Tag Archives: Spanish grammar

CultureAlley Spanish App for the iPad – What do the lessons cover?

Wish someone would explain you the logic behind Spanish conversations? Wish you wouldn’t have to deal with 1000s of flashcards? Been learning Spanish but still feel you cannot talk to a native? Stop mugging up Spanish! Start conversing!

Say ¡Hola! to the simplest and the most logical way to learn Spanish.

The CultureAlley Spanish App for the iPad is available for free download on the App Store

The audio-visual lessons are organized in three pit stops:

LEG 1: KICK-START WITH ESSENTIALS (Lessons 1-10)

The first leg of the voyage will get you rocking on the most essential conversations in Spanish. You will master Spanish greetings, and will be able to introduce yourself in Spanish, ask for introductions, communicate about the languages you speak, and about your understanding of the new language.Free audio visual Spanish lessons

Spanish Grammar tips
LEG 2: LETS MEET NEW PEOPLE! (Lessons 11-20)

As you build upon what you went through in Leg 1; Leg 2 gets more exciting! It helps you in mastering some difficult conversations. You will learn how to make new friends, meet new people, talk about family in Spanish, talk about pets, and more. This part also covers some must-learn topics like basic numbers in Spanish, articles, asking & telling time in Spanish, telling the date, taking about age and birthdays etc…

Downloadable lessonsLessons 11 to 20 Offline lessons
LEG 3: JET SET GO (Lessons 21-30)

Leg 3 gets you all set to have advanced conversations. Travel to Spanish speaking countries, ask for directions, communicate in emergency situations, describe people, discuss hobbies, and more! It also gives you a dose of some essential Spanish grammar to help you frame your own conversations! You will learn how to compare and grade things, and learn more about essential concepts like gender and singular-plural, to give you the confidence to rock Spanish like a native!Lessons 21 to 30 Lessons 21 to 30

So what are you waiting for? Kick-off your Spanish voyage, today!

The CultureAlley Spanish App for the iPad is available for free download on the App Store.

See you at the Alley!

Capitalization rules in Spanish

Capitalization rules are different in English and Spanish. Spanish uses lesser capitalization than English. Today we talk about some such differences, key capitalization rules in Spanish, and what not to capitalize in Spanish.

What not to capitalize:

Nationality: In Spanish, even though names of countries or cities are capitalized, words derived from them – such as nationality and language are not capitalized.
Example: I am American =  Soy americano

Languages: Similarly, names of languages are not capitalized in Spanish.
Example: Do you speak Spanish = ¿Hablas español?

Days of the week: Names of the days of the week use lower-case letters.
Example: Today is Monday = Hoy es lunes

Unless the word comes as the first word of the sentence, we never capitalize names of ‘days of the week’ in Spanish.

Names of months: Names of the months of the year are not capitalized either.
Example: Today is May 5th = Hoy es el cinco de mayo

Composition (Movies, Books) titles: In written Spanish, titles of movies, books, plays, etc. capitalize only the first word and proper nouns.
Example: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone = Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal

Introductory titles: Titles (such as doctor, profesor, señor) are not capitalized in Spanish. However, common abbreviations (like Dr. for doctor) are capitalized.

Place names: Names of rivers, lakes, mountains etc. are capitalized, but the identifier (type of place) is not capitalized.
Example: In English we would usually say ‘I am going to see River Nile’. In Spanish, it would become ‘Voy a ver el río Nilo’. While we capitalize ‘Nile’ or ‘Nilo’ we do not capitalize ‘River’ or ‘río‘.

Religions:
The name of most religions, their adjectives, and their adherents (proper nouns) are not capitalized in Spanish.
Example: Christianity = el cristianismo
Christian = cristiano
Muslim = musulmán

Ordinal numbers: When an ordinal number is used after a name, it isn’t capitalized.
Example: George the eighth = George octavo.
Note that we also skip the ‘the’ in such cases while translating to Spanish.

Hope these rules will help you write Spanish better!

Learn Spanish – CultureAlley