Spanish (Prof. Daniel Labonia) THE SPANISH LANGUAGE ACCENTS and GENRE 1. ACCENTS In Spanish, a stress accent mark (‘tilde’) may be placed on the vowels A, E, I, O and U. It is part of the written form of particular words and it must not be left out. Ex: fotógrafo (photographer) país (country) periódico (newspaper) número (number) N.B. Normally, accents appear only above small letters and not above capitals (ex.: índice [index] / Indice). 2. GENDER (NOUNS) In Spanish, all nouns have a gender (masculine or feminine). Ex: una mesa (feminine) = a table un lápiz (masculine) = a pencil In the case of living creatures (male and female), the feminine corresponding form of the word is usually created by adding A (or substituting O by A) at the end of the masculine form. Ex: un instructor (masculine) - una instructora un gato (masculine) - una gata un esposo (masculine) - una esposa (feminine) (feminine) (feminine) = a trainer = a cat (domestic animal) = a spouse N.B. Certain words may have two different genres. Ex.: un periodista (masculine) un presidente (masculine) - una periodista (feminine) una presidente (feminine) = a journalist = a president Spanish Language Vocabulary a. Learn the following nouns with their gender and accent (if available): amigo (m) = friend amiga (f) = friend libro (m) = book nombre (m) = name; noun verbo (m) = verb computadora (f) = computer papel (m) = paper hoja de papel (f) = sheet of paper señora (f), dama (f) = lady mujer (f) = woman hombre (m) = man chica (f), señorita (f) = young lady muchacho (m) = young man caballero (m) = gentleman estudiante (m, f) = student profesor (m) = professor profesora (m, f) = journalist cuaderno (m) = notebook dirección (f) = address cafetería (f) = cafeteria silla (f) = chair llave (f) = key corredor (m) = corridor tarea (f) = assignment pantalla (f) = screen proyector (m) = projector aula (f), salón de clase (m) = classroom bolígrafo (m) = pen secretaria (m, f) = secretary doctor (m), médico (m) = doctor b. Fill in the blanks with the appropriate indefinite articles (un/una): ___ f el ___ f ___ ___ f ___ m f ___ f ___ m ___ hoja de papel corredor computadora silla muchacho chica pantalla estudiante m ___ ___ m f ___ ___ f m ___ f ___ m ___ m ___ médico periodista abogada amiga salón de clase secretaria lápiz presidente c. The list below may contain some spelling mistakes. Check the accents and rewrite the nouns properly, if it is needed Cuaderno direccion ________ cuaderno ________ dirección caféteria ________ periodico ________ periódico cafetería pantalla ________ nombre ________ Pantalla Nombre médico medico ________ Señora senora ________ estudiante estudiante ________ boligrafo lápiz secretaria bolígrafo ________ ________ Lapiz ________ secretaria
