (description)
No estaba preparado para la guerra	He wasn’t prepared for the war (no time element)

A verb is a word used to describe an action, state or occurrence. In English, verbs are preceded by ‘to’, i.e. to be, to have, to love, etc. For native English speakers, Spanish verbs can cause initial confusion. The way Spanish verbs work is somewhat different from that of their English counterparts. Spanish verbs are generally logical so there is no need to worry. Before we get stuck-in, I feel it’s important that we are all fully aware of how verbs work in our native English so that we can compare and contrast.

English Verb Construction

Before we get started, it’s important to understand several grammatical phrases:

In English, verbs have a maximum of two forms, also knows as conjugations, for most tenses:

As you can see with the above examples, the basic form of the verbs (which are in the present tense) is either the standard infinitive form or the standard infinitive form with an -s at the end (i.e. run and runs). We know who the verb refers to by looking at the initial subject pronoun: I/you/he/she/it/we/they – without the subject pronoun, verbs in English don’t work, we must always add this to qualify exactly who we are referring to. In Spanish however, things are quite different, so let’s find out how:

Spanish Verb Construction

Spanish verbs are classified into three different categories, these are -AR verbs, -ER verbs and -IR verbs. That is to say, verbs ending in -ar, -er and -ir. All spanish verbs fall into one of these categories. This classification is important to understand and remember because the rules for verb conjugation are different depending on the category of verb.

Verbs in Spanish have far more conjugations (derivations) than their English counterparts. The reason for this is simple, Spanish verbs carry more information that English verbs. An English verb tells us:

• The tense of the verb, i.e. present, past, future, etc.

A Spanish verbs on the other hand tells us:

• The tense of the verb.
• The subject of the verb, i.e. the person performing the action of the verb.

Remember as I stated earlier, all English verbs must be accompanied by a subject pronoun so we know who is performing the action of the verb. To simply say ‘talks’ for example is incomplete in English, we don’t know who is performing the action of talking; is it him/her/it? We must qualify this by adding a subject pronoun, i.e. ’she talks’: now we know who is performing the action. In Spanish on the other hand, there is no need for this subject pronoun as the by looking at the verb conjugation, we know who is performing the action. It follows logically therefore that basic Spanish tenses have at least six conjugations representing the 6 groups of subject pronouns::

	English	Spanish
First Person	I	Yo
Second Person	You	Tú (familiar)    Usted (formal)
Third Person	He/She/It	Él/Ella/Lo/La
First Person Plural	We	Nosotros
Second Person Plural	You (all)	Vosotros (familiar)    Usteded (formal)
Third Person Plural	They	Ellos

Let us examine this with the Spanish verb ‘hablar’ (an -AR verb) which means ‘to talk’. Below is a list of the verb’s six present tense conjugations:

(yo) hablo	(nosotros) hablamos
(tú) Hablas    (usted) habla	(vosotros) habláis    (ustedes) hablan
(él/ella/lo/la) habla	(ellos) hablan

Notice that I have placed the subject pronouns in brackets to indicate that they are not needed and most often omitted. The subject pronoun is usually added for emphasis. Above we have the basic rules for conjugating any -AR verb in the present tense. The ending of the verb tells us who is performing the action. The basic rule is thus:

The stem of a verb is simply the verb without its -AR, -ER or -IR ending.

What we must commit to memory therefore are the various endings corresponding to each subject. These are different for most tenses.

One of the most common mistakes that spanish language learners make is the incorrect choice of article for irregular nouns. Below is a list of five of the most common nouns that people make mistakes with.

la mano

It is a common mistake to say ‘el mano’. In spanish almost all body parts are regular.

el problema

Words ending in ‘-ma’ derive from Greek, and almost all are feminine.

el tema

Here is another example of an ‘-ma’ word:

la foto

When a word is a contraction of a larger word, we generally keep the article of the original word. In this example, ‘foto’ is a contraction of ‘fotografía’, which ends in an ‘a’ and is therefore feminine

el mapa

Some words simply go against the rules and we have to memorize these individually. ‘Mapa’ is masculine even though it ends in ‘-a’.

‘Ser’ and ‘Estar’ present one of the biggest problems for foreign people learning Spanish. While ‘Ser’ tends to suggest permanence where ‘Estar’ is used more with temporary states of being, often the lines separating the two become blurred and this is where one can make mistakes. Below are five common examples where Spanish learners slip-up.

‘Ser bueno’ and ‘Estar bueno’

¡Qué bueno eres!	You’re a good person!
Hay una chica en mi clase que está muy buena.	There´s a girl in my class who is really hot/attractive.

