In this exercise, you will be asked true-false questions about the pronunciation and general concepts about the Spanish language.

Remember…

Spanish vowels are very simple. There are only five symbols (a, e, i, o, u) to represent five vowel sounds (/a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, /u/). The “y” symbol may represent the same sound as “i” in some cases.
English, on the contrary, has 11 vowels /ɪ/,/e/,/æ/,/ʌ/,/ɒ/,/ʊ/,/iː/,/ɔː/,/uː/,/ɑː/,/ə/. (and this is without counting the nasal vowels…) Typically English speakers only struggle when it comes to combine certain Spanish vowels.

This activity of listening comprehension is to practice the combinations of vowel sounds /a/,/e/,/i/,/o/, and /u/.

The slashes represent the sound of the letter or word. Spanish language has all possible combinations of the five vowels, so 25 possibilities: /aa/, /ae/, /ai/, /ao, /au/, /ea/, /ee/, etc.

Below you can see one example of each combination.

Remember…

Spanish has a simple set of pronunciation rules. Basically, every letter corresponds to an individual sound with the exception of the five digraphs “ch,” “qu,” “rr,” “gu,” “ll” (which are pairs of letters with a single sound), and the “h” (which is always silent).
An interesting set of words are those that have the same spelling in both Spanish and English, but different pronunciation. For example, the word “iris” is pronounced /iris/ in Spanish and /airis/ in English.

In some cases, the spelling coincides but the accent doesn’t. In the examples below, the accent is underlined for clarity.
Examples of words

Asia /asia/	chocolate /CHokolate/
halo /alo/	primate /primate/
álgebra /alHebra/	ángel /anHel/
neón /neon/	bacteria /bakteria/
pus /pus/	flexible /flexible/
probable /probable/	horrible /oRible/
considerable /konsiderable/	doctor /doktor/
motor /motor/	tutor /tutor/
dental /dental/	mental /mental/
funeral /funeral/	final /final/
superior /superior/	interior /interior/

In this exercise, you are presented with 10 words in pairs that you have to pronounce in Spanish.

Remember…
– Stress means emphasis IN PRONUNCIATION. The accent mark is just a symbol (‘) that generally mark the stress.
– All words in Spanish have one an only one point of stress and it is always on a vowel (a, e, i, o, u), never on “y” or on any consonant.
– The accent mark is also used to distinguish some words that are pronounced the same, for example tú (you) and tu (your).
– All words have stress, but just some have accent mark. The accent mark rules are set to minimize the number of words that have accent mark.
– 80% words in Spanish have the stress in the second to last syllable, e.g., palma (palm), mapa (map), mármol (marble) (https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acentuaci%C3%B3n_del_idioma_espa%C3%B1ol)
– There are three main general rules about the accent marks, but the simplest is about those words that have stress in the third-to-last syllable: all of these have accent mark, like tórrido (torrid)

Remember…
– Just nouns (names of things) can be intrinsically singular or plural.
– Nouns ending by vowel (a, e, i, o, u) become plural by adding “s,” e.g., planta-plantas, The other nouns add “es” e.g., computador-computadores
– Nouns ending by “z” become plural by changing “z” by “ces”, e.g., luz-luces (light-lights).

NOTE For this quiz, the answer is still right if you don’t put the accent mark.

Remember…
– Just nouns (names of people, animals or things) can be intrinsically masculine or feminine.
– nouns of male/female people or some animals have the grammatical gender of its natural gender, e.g., el gato, la gata.
– Nouns ending by “o/a” tend to be masculine/feminine e.g., carro (el), planta (la),
– Nouns ending by “-dad” tend to be feminine, e.g., ciudad (la), city
– Nouns ending in “-ma” tend to be masculine, e.g., axioma (el).

Remember…
– Regular verbs are those that follow a particular set of rules with no exceptions
– All verbs ending by -AR do the present with these endings: -o, -as, -a, -amos, -an *(I, you, s/he, we, they) e.g., I sing – canto
– All verbs ending by -ER do the present with these endings: -e, -es, -e, -emos, -en (I, you, s/he, we, they) e.g., You drink – bebes
– All verbs ending in -IR do the present with these endings: -e, -es, -e, -emos, -en (I, you, s/he, we, they) e.g., We live – vivimos
– All verbs ending by -AR do the gerund (-ing words) with “-ando,” e.g., cancelar – cancelando (cancelling) – All verbs ending by -ER/IR do the gerund (-ing words) with “-iendo,” e.g., corresponder – correspondiendo (corresponding) – All verbs ending by -AR do the past participle (like sung, given, forgotten, etc.) with “-ado,” e.g., cancelar – cancelado (cancelled) – All verbs ending by -ER/IR do the past participle (like sung, given, forgotten, etc.) with “-ido,” e.g., orresponder – correspondido (corresponded)

Remember…
– What is a cognate? A word that sound similar to another one of the other language and has the same meaning
– What is a false cognate? A word that sound similar to another one of the other language BUT has the same meaning
– What is an indirect cognate? A word that is connected to another other one of the other language BUT has the same meaning
– What is a prefix and suffix? some letter before of after a word that give the word a change in the meaning
– What are the translations of “to be”? Ser, estar, tener, and hacer.
– What is Spanglish?

