Conjugation III, mucho and muy, the verb tener in Spanish

Juana no trabaja mucho

Entra María, la amiga de Juana. Sobre la mesa hay un calendario. María lee. Lunes: la costurera. Martes: vamos a ver a los abuelos. Miércoles: al cine con Juan. Jueves: vamos todos a casa de los tíos. Viernes: al concierto con Juan. Sábado: ayudo a papá y mamá en casa. Domingo: con Juan al teatro, a ver la comedia „Casa con dos puertas” de Calderón.

— ¿Por qué no preguntas dónde está mi hermano José? — dice Juana.

— Muchos; tres hijos y dos hijas.

Vocablos

Notes & Explanations

The meaning of the words mucho and muy

The word mucho is used in a sentence both as an adverb and as an adjective, and translates to English as: a lot (of), much or many.

As an adverb, mucho usually comes after the verb and its form doesn’t change. It translates as: a lot, much, for example:

As an adjective, mucho comes before the noun and agrees with it in gender and number, for example:

The word muy (very) is a shortened form of mucho and is always used as an adverb. Muy is usually placed before an adjective, a participle, and before an adverb, for example:

Days of the Week

Learn the expressions:

Grammar points

1. Conjugation III

Verbs that in the infinitive form end in -ir belong to the third conjugation, for example: vivir to live, escribir to write.

The present tense of Conjugation III verbs is formed from the stem of an infinitive verb with the help of the following endings:

Presente
Present tense

Note:

In Spanish, as was mentioned earlier, personal pronouns functioning as subjects are usually omitted, for example:

Therefore, from this time on, we are going to omit the personal pronouns in conjugations. Just remember that the verbs in the 3^rd person singular correspond to the pronouns él, ella, Vd.; the 1^st person plural — nosotros, nosotras; the 2^nd person plural — vosotros, vosotras; and the 3^rd person plural — ellos, ellas, Vds.

2. The conjugation of the verb tener

The verb tener — to have belongs to irregular verbs of individual conjugation. In the present tense of the indicative mood, the verb tener conjugates as follows:

3. Conjugations I, II and III summary

Presente del modo indicativo
Present tense
(Indicative mood)

4. The demonstrative pronoun este

The masculine demonstrative pronoun este this, unlike esto this ends in -e.

The demonstrative pronouns in Spanish fall into two types:

1. este, esta this — pronouns-adjectives — they always come before a noun and agree with it in gender and number, for example:

    

   este muchacho

   this boy

    

   esta muchacha

   this girl

    

   estos muchachos

   these boys

    

   estas muchachas

   these girls

2. este (éste), esta (ésta) this — pronouns-nouns — they are used independently (they replace a noun).
   
   Important spelling rule (RAE 2010):
   Previously, demonstrative pronouns acting as nouns were written with an accent mark (éste, ésta, éstos, éstas) to distinguish them from adjectives. However, in 2010, the Royal Spanish Academy abolished this rule. Now they are written without the accent mark (este, esta, estos, estas). You will still encounter the old spelling with the accent mark in many texts and books, so it is useful to know both variants.
   Example of use (the traditional variant with the accent mark is shown in brackets):

Tengo dos lápices: este (éste) es negro y este (éste) es rojo.
I have two pencils: this one is black and this one is red.

Note:

The demonstrative pronoun has a gender-neutral form — esto this (always written without the accent mark), which sometimes replaces a phrase or a whole sentence.

Remember the differences between these words:

For example:

Exercises

I. Answer the following questions:

¿Dónde vive Juana? ¿Qué escribe Juana? ¿Dónde va Juana el lunes? ¿Por qué van todos a casa de la tía el jueves? ¿Quién llama a la puerta? ¿Quién es María? ¿Quién es José? ¿Dónde estudia José? ¿Quién ayuda a José? ¿Cuántos nietos tienen los abuelos de Juana?

II. Translate into English:

Hoy es domingo, no trabajamos, nos levantamos temprano, tomamos el desayuno y vamos a pasear. Después voy a casa de mi abuelo y mi hermano José va al cine con mi amiga María. María me gusta, es una buena muchacha. Trabaja mucho, estudia y ayuda en casa. La madre de María es costurera. María tiene dos hermanos. Yo tengo un hermano y una hermana. El lunes María y yo vamos al cine con Juan y José y el miércoles vamos todos al teatro. El sábado vamos a casa de mi tía. En casa de mi tía como siempre muy bien, hay carne buena y vino blanco.

III. Translate into Spanish:

I live in New York. My boyfriend also lives in New York. Juan’s friend is in Madrid. Juan writes a letter. I read a book, my grandmother talks with my mother. My father works, he is not at home. On Sunday, Juan and I are going to the aunt’s. The uncle is at grandmother’s. I like going to my aunt’s. She has good wine at home. It’s Saturday. Dad is at the factory, he comes back at half past four. At four o’clock, I go to the restaurant. I like going to the restaurant on Sunday because on Sunday the food in the restaurant is good. Today is Tuesday. I write a letter to my friend. She is in Madrid. My sister and I always answer the letters. My brother doesn’t answer because he is very busy. He is at the uncle’s, where he studies.

IV. Fill in the blanks with the words: esto, este, esta, está or estos, estas. (For pronouns-nouns, you may use the traditional spelling with an accent mark: éste, ésta, éstos, éstas).

es mi libro. Mi libro sobre la mesa. libro es blanco. mesa es amarilla y es negra. libros están sobre la mesa amarilla y están sobre la silla. mesas son amarillas.

V. Translate the sentences into Spanish. Use mucho or muy for the words in bold.

Jose studies a lot. He has many books. This seamstress works very well. They have many pens. We have many pencils.