Your first month of Spanish

Every Spanish noun is masculine or feminine, and the word for "the" has to match it in gender and number:

• el for masculine singular, la for feminine singular

• los for masculine plural, las for feminine plural

Most nouns ending in -o are masculine (el libro) and most ending in -a are feminine (la mesa). Nouns in -ción, -dad and -tud are feminine; nouns in -aje are masculine. Everything else, learn with its article: say la llave, not just llave.

The trap for English speakers is the handful of common exceptions that break the pattern. El día, el mapa, el problema and el idioma are masculine despite the -a. La mano, la foto and la moto are feminine despite the -o (the last two are short for fotografía and motocicleta).

A group that mixes masculine and feminine takes the masculine: los padres can mean "the parents". And the article keeps agreeing when you add an adjective: las fotos nuevas, los días largos.

The safest habit: never learn a noun without its article.

Spanish possessives go before the noun and agree with the thing owned, not with the owner:

• mi / mis (my), tu / tus (your, informal)

• su / sus (his, her, its, their, your formal)

• nuestro / nuestra / nuestros / nuestras (our)

So "my shoes" is mis zapatos because the shoes are plural, even though there is only one of me. "Our house" is nuestra casa because casa is feminine, even if both owners are men. Only nuestro (and Spain's vuestro) change for gender; the others only add -s.

The English-speaker trap is matching the owner: writing su casa for "their houses" instead of sus casas. Ask yourself one question: how many things are owned?

Su can mean his, her, their or your (formal), so when it is unclear, Spanish uses de + owner instead: la casa de Ana, el coche de ellos. There is no apostrophe-s in Spanish; "my brother's car" is always el coche de mi hermano.

Note that tu (your) has no accent; tú with an accent means "you".

Spanish has three distances where English has two:

• este, esta, estos, estas: this, these (near me)

• ese, esa, esos, esas: that, those (near you, or not far)

• aquel, aquella, aquellos, aquellas: that, those (over there, far from both of us)

Like articles, they agree in gender and number with the noun: esta sopa, estos tomates, esa camisa, aquellos edificios. The masculine singular forms are the odd ones out: este and ese end in -e, not -o, and aquel has no ending at all.

The trap for English speakers is forgetting the agreement and writing este in front of everything. Look at the noun first: esta mesa, estas llaves.

In everyday speech ese covers most of what English means by "that"; aquel is for things clearly far away ("that building over there") or long ago. If you are unsure, ese is rarely wrong.

Standing alone, they work as pronouns: ¿Quieres este o ese? (Do you want this one or that one?). The old written accent (éste) is no longer required.

Spanish question words always carry a written accent, and questions open with an upside-down mark: ¿Dónde está el baño?

• qué (what), quién / quiénes (who), dónde (where)

• cuándo (when), cómo (how), por qué (why)

• cuánto (how much, how many)

The one that changes form is cuánto. Before a noun it agrees with that noun, like an adjective:

• cuánto dinero, cuánta leche (how much)

• cuántos años, cuántas personas (how many)

English uses two words, "how much" and "how many", and never changes them. Spanish uses one word with four endings, so check the noun: personas is feminine plural, so it is cuántas personas. "How much does it cost?" has no noun after it, so it stays plain: ¿Cuánto cuesta?

Two more traps: "Where are you from?" is ¿De dónde eres?, with the preposition in front; and "why" is two words, por qué, while the answer "because" is one, porque.

To make a sentence negative, put no right before the verb: No como carne. There is no helper like "don't" or "doesn't"; no does the whole job.

Spanish also has negative words:

• nada (nothing), nadie (nobody)

• nunca (never), tampoco (not ... either)

• ningún / ninguna (no, not any)

Here is the big surprise for English speakers: Spanish uses double negatives, and they are correct. When the negative word comes after the verb, you still need no before it:

• No hay nada. (There is nothing.)

• No trabajo nunca los lunes. (I never work on Mondays.)

When the negative word comes first, drop the no: Nunca trabajo los lunes. Nadie come aquí. Both orders are natural.

Writing hay nada or como nunca is the classic beginner mistake. And "anything" in a negative sentence is nada, not algo: "I don't want anything" is No quiero nada.

Finally, "me neither" is yo tampoco, never yo también no.

To say what time it is, use son las + the hour, except for one o'clock, which is singular: es la una. The article is feminine because the hidden noun is la hora.

• Son las tres. (It's three o'clock.)

• Es la una y media. (It's half past one.)

Minutes are added with y and subtracted with menos: las cuatro y diez, las nueve menos cuarto. Much of Latin America also says un cuarto para las nueve or quince para las nueve; both are correct.

To say when something happens, use a la / a las: El tren sale a las siete. English says "at seven"; Spanish needs both the a and the article.

Days and months are lowercase and need no preposition. For "on Friday", Spanish says el viernes; for "on Fridays", los viernes. Never en viernes.

For the exact hour, en punto means "o'clock sharp", and parts of the day follow with de: las ocho de la mañana, las diez de la noche.

To say someone has to do something, use tener que + infinitive. Only tener changes; the second verb stays in the infinitive:

• Tengo que trabajar. (I have to work.)

• Mi hija tiene que estudiar. (My daughter has to study.)

• Tenemos que salir ya. (We have to leave now.)

Remember that tener is irregular: tengo, tienes, tiene, tenemos, tienen.

The trap for English speakers is leaving out the que. Tengo trabajar is wrong; the que is part of the expression, just as "to" is part of "have to". Another trap is translating "have" alone: tengo un coche is possession, tengo que lavar el coche is obligation.

When nobody in particular has to do it and you are stating a general rule, use hay que + infinitive: Hay que pagar en la caja (You have to pay at the register). Hay never changes.

Deber + infinitive is closer to "must" or "should" and sounds a little more formal or moral. For everyday "have to", tener que is what people say.

To say something has more or less of a quality than something else, Spanish uses más or menos + adjective, noun or adverb + que:

• Mi hermano es más alto que yo.

• Tengo menos tiempo que tú.

• Ella corre más rápido que su hermana.

The adjective still agrees with what it describes: La casa es más grande, Las playas son más bonitas. With a noun, más and menos never change: más horas, menos personas.

English has two systems: "taller" with -er and "more expensive" with "more". Spanish has only one, so never look for an ending: "cheaper" is más barato.

Four forms are irregular: mejor (better), peor (worse), mayor (older) and menor (younger). Más bueno and más malo do exist, but in everyday comparisons mejor and peor are what people say.

Two more traps. With a number, "more than" uses de, not que: más de cien personas. And after que, Spanish uses the subject pronoun: más alto que yo, not que mí.

For equal amounts, see tan ... como (as ... as): Es tan alto como su padre.