Spanish grammar

Spanish is a relatively inflected language, with a two-gender system and about fifty conjugated forms per verb, but no noun declension and limited pronominal declension.

The Real Academia Española traditionally dictated the rules of the Spanish language, but since the 1960s its prestige has declined. Its decisions are taken as suggestions by the educated and ignored by the uneducated. This article first describes the most formal and standard rules that modern Spanish works by, and then goes on to detail deviations from these that one might encounter in local or colloquial varieties of the language, such as pienso de que... or la dije que....

Verbs

Spanish verbs are conjugated in four categories known as moods: indicative, subjunctive, conditional and imperative. Each verb also has three non-finite forms: an infinitive, a gerund, and a past participle (more exactly a passive and perfect participle). This participle can agree for number and gender, giving it four possible forms. There is also form traditionally known as the present participle, but this is generally considered to be an adjective derived from the verb rather than a form of the verb itself.

Verbs are divided into three regular conjugations, which can be identified by looking at the infinitive ending: -ar, -er, or -ir.

Mood, tense and aspect — forms of the verb

To illustrate the way a verb may conjugate, let us take a typical -ar verb: hablar, to talk or speak. Note that the English equivalents given are only approximate. First, here are its forms that do not conjugate:

Non-finite forms

• Infinitive: hablar = "to speak"
• Gerund: hablando = "speaking"
• Past participle: hablado (hablado, hablada, hablados, habladas) = "spoken"
• Present participle: hablante = "speaking, speaker"

The indicative

Next, there is the indicative mood, with its four simple tenses. Each one of these has a perfective form, a continuous form and a perfective continuous form, as in English. This makes for a total of fifteen simple and compound tenses (one is not used). However, in traditional descriptions of the Spanish verb, continuous forms are ignored, and only the simple tenses plus their perfective versions are counted as "tenses". Note that modern grammatical studies would count only the simple forms as "tenses", and the other forms as the product of a certain tense and a certain aspect.

Simple tenses

(i.e. each of the four basic tenses plus simple aspect)

• presente (present) – Hablo = "I speak, I am speaking"
• pretérito imperfecto (imperfect) – Hablaba = "I used to speak, I was speaking"
• pretérito indefinido (preterite/simple past) – Hablé = "I spoke"
• futuro (future) – Hablaré = "I shall speak"

Perfective tenses

(i.e. each of the four basic tenses plus perfective aspect)

• pretérito perfecto ([present] perfect) – He hablado = "I have spoken"
• pretérito pluscuamperfecto (pluperfect) – Había hablado = "I had spoken"
• pretérito anterior (past anterior) – Hube hablado = "I (had) spoken"
• futuro anterior (future perfect) – Habré hablado = "I shall have spoken"

Continuous tenses

(i.e. each of the four basic tenses plus continous aspect)

• presente continuo (present continuous) – Estoy hablando" = "I am speaking"
• pretérito imperfecto continuo (imperfect continuous) – Estaba hablando = "I was speaking"
• pretérito indefinido continuo (preterite/simple past continuous) – Estuve hablando = "I spoke for a while"
• futuro continuo (future) – Estaré hablando = "I shall be speaking"

Perfective continuous tenses

(i.e. each of the four basic tenses plus continous and perfective aspect)

• pretérito perfecto continuo ([present] perfect continuous) – He estado hablando = "I have been speaking"
• pretérito pluscuamperfecto continuo (pluperfect continuous) – Había estado hablando = "I had been speaking"
• pretérito anterior continuo (past anterior continuous) – Not used
• futuro anterior continuo (future perfect continuous) – Habré estado hablando = "I must have been speaking"

Note again that only the first half of these forms are traditionally considered "tenses" when studying Romance languages.

The subjunctive

The subjunctive mood has a separate conjugation table with fewer tenses. It is used to express the speaker's opinion or judgement, such as doubts, possibilities, emotions, and events which may or may not occur.

