Spanish Parts of Speech

Definite Articles / Artículos definidos

Definite articles (the) refer to a specific object (the apple or the pen). Check out a few examples:

Indefinite Articles / Artículos indefinidos

Indefinite articles (a, an, some), on the other hand, refer to an unspecified object (an apple or a pen ).

Subject Pronouns

In English, we use subject pronouns to avoid confusion, since almost all forms of most verbs are the same (I go, you go, we go, they go, etc.) In Spanish, however, each conjugated verb form is unique and therefore reveals the subject. This means that, unless you're really trying to emphasize or clarify who you're talking about, the subject pronoun is usually pretty unnecessary and therefore taken out altogether. For example:

As you can see in the second column, the Spanish verb "ir" ("to go") conjugates differently depending on the subject. Therefore, it is not necessary to include the subject pronoun, which we have taken out in the third column.

Direct Object Pronouns

Direct object pronouns are used to replace the proper noun. For example:

In this sentence, just as "the dishes" has been replaced by "them" in the English version, "los platos" in the Spanish version has been replaced by the direct object pronoun "los."

Indirect Object Pronouns

An indirect object is the person or thing for whom an action is being performed or has been performed. For example:

Carlos gives the present to him.
Carlos da el regalo a él .
Carlos le da el regalo.

In this sentence "to him" ("a él") has been replaced by the indirect object pronoun "le".

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