Spanish Grammar Dictionary
A comprehensive dictionary of grammatical terms you'll encounter while learning Spanish. Click linked terms to explore dedicated lesson pages.
Showing 126 of 126 terms
| Term | Category | Definition | Examples |
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| Accent Mark | Pronunciation | A mark (´) placed over vowels to show stress or distinguish between similar words. Also called "tilde" or "acento ortográfico". Can also break diphthongs. |
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| Accidental Se (Se Accidental) | Pronouns & Clitics | A construction using "se" + indirect object pronoun to indicate unintentional or accidental actions. Shifts responsibility away from the subject. |
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| Active Voice | Grammar Concepts | The default verb construction where the subject performs the action (contrast with passive voice where subject receives the action). |
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| Adjective | Parts of Speech | A word that describes or modifies a noun. Must agree in gender and number. Usually comes after the noun (casa grande) but some come before (gran casa). |
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| Adverb | Parts of Speech | A word that modifies a verb, adjective, or another adverb. Many end in -mente (like -ly in English), but not all. |
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| Adverbial Clause | Grammar Concepts | A subordinate clause that functions like an adverb, modifying the verb by expressing time, place, manner, condition, purpose, or concession. |
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| Agreement | Grammar Concepts | The grammatical rule that adjectives, determiners, pronouns, and participles must match the gender and number of the nouns they relate to. |
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| Antecedent | Grammar Concepts | The noun or noun phrase that a pronoun refers back to. Must agree in gender and number with the pronoun. |
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| Apocopation | Other | The shortening of a word when it appears before another word, usually before masculine singular nouns. Common examples include alguno→algún, ninguno→ningún, bueno→buen, malo→mal, primero→primer, tercero→tercer. |
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| Apposition | Grammar Concepts | Two noun phrases placed side by side, where the second renames or explains the first. Often set off by commas. |
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| Article | Parts of Speech | Small words that come before nouns. Spanish has definite (el/la/los/las), indefinite (un/una/unos/unas), and neuter lo (before adjectives). |
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| Aspect | Grammar Concepts | How a verb expresses the flow of time: perfective (completed action), imperfective (ongoing/habitual), or progressive (action in progress). Different from tense which shows when. |
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| Augmentative | Word Formation | A suffix added to make something bigger or more intense. Usually -ón/-azo in Spanish. |
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| Auxiliary Verb | Verb Forms | A helping verb used with another verb to form tenses, moods, or voices. In Spanish, mainly "haber", "estar", and "ser" (for passive). |
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| Case | Grammar Concepts | A grammatical category showing the function of a noun or pronoun (subject, object, etc.). Spanish doesn't have explicit case endings like Latin, but the concept helps understand pronoun forms and word order. |
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| Causative Verb | Verb Forms | A verb that indicates causing someone else to do something. Main causatives: hacer (to make/have someone do), dejar (to let), mandar (to order). Followed by infinitive. |
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| Clause | Grammar Concepts | A group of words containing a subject and a verb. Can be independent (complete sentence) or dependent (needs another clause). |
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| Clitic | Pronouns & Clitics | Unstressed pronouns (object and reflexive) that attach to or go before verbs. Placement depends on verb form: before conjugated verbs, attach to infinitives/gerunds/affirmative commands, before negative commands. Accent rule: Gerunds always need accents when attaching pronouns. Infinitives and commands need accents when the resulting word has 4+ syllables OR when natural stress would shift away from the original position. |
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| Clitic Doubling | Pronouns & Clitics | Using both a clitic pronoun and the full noun phrase it refers to in the same sentence. Very common with indirect objects in Spanish, less so with direct objects. |
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| Cognate | Word Formation | Words that look similar and mean the same in Spanish and English due to shared origins. |
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| Command | Other | A verb form used to give orders, instructions, or requests. Also called imperative mood. Can be informal (tú, vosotros) or formal (usted, ustedes). |
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| Comparative | Grammar Concepts | Forms used to compare two things. Can show more, less, or equal degrees. |