Remember: although there are some exceptions, we generally use ’ser’ when talking about the person’s personality and ‘estar’ when referring to them physically.

‘Ser simpatico’ and ‘Estar simpatico’

 

La profesora de español es muy simpática.	The Spanish teacher is a very friendly person.
El dueño del bar está muy simpático esta mañana.	The bar owner is very friendly this morning.

 

Don’t forget that ’ser’ is used to describe how people are in general and ‘estar’ how they are at any specific moment.

‘Ser rico’ and ‘Estar rico’

 

Tiene una gran casa porque es rico.	He has a big house because he’s rich.
El pollo está muy rico.	The chicken is very nice.

 

‘Ser alto’ and ‘Estar alto’

 

Mi hijo es muy alto.	My son is very tall.
¡Cuánto tiempo sin verte!¡Qué alto estás!	I haven´t seen you in ages! Look how tall you’ve got!

 

Bear in mind: when talking about the physical location of objects, we always use ‘estar’:

 

Cógeme ese libro por favor, está muy alto.

Get me that book please, it’s too high.

 

‘Ser guapo’ and ‘Estar guapo’

 

Estás muy guapa con ese vestido.	You look beautiful in that dress.
Esa actriz es muy guapa.	That actress is gorgeous.

 

Common Uses

In its most basic form ‘cuál’ is a pronoun meaning ‘which one?’ referring to a group of objects. Spanish language learners often use ‘qué’ where ‘cuál’ may be more appropriate. Below are some common examples of ‘cuál’ while referring to objects:

¿Cuál te gusta?	Which one do you like?
¿Cuál van a comprar?	Which one are they going to buy?
¿Cuál era?	Which one was it?

When referring to people the personal ‘a’ must be included:

¿A cuál de los tres prefieres?	Which one of the three (people) do you prefer?
¿A cuál debo elegir?	Which one of them (person) should I choose?
¿A cuál?	Which one (person)?

Note: While ‘cuál’ is a valid form of saying ‘which’ in reference to people, more often than not ‘Quién’ is preferred.

‘Cuál es…?’ or ‘Qué es…?’

When wishing to say ‘what is…?’ in Spanish, the most common translation is ‘Cuál es’. Another translation however is ‘qué es’ so it’s important to know how to distinguish between the two.

A simple explanation is that ‘qué es’ is used to pose questions regarding the nature and definition of things (what kind of thing is…?) whereas ‘cuál es’ is more generic and used for everything else.

Examples of ‘cuál es’:

¿Cuál es tu opinion?	What is your opinion?
¿Cuál es el plan?	What’s the plan?
¿Cuál quiere?	Which does he want?

Examples of ‘qué es’:

¿De qué color es tu coche?	What colour is your car?
¿Qué es el internet?	What is the Internet?
¿Qué hace un entrenador?	What does a manager (sporting) do?

‘Que’ is used when talking about dates and times:

¿Qué hora es?

What time is it?

‘¿Cuál…?’ Before a Noun

Generally speaking, ‘cuál’ is not placed before nouns. This is especially true in the Spanish from Spain. In parts of Latin America however, this rule is less strict. The general guideline is to place ‘qué’ and not ‘cuál’ before a noun:

¿De qué (not. ‘cuál’) color es su pelo?	What colour is her hair?
¿Qué (not. ‘cuál’) coche prefieres?	Which car do you prefer?

Archaic Use of ‘Cual’

‘Cual’ can be used without an accent to mean ‘como’ (‘as’) but this is considered archaic and is nowadays only used for poetic value:

Lo guardaba en un cajón cual un tesoro.

He stored it in a draw like a treasure.

 

I recently answered a question post on a forum about this very issue. It was brought to my attention that there were some details that I had overlooked. I have therefore decided to go back to basics and re-examine the whole question.

The basic rule is simple: When a noun begins with a stressed a- or ha-, it takes the masculine definite and indefinite articles regardless of its gender.

So what we are saying here is that some nouns may take the masculine articles even though they are feminine! So how are we to know that they are feminine if they are accompanied by the masculine articles? Good question, but it really isn’t so complex. Fortunately the agreements between the nouns and adjectives do not change. Let us consider the following example:

Agua (water) is a feminine noun in Spanish. It adheres to the rule stated above, namely it begins with a stressed a- and is therefore accompanied by a masculine article:

When we add value to the noun with an adjective, that adjective must take the feminine form:

Notice that the adjective ‘fría’ takes the feminine form.

When the noun is in the plural form, it requires the feminine plural article ‘las’:

The noun also requires the feminine article if another word comes between the noun and the article:

Below is a list of some of the most common feminine words that take the masculine article: