Lesson 12

Feminine Words and the Other Verb Pattern

Language Transfer Complete Spanish is by Mihalis Eleftheriou. Listen to the original audio first; use these notes for revision.

New vocabulary

Spanish	English
vender	to sell (think "vending machine", "street vendor")
las casas	the houses
eléctrico	electric
generoso	generous (masculine)
generosa	generous (feminine)
común	common (irregular — can't be guessed)
oportuno	opportune
oportuna	timely
claro	clear (masculine, from claridad)
clara	clear (feminine, from claridad)
contaminar	to contaminate
personalidad	personality
sinceridad	sincerity
sincero	sincere

Words ending in -a: casa → la casa
Words ending in -ión: la opinión, la asociación, la celebración, la administración
Words ending in -idad: la diversidad, la nacionalidad, la creatividad, la electricidad, la comunidad, la oportunidad, la generosidad, la claridad

Rule 8: English -ity → Spanish -idad (feminine)

Adjectives from -idad words: generosidad → generoso/generosa/generosos/generosas

Spanish	English
Vendo.	I sell.
Lo vendo.	I sell it.
Los vendo.	I sell them.
Las vendo.	I sell them (feminine).
Vendo las casas.	I sell the houses.
La opinión.	The opinion.
La celebración.	The celebration.
Lo vende.	He/she sells it.
Nos venden algo.	They are selling us something.
No nos lo venden.	They're not selling it to us.

The key vowel for -er/-ir present-tense endings is e.
Many feminine nouns end in -a, -ión, or -idad.
Adjectives built from -idad nouns often let you work backwards: generosidad -> generoso/generosa, claridad -> claro/a.
Some common words are not safely guessable from English spelling alone, such as común and eléctrico.