Lección 4.1

La Familia y Rutinas Diarias (The Family and Daily Routines)

In this chapter, you will continue building your foundation in Spanish by communicating about family and daily routines which are very important to the culture. In order to be able to communicate about family and daily routines, you will describe people and things using adjectives and adjective agreement. You will indicate possession using possessive adjectives like ‘mi’ (my), and ‘tu’ (your) to better describe certain people and things. You also will be able to indicate possession using possessive pronouns like ‘mía’ (mine) and ‘suyo’ (hers) in order to better understand what belongs to who. You will conjugate reflexive verbs in order to better express your daily routine since most of what you do in the morning is communicated using verbs that are reflexive. You will use direct object pronouns to be able to substitute direct object nouns with ‘lo’ (him), ‘te’ (you), and ‘nos’ (us) which will make you sound more fluent since you don’t have to keep repeating the noun in every thought. You will be learning how to construct comparison phrases in order to be able to make comparisons about people, places and things. Knowing how to use comparisons will help broaden your communication skills and your ability to express more complex thoughts in Spanish. You will also learn the numbers from 100 on. This will help to communicate years that events take place and express large values.

By the end of this chapter, you’ll be able to start talking about family and daily routines and comparing cultural aspects of Colomia with your own. You’re not just learning the language, you’re experiencing the culture. ¡Buen provecho, familia!

Vocabulario

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Describing People and Things using Adjectives

Adjectives are words that describe people, places and things and help us talk about what something is like. In Spanish, learning how to use adjectives is especially important because they have to match to or agree with the noun that they describe in both gender (masculine/feminine) and number (singular/plural). Learning common adjectives and how to use them, helps describe family and friends, give opinions on what things are like which will expand your vocabulary and continue to help add to your conversational skills. Below is a comprehensive list of descriptive adjectives divided into ‘Colors’, ‘Describing Personality’, ‘Describing Physical Appearance’, ‘Describing Emotions and Conditions’, ‘Describing Objects or Things’ and ‘Other Useful Adjectives’.

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Describing Emotions and Conditions

Describing Objects and Things

Describing Nationalities

Other Useful Adjectives

It is important to note that some descriptive adjectives end in o/a and follow gender rules, but there are others like ‘feliz’ that can be used for both feminine and masculine nouns. It is also important to note that adjectives follow the noun they describe, which is the opposite of what is done in English.

Agreement in Spanish

In Spanish, adjectives must match or agree with the nouns they describe in gender and number. In a dictionary, adjectives will be presented in a masculine singular form.  For example, ‘moreno’ means dark-haired. In order to say ‘the dark-haired girls’ in Spanish, ‘moreno’, which is singular and masculine, must agree with ‘las niñas’, which is plural and feminine: ‘Las niñas morenas’.

Below is an example of how agreement between nouns and adjectives works:

• Las niñas morenas- The dark-haired girls
• Los niños morenos- The dark-haired boys
• La niña morena- The dark-haired girl
• El niño moreno -The dark-haired boy

The agreement also extends to verbs. Where nouns and adjectives must agree in number and gender, verbs must agree in person.  In order to say ‘the girls are dark-haired’, the verb ‘ser’ must be conjugated to agree with ‘las niñas’ or ‘ellas’ :  ‘Las niñas son morenas’.

Below is an example of how agreement between nouns, verbs and adjectives works:

• Ellas son morenas
• Ellos son morenos
• Ella es morena
• ÉL es moreno

Learning agreement is essential to the Spanish language. This is why it is important to learn the gender of the nouns.

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Possessive Adjectives

Like in English, possessive adjectives are important because they express ownership or relationship. In Spanish, possessive adjectives must agree with the nouns they describe, not the person who owns it. Below is a chart showing the possessive adjectives and how they function in a sentence.

Since the possessive adjectives ‘su’ and ‘sus’ are used often, sometimes there needs to be some clarification.  In this case, the construction of relationships and possession presented in Lección 1 under the uses of  ‘Ser’, is used.

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Possession Using Possessive Pronouns

Using possessive pronouns is another way of expressing possession. In this instance, possessive pronouns replace a noun to show ownership or relationship equivalent to the words ‘mine’, ‘yours’, ‘his’, ‘hers’, ‘ours’, ‘theirs’.  Below is a list of the possessive pronouns and how they are used.

It is important to note that since these are pronouns, they can replace the actual possessed object.

For example:

• ¿De quién son las llaves?
• Son mías.

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