The Everything Spanish Grammar Book: All The Rules You Need To Master Espanol (Everything®) (17 page)

Hace fresco.

It’s cool.

Another verb which may be used to talk about the weather is
hay,
described in the next section.

There Is/There Are

“There is” and “there are” are present-tense constructions used in English to describe an object or objects at a particular location. In Spanish, the equivalent expression is
hay
. This form will work whether you are referring to one or more objects:

Hay un pequeño almacén entre el restaurante italiano y la librería.

There is a small grocery store between the Italian restaurant and the bookstore.

Hay muchos libros en el estante.

There are a lot of books on the bookshelf.

The expression will work the same way in other tenses—all you need to do is conjugate
haber
in the third-person singular form of the right tense:

Había un pequeño almacén entre el restaurante italiano y la
librería.

There was a small grocery store between the Italian restaurant and the bookstore.

Habrá muchos libros en el estante.

There will be a lot of books on the bookshelf.

QUESTION?

Just Finished

In Spanish, you’ve got the option to talk about something that just has been done with a present indicative form of the verb
acabar
(to finish), a regular –ar verb used with preposition
de.
Here is how it works:

Acabo de cocinar la cena.

I just finished cooking dinner.

Acaban de estudiar para el examen.

They just finished studying for the test.

Without
de,
the verb simply means “to finish” or “to end”:

Los exámenes acaban el viernes.

The exams will end on Friday.

Going to Do It with
Ir

Whereas
acabar de
in the present tense is used to express actions that were just finished, the construction
ir a
in the present tense can be used to talk about things that will happen in the future— things that are going to be done:

Voy a plantar los flores en el jardín.

I’m going to plant the flowers in the garden.

Vamos a buscar a Martín por la playa.

We’re going to look for Martin at the beach.

As you can see,
ir a
is equivalent to the English expression “going to.” It works almost the same way in Spanish, except that the present indicative form of the verb
i r
is used. Here is how
ir
(to go) is conjugated:

Progressive Forms

Progressive tenses are used to show ongoing action. In English, progressive tenses are formed with the verb “to be” and the present participle. The same is true in Spanish—the main verb in Spanish progressive tenses is
estar.
To refresh your memory, here are the conjugations of
estar
in the present indicative:

The most commonly used progressive is the present progressive tense. In English, we often rely on this tense to talk about things that are going on right now, as opposed to regularly. Compare the following two sentences:

She talks to me. (in general)

She is talking to me. (right now)

In Spanish, even actions that take place “right now” may be described with the present indicative form:
Ella habla conmigo.
However, if you want to highlight the fact that the action is occurring right now (this minute), you can use the present progressive form and say
Ella está hablando conmigo.

ESSENTIAL

Forming the Present Participle

Present participle is a verbal form that corresponds to the English form ending in –ing: going, walking, talking, and so on. In Spanish, a present participle is formed by dropping the infinitive ending and adding the correct present participle ending:

Only a few present participles are irregular. If the stem of an –er and –ir verb ends in a vowel, its present participle ending is –yendo:

Present participle forms of –ir verbs also retain the stem change that occurs in the third person singular form of the preterite tense (covered in Chapter 11):

The only other irregular forms are
pudiendo
(the present participle form of
poder,
“can”) and
yendo
(going).

In Other Tenses

Present progressive is just one of several progressive tenses. In each tense, the present participle remains the same, but the form of
estar
is conjugated differently. In the present progressive,
estar
is conjugated in the present indicative. The rest of the progressives are organized as follows:

QUESTION?

Passive Voice

Passive voice makes it possible to drop the subject of the verb from the sentence by putting the object in its place and substituting the active verb with the correct form of
ser
(“to be”) and a past participle. To refresh your memory, here’s how to conjugate
ser
in the present indicative:

Passive voice works the same way in English and in Spanish.

Here is how to turn an active voice sentence into a passive voice one:

Carlos escribió la carta.

Carlos wrote the letter.

La carta es escrita.

The letter is written.

As you can see, the switch to passive voice makes it possible to have the letter, and not Carlos, as the subject of the sentence, even though it’s the object of the verb’s action. The “real” subject, Carlos, is dropped from the sentence. It’s possible to add Carlos back in, as long as it’s in the prepositional phrase with
por
(by):

La carta es escrita por Carlos.

The letter is written by Carlos.

Here’s another example:

El trabajo es hecho por Manuel.

The work is done by Manuel.

The Past Participle

To use the passive voice, you need to know how to form a past participle. The past participle is the same form that is used in compound tenses with
haber
(to have):
he comprado
(I have bought);
habrían viviendo
(they would have lived), and so on. In Spanish, the rule for forming the past participle are pretty simple: drop the infinitive ending and add the correct past participle ending.