Michel Thomas’ SpanishThis is a summary of information provided by Michel Thomas; it also includes my comments and notes marked in red. (Remember: there are always exceptions.)

FOUNDATION NOTES

‘c’ or ‘z’ is pronounced as a soft ‘s’.

In some parts of Spain, it is pronounced as ‘th’ in front of an ‘e’ or ‘i’. Avoid using this form.

cero, decir [thero, dethir]

Key endings: words ending in -ible and -able are pronounced differently but often have the same meaning.

posible, aceptable

Use ‘no’ to make negative sentences.

Add before the first verb in the sentence

es posible ~ no es posible

Inflection is not necessary if you use a question word like ‘why’ (¿por qué?).

Use stress to avoid confusion. porque ~ because

¿Por qué no es aceptable para usted así? Porque no es bueno.

o verb ending expresses ‘I’, so there’s no need to use the Spanish for ‘I’ (yo). If you do use ‘yo’, then it makes it more emphatic.

hablo, como, vivo

Key endings: English -ent and -ant endings become -ente and -ante in Spanish.

diferente, importante, restaurante, constante, evidente, urgente

There is only one stressed syllable per word in Spanish. When a word ends in a vowel, the stress will usually be on the penultimate syllable.

importante

‘h’ is not pronounced in Spanish. ‘g’ before ‘e’ and ‘i’ is pronounced like ‘ch’, as in Scottish ‘loch’.

More like 'h' in English. gimnasio, gente

When a word ends in a consonant, the stress will be placed on the last syllable.

flor, animal

Key endings: English words ending in -ary end in -ario in Spanish.

Exception: documentary ~ documental

necesario, contrario, vocabulario

Key endings: English words ending in -ory end in –orio.

accesorio, obligatorio

Pronunciation of Spanish ‘v’ is the same as ‘b’. If there are two or more consecutive verbs in a sentence, the second and subsequent verbs will be in the full form (the ‘to’ form in English, i.e. the infinitive).

Puede verlo

Key endings: words in English ending in -ence and -ance end in -encia and -ancia in Spanish.

diferencia, importancia, preferencia, influencia

Key endings: words ending in -ion, -tion, and -ation in English end in -ión, -ción, and -ación in Spanish.

Exception: translation ~ traducción.

condición, reservación, posición, explicación, atención

‘puede’ is used both for ‘can you?’ (question) and ‘will you please’ (polite request). The difference is in the inflection.

Puede hacerlo para mí por favor

Verbs that are derived from nouns that are similar in English and Spanish will also be similar. To make the verb in Spanish, you just add -ar to the English.

form - formar, confirm - confirmar

The whole form of a verb, the infinitive, is expressed with ‘to’ in English (for example, to eat). In Spanish, it is expressed in an ending. There are three types of verbs: -ar, -er, -ir.

hablar, comer, vivir

All Spanish verbs have an -r at the end, so the stress is on the last syllable. Michel’s ‘NOSE’ rule: words ending in -n, -s or any vowel are stressed on the penultimate syllable; words ending in any other consonant are stressed on the last syllable. Words that are stressed in defiance of the ‘NOSE’ rule have a written accent to show the stress.

Mérida, México, situación, impresión

There are two types of ‘me’: ‘mí’ as in ‘para mí’ (for me) and ‘me’ as in ‘verme’ (to see me). Key endings: words ending in -ical in English end in -ico in Spanish.

político, económico, filosófico, lógico

To say ‘the political situation’ in Spanish, you say ‘the situation political’ (la situación política). ‘político’ changes to ‘política’ because situación is a ‘la’ word (feminine). In Spanish, you make a distinction between masculine (Roberto) and feminine (Roberta). Don’t confuse ‘cuánto’ (how much) with ‘cuándo’ (when). ‘está’ (with an accent) means ‘you are’ but ‘esta’ means ‘this’. Add ‘s’ to make plurals in Spanish.

Correction: that rule is for words ending in vowels, but add 'es' for words ending in consonants

buenos días [flores, animales]

For all verbs, the form for ‘you’ is the same for ‘he/she/it’.

'you' in this context is the polite/formal 'usted' form

Va a - you are/he is/she is/it is going to.

Use a clarifier if it is not clear whom you are talking about. For example, ‘¿Dónde está?’ could mean ‘Where are you?’ or ‘Where is he/she/it?’. You can add ‘él’ (he), ‘ella’ (she) or ‘usted’ (you) to make it clear (¿Dónde está el/ella/usted?). There are two verbs in Spanish for ‘to be’ – ‘estar’ and ‘ser’. ‘estar’ expresses ‘to be’ as a state of being: how one is, where one is. The word ‘estado’ from ‘estar’ means ‘state’ (los Estados Unidos, United States). ‘ser’ can also be a noun: ‘el ser’ means ‘the being’ (el ser humano, the human being). ‘ser’ expresses the characteristics of who one is and what one is. ‘estar’ expresses variable characteristics. ‘ser’ expresses [more or less] permanent characteristics.

ser - soy, eres, es, somos, son; estar - estoy, estás, está, estamos, están

Pablo está bien vestido hoy. Pablo es bien vestido. Notice the difference: es bien vestido 'he is always well dressed' está bien vestido 'he is well dressed (today)'.

‘listo’ has two meanings: ‘ready’ and ‘clever’. ‘ready’ is not a permanent characteristic, so you use ‘estar’. ‘clever’ is a permanent characteristic, so you use ‘ser’.

Soy listo - I am clever. Estoy listo - I am ready.

Michel’s definition of verb, adjective and noun: Any word in front of which you can place the article ‘the’ is a noun: the happiness, the pride, the situation, the condition. Any word in front of which you can place ‘am’ or ‘is’ is an adjective: happy, proud. Any word in front of which you can place ‘to’ is a verb: to be, to have, to go, to see.

Verbs are the backbone of a language. If you know how to handle the verbs, you know how to handle the whole language. Whenever there are two or three consecutive verbs, the second or third verb will be in the full form of the verb with the ‘r’ at the end (the infinitive).

Puede venir conmigo - can you come with me

If another verb follows a verb of coming and going, use ‘a’.

Puede venir a verlo conmigo esta noche - Can you come to see it with me tonight.

Stress in the present tense is on the syllable before last (the penultimate syllable). If there are only two syllables, you stress the first syllable.

Exceptions to the present tense rule: estoy, está; voy, va.

English ‘am/is + -ing’ is usually expressed with just the present tense in Spanish.

At what time (hour) are you leaving? - ¿A qué hora sale?

The Spanish -ing tense expresses what you are doing right now. -ing becomes -iendo (saliendo).

‘Estoy saliendo’ - ‘I am in the process of leaving right now’.

For ‘you are saying’, ‘e’ in decir becomes ‘i’ in ‘dice’.

decir - to say ¿Qué dice? - What are you saying?

‘what’ at the beginning of a sentence is ‘qué’. In the middle of a sentence, ‘what’ is ‘lo que’.

No sé lo que quiere. - I don't know what you want.

The combination of ‘want’ and ‘say’ in Spanish means ‘to mean’.

tense form of querer + decir

No entiendo muy bien lo que quiere decir. - I don’t understand very well what you mean.

There are three types of verbs: -ar, -er and -ir. They are divided into two categories or ‘tracks’: the -ar track and the -er/-ir track.

hablar, comprar, preparar; comprender, escribir, hacer, salir

Endings in Spanish, even unstressed, need to be very clear. For ‘they’, you just add an ‘n’ after ‘a’ or ‘e’ depending on which track you are on. The same ‘n’ you use for ‘they’ also goes for ‘you all’ (you plural).

'you all' in this context is the polite/formal 'ustedes' form; vosotros form is used mostly in Spain

hablan - they speak; lo hacen - they do it.

There are only a few exceptions in the entire Spanish language where you don’t have a clear ‘o’ for the ‘I’ form. There are four exceptions where you have ‘oy’ instead of ‘o’.

soy (ser - to be), estoy (estar - to be), voy (ir - to go), doy (dar - to give)

One exception where there is no ‘o’ at all for the ‘I’ form is the verb ‘to know’.

sé (saber - to know)

In Spanish, you have two words for ‘you’. With family members and friends [informal], you may switch from the use of ‘usted’ to ‘tú’. For ‘tú’ you add ‘s’ to ‘a’ or ‘e’ at the end of the verb.

