Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Glossary of grammatical terms
- Note on the text
- Short bibliography
- 1 Alphabet, spelling and pronunciation (Alfabeto, ortografía y pronunciación)
- 2 Definite and indefinite articles and gender of nouns (Artículos definidos e indefinidos y género de sustantivos)
- 3 Number (El plural)
- 4 Verbs (Los verbos)
- 5 Perfect tense and pluperfect tense (El [pretérito] perfecto y el pluscuamperfecto / antecopretérito [M])
- 6 Future tense and future perfect tense (El tiempo futuro y el futuro perfecto)
- 7 Imperfect tense (El tiempo imperfecto/copretérito [M])
- 8 Preterit tense or past definite (El pretérito indefinido / pretérito perfecto simple)
- 9 Conditional tense (El tiempo condicional)
- 10 Progressive tense or gerund (El tiempo progresivo o el gerundio)
- 11 The imperative mood (El modo imperativo)
- 12 Irregular verbs (Los verbos irregulares)
- 13 Ser and estar (Ser y estar)
- 14 Transitive and intransitive verbs, and reflexive verbs (Los verbos transitivos e intransitivos, y los verbos reflexivos)
- 15 Impersonal verbs (Los verbos impersonales)
- 16 Subjunctive (El subjuntivo)
- 17 Personal pronouns (Los pronombres personales)
- 18 Possessive adjectives and pronouns, relative and interrogative pronouns (Los adjetivos y pronombres posesivos, los pronombres relativos e interrogativos)
- 19 Indefinite pronouns (Los pronombres indefinidos)
- 20 Demonstrative adjectives and pronouns (Los adjetivos y pronombres demostrativos)
- 21 Adjectives (Los adjetivos)
- 22 Personal or distinctive a (La preposiciónacon el complemento directo)
- 23 Prepositions (Las preposiciones)
- 24 Prepositions por and para (Las preposiciones por y para)
- 25 Adverbs (Los adverbios)
- 26 Interrogative and negative sentences (Las frases interrogativas y negativas)
- 27 Numbers and measurements. Time and dimensions (Los números y las medidas. El tiempo [duración = la hora] y las dimensiones)
- 28 Comparatives and superlatives (Los comparativos y superlativos)
- 29 Word order (El orden de las palabras)
- 30 Augmentatives and diminutives (Los aumentativos y diminutivos)
- Model answers / Soluciones y modelos
- Index of grammar and vocabulary
- Subjunctive index
Preface
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Glossary of grammatical terms
- Note on the text
- Short bibliography
- 1 Alphabet, spelling and pronunciation (Alfabeto, ortografía y pronunciación)
- 2 Definite and indefinite articles and gender of nouns (Artículos definidos e indefinidos y género de sustantivos)
- 3 Number (El plural)
- 4 Verbs (Los verbos)
- 5 Perfect tense and pluperfect tense (El [pretérito] perfecto y el pluscuamperfecto / antecopretérito [M])
- 6 Future tense and future perfect tense (El tiempo futuro y el futuro perfecto)
- 7 Imperfect tense (El tiempo imperfecto/copretérito [M])
- 8 Preterit tense or past definite (El pretérito indefinido / pretérito perfecto simple)
- 9 Conditional tense (El tiempo condicional)
- 10 Progressive tense or gerund (El tiempo progresivo o el gerundio)
- 11 The imperative mood (El modo imperativo)
- 12 Irregular verbs (Los verbos irregulares)
- 13 Ser and estar (Ser y estar)
- 14 Transitive and intransitive verbs, and reflexive verbs (Los verbos transitivos e intransitivos, y los verbos reflexivos)
- 15 Impersonal verbs (Los verbos impersonales)
- 16 Subjunctive (El subjuntivo)
- 17 Personal pronouns (Los pronombres personales)
- 18 Possessive adjectives and pronouns, relative and interrogative pronouns (Los adjetivos y pronombres posesivos, los pronombres relativos e interrogativos)
- 19 Indefinite pronouns (Los pronombres indefinidos)
- 20 Demonstrative adjectives and pronouns (Los adjetivos y pronombres demostrativos)
- 21 Adjectives (Los adjetivos)
- 22 Personal or distinctive a (La preposiciónacon el complemento directo)
- 23 Prepositions (Las preposiciones)
- 24 Prepositions por and para (Las preposiciones por y para)
- 25 Adverbs (Los adverbios)
- 26 Interrogative and negative sentences (Las frases interrogativas y negativas)
- 27 Numbers and measurements. Time and dimensions (Los números y las medidas. El tiempo [duración = la hora] y las dimensiones)
- 28 Comparatives and superlatives (Los comparativos y superlativos)
- 29 Word order (El orden de las palabras)
- 30 Augmentatives and diminutives (Los aumentativos y diminutivos)
- Model answers / Soluciones y modelos
- Index of grammar and vocabulary
- Subjunctive index
Summary
According to the very latest estimates (2004), Spanish is the native tongue of well over 350 million people, 100 million of whom live in Mexico and 24 million in the USA. It is therefore a major world language, the fourth largest in terms of speakers. Its study thus offers all students a meaningful and attractive prospect of establishing contact with a very wide range of Spanish speakers coming from numerous countries. Any student of Spanish will benefit, both personally and culturally, from communication with such a vast array of people bound together by a common language. Spanish as a mother tongue unites countries as far apart as New York or London are from Pekin, but distance does not necessarily entail intractable difference. Surprising as it may seem, it is often as easy for an English-speaking student of Spanish to understand the Spanish of Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Peru or Ecuador as it is for an English or American person to understand the language of some parts of Scotland, for instance, or for a Spanish speaker to understand the language of some regions of Andalucía.
Any learner of Spanish will need, certainly in the early stages of contact with the language, a grammar book which assists her/him through the initial maze. Such a volume needs to appeal both to the beginner and to the student who has acquired some basic knowledge.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- A Student Grammar of Spanish , pp. vii - ixPublisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2006