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| Complement | Grammar Concepts | A word or phrase that completes the meaning of a verb or adjective. Includes direct objects (complemento directo), indirect objects (complemento indirecto), and prepositional complements (complemento de régimen). |
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| Compound Word | Word Formation | A word formed by combining two or more separate words into one. Common in Spanish for creating new nouns. |
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| Concessive Clause | Grammar Concepts | A type of adverbial clause expressing contrast or concession, introduced by "aunque" (even though/even if), "a pesar de que" (despite). May use indicative or subjunctive. |
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| Concord | Grammar Concepts | Broader term for grammatical agreement. Includes subject-verb agreement (number and person), noun-adjective agreement (gender and number), and determiner-noun agreement. |
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| Conditional | Tenses | A tense formed by adding endings (-ía, -ías, -ía, -íamos, -íais, -ían) to the infinitive. Used for hypothetical situations, polite requests, probability in the past, and future in the past. Uses the same 12 irregular stems as the simple future. |
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| Conditional Clause | Grammar Concepts | A type of adverbial clause expressing a condition, usually introduced by "si" (if). Can use indicative or subjunctive depending on likelihood. |
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| Conditional Perfect | Tenses | A compound tense expressing what would have happened under different circumstances. |
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| Conjugation | Verb Forms | The process of changing a verb form to match the subject (who is doing the action), tense (when it happens), and mood (attitude toward the action). |
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| Conjunction | Parts of Speech | A word that connects words, phrases, or clauses together. |
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| Copular Verb (Linking Verb) | Verb Forms | A verb that links the subject to a complement (adjective or noun) rather than expressing action. Main copular verbs: ser, estar, parecer. |
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| Countable Noun | Parts of Speech | A noun that can be counted and has both singular and plural forms. Can be used with numbers and quantifiers like muchos, pocos. |
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| Definite Article | Grammar Concepts | The Spanish equivalent of "the" in English. Must agree in gender and number with the noun. Also includes the neuter "lo" for abstract concepts. |
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| Demonstrative Adjective | Grammar Concepts | Words that point out specific nouns (this, that, these, those). Must agree in gender and number. |
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| Demonstrative Pronoun | Grammar Concepts | Words that replace nouns and point to specific things. Stand alone without a noun. |
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| Derivation | Word Formation | The process of forming new words by adding prefixes or suffixes to a root word, changing its meaning or grammatical category. |
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| Determiner | Grammar Concepts | A word that comes before a noun to introduce or specify it. Includes articles (el, una), demonstratives (este, esa), possessives (mi, su), and quantifiers (mucho, poco). |
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| Diminutive | Word Formation | A suffix added to make something smaller, cuter, or show affection. Usually -ito/-ita in Spanish. |
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| Diphthong | Pronunciation | Two vowels pronounced together in one syllable. Usually a weak vowel (i,u) + strong vowel (a,e,o), or two weak vowels together. |
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| Direct Object | Grammar Concepts | The person or thing that directly receives the action of the verb. Answers "what?" or "whom?" |
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| Discourse Marker (Connector) | Grammar Concepts | Words or phrases that connect ideas, show relationships between sentences, and structure discourse. Help organize arguments and guide the reader/listener. |
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| Ellipsis | Grammar Concepts | The omission of words that are understood from context. Very common in Spanish, especially omitting subject pronouns, repeated verbs, or obvious nouns. |
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| Enclitic | Pronouns & Clitics | A clitic pronoun that attaches to the end of a verb. Happens with infinitives, gerunds, and affirmative commands. May require written accent to maintain original stress. |
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| Exclamative Pronoun | Parts of Speech | Pronouns used in exclamations to express surprise, emotion, or emphasis. Same forms as interrogative pronouns but in exclamatory contexts. Always carry accent marks. |
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| False Friend | Word Formation | Words that look similar in Spanish and English but have different meanings. Also called "false cognates". |
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| Future Perfect | Tenses | A compound tense expressing actions that will be completed before a future point. |
