Spanish Lesson Forty-Six: Affirmatives and Negatives

Happy Sunday Readers. So I wanted to start reviewing some things we've touched on in previous lessons. It's been about forty-seven weeks since I started these lessons back in June of last year. I figure we've gone through so much so quickly, that it doesn't hurt to go back over some things. So today we're going to review Affirmatives and Negatives. These are words that are very essential in the Spanish language and absolutely must be reviewed. The vocabulary, warm-up, and quiz will be in this lesson like usual. Also at the end you'll receive the answers to the homework and receive new verbs to conjugate. Last week we discussed The Conditional Tense. If you missed that one, head on back if you want to review. Enjoy!

Today's Goal: To review the concepts pertaining to Affirmatives and Negatives. To be able to properly use these techniques in Spanish grammar.

Here we are again readers. Today you will have new vocabulary words. I hope these lists are helping you learn more about Spanish verbs, adjectives, and nouns. I'd love to find as many words as I can to introduce for everyone to use. So sit tight while I do that. In the meantime, take a look at the hodgepodge.

Today's Tip: Take a moment to relax at home. Speak Spanish with gusto, without thinking too hard. You might learn you need little effort.

Nouns

Everyone: Todo El Mundo

People: La Gente

Population: La Población

Crowd: La Multitud

Cluster: El Grupo

Throng: La Muchedumbre

Bevy: La Nube

Adjectives

Crowded: Atestado(a)

Bustling: Afanoso(a)

Full: Lleno(a)

Empty: Vacío(a)

Packed: Abarrotado(a)

Hey everyone! I hope you enjoy this week's quiz. The questions come from Lesson Seventeen. Remember you can always go back and look up the answers. There are three questions, so it won't take long. Take the quiz and read the notes. Also check out the charts that I've put before the notes. It could clear some things up. You're almost done with today's lesson!

What Are Affirmatives and Negatives?

Well if you've noticed, those words have been seen in my lessons before... Affirmatives are words that we use all the time in both languages. When describing something that happened to somebody we've used affirmatives words. They are non specific words to describe people, places, and things. In English they are considered indefinite pronouns. These words are commonly used in Spanish just like in English. Now Negatives are the opposites of Affirmatives in the sense that we are certain that nothing happened to nobody in particular. These words are simply the opposite of Affirmatives. Also there are other words like always that are considered Affirmatives as well as Negatives like never or never ever.

Now... the trick really is about using the Affirmatives and Negatives in a sentence. Take a look at this example:

Necesito alguien para ayudarme. I need somebody (anybody) to help me. Not that alguien stands alone as a word and can also mean "anybody" as well as "somebody". This word is non specific. Let's look at other Affirmatives.

Tengo algunos libros. I have some books. Note that alguno was changed to "algunos" to match the gender and number of the noun used in the sentence. Note the same rule applies to ninguno. Those two are the only you should match gender and number. The others are stand alone words. Algo, Alguien, Siempre, and También see no further change.

Negatives Are Tricky?

Negatives work quite differently than affirmatives in the sense that it breaks one dominant English speaking rule. No double negatives. If you're a bit rusty on your English grammar. A double negative is a sentence in which two negative words are used in the same sentence. When someone says "I don't like nobody", it's considered improper English because "don't" is negative as well as "nobody". The verb and the predicate cannot both be negative. In English the proper way is "I don't see anybody". Now here's the tricky part. In Spanish you must use double negatives:

No tengo algo. I don't have anything. Guess what, that's wrong! You know why? Because the sentence connotation is negative, therefore you cannot place an affirmative in this sentence. It's correct in English, but completely wrong in Spanish.

No tengo nada. I don't have anything. Guess what... that's right! Even though in translation the word anything is expressed using nada. It's meaning is expressed by continuing the use of the negative. So always think the opposite in this case.

No tengo ningúnos libros. I don't have any books. Remember that ningúno must follow gender and number and to be grammatically correct.

Don't Forget: That when using negatives, ensure you have a no somewhere in your sentence. If you don't then you're not grammatically correct. No tengo nada, no conozco ninguno, no quiero mirar la television jamás. Understand? I recommend practicing these as much as you can so you can use affirmative and negative expressions in the tenses you have learned thus far.

Lastly: There are other words in Spanish that are considered Affirmatives and Negatives. Check the links below for those words as well. They were excluded from this lesson.Thanks for reading this lesson! Continue down for more!

It's that time again readers. I hope you did your homework over the past week. If not, it's okay. The answers are below this section. I really hope these practices are helping you to learn how to conjugate verbs. Sometimes it takes a moment to get used to conjugating in your head. Eventually it'll become second nature. I promise... So let's keep going! Don't forget you're conjugating in the Present Indicative, Preterit, and Indicative Imperfect. These are the most used forms of verbs. So pay close attention!

If you need more help, take a look at: Lesson Five, Lesson Twenty,Lesson Twenty-Five, and Lesson Thirty-Five.

Adivinar (To Divine, To Foretell, To Guess, To Solve)

Admirar (To Admire)

Admitir (To Admit, To Grant, To Permit)

Wait! Next week we're going to work on Ordering Food in a restaurant. We touched on this before, but not really. So we're going to go back over it!