[Spanish] Question about gender and two Spanish adverbs/adjectives

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[Spanish] Question about gender and two Spanish adverbs/adjectives

Postby Jaleel10 » Thu Aug 16, 2018 7:19 am

So, I am watching Gran Hotel, popular tv show from Spain. I have noticed two things that confuse me a bit.

(1). When someone is asked 'are they sure' about something it usually goes like this (just making up an example):

Male: Señorita, cuénteme todo lo que pasó la noche anterior
Female: Pues, estaba limpiando el baño cuando oí un ruido...... (continues to tell the story)
Male: ¿Seguro?
Female: Sí, seguro

Why is it not segura?

(2). Another example:

Male: Querida, ahora no es el mejor momento para estar sola
Female: No, Diego, voy a dormir sola

Why is it sola and not solo? Isn't 'alone' supposed to be an adverb describing the action of sleeping? As far as I know, adverbs aren't influenced by gender
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Re: [Spanish] Question about gender and two Spanish adverbs/adjectives

Postby Dragon27 » Thu Aug 16, 2018 8:47 am

Jaleel10 wrote:Male: ¿Seguro?
Female: Sí, seguro

Why is it not segura?

I would decipher "Seguro" as short for "Esto es seguro" or "Eso es seguro" or something like that. It's more like "It is certain" rather than "I am certain".

Jaleel10 wrote:Male: Querida, ahora no es el mejor momento para estar sola
Female: No, Diego, voy a dormir sola

Why is it sola and not solo? Isn't 'alone' supposed to be an adverb describing the action of sleeping? As far as I know, adverbs aren't influenced by gender

An adverb "solo" usually means "only" as in "Tiene solo dos opciones" (I have only two options), that would be a different word.
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Re: [Spanish] Question about gender and two Spanish adverbs/adjectives

Postby Bex » Thu Aug 16, 2018 9:00 am

Yep definitely agree...

Es seguro = It is sure/certain, and so it doesn't need to be conjugated for a female.

If however you wanted to say "I am sure" you would use "segura" if female.

Basically it's just a subtle difference between "I am sure" and "it is sure". "Seguro" I always think of as a casual "sure" or "yep" in conventional terms.

Although I have definitely noticed that "segura" generally is used a lot less where I live and everyone male or female uses "seguro" most of the time.
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Re: [Spanish] Question about gender and two Spanish adverbs/adjectives

Postby Jaleel10 » Thu Aug 16, 2018 9:43 am

Ah, I always thought it was short for 'Estar seguro/a'. Makes sense the way you guys explained it.

An adverb "solo" usually means "only" as in "Tiene solo dos opciones" (I have only two options), that would be a different word.


Yeah, I know that. I guess my brain just decided that the sola in Voy a dormir sola was an adverb :?: Apparantly 'alone' can be an adverb and an adjective in English as well. Oof, me and grammar. At least I know the rule now!

Thanks, guys!
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Re: [Spanish] Question about gender and two Spanish adverbs/adjectives

Postby tarvos » Thu Aug 16, 2018 9:56 am

If you want to remember: if you can substitute cierto for seguro, you probably don't need to worry about gender.

When you say estoy seguro/segura, you are expressing your own view, not incontrovertible fact.
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Re: [Spanish] Question about gender and two Spanish adverbs/adjectives

Postby Jaleel10 » Thu Aug 16, 2018 10:09 am

tarvos wrote:If you want to remember: if you can substitute cierto for seguro, you probably don't need to worry about gender.

When you say estoy seguro/segura, you are expressing your own view, not incontrovertible fact.


That makes perfect sense actually. Thanks, tarvos :)
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Re: [Spanish] Question about gender and two Spanish adverbs/adjectives

Postby Querneus » Thu Aug 16, 2018 3:13 pm

There is one adverb in Spanish that agrees in gender and number: todo in the sense of "completely" when it modifies an adjective. It agrees with the person or thing that the adjective modifies. Examples:

    estoy toda llena
    'I'm completely full (from eating)'

    se pusieron todas rojas
    'the girls were totally flushed'

    la luna estaba toda amarilla
    'the moon was fully yellow'.
(This is different from todo (el) as a determiner, and todo as a pronoun.)

A thing I've sometimes seen learners being surprised by is that Spanish sometimes uses adverbial adjectives where in English you'd say "be + [adj]" rendering the main verb as something else. These adverbial adjectives agree in gender and number as well. This is particularly common with adjectives of emotion, and is very similar to the English construction in "they married young" (se casaron jóvenes) or "he went home tired" (se fue a su casa cansado). Examples:

    Se casaron llenos de esperanza. ~ Llenos de esperanza se casaron.
    'They were full of hope when they got married.'

    Se fue a su casa todo triste.
    'He was very sad when he went back home.'

    Compró los libros entusiasmada.
    'She was thrilled when she bought the books.'

Note that se fue a su casa triste could be both interpreted as "he went back to his sad home" or "he was sad when going back home".

Also, juntos 'together' is an adjective in Spanish but an adverb in English. Las chicas se fueron juntas 'the girls left this place together'.
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Re: [Spanish] Question about gender and two Spanish adverbs/adjectives

Postby Jaleel10 » Thu Aug 16, 2018 3:35 pm

Ser wrote:There is one adverb in Spanish that agrees in gender and number: todo in the sense of "completely" when it modifies an adjective. It agrees with the person or thing that the adjective modifies. Examples:

    estoy toda llena
    'I'm completely full (from eating)'

    se pusieron todas rojas
    'the girls were totally flushed'

    la luna estaba toda amarilla
    'the moon was fully yellow'.
(This is different from todo (el) as a determiner, and todo as a pronoun.)


Ah, thanks. I never even noticed this. Always just saw todo as an adjective.

Ser wrote:A thing I've sometimes seen learners being surprised by is that Spanish sometimes uses adverbial adjectives where in English you'd say "be + [adj]" rendering the main verb as something else. These adverbial adjectives agree in gender and number as well. This is particularly common with adjectives of emotion, and is very similar to the English construction in "they married young" (se casaron jóvenes) or "he went home tired" (se fue a su casa cansado). Examples:

    Se casaron llenos de esperanza. ~ Llenos de esperanza se casaron.
    'They were full of hope when they got married.'

    Se fue a su casa todo triste.
    'He was very sad when he went back home.'

    Compró los libros entusiasmada.
    'She was thrilled when she bought the books.'

Note that se fue a su casa triste could be both interpreted as "he went back to his sad home" or "he was sad when going back home".

Also, juntos 'together' is an adjective in Spanish but an adverb in English. Las chicas se fueron juntas 'the girls left this place together'.


Yeah, this is something I have noticed recently never knew the grammar behind so it's nice to be able to see some more examples.
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