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Simple explanations of grammatical terms

These aren't official definitions, just quick and easy ones. Note that some words can be used in different ways e.g. orange can be used as an adjective (to be orange) or a noun (the orange) or drink (to drink - verb, the drink - noun).

Adjective
This describes a noun such as colour or shape.
If you can say 'to be...' with out an -ing ending then it's an adjective e.g.
to be hot, to be tall, to be happy
but 'to be running' is not an adjective.
Many adjectives have to match their gender or it has to be plural with whatever you're talking about

Adverb
It's a bit like an adjective but describes anything other than a noun and it doesn't (usually) change. In English, many adverbs end in -ly such as easily, quickly etc. Many adverbs in Spanish end in -mente.

Article (definite / indefinite)
The definite article is the word 'the' in English. You have four of them in Spanish, el, la, los and las.
The indefinite article in English can be 'a' or 'an'. In Spanish, you say un, una, unos and unas.

Direct object
Something that directly experiences the action of a verb (a noun or pronoun) e.g.
Vi a Roberto = I saw Roberto - Roberto experienced the action of the verb 'to see'
No lo puedo comprar (or no puedo comprarlo) = I can't buy it - here the word 'it' experiences the action of the verb 'to buy'

Gender
There are a few languages that have a thing called 'gendered nouns'. English sort of has them. The ending of a word makes it sound masculine or feminine for example:
waiter / waitress
actor / actress
so if English had them, you could say a word ending in 'r' is masculine in English, and a word ending in 'ess' is feminine in English so 'factor' sounds masculine and 'fitness' sounds feminine. As you can see, these words have nothing to do with males or females.
I have made my own rules for guessing the gender of a noun. I call it the Lorry Rule. If a noun ends in l, o, r or y then it TENDS to be masculine. If it doesn't then it TENDS to be feminine. There are lots of exceptions e.g. un día etc. Also words ending in -te or -ma TEND to be masculine.

Indirect object
Something that receives or loses something e.g. when you give something TO somebody or buy something FROM a friend. You can also think of it as something that you are referring to indirectly.
Compare these sentences:
I'm sending the letter to him - here to him is the indirect part of this sentence, the letter is the direct part because the verb 'to send' is referring directly to the letter
I'm sending him to Spain - here him is now the direct part of this sentence
Voy a enviarle una carta = I'm going to send (TO) him a letter
Le robó diez euros = He stole FROM him ten euros, here diez euros is the direct object

Noun
This is a word that you can put 'the' in front of - the table, the cat, the excitement...

Personal a
You put an 'a' before a person when you are using a direct object e.g.
Vi a Antonio = I saw Antonio
Vi a alguien = I saw somebody
Estoy buscando a mi amigo = I'm searching for my friend
Since 'a' is used quite a lot in Spanish to mean different things, I've written more about it here

Pronoun
This is a word that stands in place of a noun e.g. in English, the word 'he' stands in place of somebody so you don't have to keep saying his name or 'it' replaces something otherwise, a sentence would be quite long e.g.
I've bought a flatscreen television. The flatscreen television is quite large. The flatscreen television has speakers.

Subjunctive
Some people like to leave these tenses to the end but they aren't too hard. It often expresses a doubt or opinion, a little bit like putting 'maybe' in a sentence in English. Often you can guess when to use it because it's always used after some verbs and conjunctions. You can find out those from the appropriate section on my home page.
Es cierto que viene = It's certain that he's coming
No es cierto que venga = It's not certain that he's coming

Verb
A word that you can put 'to' in front of e.g. to be, to go, to make. There are a couple of exeptions, can and must. 'Can' can be used as a noun too.

Are there any errors or do you want to add more information to these pages?
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