My Family and Friends: Grammar and Phonics (AQA GCSE Spanish): Revision Note

To talk about your family, you need to know some important grammar – subject pronouns, the verbs ser and estar, and how to use possessive adjectives correctly. Let’s look at these grammar points in more detail.

Subject pronouns

• Subject pronouns replace the noun in a sentence, e.g. ‘she’, ‘we’

• They are useful when talking about others so that we don’t need to keep repeating the name

• Subject pronouns can be singular (one person) or plural (more than one person)

• There are four Spanish words for ‘you’ that depend on the level of formality and if you are talking to one person or more than one person

• Tú is used for one person informally, e.g. your best friend, and usted is used for one person formally, e.g. your teacher

• The plural forms are vosotros/vosotras and ustedes

• Use ellos to mean ‘they’ for a group of male people or for a mixed-gender group, and ellas for a group of female people

• Subject pronouns are generally not used in Spanish, as we can tell from the verb who is being referred to

• They are used for clarity, or when we want to add emphasis

Verbs ser and estar

• These are very common and important verbs in Spanish

• They both mean ‘to be’, but are used in different contexts

• Ser is used for permanent characteristics and traits, e.g. nationality, appearance and personality

• Estar is used for temporary states and feelings, and to give locations

• Here are the present tense forms of these two verbs:

Possessive adjectives

• Possessive adjectives show who something belongs to, e.g. ‘my’, ‘their’

• Possessive adjectives match the noun which follows in gender and number

• The possessive adjective depends on the gender of the noun, not the gender of the owner, e.g. nuestro padre, nuestra madre

• Su and sus can mean 'his', 'her', 'their' or 'its', so context is important

My family and friends: phonics

• The letter 'h' is always silent in Spanish

  hermano

• Vowels in Spanish sometimes have accents which are important for spelling and stress, but accents do not change pronunciation

  abuelo

  eres

  inglés

  ojos

  usted

• The Spanish word for ‘bat’ includes all of the vowels!

  murciélago