Coffee Break Spanish - Where do adverbs go? - Spanish sentence structure | The Coffee Break Spanish Show 1.05

Episode Date: November 16, 2023

We're back with another episode of the Coffee Break Spanish Show! We're halfway through the series, and this time we're learning about where you can place adverbs when speaking Spanish and how it affects what you are saying.➡️ Click to access the blog article and worksheet which accompany this episode ⬅️ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to Coffee Break Spanish. Welcome to the Coffee Break Spanish Show. I'm Mark. And I'm Marg. And I'm Annabelle. What's good, Annabelle? I'm very well. Very well.

And very content to be here and with us. Now, in these weekly episodes, we're helping you improve your Spanish one coffee break at a time. And we can also like look at some like interesting things and challenge the listeners. Absolutely.

And that's exactly what we're going to be doing today. Now, if you're watching this video, then please do subscribe to our YouTube channel. That way you'll be. get all the future content as soon as it's available. And maybe you are just like listening to the podcast. In that case, remember to subscribe to the podcast feed wherever you are listening to. Absolutely.

Now, you said, Annabelle, we've got something interesting to talk about today. Mm-hmm. Yes, yes. What is that? Well, we are going to be talking about placement and adverbs. Okay, sounds good. Shall we get started? Venga, let's see.

Now, this topic for this episode came from the fact that we were having a chat the other day. and I was saying to Annabel that I find it difficult to know where to put my adverbs in Spanish. Basically, we were talking about breakfast that particular day and I said, I finished my breakfast quickly. Now, when I finish my breakfast quickly, in English, that adverb goes at the end. Or I could say I quickly finished my breakfast. In Spanish, where does that adverb go? Well, that's what we are going to be learning today. Sounds good.

So we're talking about adverbs and where they go. Now, adverbs, first of all, let's think about what adverbs are because typically, there's an adverb. Yes. Adverbs typically end in English in L.Y. And in Spanish, typically they end in Mente. Yes, yes. But they don't always end in L.Y in English,

and they don't always end in Mente in Spanish. Give us an example of an adverb. Well, we have very, we have often, always, yesterday, all these. All of these. are adverse because they give more information about when you did something, how you did something, and what was happening when you were doing something. So let's look at some examples. Okay, so let's start with the adverbs of quantity and manner.

Quantity, so we are talking about quantity, a lot, not like a little few, etc. And also manner, how something is done. Right. So how something is done and how much there is of something. Yes, yes. Okay. These tend to go on the default placement is after the verb. Okay.

So give us an example. So Corro much. So I run a lot. Much is our adverb there. And it comes after the verb. Corro, I run a lot. Corro much. And has ablado bien-espal, for example.

You have spoken good Spanish. You've spoken well in Spanish. So has abledo bien-espaniol. So there the bien is coming after the Spanish. the verb, has a a compound verb and the perfect tense you have spoken.

So as I said, they tend to go after the verb. We can also have them be for the verb, but then this is for emphasis. Okay. So we can say much,

but this is for the context. If I'm saying like, oh, corro much, but much, much, this is the emphasis. Yeah.

So you're putting much at the front, giving it more emphasis as Annabelle explained. And that's where it's coming before. So could we say bien

I've done but for emphasis so the context must like be like the correct one. Yeah. Okay.

Okay. So it's not really usual to use it there. So with these adverbs, they tend to go after the verb.

However, some verbs tend to have a direct object. Right. So a direct object would be the thing

that we're doing something to for example. I am reading a book. The book is a direct object there. So let's take

that example. I read book, leo, a book, leo, but I want to do it slowly. So, despacio, that's our adverb. Despacio, so slowly. Be careful with despacio, because it can mean slow, but it can also mean slowly. That's a little like fast in English.

Fast can both be an adjective and an adverb. But with slowly, despacio, where are we going to put slowly when it comes to reading a book? So after the verb, leo, despacio, a book. Leo despacio a book. So I read slowly a book, which sounds strange in English. Well, but it does not say in Spanish. So could we also say leo a book de spacio? Yes. So that would be more like the English word order.

I read a book slowly. Leo a book de spasio. Yeah, perfect. If we want to emphasize then, it will be despacio, leo a book. Right. Okay, so we can start with despacio, but it's only in that case for emphasis. Yeah, like to say that I'm not reading it fast, I'm just like doing it slowly. So despacio leon libro.

Okay, despacio leon libro. So you mentioned there that those are adverbs of quantity or manner. But we've also got different types of adverbs. For example, adverbs of place. Essoes, like adjee, for example. So these are the same. We can have it before the verb or emphasis after the verb or after the object that we have. Okay.

So adjee, they're meaning there. over there, Adi. Let's put that into a sentence. Okay, so B, adi, a Juan. So I saw be, adi, there, a Juan. So I saw Juan there. Just remember, just in case you're not familiar with this, that A-Huan is a personal a. We need to use a personal a, there's a special a, with people when they are the direct objects. So be a-huan, I saw Juan, B-A-Wan.

B a Juan. And where did you see Juan? Adi there. So be, adji, a Juan. Can we put Adi elsewhere? Yes. Be a Juan. Adi.

B a Juan. Adi. I saw Juan there. And if we want to say that it was over there, but it was not here. Then it's adji be a Juan. Adi b a Juan. Okay. That makes sense.

Yeah. So that's adverbs of place. Uh-huh. We also have adverbs of frequency, like always, often, etc. And these work the same. So for example, now let's use B, but now TV. So we are not using the personal A. Yeah.

So is Beo, Siempre la Tele. Okay, so Beo, I watch or I see. We'll come back to that. Siempre always la television. So I always watch TV. Now, we can use bear when we're talking about to see someone, as we've seen with Juan. And we can also use bear as in to watch something when we're talking about the television or a film. So, be a

movie. So, I, or I'm never be the television, you said.

Beo never the television. Odo, I'm so a possibility. That works as well. Does that sound more

emphatic? Yes. Okay, Siemper yeah. And could we say Beo the television

always? So three possibilities again. Uh-huh. Beo yeah the television. Uh-huh.

Beo the television and always be the television for emphasis. Perfecto. So with these adverts, we have like these three placements. However, we have never said that they can go before the subject. If I want to say like you, yeah, like Mark, Mark watches TV always, then I cannot say, Siempre, Mark, be the television. Ah, right. Okay. So that is different then. Okay. So far in this episode, we've talked about adverbs of quantity and manner. We've talked about adverbs of place and frequency.

but there's one other group of adverbs that we've not spoken about. Adverbs of time. So these are Mayana, today, El Verano Pasado, et cetera. So even though El Verano Pes Pasado is a noun last summer, it's used adverbially

because we're talking about when something happened. Last summer we went to Spain. So with these ones, we can place them like at the beginning of the sentence. So before the subject. Okay. So we could say, see yesterday

Rafa won the competition. So it would be Ayer, Raffa Gano el campionato. Ayer, Raffa Gano the campionato. And that is not stressing that it was yesterday as opposed to any other time. So where else could we put

a year in that sentence? The rest of the place. So he can say Rafa, a year, gano the championship. So before the verb. Rafa gano a year the campionato after the verb. and Rafa gano

the championship So four possibilities there when we've got a verb we've got a direct object and we've got

this adverb of time it can go before the subject it can go before the verb it can go after

the verb or even can go after the direct object Well now I have a challenge

or a question for you Okay How do we say in Spanish I quickly finished

my breakfast So exactly what we started with I quickly finished my breakfast

so quickly is an firm of manner. Therefore, it can, if we wanted to stress the quickly, I suppose I could say rapidly, but if I don't want to stress that quickly, I can just say, terminate rapidly my desayune, or terminate my disjuno rapidly. Estabino, perfecto.

Well, just that. Let's say that now is like this more. And I want you to use the perfect tense. Right. So this morning, I finished my breakfast quickly. This morning, is there one of our adverbs? This morning, I've terminated my desayuno rapidly. Or this morning rapidly, I've terminated my I'm finished my disjuno?

Perfect. Or this morning, I've terminated, rapidly, my desiuno. Perfect. One thing that's worth mentioning here, and that is in English, we can say, I have quickly finished something. So we can put our adverb in English in between our auxiliary verb in the past participle, but we can't do that in Spanish. No. Okay. So we couldn't say, eh?

No. No, don't even want to say it. No, it's not possible. We cannot add anything between like those two verbs when it's compound. Yeah. Okay. That's good to know. That's good to know.

Okay. Well, that's all for now. We hope you've enjoyed this lesson, finding out where to place those adverbs, a tricky topic in Spanish.

But of course, we've got a written version of everything so you can check out our blog article to help you consolidate everything that you've learned.

The link for that is in the description for this episode. And if you want like further help with your Spanish, then remember that you can get

a regular free email lessons, just like straight to your inbox. And in order to get those, you need to visit coffee, break, languages.com slash Spanish.

So you can look out for that coming very soon. If you've signed up for that, that's it for this episode. Much thanks, Annabel. Thanks to you and to us. And until the next. Happy coffee break in. You have been listening to a coffee break language's production for the Radio Lingua Network. Copyright 2023 Radio Lingual Limited.

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