Simple tenses

• presente del subjuntivo (present subjunctive) – "Hable" = "I speak, I am speaking, I will speak"
• imperfecto del subjuntivo (imperfect subjunctive) – "Hablara" or "Hablase" = "I used to speak, I was speaking, I spoke, I would speak"

Perfective tenses

• perfecto del subjuntivo ([present] perfect subjunctive) – "Haya hablado" = "I have spoken, I spoke"
• pluscuamperfecto del subjuntivo (pluperfect subjunctive) – "Hubiera hablado" or "Hubiese hablado" = "I had spoken, I spoke"

Continuous tenses

• presente del subjuntivo continuo (present subjunctive continuous) – "Esté hablando" = "I am speaking"
• imperfecto del subjuntivo continuo (imperfect subjunctive continuous) – "Estuviera hablando" or "Estuviese hablando" = "I was speaking, I would be speaking"

Perfective continuous tenses

• perfecto del subjuntivo continuo ([present] perfect subjunctive continuous) – "Haya estado hablando" = "I have been speaking"
• pluscuamperfecto del subjuntivo continuo (pluperfect subjunctive continuous) – "Hubiera estado hablando" or "Hubiese estado hablando" = "I had been speaking"

The present subjunctive is formed from the stem of the first person present indicative of a verb. So for an irregular verb like salir with the first person salgo, the present subjunctive would be salga, not sala. The use of the imperfect subjunctive is determined by tense of the main verb of a sentence, not necessarily the tense of the subjunctive verb itself. The "-ra" form is always correct, whereas the "-se" form is only correct in certain types of clauses.

The conditional

Simple tenses

• condicional (conditional) – "Hablaría" = "I would speak"

Perfective tenses

• condicional anterior (conditional perfect) – "Habría hablado" = "I would have spoken"

Continuous tenses

• condicional continuo (conditional continuous) – "Estaría hablando" = "I would be speaking"

Perfective continuous tenses

• condicional anterior continuo (conditional perfect continuous) – "Estaría estado hablando" = "I would have been speaking"

The imperative

The imperative mood only has two forms: the second person singular and plural, and these are only used in the positive. The subjunctive supplements the imperative in other cases.

For comer, to eat

The actual imperative forms are in bold to distinguish them from those which are really just subjunctive forms.

• ¡come! (tú) – Eat! (informal singular)
• ¡coma! (usted) – Eat! (formal singular)
• ¡comed! (vosotros) – Eat! (informal plural)
• ¡coman! (ustedes) – Eat! (formal plural)

• ¡no comas! (tú) – Don't eat! (informal singular)
• ¡no coma! (usted) – Don't eat! (formal singular)
• ¡no comáis! (vosotros) – Don't eat! (informal plural)
• ¡no coman! (ustedes) – Don't eat! (formal plural)

The first person plural imperative, i.e. "Let's..." is expressed in any of three possible ways:

• The present indicative: comemos (for action verbs only)
• The present subjunctive: comamos
• Vamos + infinitive: vamos a comer

Examples of verbs conjugated

Here we include only simple tenses. Perfective and continuous forms are easily put togther by using the appropriate tense of estar + gerund or haber + past participle.

Regular -ar verbs (amar)

• Non-finite:
  • Infinitive: amar
  • Gerund: amando
  • Past participle: amado, amada, amados, amadas
• Indicative:
  • Present: amo, amas, ama, amamos, amáis, aman
  • Imperfect: amaba, amabas, amaba, amábamos, amabais, amaban
  • Preterite: amé, amaste, amó, amamos, amasteis, amaron
  • Future: amaré, amarás, amará, amaremos, amaréis, amarán
• Conditional:
  • amaría, amarías, amaría, amaríamos, amaríais, amarían
• Subjunctive:
  • Present: ame, ames, ame, amemos, améis, amen
  • Imperfect 1: amara, amaras, amara, amáramos, amarais, amaran
  • Imperfect 2: amase, amases, amase, amásemos, amaseis, amasen
  • Future: amare, amares, amare, amáremos, amareis, amaren
• Imperative:
  • ama, ame, amad, aman

