MODULE 1 INTRODUCTION TO SPANISH LANGUAGE

OVERVIEW

This module introduces students to Spanish language. Like in any other language,
the task of this module is to introduce the Spanish alphabet. It will familiarize students
on reading letters and recognizing their sounds. The module will also tackle numbers.
Students will be tasked to recite the alphabet, read and write words and numbers.

OBJECTIVES: At the end of this module, you should be able to:

1. demonstrate the grasp of the sounds of the letters and numbers’ basic
grammatical structure;

2. read and comprehend words and numbers; and

3. communicate effectively the words and numbers.

TAKE OFF

Philippines was under the Spanish regime for three hundred centuries. Spanish
influences are very visible in our country. Have you seen most our last names are
Spanish names? Did you notice that most of our words has the same Spanish
pronunciation and meaning? The Spaniards never seriously taught Filipinos their
language. But through constant hearing Spaniards speaks, Filipinos were able to
learn the language and even name most of the things around them in Spanish.
Experts believe that there are thousands Spanish words, although poorly pronounced,
became part of our dialects.

So, what we are going to do in class is to list down 20 Filipino words that has the
same pronunciations and meaning in Spanish. We are going to write it in a tabular
form. (see the sample).

Sample

FILIPINO SPANISH MEANING

1. aparador aparador wardrobe

2. bintana ventana window

 ABECEDARIO
The Spanish alphabet is called abecedario. It is composed of 30 letters. You will
find additional letters like, ch, ll, ñ and rr. See the table.

Letras del Abecedario - Pronunciation Guide

LETTER LETTER NAME LETTER

IN SPANISH PRONUNCIATION
A A Ah

B Be bĕ - short sound of e
as in egg

C Ce sĕ - short sound of e
as in egg

Ch Che chĕ - short sound of

e as in egg

D De dĕ - short sound of e
as in egg

E E ĕ - short sound of e
as in egg

F Efe ĕfĕ - short sound of

e as in egg

G Ge hĕ - short sound of e
as in egg

H Hache ahchĕ - short sound

of e as in egg

I I Eee
J Jota hōtah – long sound
of o as in rode

K Ka Cah

L Ele elĕ - short sound of

e as in egg

Ll Elle ĕyĕ - short sound of

e as in egg

M Eme emĕ - short sound of

e as in egg

N Ene enĕ - short sound of

e as in egg

Ñ Eñe enyĕ - short sound

of e as in egg

O O Oh

P Pe pĕ - short sound of e
as in egg

Q Cu Coo

R Ere ĕrĕ - short sound of

e as in egg

S Ese essĕ - short sound of

e as in egg

T Te tĕ - short sound of e
as in egg

U U Ooh
V Uve ooohvĕ – short sound of
e as in egg

W Uve doble ooohvĕ doblĕ- short

sound of e as in egg

X Equis Ĕkeese

Y Ye/ I griega eee greeĕyegah

Z Zeta Setah
 Rules of the Letters

- The letter C sounds like a "k" when it is followed by the

vowels a, o and u: casa, cosa, cuchara.
- It is pronounced as an "s" when it is followed by the vowels i
and e: ciudad, cebra.
C
- This occurs in English as well: carrot, cold and cucumber, but
celery and city.

- When D is intervocalic (between two vowels) as in the word

nada [nothing], or when it occurs at the end of a word, like
D verdad (truth), D is pronounced like the “th” English word
“they”: NAH-thah, ver-DATH

- The letter G is hard (like the English G in "gate") when it is

followed by the vowels a, o and u: gato, gordo, gusto. It is
G soft (like the English 'H') when it is followed by the vowels i
and e: gimnasio,general.
- This occurs in English as well although with different "g"
sounds: game, gone and gulp, but gentle and giraffe

- The H is always silent. You might try to pretend it is

H invisible too, when you see words with h's. For example,
the verb hay is pronounced like the English word eye", not
like the horse-food! Alcohol is pronounced "al-col" as if
there were no `h' in the middle. Don't forget that ch is a
separate letter that cannot split.

- Words beginning with "k," "w," and "x" were adopted into
K, W, X Spanish from other languages and are therefore very rare.

- Q never occurs without u, so think of Qu as one letter. Qu is

Q always pronounced like a `k'. It never makes the `kw' sound
as it does in English. Try to visualize a K every time see Qu

R - R is spelled r when beginning a word: rojo [red], but is spelled

rr when it occurs within a word: pelirrojo [redhead]
- V is pronounced the same as B. Do not pronounce this letter
V like the English letter “v”. Both V and B are pronounced like a
softened version of the English letter “b”.
- Z occurs only in front of strong vowels (A, O, U.) The Z
"time-shares" the vowels with C. C is also has a soft “S”
sound in front of the weak vowel (I, E). Therefore, when the
Z Z is placed in a position where it is faced with a weak vowel, it
changes into the letter C. Example, we spell pencil “lápiz” but
the plural form pencils need to change Z to C “lapices”.
TIME TO READ

After we understand the sounds of the letters in Spanish alphabet, it is time to

study how to read. We will be reading words that may bring confusions. You need
also to find out its meaning. So, you will be needing the Spanish-English dictionary.
Let’s start:

falda - ________________________________

gato - ________________________________

gigante - ________________________________

hermano - ________________________________

jamón - ________________________________

llama - ________________________________

calle - ________________________________

nación - ________________________________

año - ________________________________

yerno - ________________________________

reyes - ________________________________

DID YOU NOTICE IT?

