Live Session 2:

Adjectives of nationality and present-tense forms of the verb "ir"

There will be a Final Exam section that focuses on adjectives of nationality.
 

  • This is one of the Final Exam sections where students struggle the  most.
  • It's for this reason that we are focusing on adjectives of nationality, and by extension, adjective-noun agreement, in this Live Session.

     
  • Two major tips to start:
  • Make sure you actually learn these adjectives. It is your responsibility to know what they mean and how they look when spelled correctly.
  • Study the bottom half of textbook page 81 very carefully.

Adjectives of nationality

3 tips about what not to do when working in this Final Exam section:
 

  • 1. Do not select any response that features a capitalized Spanish adjective of nationality. This is always a false choice.
     
  • 2.Do not select any response that is misspelled or missing a required accent mark. This is also a false choice.
     
  • 3. Do not automatically select the masculine, singular form of the adjective as a response to every question. This will cause you to lose a lot of points.
     
  • You need to select the form of the adjective that agrees to the fullest extent possible with the noun or pronoun it's modifying.

Practice examples for this section:

The prompt will look like this:

Vladmir y Svetlana son de Rusia. Ellos son ____________.

  • rusianos
  • ruso
  • rusos
  • Rusos
  • Remember, no capitalized forms are valid, and neither are misspelled forms.
  • What are the 2 forms we can immediately rule out, based on this knowledge?
  • rusianos (this is *not* a word)
  • Rusos (we really do *never* capitalize adjectives of nationality in standard Spanish)

Vladmir y Svetlana son de Rusia. Ellos son ____________.

  • rusianos
  • ruso
  • rusos
  • Rusos
  • At this point, we are between masculine, singular "ruso" and masculine, plural "rusos".
  • We have to choose the adjective that agrees in gender and in number with the masculine, plural pronoun "ellos". 
  • Which one is that?

Yes, the right answer is masculine, plural "rusos".

 

Mi amiga Yoko es de Japón. Ella es ____________.

  • japonés
  • Japanesa
  • japónesa
  • japonesa
  • Remember, no capitalized forms are valid, and neither are misspelled forms.
  • What are the 2 forms we can immediately rule out, based on this knowledge?
  • japónesa (this is *not* a word--there is no accent mark in the feminine, singular form--only in the masculine, singular form)
  • Japanesa (not a word, and remember: *never* capitalize adjectives of nationality in standard Spanish)

Mi amiga Yoko es de Japón. Ella es ____________.

  • japonés
  • Japanesa
  • japónesa
  • japonesa
  • At this point, we are between masculine, singular "japonés" and feminine, singular "japonesa".
  • We have to choose the adjective that agrees in gender and in number with the feminine, singular pronoun "ella". 
  • Which one is that?

Yes, the right answer is feminine, singular "japonesa".

Now we'll practice with 4-Origen y nacionalidad, a Supersite exercise that was not assigned.

The irregular verb "ir"

  • This verb is wholly irregular. This means its forms cannot be created via the normal practice of derivation and conjugation, and, because of this, they must be memorized.

 

  • There will be a Final Exam section where you have to supply the correct present-tense conjugated forms of this verb.

 

  • This is a Final Exam section where students often do weird things that make them lose lots of points.

 

  • Because of that, we are going over this topic together now.

Bonus topic: the irregular verb "ir" 

Please make sure you've committed the following forms to memory.

Let's practice saying them aloud:

yo voy

tú vas

él/ella/usted va 

nosotros/nosotras vamos

we don't use vosotros

ellos/ellas/ustedes van

These forms are on textbook page 118.

So, again, in the Final Exam section that focuses on present-tense forms of the verb "ir":

  • 1. Do not write conjugated forms of any other verbs in this section! You will earn a 0 for every response where you do this.
  • 2. All answers in this section will consist of one of these 5 words: 
  • voy (present-tense yo-form)
  • vas (present-tense tú-form)
  • va (present-tense 3rd-person-singular form)
  • vamos (present-tense nosotros-form)
  • van (present-tense 3rd-person-plural form)
  • Those forms are the only valid responses in this section. Please memorize them.
     
  • 3. Remember: we do not use vosotros-forms in this course. Do not write "vais" for any answer in this section.
    We'll practice with the "Prueba de Práctica", a Supersite exercise that was not assigned.