MTTC Spanish (028) cheat sheet

Spanish Language and Communication

• Phonology: Spanish has five pure vowels (/a e i o u/); the letters b and v represent the same bilabial phoneme /b/ (with [β] allophone between vowels), so spelling errors like 'tubo/tuvo' are homophones.

• Consonant allophones: /d/ becomes [ð] intervocalically ('nada'), /g/ becomes [ɣ] ('amigo'), and syllable-final /s/ may weaken to [h] in Caribbean and Andean varieties; /ʝ/ (ll, y) varies by region.

• Stress rules: words ending in a vowel, -n, or -s stress the penultimate syllable; words ending in other consonants stress the final syllable; all exceptions carry a written accent (tilde).

• Accent marks also distinguish meaning: 'el/él', 'si/sí', 'mas/más', 'solo/sólo' (older rule), 'que/qué', 'aun/aún'; interrogative and exclamatory words take accents.

• Orthographic changes preserve sound across morphology: 'c'→'qu' (buscar→busqué), 'g'→'gu' (llegar→llegué), 'z'→'c' (empezar→empecé), and 'i'→'y' between vowels (leer→leyó).

• Verb system: three conjugations (-ar, -er, -ir); indicative tenses include presente, pretérito, imperfecto, futuro, condicional, plus compound forms with haber; subjunctive mood marks doubt, emotion, and unrealized events.

• Preterite vs. imperfect: preterite presents bounded, completed events (telic), imperfect presents background, habits, and ongoing states; time markers ('ayer' vs. 'todos los días') often disambiguate.

• Ser vs. estar: ser encodes inherent/defining traits, origin, and time of events; estar encodes location, transient states, and result states; some adjectives shift meaning ('ser listo' = clever, 'estar listo' = ready).

• Pragmatics and register: 'tú' vs. 'usted' vs. 'vosotros/ustedes' encode formality and region; indirect speech acts ('¿Podría...?') and diminutives ('ahorita', 'cafecito') carry politeness and affective meaning.