Learn the answer to the question 'When should I use E instead of Y?'
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| Ask a Teacher, Lesson 8 - When do you have to use the conjunction e instead of y? |
| Hi everybody! Rosa here. Welcome to Ask a Teacher, where I’ll answer some of your most common Spanish questions. |
| The question for this lesson is… |
| When do you have to use the conjunction e instead of y? |
| First, let’s go over some background information on how to use y. |
| Y is a conjunction in Spanish that means “and.” It’s a conjugación coordinada copulativa or “copulative coordinating conjunction.” It’s used to connect words or sentences. |
| An example with words would be-- |
| He estudiado historia y literatura, meaning “I’ve studied history and literature.” Here, the words historia, “history,” and literatura, “literature,” are connected with the word y, “and.” |
| An example with sentences would be-- |
| El sábado iré a Madrid y el domingo quiero ir al museo del Prado. meaning “On Saturday I will go to Madrid and on Sunday I want to go to the Prado Museum.” Here, y, meaning “and,” is used to connect both weekend activities. |
| Now, on to the question for this lesson. When the word y precedes a word that begins with an i sound, it changes to e. This includes h and i together because h is silent in Spanish. |
| Let’s go through some examples so you can learn when to use e instead of y. |
| Mañana quiero levantarme temprano e ir de compras means “Tomorrow I want to get up early and go shopping.” Here, the verb ir, meaning “to go,” begins with an i. Therefore, y changes to e. |
| Let’s do one more example-- |
| Son hermanos, pero parecen padre e hijo. “They are brothers, but they look like father and son.” Here, the word hijo, “son,” is spelled h-i but has an i sound. Therefore, y changes to e. |
| A good thing to remember is words that have been borrowed from other languages such as English and maintain their original pronunciation also require y to change, like in this example-- |
| Me pidió dirección e e-mail, meaning “He asked for my address and e-mail.” This is because the word “e-mail” has an i sound. |
| Now, here's the tricky part. If the word begins with i or hi but doesn't make an i sound, then you don’t have to use e instead of y. |
| For example, words that have an initial diphthong like... |
| Coge la olla y hierve las verduras, meaning “Pick the pot and boil the vegetables,” don’t need y to change as the sound is different than i. |
| So why do the words change? That’s easy. Because it’s easier to pronounce! |
| How was this lesson? Pretty interesting, right? |
| Do you have any more questions? Leave them in the comments below and I’ll try to answer them! |
| ¡Hasta luego! “See you later!” |
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