MTEL Spanish (28) flashcards

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

Null-subject parameter

Spanish verbs carry person and number in their endings, so subject pronouns are optional and used mainly for emphasis or contrast.

Subjunctive trigger: doubt

Expressions of doubt or negation, such as no creo que or dudo que, require the subjunctive because the speaker does not assert the clause as fact.

Preterite vs. imperfect

The preterite reports bounded, completed events; the imperfect describes background, habits, and ongoing states. The choice changes narrative meaning.

Ser vs. estar

Ser expresses identity, origin, and inherent traits; estar expresses condition, state, and location. Some adjectives change meaning with the copula chosen.

Tap and trill phonemes

Spanish distinguishes the alveolar tap /ɾ/ in pero from the trill /r/ in perro; the contrast is phonemic and changes word meaning.

Written accent rule

Words ending in a vowel, -n, or -s stress the penultimate syllable; words ending in other consonants stress the last. Exceptions carry a written accent.

Diacritic accent pairs

Accents distinguish homographs such as el/él, tu/tú, si/sí, mas/más, and mark interrogative words like qué and cómo in questions.

Inverted punctuation marks

Spanish opens questions and exclamations with ¿ and ¡, so the reader knows the intonation from the start of the utterance.

Spanish capitalization norms

Days, months, languages, and nationalities used as adjectives are lowercase in Spanish, unlike English conventions.

Cohesion connectors

Connectors such as sin embargo, por consiguiente, and no obstante signal contrast, consequence, and concession, guiding the reader through academic prose.

Tú, usted, and vos

Tú marks informal singular address, usted formal singular, and vos is a regional informal form in parts of Latin America.

Cantar de mio Cid

A medieval Spanish epic in mester de juglaría meter, it narrates the Cid's exile, conquests, and recovery of honor.

Golden Age literature

The Spanish Renaissance and Baroque period produced Cervantes's Quijote, Lope de Vega's comedia, and Góngora and Quevedo's contrasting poetic styles.

Magical realism

A narrative mode associated with the Latin American Boom in which supernatural events are narrated as ordinary, unremarkable facts.

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz

A Baroque colonial Mexican poet and nun whose work, including Respuesta a Sor Filotea, defends women's right to learning.

Rubén Darío and modernismo

The Nicaraguan poet's Azul launched modernismo, a Hispanic literary movement emphasizing musicality, exotic imagery, and formal renewal.

Lorca's rural tragedies

Federico García Lorca's Bodas de sangre and La casa de Bernarda Alba dramatize desire, honor, and repression in rural Andalusia.

Día de los Muertos

A Mexican observance on November 1–2 honoring deceased relatives with ofrendas, altars, food, and visits to cemeteries.

Spanish official status

Spanish is official in twenty-one countries, including Equatorial Guinea, the only African nation where it holds official status.

Seseo and distinción

Seseo pronounces c before e/i and z as /s/; distinción distinguishes them as /θ/. Both are accepted regional norms.

Yeísmo

The merger of the palatal lateral /ʎ/ with the palatal approximant /ʝ/, so pollo and poyo sound alike in most dialects.

Syllable-final /s/ aspiration

In Caribbean and southern Peninsular speech, /s/ at the end of a syllable weakens or disappears, so los amigos may sound like lo' amigo'.

ACTFL proficiency levels

The scale runs Novice, Intermediate, Advanced, Superior, Distinguished; Intermediate speakers produce sentence-level language and handle simple transactions.

Three modes of communication

Communicative teaching organizes tasks as interpretive, interpersonal, and presentational, each with distinct purposes and assessment criteria.

Comprehensible input

Krashen's hypothesis holds that language acquisition proceeds when learners understand input slightly beyond their current level, without explicit grammar focus.

Circumlocution strategy

Learners describe a missing word with a paraphrase, such as es una cosa que sirve para..., instead of switching to English or stopping.

Gustar-type verbs

Psych verbs like gustar, encantar, and doler take an indirect object experiencer; the thing liked or felt is the subject and controls agreement.

Pasiva refleja

The construction se plus a third-person verb, as in se venden casas, expresses passive meaning and is more frequent than ser plus participle.

Por vs. para

Por marks cause, exchange, duration, and movement through; para marks purpose, destination, deadline, and recipient.

Personal a

A preposition placed before a human or specific direct object, as in Veo a María, but omitted with nonhuman or indefinite objects.

False cognates

Words that resemble English but differ in meaning, such as embarazada (pregnant), actual (current), and asistir (to attend).

Relative pronoun cuyo

Cuyo is a possessive relative adjective that agrees with the noun it modifies, as in el autor cuyo libro leímos.

Greek-origin -ma nouns

Nouns ending in -ma from Greek, such as problema, tema, and sistema, are masculine despite the final -a.