Remember…
These structures
– I have sung = He cantado
– I am singing = Estoy cantando
– I am going to sing = Voy a cantar
– Singing is good for you = Cantar es bueno para ti
– I work singing = Trabajo cantando

NOTE For this quiz, the answer is still right if you don’t write the accent mark.

Remember…
– The simplest tenses are those three tenses that use the forms “to,” “ing,” “ed”
– The form “to”, “I am going TO sing”, “Voy a cantAR” has no irregular verbs.
– The form “ing”, “I am singING”, “Estoy cantANDO” has some irregular verbs but they follow rules: the changes e -> i, o -> u, i -> y. In addition, “ir,” “poder” are irregular too.
– The form “ed”, “I have studiED”, “He estudiADO” has only 13 basic irregular verbs. These words are>

                          

cubrir	= to cover	cubierto
escribir	= to write	escrito
decir	= to say	dicho
hacer	= to do	hecho
morir	= to die	muerto
poner	= to put	puesto
resolver	= to resolve	resuelto
romper	= to break	roto
satisfacer	= to satisfy	satisfecho
soltar	= to loosen up	suelto
volver	= to come back	vuelto
ver	= to see	visto

NOTE For this quiz, the answer is right if you don’t write the accent mark.

Remember…<

– Pronouns with prepositions:

for me/ you/ him/ her/ us/ you guys/ them: para mí/ ti/ él/ ella/ nosotros/ ustedes/ ellos.

– Pronouns with the preposition “with”:

with me/ with you/ him/ her/ us/ you guys/ them: conmigo/ contigo/ él/ ella/ nosotros/ ustedes/ ellos.

– Pronouns of Direct Object

The robot saw me/ you/ him/ her/ us/ you guys/ them: El robot me/ te/ lo/ nos/ los/ los

– Pronouns of Indirect Object

The robot wrote me/ you/ him/ her/ us/ you guys/ them a letter: El robot me/ te/ le/ nos/ les/ les escribió una carta.

Remember…
The following are essential words related with quantities and negations

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

no	ningún
never	nunca
nobody	nadie
any	nada
yes	sí
always	siempre
all	todos/ todas
anyone	cualquiera
everybody	todo el mundo
where	dónde
who	quién/ quiénes
how many	cuántas
what	qué
how often	con qué frecuencia
when	cuándo
how	cómo
how much / how many	cuánto/ cuanta /cuántos / cuantas
which	cuál /cuáles
how long ago	cuánto tiempo hace

Remember…

– there is/are = hay

– there was/were = había

– there is/are left = queda

– can = poder (irregular): puedo, puedes, puede, podemos, pueden

-ought to= deber (regular): debo, debes, debe, debemos, deben

-to have to = tener que (irregular): tengo que, tienes que, tiene que, tenemos que, tienen que

-to need = necesitar (regular): necesito, necesitas, necesita, necesitamos, necesitan

Remember…

– To appeal = Gustar. It appeals to me/you/him-her/ us/them : Me/te/le/nos/les gusta.

Remember…

– Reflexive pronouns are: myself, yourself, himself/herself/itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves = me, te, se, nos, se (for ustedes), se

-In Spanish, reflexives pronouns are used in the following situations:
a) With actions that can be reflexive or not (like in English), e.g. I look at the landscape/ I look at myself in the mirror.
b) For actions that are inherently reflexive, e.g. He committed suicide.
c) With some verbs to distinguish a meaning, e.g. to deny/ to refuse, negar, negarSE.
d) With the verb to get, poner, to express a transition, e.g. to get sick.

– A few verbs can be optionally reflexive. This is the case of the verbs to eat, to drink, e.g., I eat a sandwitch = (Me) como un sandwich.

Remember…

– Regular verbs have the following endings:

AR –> -o, -as, -a-, -amos, -ais, an.
ER –> -o, -es, -e-, -emos, -eis, en.
IR –> -o, -es, -e-, -imos, – ís, en.

– There are some REGULAR verbs that have to amke changes intheir spelling to sound properly, e.g., vencer, venZo, (not “venco”)

– The irregular verbs are classified into:

-CER/ -CIR –> ZCO, e.g., producir, produZCO -UIR –> -Y-, e.g., distribuir, distribuYo -O- –> -UE , e.g., dOrmir, dUErmo -E- –> -IE , e.g., comEnzar, comIEnzo -E- –> -I , e.g., seguir, sIgo THE VERY IRREGULAR VERBS (around 20) don’t follow any rules, like ser, estar, ir, or poner.