2B Grammar: The Irregular Verb Estar & Prepositions
The Irregular Verb Estar:
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Irregular verbs have no rhyme or reason because the regular verb ending/chant rules do not apply
to them. Unfortunately, you just have to memorize them. You CANNOT use the regular verb
chants for these irregular verbs, even if they end in –AR, -ER, or –IR.
Estar is an irregular verb and it means “to be.”
In English it translates into the words "is, am or are."
With nouns, it is used to indicate where something is (location) and what temporary state or
condition it’s in (feelings both physical and emotional).
With verbs, it describes temporary characteristics; how people or things are at the moment,
temporarily or in someone’s opinion.
We use the acronym TFCL:
Temporary
Feeling - emotions (happy, sad)
Condition - phyical states (sick, hot, cold, busy)
Location - where something is (temporary or permanent)
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Note that there are accents on every conjugation below first person.
yo
tú
Singular
estoy = I am
estás = you are
usted
está = you are
Plural
nosotros/as estamos = we are
vosotros/as estáis = you all are
(informal in Spain)*
ustedes
están = you all are
él/ella
está = he/she is
ellos/ellas
"it" singular
están = they are
"it" plural
Prepositions:
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A preposition is a word that shows the relationship between a noun and a different noun, verb or
adverb. A lot of prepositions indicate positioning but that's not necessarily true for all of them.
Here's a trick: Any word that fits in the blank of the following sentence is a preposition.
The squirrel ran _______________ the tree.
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In class we'll be going over a "song/dance" that helps us remember some of the basic prepositions:
“Delante de, detrás de, encima de, debajo de, al lado, lado, lado de.”
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Here is a list of the most common Spanish prepositions. In Spanish I you will learn the ones that are
boldfaced. The ones in red are the prepositions that we are focusing on in chapter 2B.
List of Spanish Prepositions
a (to, at)
en vez de (instead of)
al (upon)
en (in, at)
al lado de (beside)
encima de (above, on top)
ante (before)
enfrente de (in front of)
antes de (before)
entre (between, among)
bajo (under)
fuera de (outside)
cerca de (near)
hacia (towards)
como (like)
hasta (until)
con (with)
lejos de (far from)
contra (against)
a la izquierda (to the left)
de (from, of, about)
para (for)
debajo de (under, beneath)
por (for, on account of)
delante de (in front of)
a la derecha (to the right)
dentro de (inside)
según (according to)
desde (since)
sin (without)
después de (after)
sobre (about, above/on)
detrás de (behind)
tras (after)