Regular -er verbs (temer)

• Non-finite:
  • Infinitive: temer
  • Gerund: temiendo
  • Past participle: temido, temida, temidos, temidas
• Indicative:
  • Present: temo, temes, teme, tememos, teméis, temen
  • Imperfect: temía, temías, temía, temíamos, temíais, temían
  • Preterite: temí, temiste, temió, temimos, temisteis, temieron
  • Future: temeré, temerás, temerá, temeremos, temeréis, temerán
• Conditional:
  • temería, temerías, temería, temeríamos, temeríais, temerían
• Subjunctive:
  • Present: tema, temas, tema, temamos, temáis, teman
  • Imperfect 1: temiera, temieras, temiera, temiéramos, temierais, temieran
  • Imperfect 2: temiese, temieses, temiese, temiésemos, temieseis, temiesen
  • Future: temiere, temieres, temiere, temiéremos, temiereis, temieren
• Imperative:
  • teme, tema, temed, teman

Regular -ir verbs (partir)

• Non-finite:
  • Infinitive: partir
  • Gerund: partiendo
  • Past participle: partido, partida, partidos, partidas
• Indicative:
  • Present: parto, partes, parte, partimos, partís, parten
  • Preterite: partí, partiste, partió, partimos, partisteis, partieron
  • Future: partiré, partirás, partirá, partiremos, partiréis, partirán
• Conditional:
  • partiría, partirías, partiría, partiríamos, partiríais, partirían
• Subjunctive:
  • Present: parta, partas, parta, partamos, partáis, partan
  • Imperfect 1: partiera, partieras, partiera, partiéramos, partierais, partieran
  • Imperfect 2: partiese, partieses, partiese, partiésemos, partieseis, partiesen
  • Future: partiere, partieres, partiere, partiéremos, partiereis, partieren
• Imperative:
  • parte, parta, partid, partan

ser

• Non-finite:
  • Infinitive: ser
  • Gerund: siendo
  • Past participle: sido
• Indicative:
  • Present: soy, eres, es, somos, sois, son
  • Imperfect: era, eras, era, éramos, erais, eran
  • Preterite: fui, fuiste, fue, fuimos, fuisteis, fueron
  • Future: seré, serás, será, seremos, seréis, serán
• Conditional:
  • sería, serías, sería, seríamos, seríais, serían
• Subjunctive:
  • Present: sea, seas, sea, seamos, seais, sean
  • Imperfect 1: fuera, fueras, fuera, fuéramos, fuerais, fueran
  • Imperfect 2: fuese, fueses, fuese, fuésemos, fueseis, fuesen
  • Future: fuere, fueres, fuere, fuéremos, fuereis, fueren
• Imperative:
  • sé, sea, sed, sean

estar

• Non-finite:
  • Infinitive: estar
  • Present participle: estando
  • Past participle: estado
• Indicative:
  • Present: estoy, estás, está, estamos, estáis, estan
  • Imperfect: estaba, estabas, estaba, estábamos, estáis, estaban
  • Preterite: estuve, estuviste, estuvo, estuvimos, estuvisteis, estuvieron
  • Future: estaré, estarás, estará, estaremos, estaréis, estarán
• Conditional:
  • estaría, estarías, estaría, estaríamos, estaríais, estarían
• Subjunctive:
  • Present: esté, estés, esté, estemos, estéis, estén
  • Imperfect 1: estuviera, estuvieras, estuviera, estuviéramos, estuvierais, estuvieran
  • Imperfect 2: estuviese, estuvieses, estuviese, estuviésemos, estuvieseis, estuviesen
  • Future: estuviere, estuvieres, estuviere, estuviéremos, estuviereis, estuvieren
• Imperative:
  • está (estate), esté (estese), estad (estaos), estén (estense)

