Spanish Lesson Forty-Eight: Describing People

Happy Cinco De Mayo!!

Oh yeah! I hope you all enjoyed last night or today depending on when you celebrate. It's been a great weekend nonetheless. I want to thank everyone for supporting these lessons over the past year. I've gotten a lot of new followers and readers for my reviews lately so I'm so happy that you all are happy. I want to announce that I'm going on vacation from writing starting next. I will begin publishing Spanish lessons on Monday from then on. So my next lesson after this one will be published on May 28, 2013. So thanks for reading and take some time to review previous lessons if you'd like.

Also, on May 31, 2013 I will publish a One Year Anniversary special hub to celebrate being on HubPages for one year! I'm so excited. So stick around for that. Anyway last week we reviewed Ordering Food to complement my lesson on Food and Dining. I've been doing this to give everyone a chance to learn some more complex material. So here is your review on Describing People.

Today's Goals: To review concepts for describing people. To be able to retain and learn new concepts of describing people.

Today's vocabulary is the usual hodgepodge of nouns, adjectives, and verbs. Also there are several charts for words that are used to describe people. Refer to the chart for personality, physical, and behavioral words. I'll explain how to use them in the lesson.

Today's Tip: Go to a Mexican restaurant for Cinco De Mayo and try your Spanish with a native speaker!

Verbs

To Merit/To Deserve: Merecer

To Watch/To Look/To Look At: Mirar

To Mount/To Go Up/To Climb/To Get On/To Wind (A Watch): Montar

To Bite: To Morder

To Die: Morir

To Show/To Point Out/To Display: Mostrar

To Move/To Persuade/To Excite: Mover

To Be Born: Nacer

To Swim: Nadar

To Navigate/To Sail: Navegar

Nouns

Dresser: El Tocador

Night Stand: La Mesita de Noche

Bed: La Cama

Bookshelf: El Librero

Closet: El Armario

Pillow: La Almohada

Shoes: Los Zapatos

Adjectives

Rusty: Oxidado(a)

Shiny: Brillante

Luminescent: Luminescente

Translucent: Translúcido(a)

Transparent: Transparente

Hey Readers! Today's Warm-Up is the usual three question quiz. Remember these are always open note. So don't fret if you don't remember the material. These questions are from Lesson Nineteen so head on back there if your memory is foggy. Once you're done, continue down for today's lesson.

Hey Readers! Welcome to this review on Describing People. It means a great deal that we continuously review previous concepts in order to ensure retention. Now that we're here let's review some old concepts as well as new concepts.

Describing Physical and Personality Traits:

Now if you don't remember, to describe the physical or personality of a person you must use the verb ser that means "to be" in order to describe those particular things about one person. Make sure you don't confuse some of the adjectives with the verb estar which also means "to be". If you read my lesson Ser vs. Estar you should be familiar with the differences between the two. If you use estar you may change the meaning of the adjective used or be grammatically incorrect. Take these two sentences for example:

Estoy listo. I am ready. When using listo with estar, listo means ready.

Soy listo. I am smart. When using listo with ser, listo means smart.

So always pay attention and use ser when describing physical traits, personality traits, time, weather, and origin/nationality. Remember that estar describes things that are temporary like how you're feeling (temporary), the present progressive, relative location. I did not include words used with estar in this lesson and will discuss them at another time. Now that you've reviewed using ser to describe personality and physical traits, let's look at other ways of describing people.

Other Ways To Describe People and Their Actions

This broad concept is also to describe how people are acting or what they appear to be. In order to describe that you'll need other words/terms to describe the condition of that person. If it's physical like sickness or location, you know that estar is needed. Though there are several words that need to be used with tener which means "to have". Check out these sentences:

Tengo miedo. I have fear (I am afraid). Despite tener's meaning "to have", it translates as a condition that a person can be in. To have fear means to be afraid right?

Tengo sed. I have thirst (I am thirsty). This is the same concept with doler (to hurt), Calor (warm/hot), Priza (In a hurry). There are lots of phrases using tener and other verbs that can be used to describe a person's features, actions, body language, etc. This is also a concept to use when a person says they are cold or warm.

Don't forget there are also reflexive verbs to describe a person's condition. Check out the verb enfadarse.

Me enfado. I am angry. Remember this verb is reflexive and requires additional conjugation. Let's do another sentence.

Él se divierte. He is having a good time (enjoying himself). This verb describes the action of someone else having fun very well.

Special Note: If you want to say that someone is becoming a certain way or going to become enraged, afraid, or any other condition, you should research it. There are several ways to express "to become" in Spanish. The following ways include the verbs Hacerse, Ponerse, Volverse as well as llegar + A+ Ser. Those concepts will discussed in coming lessons.

Thanks so much for reading this review and lesson. Don't worry, these concepts will continue to pop up as we continue forward.

Thanks so much readers for all your support over this year! Now it's time to get down to business. I hope you didn't find the last assignment too difficult. After all it's just conjugating verbs. Now remember that things are going pretty well. The goal with this is to be able to conjugate in the present indicative, preterite, and imperfect tenses. You can always go back and relearn how to conjugate in these tenses if you need to. Just check out the following lessons if you need help:

Lesson Five,Lesson Twenty,Lesson Twenty-Five, and Lesson Thirty-Five. Now that you've reviewed, conjugate the following verbs:

Advertir (To Advise, To Give Notice, To Give Warning, To Take Notice Of, To Warn)

Afeitarse (To Shave Oneself)

Agarrar (To Grasp, To Obtain, To Seize, To Catch, To Clutch, To Come Upon)

Thanks for reading on May 27, 2013 we will learn about Describing The Weather. I'll see you then!