¡Exacto!

A Practical Guide to Spanish Grammar

Ane Ortega, Tita Beaven, Cecilia Garrido, Sean Scrivener

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• eBook ISBN: 9781351855808
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Languages
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

¡Exacto! is an accessible guide to Spanish grammar.

Using an appealing visual layout, the essentials of Spanish grammar are presented in tables and charts allowing learners to navigate the information easily and view explanations, examples of usage and any exceptions to the rule at a glance.

Key features:

• Grids and tables ensure key information is available for quick reference and review
• Graded to allow students to hone in on the material most suited to their current level
• Coverage of Spanish as a world language, with examples from different varieties of Peninsular Spanish and Latin American Spanish
• Grammar and workbook in one, with exercises within each unit to practise and consolidate learning
• A glossary of grammatical terminology ensures all explanations within the book are clear and accessible
• An answer key making it ideal for self-study.

Suitable for class use and independent study, this new edition of ¡Exacto! is the ideal grammar reference and practice resource for all learners of Spanish, from beginners to advanced students.

1 Accentuation

Accentuation – acentuación – refers to the stress or relative emphasis in pronunciation that is given to a syllable in a word. In Spanish, like in any other language, all words have a stressed syllable – sílaba tónica. With one type of exception, in Spanish words carry just one stress, which is fixed, that is, it does not change depending on the place or function of the word in the sentence. Any syllable of the word can carry stress: the final syllable (reloj, colchón), the penultimate syllable (biblioteca, automóvil), the antepenultimate syllable (océano, teléfono) and the fourth-to-last syllable (llévatelo, dígamelo).

1.1 General written accentuation rules in Spanish

In the written language in Spanish there are general rules governing accentuation, so that it is obvious how a word should be stressed just by looking at it.

The basic general accentuation rules in Spanish are:

• All words ending in a vowel are stressed on the penultimate (last but one) syllable: libro, ventana, arrecife.
• All words ending in the consonants -n or -s are also stressed on the penultimate syllable: comen, hablas, campos, resumen, carcajadas.
• All words ending in any other consonant are stressed on the final syllable: bistec, universidad, reloj, unilateral, avestruz.

If words don’t follow the rules above they will have a written accent called acento ortográfico or tilde, to indicate the syllable where the stress falls.

The following examples show words that end in a vowel, -n or -s but are not stressed on the penultimate syllable, and which therefore have a written accent on the stressed syllable:

colchón, cántaros, Panamá, inglés, lámpara, terminó, teléfono.

Similarly, the following words ending in a consonant (other than -n or -s) are not stressed on the last syllable, and therefore also have a written accent:

lápiz, césped, déficit, árbol, álbum, Óscar, cráter.

Double stress: adverbs ending in -mente

Adverbs that end in -mente have two stresses. They are formed from adjectives or adverbs and the ending -mente (corresponding to -ly in English). One of the stresses is placed on the adjectival or adverbial part of the word, and the second on the first syllable of -mente: generalmente, paradójicamente, repetidamente, fácilmente. Whether they have a written accent depends on the general rules explained above.

☞ For further information about adverbs ending in -mente go to Unit 10.

1.2 Diacritic accent (tilde diacritica)

Sometimes accents are used to distinguish words that sound the same but have different meanings or grammatical functions. This type of accent is called a diacritic accent.

Diacritic accent with monosyllables

In the case of words of one syllable (monosílabos) the written accent is used with the word that carries more emphasis because of its meaning. Examples include: él/el, mí/ mi, tú/tu, sí/si, sé/se, té/te, dé/de.

• él (personal pronoun): Él es el hermano de Miguel. (He is Miguel's brother.) el (definite article): El libro es interesante. (The book is interesting.)
• mi (personal pronoun): La carta es para mi. (The letter is for me.) mi (possessive adjective): Mi madre se llama Inés. (My mother's name is Inés.)
• tú (personal pronoun): Yo estoy bien, Jy tú? (I am fine, and you?) tu (possessive adjective): Me gusta tu casa. (I like your house.)
• si (adverb): St, quiero café. (Yes, I want some coffee.) si (conjunction): Voy al parque si no llueve. (I will go to the park if it doesn't rain.)
• sé (first person singular of verb saber): ¡No sé nada! (I don...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• How to use this book
• Glossary
• 1 Accentuation
• 2 Nouns
• 3 Articles
• 4 Qualifying adjectives
• 5 Personal pronouns
• 6 Demonstratives
• 7 Possessives
• 8 Numerals
• 9 Indefinites
• 10 Adverbs
• 11 Interrogatives
• 12 Prepositions
• 13 Interjections
• 14 The Spanish verb
• 15 Impersonal forms of the verb
• 16 Present tenses of the indicative
• 17 Future tenses of the indicative
• 18 Past tenses of the indicative
• 19 Imperatives
• 20 Conditional tenses
• 21 Subjunctive tenses
• 22 Special verbs
• 23 Special verb constructions
• 24 Sentence organisation: the simple sentence
• 25 Negatives
• 26 Sentence organisation: compound and complex sentences
• 27 Indirect speech
• Appendix: verb tables
• Key to exercises
• Bibliography
• Grammatical index