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| Future Tense | Tenses | A verb tense expressing actions that will happen, formed by adding endings to the infinitive. |
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| Gender | Grammar Concepts | In Spanish, all nouns are either masculine or feminine. This affects articles, adjectives, and sometimes verb forms. |
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| Gerund | Verb Forms | The -ing form of a verb in English, or -ando/-iendo form in Spanish. Used with estar for progressive tenses. |
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| Hiatus | Pronunciation | Two adjacent vowels that are pronounced in separate syllables (unlike a diphthong where they form one syllable). Occurs with two strong vowels (a,e,o) together or when weak vowels have accent marks. |
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| Imperative | Moods | The verb mood used for commands, requests, or instructions. |
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| Imperfect | Tenses | A past tense used for ongoing, habitual, or descriptive actions in the past. |
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| Imperfect Subjunctive | Tenses | A mood expressing hypothetical situations, wishes, or polite requests in the past. |
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| Impersonal Se | Grammar Concepts | A construction using "se" to make general statements without specifying who performs the action. Always singular, unlike passive se which agrees in number. Common with intransitive verbs. |
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| Impersonal Verb | Verb Forms | A verb that has no specific subject, used only in third person singular. Mainly weather verbs and expressions of existence or necessity. |
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| Indefinite | Other | Words expressing non-specific or vague quantities. Includes adjectives (algún/ningún) that modify nouns and pronouns (algo/nada/alguien/nadie) that stand alone. Must agree in gender and number when used as adjectives. |
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| Indefinite Article | Grammar Concepts | The Spanish equivalent of "a/an" in singular or "some" in plural. Must agree in gender and number. Note: unos/unas can mean "some" or "approximately." |
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| Indicative | Moods | The most common verb mood, used to state facts, ask questions, or express opinions as certainties. |
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| Indirect Object | Grammar Concepts | The person or thing that indirectly benefits from the action. Answers "to whom?" or "for whom?" |
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| Indirect Speech (Estilo Indirecto) | Grammar Concepts | Also called reported speech. Reporting what someone said without quoting their exact words. Requires tense changes, pronoun shifts, and time expression adjustments. |
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| Infinitive | Verb Forms | The basic, unconjugated form of a verb, equivalent to "to + verb" in English. Spanish infinitives end in -ar, -er, or -ir. |
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| Inflection | Word Formation | Morphological changes to a word showing grammatical features like tense, mood, number, gender, or person. Spanish is highly inflected, especially verbs. |
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| Interjection | Parts of Speech | A word or phrase expressing emotion or reaction, often standing alone with exclamation marks. |
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| Interrogative | Grammar Concepts | Words used to ask questions. Always have accent marks in Spanish when used in questions. |
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| Interrogative Pronoun | Parts of Speech | Pronouns used to ask questions about people or things. Always carry an accent mark in Spanish. Main ones: qué, quién/quiénes, cuál/cuáles, cuánto/cuántos. |
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| Intransitive Verb | Verb Forms | A verb that does not take a direct object. The action is complete without needing to answer "what?" or "whom?" |
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| Irregular | Verb Forms | Words that don't follow standard patterns for conjugation or formation. |
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| Main Clause (Independent Clause) | Grammar Concepts | A clause that can stand alone as a complete sentence. Contains a subject and verb and expresses a complete thought. |
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| Modal Verb | Verb Forms | A verb that expresses necessity, possibility, permission, or obligation. Always followed by an infinitive. Main modals: poder, deber, tener que, haber que. |
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| Mood | Moods | The form of a verb that shows the speaker's attitude (fact, command, wish, possibility). Spanish has indicative, subjunctive, and imperative moods. |
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| Neuter Article (Lo) | Parts of Speech | The article "lo" used before adjectives, past participles, or "que" to create abstract noun phrases. Not used with regular nouns. Creates concepts like "the important thing," "what is good." |
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| Nominalisation (Nominalización) | Word Formation | The process of turning verbs, adjectives, or other word types into nouns. Common methods: infinitive as noun, lo + adjective, adding suffixes like -ción, -dad, -eza. |
