Semana 2 – La familia

 

¡Hola chicos! I hope you are all travelling well on the second week of your Spanish learning journey!

This week we’re learning about La Familia,  your close family and your rellies (relatives). We will explore the various relationships and connections that exist within your closest circle of relatives. Whether you’re discussing your parents, siblings, or extended family members, having a solid understanding of the vocabulary and grammar related to the family will be incredibly helpful as you continue to expand your language skills. So let’s dive in and explore this fascinating topic together!

Vocabulario: la familia

Parientes                                                         relatives

Hermano/hermana                                       brother/sister (sibling)

Hijo/hija                                                           son/daughter

Padre/madre                                                   father/mother

Abuelo/abuela                                               grandfather/grandmother

Bisabuelo/a                                                    great grandparent

Nieto/nieta                                                    grandson/granddaughter

Bisnieto/a                                                      great-grandchild

Hijo/a único/a                                               only child

Primo/prima                                                 cousin

Tíos/tías                                                        uncles/aunts

Sobrino/a                                                      nephew/niece

Medio hermano/a                                       half-brother/ sister

Hermanastro/a                                           stepbrother/ sister

Madrastra                                                   stepmother

Padrastro                                                     stepfather

Now, the family that we have chosen is also important. That is why we are also covering “estados civiles” or “marital status”.

Soltero/soltera                                          single

Casado/casada                                         married

separado/a                                               separated

Divorciado/a                                             divorced

Viudo/a                                                     widowed (widow/widower)

De facto                                                   de facto

Vocabulario: los números a partir del cien

If you already know and remember numbers from 0-100 in Spanish, that’s fantastic! If you don’t know them by heart yet, don’t worry – remember to practice them regularly so you can master them in no time. Keep up the good work!

As we move forward, we’ll expand our knowledge by exploring numbers in the hundreds and beyond. While learning these larger numbers may seem daunting, it’s important to remember that they will be incredibly useful in real-life situations, especially when it comes to shopping and currency exchange in Latin American countries. So don’t be discouraged; keep practising, and imagine yourself confidently using these numbers in friendly, warm environments. Remember, every effort you make towards improving your language skills will bring you one step closer to your goals.

 

0 Cero

100 Cien

101 Ciento uno

102 Ciento dos

103 Ciento tres

…

150 Ciento cincuenta

199 Ciento noventa y nueve

…

200 doscientos

201 doscientos uno

202 doscientos dos

203 doscientos tres

…

250 doscientos cincuenta

299 doscientos noventa y nueve

As you can see, when we’re just using pure numbers, we add the actual finer number we want to express dos, tres, etc., to ciento (which is like saying one hundred and)…

The rest of the hundreds look like this:

200  doscientos

300  trescientos

400 cuatrocientos

500  quinientos

600  seiscientos

700  setecientos

800  ochocientos

900  novecientos

¡OJO! there is a spelling change in quinientos, setecientos and novecientos

Pretty straightforward?

Yes, but there are some exceptions and a couple more things to note.

Sometimes, we want to use numbers to give a description. When we do this, numbers over 199 must agree in gender with what they describe.

 

Because you’re giving a description, you need your number here to agree in number and gender with what you’re describing. Let’s look now at some examples in Spanish.

In order to properly describe objects (nouns) in this agreement, it’s important to remember their gender. If you’re unsure of the rules, don’t worry – you can always revise them as part of your studies, especially after this week’s content.

Moving on to numbers in thousands – they are actually quite straightforward! Once you have mastered numbers from 0-100 in Spanish, counting in thousands simply involves adding the word “mil” after the number. For example, 2,000 is “dos mil,” 5,000 is “cinco mil,” and so on. Keep practising and you’ll become a pro in no time.