¿Hablas inglés? - Do you speak English? (to Roberto/Roberta)

If you switch tracks in the present tense (from ‘a’ to ‘e’ or ‘e’ to ‘a’), that gives you the imperative (the command).

¡Hable español conmigo! - Speak Spanish with me! ¡Compra el libro! - Buy this book! (to Roberto/Roberta). Esperemos aquí. - Let's wait here.

If you take out the ‘t’ in ‘este’ and ‘esta’, then you have ‘that’.

Ese libro - That book; Esa mesa - That table.

If you want to say ‘this’ without a noun, use ‘esto’.

using previous note: 'eso' is 'that'

Quiero ver esto y eso - I want to see this and that.

If you use the positive command with a pronoun (me, him, it), add the pronoun to the end of the verb. Don’t add the pronoun to the verb in the negative command.

¡Cómprelo! - Buy it! ¡No los compre! - Don't buy them.

For ‘we’ the verb ending is -mos. Whenever you want to use ‘we’, go to the whole verb, drop the ‘r’ and add -mos.

The verb ‘ir’ (to go) is an exception: ‘we go’ is ‘vamos’. voy, vas, va, vamos, van

hablamos, comemos, vivimos

go-go verbs: some verbs add a ‘g’ before the ‘o’ in the ‘I’ form.

tengo (tener), vengo (venir), salgo (salir), pongo (poner), traigo (traer), caigo (caer), oigo (oír)

Verbs in English with -pose will be formed with -poner in Spanish.

‘to oppose’ oponer, ‘to suppose’ suponer, ‘to compose’ componer.

‘to do’ and ‘to say’ are short go-go verbs.

hago (hacer), digo (decir)

The go-go verbs turn ga-ga in the imperative.

for he/she/it/you (ud.)/we/they in both affirmative and negative forms and for the 'tú' in the negative form add 's'

diga, digamos, digan, no digas

There is only one occasion when you don’t switch tracks in the imperative: in the positive imperative to Roberto or Roberta you don’t switch tracks and you don’t use the ‘s’.

'tú' form in affirmative imperative is the 'you/he/she/it' form in present tense

oye, habla, come [some exceptions: ten, ven, di]

Use ‘se’ for ‘himself/herself/yourself/themselves’.

use 'me' for 'myself', 'te' for 'yourself' (Roberto/Roberta), and 'nos' for 'ourselves'; these verbs are called reflexive verbs

me levanto, te levantas, se levanta, nos levantamos, se levantan [se levantar - to lift oneself up which means to get up]

Usually words ending in ‘a’ are ‘la’ words. ‘día’ is an exception (el día). Words ending in ‘o’ are ‘el’ words. ‘mano’ is an exception (la mano). Words ending in ‘ma’ are ‘el’ words (el problema). ‘ourselves’ in Spanish has two meanings: it can mean ‘ourselves’ and ‘each other’.

Nos vemos - We see ourselves or We see each other. Hasta nos vemos. Until we meet (see each other) again.

The present tense is widely used in Spanish to talk about the future. If you use the present tense to talk about the future, you need to use words such as mañana, la semana que viene (next week), etc. ‘going’ is also frequently used to talk about the future.

Te llamo mañana. / Le llamo mañana. - I call you tomorrow. Voy a llamarle mañana. - I am going to call you Voy a llamarle mañana. tomorrow.

To construct the future tense: for ‘I will’ you use the whole verb and hit the ending of the verb with -ré; for ‘you will’ (Roberto) add -rás; for ‘he/she/it will’ and ‘you will (ud.)’ add -rá; for ‘we will’ you add -remos; and for ‘they/you all (uds.) will’ add -rán.

hablar - hablaré, hablarás, hablará, hablaremos, hablarán; comer - comeré, comerás, comerá, comeremos, comerán; vivir - viviré, vivirás, vivirá, viviremos, vivirán.

