How the two books connect, one phenomenon seen six ways, and where to go with any question.
Every technical term is defined inline at first use. Full recap of the book's vocabulary at the end.
1One phenomenon, six views frequency 3 of 3, daily§
The payoff of the whole taxonomy. Three worked examples showing the same fact from all six kinds — and how each view answers a different question you might actually have.
1.1Se me rompió el vaso§
| Kind | What it says | Volume |
|---|---|---|
| CLASS | se and me are pronouns; rompió a verb; el vaso a noun phrase | 01 |
| FORM | me is a clitic (a small unstressed pronoun leaning on the verb); rompió is 3sg preterite indicative | 02, 03 |
| FUNCTION | el vaso is the subject; me is the indirect object; there is no doer at all | 04 |
| FEATURE | preterite = bounded aspect; the verb agrees with vaso; valence raised from 1 to 2 | 05 |
| OPERATION | anticausative (doer removed), then a dative added (affected person); convoy ordering puts se first | 06 |
| CONSTRUCTION | the se me no-fault template | 07 §2.1 |
1.2Busco un depto que tenga balcón§
| Kind | What it says |
|---|---|
| CLASS | que is a relative pronoun; tenga a verb |
| FORM | tenga is present subjunctive, built from tengo − o + a |
| FUNCTION | the relative clause modifies depto; depto is the direct object |
| FEATURE | specificity = non-specific (you don't have one particular apartment in mind), which selects the subjunctive |
| OPERATION | selection, not agreement — the non-specific antecedent demands the mood |
| CONSTRUCTION | non-specific relative clause; note the absence of DOM a, from the same specificity value |
1.3La puerta cerrada§
| Kind | What it says |
|---|---|
| CLASS | cerrada is behaving as an adjective |
| FORM | it's a past participle |
| FUNCTION | attributive modifier (sitting inside the noun phrase, describing the noun directly) |
| FEATURE | feminine, singular |
| OPERATION | agreement — copied from puerta |
| CONSTRUCTION | none — bare modification |
2Book 1 ↔ Book 2 map§
| Topic | Book 1 (Reference) | Book 2 (Árbol) |
|---|---|---|
| Nouns, gender, number | spanish/01-ENTITY | 02 §1 — the noun tree |
| Articles, determiners | spanish/02-DETERMINERS | 01 §4, 02 §3 |
| Pronouns, clitics | spanish/03-PRONOUNS | 01 §5, 02 §4, 06 §5 |
| Adjectives, adverbs | spanish/04-QUALITY | 01 §3.3–3.4, 02 §2 |
| Verb forms, irregularity | spanish/05-VERB-FORMS | 03 |
| Aspect | spanish/06-ASPECT | 05 §4.1, 07 §3 |
| Mood, subjunctive | spanish/07-MOOD | 05 §7, 06 §3 |
| se, voice, ser/estar | spanish/08-SE-VOICE | 07 §2, 07 §5, 06 §4 |
| Prepositions, conjunctions | spanish/09-RELATION | 01 §6–7 |
| Infinitive/gerundio/participle | spanish/10-NONFINITE | 03 §1 |
| Word order, negation, gustar | spanish/11-SENTENCE | 04, 06 §6, 07 §6–10 |
| Register, lunfardo | spanish/12-REGISTER | 05 §4.3 |
| Error catalogue | spanish/13-TRAPS | — |
| Terminology | spanish/14-GLOSSARY | 00 §1 |
The division of labour:
Book 1 answers "how do I say X, and why does it work that way?" Book 2 answers "what is this thing, and what else is like it?"
Book 1 has the derivations, the frequency markers, the traps, and the teaching order. Book 2 has the complete inventories, the trees, and the cross-cutting views. Book 2 without Book 1 is a beautifully organized set of facts you can't use.
3Question router frequency 3 of 3, daily§
| Your question sounds like… | Kind | Go to |
|---|---|---|
| "What is a ___?" | CLASS | 01, or spanish/14 §8 |
| "What kind of ___ is that?" | CLASS | the tree in 01–03 |
| "Show me all the ___" | varies | Book 2, the relevant volume |
| "What are all the noun types?" | FORM | 02 §1 |
| "What are all the verb forms?" | FORM | 03 §1 |
| "What are all the prepositions?" | CLASS | 01 §6 — all 23 |
| "What are all the sentence roles?" | FUNCTION | 04 §1 — all 8 |
| "What does Spanish force me to say?" | FEATURE | 05 §2 |
| "Can gender attach to a verb?" | FEATURE | 05 §3 — the matrix |
| "Why did the form change?" | OPERATION | 06 |
| "Why se me and not me se?" | OPERATION | 06 §5 |
| "Is this a fixed pattern?" | CONSTRUCTION | 07 |
| "Why is it subjunctive here?" | — | Book 1 spanish/07 |
| "Which one do I use?" | — | Book 1, always |
| "What am I getting wrong?" | — | Book 1 spanish/13 |
| "What does this term mean?" | — | this book, inline — or spanish/14 |
4The complete inventories, indexed§
Everything Book 2 enumerates exhaustively. These lists are finished.