haber

• Non-finite:
  • Infinitive: haber
  • Present participle: habiendo
  • Past participle: habido, habida, habidos, habidas
• Indicative:
  • Present: he, has, ha (impersonal: hay), hemos, habéis, han
  • Preterite: hube, hubiste, hubo, hubimos, hubisteis, hubieron
  • Future: habré, habrás, habrá, habremos, habremos, habrán
• Conditional:
  • habría, habrías, habría, habríamos, habríais, habrían
• Subjunctive:
  • Present: haya, hayas, haya, hayamos, hayáis, hayan
  • Imperfect 1: hubiera, hubieras, hubiera, hubiéramos, hubierais, hubieran
  • Imperfect 2: hubiese, hubieses, hubiese, hubiésemos, hubieseis, hubiesen
  • Future: hubiere, hubieres, hubiere, hubiéremos, hubiereis, hubieren
• Imperative:
  • ha, haya, habed, hayan

tener

• Non-finite:
  • Infinitive: tener
  • Present participle: teniendo
  • Past participle: tenido, tenida, tenidos, tenidas
• Indicative:
  • Present: tengo, tienes, tiene, tenemos, tenéis, tienen
  • Preterite: tuve, tuviste, tuvo, tuvimos, tuvisteis, tuvieron
  • Future: tendré, tendrás, tendrá, tendremos, tendréis, tendrán
• Conditional:
  • tendría, tendrías, tendría, tendríamos, tendríais, tendrían
• Subjunctive:
  • Present: tenga, tengas, tenga, tengamos, tengáis, tengan
  • Imperfect 1: tuviera, tuvieras, tuviera, tuviéramos, tuvierais, tuvieran
  • Imperfect 2: tuviese, tuvieses, tuviese, tuviésemos, tuvieseis, tuviesen
  • Future: tuviere, tuvieres, tuviere, tuviéremos, tuviereis, tuvieren
• Imperative:
  • ten, tenga, tened, tengan

ir

• Non-finite:
  • Infinitive: ir
  • Present participle: yendo
  • Past participle: ido, ida, idos, idas
• Indicative:
  • Present: voy, vas, va, vamos, vais, van
  • Preterite: fui, fuiste, fue, fuimos, fuisteis, fueron
  • Future: iré, irás, irá, iremos, iréis, irán
• Conditional:
  • iría, irías, iría, iríamos, iríais, irían
• Subjunctive:
  • Present: vaya, vayas, vaya, vayamos, vayáis, vayan
  • Imperfect 1: fuera, fueras, fuera, fuéramos, fuerais, fueran
  • Imperfect 2: fuese, fueses, fuese, fuésemos, fueseis, fuesen
  • Future: fuere, fueres, fuere, fuéremos, fuereis, fueren
• Imperative:
  • ve, vaya, id, vayan

Use of verbs

Contrasting the present and the future subjunctive

The future tense of the subjunctive is found mostly in old literature or legalese and is even misused in conversations by confusing it with the past tense (often due to the similarity of its charataristic suffix, "-ere", as opposed to one of the suffixes of the past tense, "-era"). Many Spanish speakers live their lives without ever knowing about or realizing the existence of the future subjunctive.

It survives in the common expression sea lo que fuere and the proverb allá donde fueres, haz lo que vieres (allá donde can be replaced by a la tierra donde or si a Roma).

The proverb illustrates how it used to be used:

• With si referring to the future, as in si a Roma fueres.... This is now expressed with the present indicate: si vas a Roma....
• With cuando, donde etc, referring to the future, as in allá donde fueres.... This is now expressed with the present subjunctive: vayas adonde vayas...

Contrasting the preterite and the past anterior

The past anterior is rare nowadays and restricted to formal use.

It expresses a very fine nuance: the fact that an action occurs just after another [had] occurred, with words such as cuando, nada más and en cuanto ("when", "no sooner", "as soon as"). In English, we are forced to use either the simple past or the past perfect; Spanish has something specific between the two.

• En cuanto el delincuente hubo salido del cuarto, la víctima se echó a llorar = "As soon as the criminal [had] left the room, the victim burst into tears"

The use of hubo salido shows that the second action happened immediately after. Salió might imply it happened at the same time, and había salido might imply it happened some time after.

