Girl Talk

I’ve been teaching the beautiful Spanish language for many years and so I’ve used  many different types of textbooks and grammar aids. I’ve noticed they all have one thing in common and that is their consistent habit of presenting the MASCULINE form of nouns, verbs or adjectives FIRST and in FULL, with often only a cursory nod to the feminine form of said verb or adjective.

A perfect example of this is :

Friend = Amigo/a

Small = Pequeño/a

Which word would be more memorable to a new language learner, the ‘amigo’ or the ‘a’ ?

The feminine form (amiga, pequeña) is not even printed out in full, in many texts I’ve seen. Many new second-language learners will probably not even notice/understand that there should be another word written there!

Now, I am known in my circles to have a patient temperament, to be a humble, unassuming type of girl, but not anymore.

I’m extremely irritated by this ‘trend’ and it’s time it stopped! We live in an era where there is no doubt that equality of the sexes is an important issue and is to be striven for. Why has this not filtered into grammar yet?

If you have been able to read any of my previous posts, you must have noticed that I have been only addressing the feminine form of the adjective, in relation to the verbs  ‘SER’ and ‘ESTAR’: A bit of gossip?

It’s not that I have anything against the masculine form. The problem is that it is the PROMINENT form which is consistently taught first. Isn’t it  time to give the girls a chance?

So please forgive me that small but necessary rant on sex equality in grammar and let’s talk about this lovely Japanese lady. Any of the following sentences coud apply to her!

She’s tired              Está cansada

She’s angry             Está enfadada

She’s calm                Está tranquila

She’s married          Está casada

She’s   divorced        Está divorciada

She’s interested       Está interesada

She’s bored               Está aburrida

She’s busy                Está ocupada

She’s ill                      Está enferma

She has a nice little cocktail there so there is a possibility that… 

She’s drunk              Está borracha

but I doubt it very much. I think she is merely savouring the lingering flavour of her aperitif.

In my next post I will summarise the three forms of the verb SER and three forms of the verb ESTAR which we have seen so far, and the nouns and adjectives which are used with each verb.

I really hope this helps! Please ask about any clarification needed in comments.

More next time…