Spanish Grammar: Nouns, Pronouns, Adjectives, and Determiners
Determiners
Determiners are a closed class of words that accompany nouns. They cannot be created. They differ from adjectives.
Types of Determiners:
- Articles:
- Definite: (el, la, los, las) accompany known nouns.
- Indefinite: (un/una, unos/unas) accompany unknown nouns.
- Demonstratives: (este/esta/estos/estas; ese/esa/esos/esas; aquel/aquella/aquellos/aquellas) indicate proximity, middle distance, or distance.
- Possessives: (mi, mío/mía, tu, tuyo/tuya, su, suyo/suya…) show belonging.
- Numerals: Quantify nouns.
- Cardinals: 1, 2, 3…
- Ordinals: 1st, 2nd…
- Multiplicatives: double, triple…
- Partitives: medio, onceavo…
- Indefinites: un/una, unos/unas, algún/alguna/algunos/algunas, poco/poca/pocos/pocas, mucho/mucha/muchos/muchas… Give an imprecise quantity.
- Relatives: cuyo/cuya/cuyos/cuyas, cuanto/cuanta/cuantos/cuantas
- Interrogatives and Exclamatory: qué, cuál/cuál/cuáles/cuáles
Pronouns
Pronouns substitute nouns or noun phrases.
Types of Pronouns:
- Personal: I, you, he/she/it, we, you, they. In Spanish America, “vos” is often used instead of “tú”. The first person plural can be used to refer to a singular referent (pluralis majestatis or pluralis modestiae).
- Relative: que, quien/quienes, el/la/los/las/lo que, cual/cuales
- Possessive: mío/mía/míos/mías; tuyo/tuya/tuyos/tuyas; suyo/suya/suyos/suyas
- Demonstrative: este/esta/estos/estas; ese/esa/esos/esas; aquel/aquella/aquellos/aquellas
- Indefinite:
- Existential: uno, alguien, nadie, algo, nada
- Quantitative: varios/varias, poco, mucho
- Other indefinites: mismo/misma/mismos/mismas, otro/otra/otros/otras
Adjectives
Adjectives describe nouns.
Morphologically: Adjectives inflect for gender and number, agreeing with the noun they modify. They also have degrees of comparison.
- Positive: The basic form of the adjective.
- Comparative: Compares two or more nouns. (e.g., más alto/más alta, menos interesante)
- Superlative: Expresses the highest degree of a quality. (e.g., el más alto/la más alta, altísimo/altísima)
Syntactically: Adjectives can function as:
- Attributive: Modifies a noun directly (e.g., “la casa roja”).
- Predicative: Used with a linking verb (e.g., “La casa es roja”).
Semantically: Adjectives can be:
- Explanatory/Epithet: States an inherent quality (e.g., “el frío hielo”).
- Specificative: Distinguishes a noun from others (e.g., “el coche rojo” when there are cars of other colors).
Noun Phrases (SN)
Noun phrases are groups of words centered around a noun or pronoun.
Nouns
Syntactically: Nouns function as the nucleus of a noun phrase.
Morphologically: Nouns inflect for gender and number.
Semantically: Nouns name people, animals, concepts, or things.
Noun Form
- Lexeme: The root of the word.
- Grammatical morphemes:
- Inflectional: Provide grammatical information (gender and number).
- Derivational: Add nuances to the meaning (e.g., suffixes like “-idad”, “-ez”).
Gender
- Marked gender: Feminine (usually marked with “-a”).
- Unmarked gender: Masculine (can be masculine or feminine).
Gender can be:
- Dimensional: Relates to size (e.g., cesto/cesta).
- Arbitrary: No semantic relation (e.g., el/la pendiente).
Number
- Singular: Unmarked.
- Plural: Marked (usually with “-s”).
Noun Significance
- Common: General terms (e.g., silla, mesa).
- Proper: Specific names (e.g., Madrid, Juan).
- Concrete: Material objects (e.g., casa, perfume).
- Abstract: Immaterial concepts (e.g., simpatía, amor).
- Individual: Single entities (e.g., soldado, oveja).
- Collective: Groups of entities (e.g., muchedumbre, rebaño).
- Countable: Can be counted (e.g., cosa, libro).
- Uncountable: Cannot be counted (e.g., arena, agua).
Comment Text
A) Pre-reading:
- Comprehensive and interpretative reading.
- Primary and secondary ideas.
- Locative and temporal indices.
- Student’s culture.
B) Analysis:
- Introduction (text type, author, age).
- Summary (plot).
- Secondary ideas.
- Linguistic and stylistic commentary.
- Personal rating.