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| Noun | Parts of Speech | A word that names a person, place, thing, or idea. In Spanish, all nouns have gender (masculine/feminine) and number (singular/plural). |
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| Number | Grammar Concepts | Refers to whether a word is singular (one) or plural (more than one). In Spanish, both nouns and adjectives change form to show number. |
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| Object | Grammar Concepts | The person or thing that receives the action of the verb. Can be direct (receives action directly) or indirect (receives the benefit of action). See also Direct Object and Indirect Object. |
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| Object Pronoun | Parts of Speech | A pronoun that replaces the object of a sentence. Can be direct (lo, la, los, las) or indirect (me, te, le, nos, os, les). |
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| Orthographic-Changing Verb | Verb Forms | Verbs that change spelling to maintain consistent pronunciation. Common patterns include g→gu (before e), c→qu (before e), z→c (before e), and others. |
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| Participle | Verb Forms | A verb form used to create compound tenses or as an adjective. Past participles end in -ado/-ido in Spanish. |
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| Passive Se (Pasiva Refleja) | Pronouns & Clitics | A construction using "se" + verb to express passive meaning, most common way to form passive in Spanish. Used with transitive verbs, and the verb agrees in number with the subject. |
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| Passive Voice | Grammar Concepts | A verb construction where the subject receives the action rather than performing it. |
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| Past Participle | Verb Forms | The -ed/-en form in English, or -ado/-ido form in Spanish. Used with "haber" to form perfect tenses, or as adjectives. |
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| Past Perfect (Pluperfect) | Tenses | A compound tense expressing actions completed before another past action. |
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| Personal A | Grammar Concepts | The preposition "a" used before direct objects that are people or personified things. Has no English translation and is used with both names and pronouns. |
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| Pluperfect Subjunctive | Tenses | A subjunctive mood expressing hypothetical completed actions in the past. |
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| Possessive Adjective | Grammar Concepts | Words that show ownership and come before nouns. Must agree in number with the noun they modify. |
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| Possessive Pronoun | Grammar Concepts | Words that replace nouns and show ownership. Stand alone without a noun. |
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| Predicate | Grammar Concepts | The part of a sentence that tells what the subject does or is. Contains the verb and everything that follows it. |
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| Predicate Adjective | Parts of Speech | An adjective that comes after a copular verb (ser, estar, parecer) and describes the subject. Must agree with the subject in gender and number. |
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| Predicate Nominative | Parts of Speech | A noun or noun phrase that comes after a copular verb (especially ser) and renames or identifies the subject. |
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| Prefix | Word Formation | Letters added to the beginning of a word to change its meaning. |
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| Preposition | Parts of Speech | A word that shows the relationship between a noun/pronoun and other words in a sentence (location, time, direction). |
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| Present Perfect | Tenses | A compound tense expressing actions completed recently or with relevance to the present. |
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| Present Perfect Subjunctive | Tenses | A subjunctive mood expressing completed actions with doubt or emotion. |
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| Present Subjunctive | Tenses | A mood expressing doubt, emotion, desire, or hypothetical situations in the present. |
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| Present Tense | Tenses | A verb tense expressing current actions, habits, or general truths. |
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| Preterite | Tenses | A past tense used for completed actions at specific times in the past. |
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| Proclitic | Pronouns & Clitics | A clitic pronoun that comes before the verb as a separate word. Used with conjugated verbs and negative commands. |
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| Pronoun | Parts of Speech | A word that replaces a noun to avoid repetition. Spanish has subject pronouns (yo, tú, él), object pronouns (me, te, lo), and more. |
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| Purpose Clause | Grammar Concepts | A type of adverbial clause expressing purpose or intention, introduced by "para que" (so that) or "a fin de que". Always requires subjunctive. |
