Spanish Vocabulary

Spanish Words

The importance of good pronunciation and a wide ranging Spanish vocabulary cannot be over emphasised. The better you pronounce your Spanish words, the easier Spanish speakers will understand you, and the more words you know the better you will be able to express yourself.

Spanish nouns are marked by gender; they are either masculine or feminine. Masculine words are preceded by el (the) or un (a). Feminine nouns are preceded by la (the) or una (a). Most masculine words end in the letter -o, while most feminine words end in -a. There are exceptions though. An example are the Spanish words for hand and water: la mano and el agua. For most plural versions of nouns you only need to add an s onto the end of the particular word: la mano becomes las manos. This is true apart from when a noun ends in anything other than a vowel, wherby es is added to the end of the word: el mes becomes los meses.

Adjectives which describe nouns are changed according to the gender of the noun. The adjective will end in -o if the noun is masculine, and -a if it is feminine. If the word you are descibing is in plural form, the adjective must agree: eg, dirty hands is translated as las manos sucias.

Spanish verbs also have rules. There are three basic categories of Spanish verbs. These are verbs that end in -ar, -er and -ir. Spanish verb endings change according to the person or thing being spoken about. For regular verb types, there are a specific set of rules as to how the verb ending changes.

Unfortunately for beginners, there are some verbs that do not conform to the regular rules: irregular verbs. The good thing about irregular verbs is that there are many more regular verbs than irregular verbs in the Spanish language! You can find our guide to Spanish verbs here: Spanish verbs.

Basic Spanish Words

Below are links to spanish vocabulary categorised into specific topic areas. The intention is to aid you to learn Spanish words by grouping together vocabulary sharing a common theme. In each category you will find basic Spanish words through to more advanced words.

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