Did you notice something on the words jamón and nación? There is a thing on the
top of letter ó. This is called tilde. It is a short diagonal line on the top of the letters. But
it can only be seen on letters á, é, í, ó and ú. You will never find a consonant with tilde.
It has three (3) functions:

1. Separate words with identical spelling, ex: el – the él – he

2. signify questions, and; : ex: Como. – I eat. cómo – how

3. indicate which syllable would be stressed or emphasized. Ex: propósito -

[pro-PO-si-to]
 NUMERO
Filipinos are very familiar with numbers in Spanish language. When we talk of
money, most of the time we use Spanish numbers. We frequently use numbers bente
up to nobenta. So, let us familiarize the numbers:

Spanish Numbers 0 to 20

0 cero

1 uno 11 once

2 dos 12 doce

3 tres 13 trece

4 cuatro 14 catorce

5 cinco 15 quince

6 seis 16 dieciséis

7 siete 17 diecisiete

8 ocho 18 dieciocho

9 nueve 19 diecinueve

10 diez 20 veinte
 Spanish Numbers 20 to 60
20 veinte 40 cuarenta

21 veintiuno (-un, -una) 41 cuarenta y uno (-un, -una)

22 veintidós 42 cuarenta y dos

23 veintitrés 43 cuarenta y tres

24 veinticuatro 44 cuarenta y cuatro

25 veinticinco 45 cuarenta y cinco

26 veintiséis 46 cuarenta y seis

27 veintisiete 47 cuarenta y siete

28 veintiocho 48 cuarenta y ocho

29 veintinueve 49 cuarenta y nueve

30 treinta 50 cincuenta

31 treinta y uno (-un, -una) 51 cincuenta y uno (-un, -una)

32 treinta y dos 52 cincuenta y dos

33 treinta y tres 53 cincuenta y tres

34 treinta y cuatro 54 cincuenta y cuatro

35 treinta y cinco 55 cincuenta y cinco

36 treinta y seis 56 cincuenta y seis

37 treinta y siete 57 cincuenta y siete

38 treinta y ocho 58 cincuenta y ocho

39 treinta y nueve 59 cincuenta y nueve

60 sesenta
 Spanish Numbers 60 to 100

60 sesenta 80 ochenta
61 sesenta y uno (-un, -una) 81 ochenta y uno (-un, -una)
62 sesenta y dos 82 ochenta y dos
63 sesenta y tres 83 ochenta y tres
64 sesenta y cuatro 84 ochenta y cuatro
65 sesenta y cinco 85 ochenta y cinco
66 sesenta y seis 86 ochenta y seis
67 sesenta y siete 87 ochenta y siete
68 sesenta y ocho 88 ochenta y ocho
69 sesenta y nueve 89 ochenta y nueve
70 setenta 90 noventa
71 setenta y uno (-un, -una) 91 noventa y uno (-un, -una)
72 setenta y dos 92 noventa y dos
73 setenta y tres 93 noventa y tres
74 setenta y cuatro 94 noventa y cuatro
75 setenta y cinco 95 noventa y cinco
76 setenta y seis 96 noventa y seis
77 setenta y siete 97 noventa y siete
78 setenta y ocho 98 noventa y ocho
79 setenta y nueve 99 noventa y nueve

100 cien

Spanish Numbers Over 100

100 Cien 1.000 Mil

101 ciento uno 1.134 mil ciento treinta y cuatro

114 ciento catorce

200 doscientos (-as) 2.000 dos mil

300 trescientos (-as)

400 cuatrocientos (-as) 4.560 cuatro mil quinientos sesenta

500 quinientos (-as)

600 seiscientos (-as)

700 setecientos (-as) 10.000 diez mil

800 ochocientos (-as)

900 novecientos (-as) 26.700 veintiséis mil setecientos

 100.000 cien mil
100.500 cien mil quinientos

150.000 ciento cincuenta mil

500.000 quinientos mil

670.450 seiscientos setenta mil cuatrocientos cincuenta

1.000.000 un millón

1.200.000 un millón doscientos mil

2.000.000 dos millones

12.130.040 doce millones ciento treinta mil cuarenta

500.000.000 quinientos millones

DO REMEMBER

1. Where English places commas, Spanish places decimals.

2. Cien is used only alone and before mil; otherwise ciento is used.

3. 200 to 900 agree in gender with a noun that follows (doscientas madres).

4. With exact multiples of millón, de is used before nouns (dos millones de

personas).

5. The connector y is used only with numbers 31 to 99.

 Let’s Count

Write the Spanish name of the numbers, then write how many items in each box.

cinco diez uno cuatro dos

tres ocho nueve siete seis

10
How it looks in numbers?

Write it to numbers and translate the following:

1. treinta y dos gorilas

2. catorce burros
3. siete cebras
4. sesenta pavos
5. cien lobos
6. ochenta y nueve peces
7. un millón de tigres
8. quinientas ranas
9. veinti dós águilas
10. diez mil monos
11. cincuenta delfines
12. novecientos leones