1,000 = mil ¡OJO!: not “un mil” like we want to say in English

1,001  mil uno

1,500  mil quinientos

1,507  mil quinientos siete

2,001  dos mil uno

20,000  veinte mil

33,000  treinta y tres mil

100,000  cien mil

103,000 ciento tres mi

 

¡OJO! Thousands will come in handy when you want to say the year in dates; unfortunately, we say the big number and do not break it into, for example, 20-22. In Spanish this is dos mil veintidós.

And the millions, you ask?

1,000,000  un millón

3,000,000  tres millones

6,302,000  seis millones trescientos y dos mil

8,951,622  ocho millones novecientos cincuenta y un mil seiscientos veinte y dos

¡OJO! Note with the millones; if you are talking about one million of something (dogs, for example), you would add de:

un millón de perros

As I mentioned earlier, it’s important not to neglect learning numbers in Spanish, as they can be extremely useful when you’re travelling!

Ser, estar o tener

You may already be familiar with these verbs, but this week, we will be focusing on them in greater detail to ensure that we are using them correctly.

Ser and estar are the Spanish verbs for “to be”. There are two of them, and we use ser for some things and estar for others. In general, though, ser is a bit more permanent than estar.

 

 

¡OJO! In Spanish, the preposition “de” is used to express that something belongs to someone. It is a very different construction to the English equivalent using an apostrophe: ‘s. Remember, in Spanish, we don’t use apostrophes at all.

Basically, we have learnt that we use ser to talk about our identity, the things we own, dates, time, and to define things. We also have learnt that we use estar to talk about moods, feelings, location, and actions in progress.

So.. What now?

In addition to its use in describing temporary conditions, estar can also be used to describe some things.

However, with some adjectives, the change in meaning can be huge depending on whether you use ser or estar. Take a look at the examples below to get an idea of how this works.

Can you guess what are the meanings of the adjectives if we use either ser (permanent characteristic) or estar (temporary condition)?

 

We know that we use “ser” to describe people and things. However, sometimes the meaning of an adjective changes if we use “ser” or “star”, such as “Estoy aburrido” (mood) or “Soy aburrido” (identity) in a slightly different way.

 

We know you love exceptions, I mean, there are always exceptions to the rules in any language, so we need to learn how to love them. And here’s one for you to keep in mind: we use ser when talking about the location of an event (wedding, concert, class, conference, match, game etc.)

For example, if you want to say that a rugby match is taking place in a particular location, you would say “El partido de rugby es en el estadio X” (The rugby game is in the stadium X) rather than “El partido de rugby está en el estadio”.

So remember, when talking about the location of an event, use ser instead of estar.

Now let’s go back to the verb Estar. We know we use estar for location, but did you know we also need it to talk about the position of our body? take a look at the examples below.

By now, you should have a good understanding of the uses of ser and estar, which are both used to describe personality, physical descriptions, and moods. However, there is another verb that is often used to describe certain traits, and that verb is tener.

Saber y conocer

Now that we are learning more about the uses of verbs, let’s look into two verbs that express in English “to know”. You already know the verb saber, but do you know when to use saber and when to use conocer instead? They are really similar, but saber expresses facts, information and knowing how to, while conocer expresses the idea to be familiar with. See for more details.

 

¡OJO! Note: when you use conocer to express the idea that you know (or are familiar) with a person, then you need to use the “a personal” or, in English, the “personal a”.

Also, don’t forget that these two verbs have irregular conjugations in the first person only.

See below:

Conocer	Saber
Yo conozco *	Yo sé *
Tú conoces	Tú sabes
Él, ella, usted conoce	Él, ella, usted sabe
Nosotros/as conocemos	Nosotros/as sabemos
Vosotros/as conocéis	Vosotros/as sabéis
Ellos/as, ustedes conocen	Ellos/as, ustedes saben

So, to summarize, saber is used to express knowledge of information or how to do something, while conocer is used to express familiarity with a person, place, or thing. Keep this in mind as you continue to build your vocabulary and expand your understanding of verbs in Spanish!

That is all for this second week, and…………do not forget your numbers!

¡Nos vemos!