| Inventory | Count | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Word classes | 10 | 01 §1 |
| Prepositions | 23 (2 archaic) | 01 §6 |
| Coordinating conjunctions | 4 groups | 01 §7 |
| Subordinating conjunction types | 8 | 01 §7 |
| Determiner forms | ~60 | 01 §4, 02 §3 |
| Pronoun forms | ~55 | 01 §5, 02 §4 |
| True auxiliaries | 3 | 01 §8 |
| Noun classification axes | 6 | 02 §1 |
| Verb form slots | 19 (4 extinct) | 03 §1 |
| Irregularity families | 5 | 03 §4 |
| Clause functions | 8 | 04 §1 |
| Features | 15 | 05 §1 |
| Obligatory features | 9 | 05 §2 |
| Orthographic adjustments | 8 | 06 §8 |
| Constructions catalogued | 80 | 07 |
5Master term list§
Every technical term defined across Book 2, with the volume that defines it. You should never have needed to leave the page — but if you meet one out of order, this is where it lives.
Master term list157
- adjunct
- argument
- constituent
- valence
- affix
- clipping
- compound
- conversion
- derivation
- agent
- attribute
- predicative complement
- agreement
- selection
- propagation
- analogy
- erosion
- grammaticalization
- diachronic
- animacy
- specificity
- polarity
- illocution
- anticausative
- causative
- apocope
- declension
- inflection
- conjugation
- aspect
- tense
- mood
- voice
- degree
- aspectual
- inceptive
- terminative
- iterative
- durative
- resultative
- case
- nominative
- accusative
- dative
- oblique
- syncretism
- class
- form
- function
- feature
- operation
- construction
- cleft
- pseudo-cleft
- dislocation
- information structure
- clitic
- proclisis
- enclisis
- cliticization
- closed class
- open class
- exhaustive
- structural
- collective
- count
- mass
- unitizer
- countability
- common gender
- epicene
- ambiguous
- gender
- construction
- slot
- template
- copular
- predication
- transitivity
- definiteness
- definite
- indefinite
- neuter
- nominalize
- demonstrative
- quantifier
- determiner
- scope
- referent
- diphthongization
- vowel raising
- orthographic
- phonological
- discourse marker
- vocative
- topic
- focus
- given
- dissimilation
- doubling
- movement
- pied-piping
- stranding
- resumptive
- DOM
- ellipsis
- pro-drop
- ergativity
- evidentiality
- classifier
- dual
- feature
- value set
- obligatory vs available
- finite
- non-finite
- stem
- paradigm
- overlay
- government
- lexical
- head
- modifier
- specifier
- complement
- inherent
- inflected
- agreed
- interjection
- auxiliary
- periphrasis
- modal
- invariable
- distribution
- morphology
- syntax
- phonology
- negative concord
- existential
- impersonal
- nominal vs verbal
- orthogonal
- pragmatic
- register
- T-V
- preterite
- imperfect
- pluperfect
- compound
- strong preterite
- suppletive
- primitive
- relational vs qualifying adjective
- locution
- degree
- relative pronoun
- reflexive
6The six kinds, as a daily habit§
The single transferable takeaway:
When any grammar term confuses you — in Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, or a linguistics paper — ask first: is this a CLASS, a FORM, a FUNCTION, a FEATURE, an OPERATION, or a CONSTRUCTION?
Most confusion is a category error: comparing a FORM to a CLASS ("is a participle an adjective?"), a FEATURE to a FEATURE-value ("is the subjunctive a tense?"), or a CLASS to a FUNCTION ("is este a determiner or a pronoun?").
Ask the kind question first. It costs three seconds and dissolves most grammar confusion before any actual language is involved.
7And the standing caveat§
You leave for Buenos Aires in four weeks.
Both books are references to be served to you in fifteen-minute slices by /spanish-grammara /spanish-* skill, driven by your own errors. Neither is a curriculum. The reps in /spanish-morninga /spanish-* skill and the conversations in Palermo are what actually move your Spanish.
The one exception is 00 §1 — the six kinds. Twenty minutes, not about Spanish, and it makes every grammar page you ever read parseable.
Return to 00-METHOD.md for the master tree, or spanish/00-INDEX.md00-INDEX.md for Book 1.