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| Quantifier | Grammar Concepts | A type of determiner that expresses quantity or amount. Can be specific numbers or indefinite amounts. |
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| Reflexive | Verb Forms | Verbs where the subject performs the action on itself. Always require reflexive pronouns (me, te, se, nos, os, se) that must match the subject. |
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| Register | Grammar Concepts | The level of formality in language use. Spanish distinguishes between formal (usted/ustedes) and informal (tú/vosotros) registers, affecting pronouns, verb forms, and vocabulary choices. |
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| Regular | Verb Forms | Words that follow standard, predictable patterns for conjugation or formation. |
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| Relative Clause | Grammar Concepts | A type of subordinate clause that modifies a noun, usually introduced by relative pronouns (que, quien, cual, cuyo). |
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| Relative Pronoun | Grammar Concepts | Words that connect clauses and refer back to a noun mentioned earlier. "Que" is the most common. |
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| Reported Speech | Grammar Concepts | Also called indirect speech. A way of reporting what someone said without using their exact words. Requires tense changes, pronoun adjustments, and time expression modifications. |
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| Sequence of Tenses (Concordancia de Tiempos) | Grammar Concepts | The grammatical rule for matching tenses between main and subordinate clauses, especially important with subjunctive and reported speech. |
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| Simple Future | Other | A tense formed by adding endings (-é, -ás, -á, -emos, -éis, -án) directly to the infinitive. Used for future actions, predictions, probability, and soft commands. Only 12 common verbs have irregular stems. |
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| Stem-Changing Verb | Verb Forms | Verbs that change their stem vowel when conjugated (e→ie, o→ue, e→i). Also called "boot verbs". |
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| Stress | Pronunciation | The emphasis placed on a syllable when pronouncing a word. In Spanish, follows specific rules. |
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| Subject | Grammar Concepts | The person or thing performing the action of the verb in a sentence. |
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| Subject Pronoun | Parts of Speech | A pronoun that replaces the subject of a sentence. Often omitted in Spanish because verb endings show who is doing the action. |
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| Subjunctive | Moods | A verb mood expressing doubt, emotion, desire, or hypothetical situations. Very common in Spanish, rare in English. |
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| Subordinate Clause (Dependent Clause) | Grammar Concepts | A clause that cannot stand alone and depends on a main clause. Often introduced by conjunctions like que, cuando, si, porque. |
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| Suffix | Word Formation | Letters added to the end of a word to change its meaning or grammatical function. |
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| Superlative | Grammar Concepts | Forms used to express the highest or lowest degree of a quality. |
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| Syllable | Pronunciation | A unit of pronunciation containing a vowel sound. Spanish syllables follow specific patterns. |
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| Tense | Tenses | The form of a verb that shows when an action takes place (past, present, or future). |
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| Transitive Verb | Verb Forms | A verb that requires a direct object to complete its meaning. Answers "what?" or "whom?" after the verb. |
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| Tú | Other | The informal singular "you" pronoun in Spanish, used with friends, family, children, and peers. Takes second-person singular verb forms (tú hablas, tú comes). |
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| Uncountable Noun (Mass Noun) | Parts of Speech | A noun that cannot be counted and typically has no plural form. Refers to substances, abstract concepts, or collective entities. Used with mucho/poco, not muchos/pocos. |
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| Verb | Parts of Speech | A word that expresses an action, occurrence, or state of being. Spanish verbs change form based on who is doing the action and when. |
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| Verbal Periphrasis | Grammar Concepts | A combination of an auxiliary verb + infinitive/gerund/participle that functions as a single verbal unit, expressing nuances like progression, beginning, ending, or obligation. |
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| Voice | Grammar Concepts | A grammatical category showing the relationship between the subject and the action. Spanish has active voice (subject performs action) and passive voice (subject receives action). |
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| Word Order (Syntax) | Grammar Concepts | The arrangement of words in a sentence. Spanish typically uses SVO (Subject-Verb-Object) but allows flexible word order for emphasis, questions, and stylistic variation. |
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