QCAA Spanish flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

tú versus usted

Informal singular address for peers, friends and children versus formal singular address for strangers, elders and officials. The choice signals social distance and must stay consistent in one exchange.

vosotros versus ustedes

Vosotros is the informal plural used mainly in Spain. Ustedes serves as both formal and informal plural in Latin America and as formal plural in Spain.

Conditional for politeness

¿Podría ayudarme? and ¿Sería posible…? use the conditional to soften requests. The present indicative ¿Puedes…? is more direct, and the imperative is the least polite option.

Repair phrases in conversation

¿Perdón? ¿Puede repetirlo más despacio? and ¿Qué quiere decir…? ask for repetition or clarification. O sea and es decir let the speaker rephrase their own message.

Greeting time boundaries

Buenos días is used until roughly midday, buenas tardes from midday until dusk, and buenas noches for evening and night. The choice depends on clock time, not on the meeting length.

Turn-taking markers

Pues, bueno, mira and entonces open or soften a turn. Disculpe or perdone una pregunta interrupts politely, while déjame terminar signals the speaker wants to keep the floor.

Small talk taboos

Family, work, food and travel are safe small-talk topics in Hispanic contexts. Direct questions about salary, politics or religion are usually reserved for close relationships.

Speech act identification

Before details, identify what the utterance does: invite, complain, request, apologise or inform. The speech act determines which details matter for the response.

Genre clues in text types

Recipes use imperatives plus quantities, news reports use third person and past tenses, advertisements use second person and superlatives, and personal letters use vocatives and formulaic closings.

Contrast and consequence connectors

Sin embargo, no obstante and aunque mark contrast. Por lo tanto and así que mark consequence. Además and asimismo add information, while es decir and o sea rephrase it.

Indefinido versus imperfecto

The pretérito indefinido narrates completed events, while the imperfecto sets the scene, describes background and expresses habitual action. A shift between them usually carries meaning.

Impersonal se and agent hiding

Impersonal se (se dice, se vende) and the passive remove or hide the agent. This shifts responsibility away from a named person and often signals a formal or official tone.

Inference evidence rule

A valid inference needs at least two supporting signals in the text. A conclusion resting on a single word is a guess and should not be presented as an inference.

Tone labels in Spanish

Standard tone labels include irónico, sarcástico, nostálgico, crítico, neutro, persuasivo, humorístico and solemne. Exaggeration and quotation marks often flag irony.

Subjunctive as stance marker

Subjunctive after expressions like es importante que, no creo que or me alegra que marks evaluation, doubt or emotion in the main clause, revealing the writer's attitude.

Matching opening and closing

Formal letters open with estimado/a señor/a and close with atentamente. Informal messages open with hola and close with un abrazo. Mismatched pairs create an unintended register clash.

Register and vocabulary level

Technical vocabulary, nominalisations and long clauses raise register. Colloquial markers such as vale, guay or ché lower it. The choice must fit the intended reader and genre.

Narrative sequencing connectors

Primero, luego, después, más tarde and finalmente order events. Combine them with indefinido for the event chain and imperfecto for description so the narrative stays clear.

Argument structure in Spanish

State the thesis with en mi opinión, support with además and por ejemplo, concede with es cierto que… pero, and close with en conclusión. This pattern fits essays and opinion articles.

Hedging expressions

Creo que, me parece que, diría que and quizás soften a claim. They raise register and reduce confrontation compared with estoy seguro de que or es obvio que.

Subjunctive triggers for complex sentences

Para que, antes de que, cuando referring to the future, and ojalá trigger the subjunctive. They let a writer express purpose, time limits and wishes in subordinate clauses.

Cohesion checklist

Vary connectors instead of repeating one, and use pronoun reference such as este, aquel or ello to link sentences. Repetition of the same noun weakens cohesion and raises word count.

Email conventions Spanish

Informal email: hola plus name, brief greeting, body, closing with un abrazo or nos vemos. Formal email: estimado/a plus surname, full sentences, closing with atentamente or un saludo cordial.

Audience adaptation decisions

Choose tú or usted, decide between technical and plain vocabulary, and match length and layout to the genre. These three decisions precede drafting any text for a specified reader.

Review text conventions

A Spanish review names the work, summarises briefly, evaluates with adjectives and recommends or warns. Recommendation phrases include se lo recomiendo and no vale la pena.

Spanish official status

Spanish is official in 21 countries. The Royal Spanish Academy and the Association of Academies of the Spanish Language coordinate norms, and Latin American usage is a standard, not a deviation.

Voseo

Voseo uses vos with its own verb forms, for example vos tenés and vos sos. It is standard in Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and parts of Central America and Colombia.

Seseo and yeísmo

Seseo merges c before e/i and z with s, as in most of Latin America. Yeísmo merges ll and y in most varieties. Spain mostly keeps a distinct dental fricative for c and z.

Regional vehicle words

Coche is used in Spain, carro in much of Latin America, and auto in Argentina and Chile. Ordenador and computadora likewise differ. No single regional word is universal.

Día de los Muertos

Día de los Muertos is a Mexican observance on 1 and 2 November honouring deceased relatives with altars, offerings and visits to cemeteries. It is regional, not a nationwide Spanish custom.

Loanwords in Spanish

Patata, chocolate, tomate and aguacate entered Spanish from Nahuatl or Quechua. Arabisms such as aceite, azúcar and ojalá reflect eight centuries of Al-Andalus influence on the language.

Feminine nouns with el

Feminine nouns beginning with a stressed a sound take el for phonetic reasons: el agua fría, el águila. Words of Greek origin ending in -ma are usually masculine: el problema, el tema.