Semana 8 – La ropa

Vocabulario: la ropa y los complementos (clothes and accessories)

We have learnt how to describe people, now let’s look at how to describe the clothes and accessories we are wearing. Describing clothes and accessories can be a fun way to express your style and personality. Even if you are not into fashion we wear clothes every day, so it is part of our daily life.

First, let’s look at pieces of clothing (prendas de ropa), if something that you normally wear is missing remember to add it to your vocab list.

Ropa (clothes):

El vestido	dress
La falda / la minifalda	Skirt/miniskirt
La blusa​	Blouse
La camisa	(Collared) shirt
La chaqueta	Jacket
La camiseta	T-shirt​
El jersey / el suéter	Sweater​
El traje	Suit
Los pantalones	Pants
El pantalón corto​:	Shorts
Los vaqueros / jeans	Jeans
El abrigo	Coat
Los zapatos	Shoes
Los zapatos de tacón (alto/bajo)​:	(High/low) heeled shoes
Las botas	Boots
Las zapatillas de deporte / los zapatos de tenis	Sneakers
Las sandalias​	Sandals
El traje de baño	Swimsuit
El pijama​	Pijamas
La ropa interior	Underwear
Los calcetines	Socks
La corbata​	Tie
El bolso​	Bag/handbag
El cinturón	Belt
La gorra	Cap
El sombrero​:	Hat
Los guantes	Gloves

Materials are important when we describe clothes. What are your clothes made of? Are they cotton, wool, silk, or something else?

Materiales y telas (materials and cloth):

Note: de is used to express the idea made of

De cuero	Leather
De lana	Wool
De algodón	Cotton
De seda	Silk

What colours are your clothes and accessories? For example, you could say “I’m wearing a blue shirt with black pants and brown shoes”. Are you wearing any patterns, such as stripes, polka dots, or plaid? For example, you could say “I’m wearing a plaid skirt with a white blouse.”

Diseños/otros colores (designs and other colours):  ​

Fucsia	Fuscia
Beis​	Beige
Colores pastel​	Pastel colours
Claro/a	Light or transparent
Oscuro/a​	Dark
De/a cuadros	Plaid
De/a rayas	Striped
De lunares	Polka dot
De manga corta/larga	Short sleeved/long sleeved

What other words help us describe our clothes? the band-name? Maybe, how do the clothes fit? Are they casual, formal, or something in between? For example, you could say “I’m wearing a casual outfit with sneakers and a denim jacket.”

Other terms:

De marca	Brand-name
De diseñador	Designer
Ropa a medida	Custom made clothes
Modista	A designer
Rebajas	Sales (or in singular discount)
De descuento	Budget
Estilo	Style
Última moda	Latest fashion
Cómoda/o	Comfortable
Moderna	Modern
Prendas	Items of clothing
Tallas	Sizes
(extra)chica/pequeña	(Extra)small
Mediana	Medium
(extra) grande	(Extra)large

Let’s dive into the vocabulary and some additional vocabulary words and phrases related to describing clothes and accessories that could be useful in a conversation.

Now, can you describe what you are wearing today in Spanish?

El pretérito indefinido: verbs with spelling changes

Let’s continue with the past tense and talk about spelling changes. Do you remember that in Spanish we like when things sound good or follow the same sound pattern? So we can accomplish that by respecting the sound of the word, and its pronunciation by changing the spelling of verbs that end in -car, -gar and -zar in the first person (yo) preterit conjugations.

Think about it:

• a “c” in Spanish can be a hard c, like in Cuba, or a soft c “s” sound, like cebolla
• a “g” in Spanish can be a hard g, like in Gas, or a soft g sound, like genética
• a z often needs to be softened up to sound softer, you will have seen this happen in other conjugations too

So, What to do? We introduce a spelling change to avoid problems with these two sounds when conjugating in the preterit.

 

Try to pronounce the example above. Sounds like / huhe/ sounds so different, right? So, we need to introduce a spelling change.

Why is that? Because the sound of the g has become soft, the verb is unrecognizable. To avoid that, we perform a small spelling change that helps us keep the same sound.

“jugar” > “jugué”

Here are some common verbs that you will run into, that will force you to perform the spelling change for the first person:

 

Let’s continue with more irregular verbs. As you know, the Spanish loves to break its own rules. Have a look at the following list of irregular verbs with spelling changes because there are still more!

Above you have endings that we will use for the list of verbs. Note that for the list of verbs above we will use the same endings as the example below.

 

Note that the verbs above take a spelling change in the stem of the verb and their own set of special preterit endings (usually dropping the accents because the verb is now different enough due to the irregular stem- change that it won’t be confused with another tense).

Estar	To be
Tener	To have
Andar	To walk
Haber	To have / there is/are
Poner	To put
Poder	To be able to
Saber	To know
Caber	To fit
Querer	To want/to love
Venir	To come
ir	To go
Decir	To say
Traer	To bring
Conducir	To drive
Traducir	To translate
Contraer	To contract

Let’s add to your list of questions some related to the vocabulary of this week.

¡Chao!