Possessive Adjectives & Negative Sentences

On November 20, 2013 you will have a Quiz on Possessive Adjectives, Reflexive Pronouns and Negative Sentences. Please review the videos on Possessive Adjectives under "Fave" Links - on the right or here: Possessive Adjectives 1 and Possessive Adjectives 2 (Sr. Jordan videos).

Also check the card below (click on it to enlarge):

I will give you a handout to practice these possessive adjectives. Remember: Possessive adjectives in Spanish, like those in English, are a way of indicating who owns or is in possession of something (they indicate "possession" like the word implies). Their use is straightforward, although they (like other adjectives) must match the nouns they modify in both number and gender. Unlike English, Spanish has two forms of possessive adjectives, a short form that is used before nouns, and a long form that is used after nouns. The ones above are the "short form" possessive adjectives, also known as "possessive determiners."

Note: Possessive adjectives vary by number and gender. The change is with the nouns they modify, not with the person(s) who own or possess the object. Thus, you would say "his book" and "her book" in the same way: su libro; and "his books" and "her books" - sus libros. Sometimes you want to specify who is the owner (or who are the owners) of an object or objects, or the person(s) you are referring to when you use "su" or "sus": el libro de ella (su libro), la mochila de Susana (su mochila), las amigas de Marta (sus amigas), las clases de Arturo (sus clases), los cuadernos de las estudiantes (sus cuadernos), etc.

Summarizing, possessive adjectives indicate the owner of the noun they modify. They are usually placed in front of the noun and MUST match the gender and number of the noun they describe, not the gender and number of the owner of the noun.

Please review the Blog entry of September 29 (below), to review the reflexive pronouns.

Negative Sentences: To make a sentence negative, place the word "no" before the verb or before the reflexive pronoun and verb (i.e. Ella no se llama Marta, se llama Susana).

Ella no habla inglés. (Affirmative sentence: Ella habla inglés)

She doesn't speak English.

Él no es profesor. (Affirmative sentence: Él es profesor)

He is not a professor (teacher).

Other examples: Alicia es de Arizona - Alicia no es de Arizona. Es una camisa verde - No es una camisa verde, es una camisa azul. Me llamo Marta - No me llamo Marta. Ella es de Filadelfia - Ella no es de Filadelfia, ella es de Nueva York. Nosotros bailamos - Nosotros no bailamos.

One of the main differences between English and Spanish negative sentences is that in Spanish the negative sentences are "simpler." You simply place the word "no" in front of the conjugated verb. If you translated the Spanish sentences "literally" to English, they would sound funny: Yo no bailo - "I no dance" (in English we say: "I do not dance"); Ella no canta - "She no sing" (instead of "She does not sing"). In Spanish, unlike English, we don't use "helping verbs" to make a sentence negative. It is also common to use "double negatives" in Spanish: ¿Estudias mucho? No, no estudio mucho. ¿Necesitas un abrigo nuevo? No, no necesito un abrigo nuevo. ¿Llevas una mochila nueva? No, no llevo una mochila nueva. (The affirmative responses could be: Sí, si estudio mucho, Sí, si necesito un abrigo nuevo. Sí, si llevo una mochila nueva).

Also review the PowerPoint on "Capítulo 2" (in Edmodo) with this material.