Go-go verbs in the future tense need a ‘d’ before -ré (-dré).

correction: this only applies to verbs that end in -ner, -nir, -ler, -lir

tendré (tener), pondré (poner), vendré (venir), valdré (valer), saldré (salir)

For ‘digo’ (decir) and ‘hago’ (hacer) drop the ‘go’ and add -ré.

haré, diré

The conditional (would) follows the same pattern as ‘will’, but the ending is -ría. Rio is river, make it ría and you are in the "woods"

it is same for I/he/she/it/you (ud.) would, for 'you would' (Roberta) add -rías, for 'we would' add -ríamos, for 'they/you all (uds.) would' add -rían

hablar - hablría, hablarías, hablaría, hablaríamos, hablarían comer - comería, comerías, comería, comeríamos, comerían vivir - viviría, vivirías, viviría, viviríamos, vivirían

Applying the conditional tense based on the future tense to the go-go verbs ending in -ner, -nir, -ler, -lir.

tendría, pondría, vendría, valdría, saldría

For 'digo' and 'hago' drop the 'go' and add -ría.

haría, diría; Querer - querría

Whenever you have two pronouns, the personal pronoun comes first.

Me lo manda. - He is sending it to me.

Whenever you have two verbs and the second one is in its infinitive form and the personal pronouns are add to the end of the infintive verb.

Va a mandarmelo - He is going to send it to me. No se lo diga. – Don’t tell it to him.

Whenever you have the combination of ‘le’ and ‘lo’, you change the ‘l’ of ‘le’ to an ‘s’ and you make it ‘se lo’. The ‘se’ doesn’t mean ‘oneself’ in this case. So ‘se lo’ means ‘it to you’. To clarify use a + el, ella, ud., ellos, ellas, uds.

Se lo mando. - I am sending it to you. Voy a mandárselo. - I am going to send it to you. Digaselo a ellos. – Tell it to them.

Different ways to express the same thought: quiero (I want), me gusta (I like), me gustaría (I would like), quisiera (I may want).

Me gustaría verlos - I would like to see them.

How to form the past participle: It depends on which track you are on. On the -ar track, you dive into -ado. On the -er/-ir track, you dive into -ido.

hablar - hablado; comer, comido; vivir - vivido [some exceptions hacer - hecho, decir - dicho, ver - visto, poner - puesto]

In Spanish, there are two verbs for ‘to have’. The verb ‘to have’ is the diving board you need to dive into the past, which in this case is ‘haber’ and not ‘tener’.

haber is the auxiliary verb for compound tense conjugation

To obtain the different forms of ‘haber’ in the present tense, take the future tense ending, drop the r and add a silent ‘h’. In the future you have: -ré, -rás, -rá, -remos, -rán. For ‘haber’ you will have: he, has, ha, hemos, han. Past tense = present tense of haber + past participle of the verb.

He comprado algo. - I have bought something. Has ganado. - You (Roberto) have won. Lo ha vendido. - He has sold it. No hemos hecho nada. - We have done nothing. Me han dicho. - They have told me.

Past tense with -ing: Whenever you have -ing preceded by ‘was’ or ‘were’, it’s the past tense with -ing. The w-ing tense: to express was/were + -ing you use -aba on the -ar track. On the -er/-ir track, you use -ía.

hablaba, hablabas, hablaba, hablamos, hablaban comía, comías, comía, comíamos, comían vivía, vivías, vivía, vivíamos, vivían

Haber (aux.) – habría, habrías, habría, habríamos, , habrían

I would have done it. – Yo lo habría hecho.

Ir – iba, ibas, iba, íbamos, iban Ser – era, eras, era, éramos, eran

Iba a dárselo – I was going to give it to you (he/her). Era importante – It was important.

The w-ing tense (-aba, -ía) in Spanish expresses a straight line in the past. It is used for short and long periods in the past. The w-ing tense also expresses a broken line in the past, such as ‘I used to do it’ or ‘I did it very often / all the time’.

Lo hacía todos los días. He did it everyday.

