Spanish grammar facts for kids

Spanish grammar is all about the rules that help us speak and write the Spanish language correctly. Just like English has its own rules for how words fit together, Spanish does too! Understanding these rules helps you make sense of sentences and express yourself clearly. Spanish grammar is quite similar to the grammar of other languages that came from Latin, like French, Italian, and Portuguese.

What Are Spanish Verbs?

Verbs are "doing" words, like "run," "eat," or "think." In Spanish, verbs are super important and change a lot! They belong to one of three main groups, depending on how they end:

• Verbs ending in -ar (like hablar - to speak)
• Verbs ending in -er (like comer - to eat)
• Verbs ending in -ir (like vivir - to live)

How Spanish Verbs Change

Verbs in Spanish are conjugated. This means they change their form depending on who is doing the action and when the action happens. For example, the verb "to eat" (comer) will look different if "I eat" (yo como) compared to "they eat" (ellos comen). It also changes if you are talking about something that happened in the past, is happening now, or will happen in the future.

Understanding Spanish Nouns

A noun is a word for a person, place, thing, or idea (like "student," "school," "book," or "happiness"). In Spanish, every single noun has a gender. It's either masculine or feminine.

• Masculine nouns often end in -o (like el libro - the book).
• Feminine nouns often end in -a (like la mesa - the table).

This gender affects other words in the sentence, like adjectives and articles (like "the" or "a").

How Spanish Adjectives Work

Adjectives are words that describe nouns (like "big," "red," or "happy"). In Spanish, adjectives usually come after the noun they describe. This is different from English, where adjectives usually come before the noun (e.g., "red car" vs. coche rojo).

Making Adjectives Agree

Spanish adjectives also change to match the noun they describe. They change depending on if the noun is masculine or feminine, and if it's singular (one) or plural (more than one). For example, if you have a masculine singular noun, the adjective will be masculine singular. If you have a feminine plural noun, the adjective will be feminine plural.

Images for kids

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  Frontispiece of the Grammatica Nebrissensis

See also

In Spanish: Gramática del español para niños