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Spanish 101A

Spanish 101B

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The word Y (spelled with the letter i griega) means "and ".

It is pretty straight forward and functions just as the English word "and" does:

Ana y María van a la discoteca. Ana and María go to the discoteque.
Miro Project Runway y Betty la fea. I watch Project Runway and Betty La Fea.
Y tomo café también And I have coffee too.

However, there is one change which occurs to Y:

Y changes to e when it comes in front of words starting with i or hi.
Raquel es bonita e inteligente. Rachel is pretty and inteligent.
Habla ruso, español e inglés. She speaks Russian, Spanish and English.
Estudia las novelas de Pérez Fermat e Hijuelos. She's studying the novels of Pérez Fermat and Hijuelos.

How to make words plural in Spanish:

  1. If a word ends in an unaccented vowel, simply add "s":
  2. mesa mesas
    libro libros
    estudiante estudiantes

  3. If a word ends in a consonant other than Z, or ends in an accented vowel, add "es":
  4. borrador borradores
    reloj relojes
    *profesión *profesiones
    rubí rubíes

  5. If a word ends with a Z, change the Z to C and add "es":
luz luces
lápiz lápices

*Please Note:

Words which end in a consonant and have an accent on the last syllable in the singular form, will drop the accent in the plural form.

This is because all words ending in a consonant will add es which adds another syllable. Since the word now ends in s and the stress is still on the originally accented syllable, the accent mark is no longer needed. Spanish has no unnecessary accent marks. If a word has an accent mark, it is there for a reason. Review Accents & Pronunciation.