However, colloquial Spanish has lost this tense and this nuance, and the preterite must be used instead in all but the most formal of writing.

Contrasting the present and the future

The future tense can express beliefs about the future, predictions and also simple guesses about the present, e.g. ¿Qué hora es? Serán las tres, = "What time is it?" "It's about three (but I haven't checked)."

Negation

Verbs are negated by putting no before the verb. Other negative words can either replace this no or occur after the verb:

• Hablo español = "I speak Spanish"
• No hablo español = "I don't seak Spanish"
• Nunca hablo español = "I never speak Spanish"
• No hablo nunca español = "I don't ever speak Spanish"

Expressing movement

Spanish verbs describing motion tend to emphasize direction instead of manner of motion. According to the pertinent classification, this makes Spanish a verb-framed language. This contrasts with English, where verbs tend to emphasize manner, and leave the direction of motion to helper particles, prepositions, or adverbs. Compare the English "we drove away" with the Spanish "nos fuimos en coche" (literally, "we left by car").

Nouns

Gender

All Spanish nouns have one of two genders: masculine or inclusive and feminine or exclusive. Most adjectives and pronouns, and all articles indicate the gender of the noun they reference.

Types of noun (masc., vacillant, etc)

Nouns can be grouped in the following categories:

• Applied to persons and most domesticated animals
  • Declinable nouns. The feminine form adds a or replaces the final vowel by a. Examples: el profesor/la profesora, el presidente/la presidenta, el perro/la perra.
  • Invariant nouns (in Spanish, sustantivos de género común). The feminine form and the masculine form are identical: el artista/la artista, el testigo/la testigo, el estudiante/la estudiante.
  • Nouns with a unique gramatical gender. The noun has a fixed gender, regardless of the sex of the person it describes: el personaje, la visita. A recent politically correct usage substitutes the plural inclusive masculine (amigos, "friends, male or of any gender") with the character @ (amig@s) in writing, or with the longer form (amigos y amigas, or amigas y amigos). @ appears as a blend of o and a. This usage is unpronounceable, and mostly restricted to informal internet-speak. In leftist graffiti and posters, @ can be substituted by the anarchist symbol (), that also seems to blend O and A.
• Applied to wild and some domesticated animals
  • Nouns where the two sexes of animals have different words to describe them: el león/la leona, el toro/la vaca.
  • Epicene nouns. The gender of the noun is fixed and sex is indicated by macho (male) or hembra (female). Examples: la jirafa macho, la jirafa hembra, el rinoceronte macho, el rinoceronte hembra.
• Applied to things
  • Masculine or inclusive: el pan.
• Feminine or exclusive: la leche.
  • Vacillant (called sustantivos ambiguos in Spanish). Either gender is acceptable: Internet is an example of this. Speakers hesitate between making it masculine like other loanwords from English, or making it feminine to agree with red, "net". Linde ("boundary") and testuz ("animal's forehead") can be either gender. Azúcar is probably the quirkiest example of such nouns. It can be masculine with el, feminine with el (bizarrely) or feminine with la. The determiner seems to go in the masculine in standard use: el, este, ese, tanto. Any adjectives agreeing with it are usually masculine in Spain and feminine in Latin America: el azúcar moreno o blanco / el azúcar negra o rubia. Mar is a special case. It is normally masculine, but in poetry and sailor's speech it is feminine. Arte is masculine in the singular and feminine in the plural, though it can be feminine in the singular when it means "art-form" and masculine in the plural in the expression los artes de pesca, "fishing gear".
  • In some cases the same word can take two genders with a different meaning for each. In that case it is better to say that there are two discrete words. El capital = funds; la capital = capital city.

(Note: Some nouns ending in "e" that refer to persons are declinable, e.g., "presidente/a", whereas others are invariant, e.g., "estudiante". More often than not, nouns that refer to positions that are traditionally held by men are declinable.)

