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Using
" I " in Spanish ...
Talking
about yourself doing things, being, etc. |
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| Whenever
you talk about yourself, you don't say your name over and
over again. |
| You
use a pronoun to refer to yourself. |
| The
pronoun that you use to refer to yourself is the magic word
"I." |
| In
Spanish, that word is "yo" - but it's not used
as much as the English word is. |
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Using "YO" |
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| So,
to begin with, ... let's see a couple of expressions using
this word. |
| In
English you might ask something like: "Who, ... me?" |
In
Spanish, the equivalent would be: "¿Quién? ¿Yo?" |
| In
English you might say: "Not me!" or "Not I!" |
In
Spanish you would say: "¡Yo no!"
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| In
English a positive answer is often "I do!"
|
In
Spanish the same answer is "¡Yo sí!"
|
| Answering
"Who says so?" - "Me!" |
Spanish
would go "¡Yo!" |
|
If
you're saying a sentence in Spanish, and you use the pronoun
YO with the verb, you're
actually giving emphasis to the fact that I
DO INDEED do this verb. |
| That
almost sums up the whole use of the pronoun YO
in Spanish. |
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I am |
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When
you've got sentences going in Spanish, and the topic is
"I" - the verb ending includes the fact that
"I" is doing everything. Yep! Verbs change their
endings according to who is doing the action of the sentence.
Sometimes the endings overlap and you have to first define
the subject - but not so when it comes to sentences dealing
with "I." |
| You'll start off here learning
just to say a simple "I am." |
| Uh, ... English has that single
verb "to be" to represent all things in or out
of existence. |
| Not so with Spanish! Spanish has
2 verbs that = "to be." |
| Both of these
verbs = "to be." |
SER
|
ESTAR
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| It's not our purpose here to discuss
the differences between SER
& ESTAR
. That comes elsewhere. We're here to figure out how to
say "I am" in Spanish -
so let's keep this simple. |
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| Both
of these words = "I am." |
Soy
|
Estoy
|
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The differences: |
I am ______
intrinsically, by nature. It's built it and I can't/won't/don't
wanna change it. |
I am being
this way and it's only a condition that I expect
to change, or hope to alter. It'll probably go away! |
|
Examples: |
| Soy enfermo. (I'm a sickly
person.) |
| Soy listo. (I'm a prepared
person.) |
| Soy loco. (I'm an insane person.) |
| Soy igual. (I'm equal to anyone
else.) |
| Soy gordo. (I'm a fat person
by nature.) |
|
| Estoy enfermo. (I'm sick.) |
| Estoy listo. (I'm ready -
to do something.) |
| Estoy loco. (I'm being/acting
crazy.) |
| Estoy igual. (I'm the same.) |
| Estoy gordo. (I'm fattened.) |
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Use this
link to the adjective
lists, and choose 5 simpler adjectives to compare
using these words. No, there's no YO
involved in this. You're gonna have to get used to the
concept of not saying "I" in your sentences
in Spanish. You don't need to! |
You're simply
stating "Soy _____." or "Estoy _____."
If you're a boy, use the masculine singular adjective.
If you're a girl, use the feminine singular adjective.
I don't know what to tell you if you're not certain about
your own gender ... |
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