‘para’ means ‘for’, but in front of a verb it means ‘in order to’.

para saber - in order to know

‘acabo de’ + infinitive is ‘I have just …’.

present tense of acabar + de + infinitive of verb; acabo, acabas, acaba, acabamos, acaban

Acabo de salir - I've just left

‘hace’ (it makes) is also used for ‘ago’.

I have just arrived here two days ago. Acabo de llegar aquí hace dos días.

ADVANCED NOTES

In Spanish, there are two verbs for ‘to know’. One is for general knowledge (saber); the other is for acquaintance with a person or place (conocer).

No lo conozco. – I don’t know him. No lo sé. – I don’t know it.

With the go-go verbs in the positive command to Roberto (or Roberta), you drop the -go altogether.

Dímelo – tell it to me! Ven conmigo – come with me! Tenlo – have it! Ponlo aquí – put it there! Sal – Leave!

Use of the personal ‘a’. [use with people]

¿Conoce a Pedro? ¿Conoce Madrid?

How and when to use the subjunctive (command tense). The command tense has the same ‘push’ as the present tense. It’s rarely used in English. In the sentence ‘it is important that you be here’, ‘be’ is subjunctive. The subjunctive is used quite a lot in Spanish. To form the subjunctive you just switch tracks, from ‘a’ to ‘e’ and from ‘e’ to ‘a’. It is used to express doubt or uncertainty.

Es importante que esté aquí. - It is important that you be here. No es necesario que me espere. - It is not necessary that you wait for me. – Because it’s very important that you write to me. - Porque es muy importante que me escriba.

Words in Spanish never start with ‘sc’, ‘st’ or ‘sp’. There’s always an ‘e’ at the beginning: ‘esc’, ‘est’, ‘esp’.

Escuela, estudiar, especial

In Spanish, you cannot say I want you to <do something>. You must say I want that you <do something>. Use the command tense in Spanish in this context.

Quiero que lo haga. - I want you to do it

The simple past (without diving): ‘I bought it’ instead of ‘I have bought it’. In the simple past, the stress is on the last syllable: ‘past is last’. Endings for the simple past (regular) -ar track ‘I’ -é ; ‘you’ –aste; ‘you (ud.)/he/she’ –ó; ‘we’ –amos; ‘they/you all (uds.)’ -aron -er/ir track ‘I’ -í; ‘you’ –iste; ‘you (ud.)/she/he’ –ió; ‘we’ –imos; ‘they/you all (uds.)’ –ieron [use clarifiers for ‘we’ in the simple past to make it clearer] For -er verbs you use –imos, so there is a difference between the simple past and the present.

Lo tomé – I took it. Lo tomó – He/she/you took it. Salí – I left. Salió – He/she/you left. Me llamaron – They called me. No comieron – They didn’t eat. ¿A qué hora me llamaste? – At what time did you call me? Hablamos ayer – we spoke yesterday. Salimos ayer – we left yesterday Comimos – we ate.

Hacer – hice, hiciste, hizo, hicimos, hicieron Querer – quise, quisiste, quiso, quisimos, quisieronEstar – estuve, estuviste, estuvo, estuvimos, estuvieron

Conducir – conduje, condujiste, condujo, condujimos, condujeronPoder – pude, pudiste, pudo, pudimos, pudieron Decir – dije, dijiste, dijo, dijimos, dijeronVenir – vine, viniste, vino, vinimos, vinieron Ser – fui, fuiste, fue, fuimos, fueron Fue posible – It was possible.Ir – fui, fuiste, fue, fuimos, fueron Fui a verlo – I went to see it. Haber (aux.) – hube, hubiste, hubo, hubimos, hubieronTener – tuve, tuviste, tuvo, tuvimos, tuvieronTraer – traje, trajiste, trajo, trajimos, trajeronAndar – anduve, anduviste, anduvo, anduvimos, anduvieronDar – di, diste, dio, dimos, dieron Ver – vi, viste, vio, vimos, vieron Poner – puse, pusiste, puso, pusimos, pusieron Saber – supe, supiste, supo, supimos, supieron (Supe is used only when you knew something at that moment else use Sabia.)