Determining gender from endings

Nouns ending in o are typically masculine; a is typically feminine; other vowels and consonants are more often than not masculine, but many are feminine, particularly those referring to women (la madre) or ending in -ción or -dad (la nación, la soledad).

Words taken from foreign languages may:

• Take the gender they have in that language, with neuter taken to be the same as masculine (so English nouns are made masculine)
• Take the gender it seems to be (e.g. la coca-cola because it ends in an a)
• Take the gender of the closest-related Spanish word (e.g. la Guinness because of la cerveza)

Gender of proper nouns (names)

Names of people

People's names agree with the sex of the person, even if they appear to be the opposite:

• Chema es guapo
• Amparo es guapa

Names of settlements

Usage for places varies. You can choose between making them:

• Always masculine:
  • Barcelona no es pequeño
  • Londres no es pequeño
• Feminine if they end in -a, otherwise masculine:
  • la Barcelona de Gaudí
  • el Londres de Dickens
• Agree with the underlying noun el pueblo or la ciudad
  • Nueva York (city)
  • la antigua Cartago (city)
  • Fraga es pequeño (village/small town)

With examples like New York, the Nueva is a fixed part of the name and so cannot be made masculine.

Rivers

Rivers are masculine because of the underlying masculine noun río. Locally, they may be feminine, but the masculine is always safe and correct.

• el [río de la] Plata = "The River Plate" (literally "the River of Silver")
• el [río] Támesis = "The River Thames"
• el [río] Tajo = "The River Tagus"

Number

There are two grammatical numbers: singular and plural. Plural is indicated adding "s" or "es".

• The inclusive (or masculine) gender includes both sexes in the plural: los niños = the children or the boys.
• The feminine gender is exclusive in the plural: las niñas = the little girls.

Masculine gender is indicated in the plural with phrases such as los niños varones. Feminists (and their satirists) try to reverse the pattern with phrases such as las personas humanas jóvenes varones = the young male human people.

Adjectives

The feminine gender for most adjectives is formed in the same way as it is for declinable nouns, although most adjectives ending in a consonant or "e" remain unchanged: hombre superior, mujer superior (compare with el superior/la superiora); hombre importante, mujer importante (compare with el jefe, la jefa).

Determiners

Demonstrative determiners

• este, esta, estos, estas
• ese, esa, esos, esas
• aquel, aquella, aquellos, aquellas

Articles

Definite articles

The definite article in Spanish, corresponding to "the", is el. It agrees for gender and number as follows:

• el hombre = "[the] man"
• los hombres = "[the] men"
• la mujer = "[the] woman"
• las mujeres = "[the] women"

The usually masculine form el is used instead of la before feminine nouns beginning with a stressed a sound:

• el águila (pequeña)
• el agua (fresca)
• el hacha (afilada)

Exceptions: la is used despite this when use of el would imply a man:

• la ácrata (because el ácrata would be a male anarchist)
• la árabe (because el árabe would be a male Arab, or the Arabic language)

Azúcar is a very special case. Its a is unstressed, and yet it usually takes el even when feminine:

• el azúcar refinada (el azúcar refinado and la azúcar refinada are also possible)

N.B.: this feminine el does not have the same origin as the masculine el. The latter is from the Old Castilian ele, whereas the former is from ela, just as la is. This historic finesse is lost to those who use unstandard forms like los águilas.

There is also a "neuter article", used before adjectives:

• lo bueno = "what is good, the good stuff"
• lo importante = "the important thing"
• lo indefinible = "the indefinable"
• lo desconocido = "the unknown"

Indefinite articles

• un hombre = "a man"
• una mujer = "a woman"
• unos hombres = "some men"
• unas mujeres = "some women"

Near synonyms of unos include: unos cuantos, algunos and unos pocos.

As in English, the plural indefinite article is not always required.

• Hay [unas] cosas en la mesa = "There are [some] things on the table"

Possessive determiners

These are often known as possessive or genitive pronouns.

