Key learning points

1. Spanish words ending in a vowel, -n, or -s naturally have penultimate syllable stress, e.g. 'vamos' and 'mundo'.
2. If a word ending in a different consonant has penultimate syllable stress, there is an accent on the stressed vowel.
3. Some Spanish verbs have a completely different meaning when used with a reflexive pronoun, e.g. 'quedar' and 'quedarse'.
4. The reflexive pronoun 'se' means 'himself', 'herself' or 'itself' before a verb, e.g. 'se lava' ('he washes himself').
5. To say 'his', 'her', 'its' before a noun we use the possessive adjectives 'su' (m, f singular) or 'sus' (m, f plural).

Keywords

• Reflexive pronoun - used to indicate doing something to yourself, words like 'myself' and 'yourself'

• Se - reflexive pronoun 'himself', 'herself' or 'itself'

• Possessive adjective - word that goes before a noun to show ownership or belonging

• Su - possessive adjective 'his, 'her' or 'its' for singular nouns

• Sus - possessive adjective 'his, 'her' or 'its' for plural nouns

Common misconception