Conjugation III. The verb tener; mucho and muy; este

Juana no trabaja mucho

Entra María, la amiga de Juana. Sobre la mesa hay un calendario. María lee. Lunes: la costurera. Martes: vamos a ver a los abuelos. Miércoles: al cine con Juan. Jueves: vamos todos a casa de los tíos. Viernes: al concierto con Juan. Sábado: ayudo a papá y mamá en casa. Domingo: con Juan al teatro a ver la comedia „Casa con dos puertas” de Calderón.

— ¿Por qué no preguntas dónde está mi hermano José? — dice Juana.

— Muchos, tres hijos y dos hijas.

Vocablos

Notes

The meaning of the words mucho and muy

The word mucho is used in a sentence as an adverb and as an adjective and translated into English as: a lot (of), much or many.

As an adverb, mucho usually comes after the verb and its form doesn’t change:

As an adjective, mucho comes before the noun and agrees with it in gender and number, for example:

The word muy is an adverb and it means very. An adverb is a word that modifies a verb, another adverb, an adjective, or a phrase or sentence. But not a noun. For example:

Days of the Week

Learn the expressions:

Grammar points

1. Conjugation III

Verbs that in the infinitive form end in -ir belong to the third class or conjugation III, for example: vivir to live, escribir to write.

The present tense of the third class is formed from the stem of an infinitive verb with the help of the following endings:

Presente

Note:

In Spanish, as was said earlier, personal pronouns, being the subject of a sentence, are usually omitted, for example:

Therefore, from this time on, we are going to omit them, too. Just remember that the pronouns él, ella, Vd. are 3^rd person singular; ellos, ellas, Vds are 3^rd person plural; nosotros, nosotras are 1^st person plural and vosotros, vosotras are 2^nd person plural.

2. The conjugation of the verb tener

The verb tener — to have is an irregular verb of individual conjugation. In the present tense of the indicative mood, the verb tener conjugates in the following way:

3. Conjugations I, II and III

Presente del modo indicativo
Present tense
(indicative mood)

3. The demonstrative pronoun este

The masculine demonstrative pronoun este this, unlike esto this ends in -e.

The demonstrative pronouns in Spanish fall into two types:

1. este, esta this — these pronouns-adjectives are usually used without the accent mark (acento), always come before a noun and agree with it in gender and number, for example:

    

   este muchacho

   this boy

    

   esta muchacha

   this girl

    

   estos muchachos

   these boys

    

   estas muchachas

   these girls

2. éste, ésta this — these pronouns-nouns are used independently, they usually come with the accent mark (acento), for example:

Tengo dos lápices: éste es negro y éste es rojo.
I have two pencils: this one is black and this one is red.

Note:

The demonstrative pronouns-nouns have a gender-neutral form — esto this (that may also be translated as: it), that sometimes replaces a phase or a whole sentence.

Memorize the following:

For example:

Exercises

I. Answer the following questions:

¿Dónde vive Juana? ¿Qué escribe Juana? ¿Dónde va Juana el lunes? ¿Por qué van todos a casa de la tía el jueves? ¿Quién llama a la puerta? ¿Quién es María? ¿Quién es José? ¿Dónde estudia José? ¿Quién ayuda a José? ¿Cuántos nietos tienen los abuelos de Juana?

II. Translate into English:

Hoy es domingo, no trabajamos, nos levantamos temprano, tomamos el desayuno y vamos a pasear. Después voy a casa de mi abuelo y mi hermano José va al cine con mi amiga María. María me gusta, es una buena muchacha. Trabaja mucho, estudia y ayuda en casa. La madre de María es costurera. María tiene dos hermanos. Yo tengo un hermano y una hermana. El lunes María y yo vamos al cine con Juan y José y el miércoles vamos todos al teatro. El sábado vamos a casa de mi tía. En casa de mi tía como siempre muy bien, hay carne buena y vino blanco.

III. Translate into Spanish:

I live in New York. My boyfriend also lives in New York. Juan’s friend is in Madrid. Juan writes a letter. I read a book, my grandmother talks with my mother. My father works, he is not at home. On Sunday, Juan and I are going to the aunt’s. The uncle is at grandmother’s. I like going to my aunt’s. She has good wine at home. It’s Saturday. Dad is at the factory, he comes back at four and a half. At four o’clock, I go to the restaurant. I like going to the restaurant on Sunday because on Sunday the food in the restaurant is good. Today is Tuesday. I write a letter to my friend. She is in Madrid. My sister and I always answer the letters. My brother doesn’t answer because he is very busy. He is at the uncle’s, where he studies.

IV. Fill in the blanks with the words: esto, este, éste, esta, ésta, está or estos, estas.

es mi libro. Mi libro sobre la mesa. libro es blanco. mesa es amarilla y es negra. libros están sobre la mesa amarilla y están sobre la silla. mesas son amarillas.

V. Translate the sentences into Spanish. Use mucho or muy for the words in bold.

Jose studies a lot. He has many books. This seamstress works very well. They have many pens. We have many pencils.