• mi(s), tu(s), su(s), su(s), nuestro/a(s), vuestro/a(s), su(s)

Pronouns

Personal pronouns

Subject ("Nominative case")

• yo, tú, él/ella, nosotros/nosotras, vosotros/vosotras, ellos/ellas

Direct object ("Accusative case")

• me, te, lo/le/la/se, nos, vos, los/las/se

Indirect object ("Dative case")

• me, te, le/se, nos, vos, les/se

Object of a preposition

• mí, ti, él/ella/sí, nosotros/nosotras, vosotros/vosotras, ellos/ellas/sí

Possessive ("Genitive case")

• el mío / la mía / los míos / las mías
• el tuyo / la tuya / los tuyos / las tuyas,
• el suyo / la suya / los suyos / las suyas
• el nuestro / la nuestra / los nuestros / las nuestras
• el vuestro / la vuestra / los vuestros / las vuestras
• el suyo / la suya / los suyos / las suyas

Demonstrative pronouns

• éste, ésta, esto, éstos, éstas
• ése, ésa, eso, ésos, ésas
• aquél, aquélla, aquello, aquéllos, aquéllas

N.B.: According to the Real Academia, the accents on these forms are only to be used when necessary to avoid ambiguity. However, the normal educated standard is as above.

Dialectal variations

Forms of address

The use of usted and ustedes as a polite form of address is fairly universal. However, there are variations in informal address. Ustedes replaces vosotros in much of Andalusia, the Canary Islands and Latin America, except in the most liturgical or poetic of styles. In some parts of Andalusia, the pronoun ustedes is used with the standard vosotros endings.

Depending on the region, Latin Americans may also replace the singular tú with usted or vos. The choice of pronoun is a tricky issue and can even vary from village to village. Travellers are often advised to play it safe and call everyone usted.

A feature of the speech of the Dominican Republic and other areas where syllable-final /s/ is completely silent is that there is no audible difference between the second and third person singular form of the verb. This leads to redundant pronoun use, for example, the tagging on of ¿tú ves? (pronounced tuve) to the ends of sentences, where other speakers would say ¿ves?.

Voseo

Vos was used in mediaeval Castilian as a polite form, like the French vous and the Italian voi, and it used the same forms as vosotros. This gave three levels of formality:

• Tú quieres
• Vos queréis (originally queredes)
• Vuestra merced quiere (today usted)

Whereas vos was lost in standard Spanish, some dialects lost tú, and began using vos as the informal pronoun. The exact connotations of the use of vos depend on the exact dialect. In most places it is associated with low socio-economic levels. In Argentina, however, it is used by everyone and is fully accepted. Argentinian voseo uses the pronoun vos for tú, but maintains te as an object pronoun and tu and tuyo as possessives. Verb forms are half-way between tú and vosotros forms, as exemplified by vos hablás, vos temés and vos partís.

Other combinations are possible. Chileans may use standard vosotros endings for vos.

Vosotros imperative: -ar for -ad

Colloquially, the infinitive is used instead of the true imperative for vosotros. Not to be imitated by learners.

• ¡Venir! for ¡Venid!
• ¡Callaros! for ¡Callaos!
• ¡Iros! for ¡Idos!

Superfluous -s on tú form

A centuries-old tendency in uneducated speech throughout the Spanish-speaking world is the addition of an -s to the second person singular of the preterite or simple past. For example, lo hicistes for lo hiciste; hablastes tú for hablaste tú. This is due to the fact that this is the only tense in which the tú form does not end in an -s. This solecism removes this irregularity. Judaeo-Spanish has gone further with hablates.

The imperfect subjunctive

The two forms of the imperfect subjunctive are largely interchangeable. The use of one or the other is largely a matter of personal taste and dialect. Many speakers only use the -ra forms. Many only use the -ra forms in speech, but vary between the two in writing. Many, especially in Castile, may spontaneously use either, or even favour the rarer -se forms.

The gender of nouns

Some nouns in Spanish can be either masculine or feminine, for example, Internet or azúcar. Some dialects have their own gender quirks, giving apparently incorrect forms such as la esperma, el índole, la aceite, la calor, etc.