Contents of Platiquemos

Level 1

• Units 1 and 2: These chapters contain basic greetings, words and expressions that will give you a practical start in learning the language. A primary purpose of Units 1 and 2 is to give students a good grounding in pronunciation. Because of the importance of pronunciation, each utterance in these units is spoken by six different speakers, representing Mexico, Spain, the Caribbean, the Southern Cone. We have also included pronunciations from non-native speakers with good pronunciations to give you a basis for comparison. The song for Unit 1 is La Adelita, perhaps the most famous song from the Mexican Revolution; for Unit 2 La Malagueña from Spain.
• Unit 3: Gender of singular nouns and adjectives. The song for Unit 3 is Alma Llanera, a classic song from the Llano region of northern South America.
• Unit 4: Number in nouns and adjectives, and the irregular verb estar. The song is En mi viejo San Juan, from Puerto Rico in the classic "trio" genre which is found in music from almost every Spanish-speaking country.
• Unit 5: The irregular verb ser. The song is Guitarra, guitarra mía composed by Argentina's immortal Carlos Gardel and sung by the legendary Trío Los Panchos.
• Unit 6: Present tense forms of regular verbs ending in -ar, and the use of definite articles with titles in reference to persons. The song is El amor de mi bohío, a Cuban folk song.
• Unit 7: Present tense forms of regular verbs ending in -er, the demonstrative forms este, ese, aquel, and the distribution of ser and estar. The song is Yo vendo unos ojos negros, a folk song from Chile.
• Unit 8: Present tense forms of regular verbs ending in -ir, obligatory contractions, and noun-adjective agreement. The song is the Mexican National Anthem Himno nacional de la República Mexicana, representative in both style and lyrics of patriotic music from all over Latin America.
• Unit 9: The irregular auxiliary verb haber, regular -do forms in the present perfect construction, full forms of possessives, and adjective position. The song is Cristo ya nació en Paracaguina, from Nicaragua.

Level 2

• Unit 10: Personal a, direct clitic pronouns, -do forms functioning as modifiers, theme class in present tense forms.
• Unit 11: Shortened forms of possessives, the negative particle with verbs, unemphatic "some, any" from English.
• Unit 12: Subject pronouns, pronouns after phrase relators, components of phrases, statement intonation patterns in normal and contrastive statements, adjective agreement in remote positions.
• Unit 13: -ndo forms and the present progressive construction, possessive constructions with de, nominalized possessive constructions, question intonation patterns in information questions, placement of negative participles.
• Unit 14: Present tense forms of the irregular verbs ir, dar, and ver, the periphrastic future construction, question intonation patterns in yes-no questions, theme class in -do forms of verbs.
• Unit 15: Indirect clitic pronouns with one object, indirect clitic pronouns with two objects, question intonation patterns in yes questions, review of possessive constructions.
• Unit 16: Redundant constructions with indirect clitic pronouns, question intonation patterns in "no" questions, review of possessive constructions.
• Unit 17: Past I (preterit) forms of regular verbs, question intonation patterns in affirmative confirmation questions, possessive phrases with quien.

Level 3

• Unit 18: Past II (imperfect) tense forms of regular verbs, past II tense forms of irregular verbs, question intonation patterns in negative confirmation questions, review of word order in information questions.
• Unit 19: Past I (preterit) and II (imperfect) in the same construction, question intonation patterns in "echo" questions, review of Spanish simple tense for English verb construction in interrogatories.
• Unit 20: Direct and indirect clitics in the same construction, exclamatory qué, cómo; question intonation patterns in choice questions, review of postposed full-form possessives.
• Unit 21: Irregular preterit verb forms (verbs with extended stems, or verbs taking regular er or ir endings, verbs with modified stems, verbs with suppleted stems), statement intonation intonation patterns in deliberate statements, review of theme class in imperfect tense forms.
• Unit 22: Present tense irregular verbs with stem vowel changing, statement intonation patterns, sentence modifiers, review of theme class in preterit tense forms.
• Unit 23: Present tense irregular verbs (velar stem extensions and mixed stem-vowel changing), present tense of miscellaneous irregular verbs (caer, traer, oir, hacer, decir, saber), statement intonation patterns in leave-taking, review of the obligatory clause relator que.
• Unit 24: Reflexive clitic pronouns, reflexive clitic pronouns with progressive and periphrastic future verb constructions, expressions for time of day, review of gender class assignment of certain nouns.

Level 4

• Unit 25: Reflexive and indirect clitic pronouns in the same construction, review of verb-subject order in dependent clauses.
• Unit 26: Reflexive and indirect clitic pronouns in the same construction, review of verb-subject order in certain dependent clauses.
• Unit 27: Formal and informal command forms for regular verbs, formal and informal command forms for irregular verbs, review of nominalized possessives.
• Unit 28: Regular and irregular indirect command forms, hortatory command forms, review of Past I (preterit) tense forms.
• Unit 29: Clitic pronouns with command forms, clitic pronouns in constructions with infinitives and with -ndo forms, review of present perfect construction.
• Unit 30: General review, Units 1-29. Verb review.

Level 5

• Unit 31: Past progressive constructions, nominalized verb forms as subjects of sentences, -ndo forms in absolute constructions, vocabulary enrichment: business terminology.
• Unit 32: Cardinal numbers, days of the week, months of the year, semantic correlations: saber-conocer, pedir-preguntar, strong stress as a function differentiator in verbs, 1 singular present vs. 2-3 singular preterit and singular command vs 1 singular preterit, vocabulary enrichment: economic development.
• Unit 33: Articles before nominalized adjectives, ordinal numbers, Spanish reflexive clitics as the equivalent of English possessives, definite articles with days of the week and time expressions, vocabulary enrichment: Latin American geography.
• Unit 34: Phrase relators por and para, colors, English subject-verb vs Spanish object-verb, relative position of the parts of a Spanish progressive construction questions, vocabulary enrichment: Latin American urban life and public facilities.
• Unit 35: Nominalization of articles, semantic correlations tomar-llevar, salir-dejar, position of clitics in commands, adjective agreement, hundreds, vocabulary enrichment: Education in Latin America.
• Unit 36: Present subjunctive after ojalá, Spanish infinitive for English "-ing" forms as objects of relators, placement of verb modifiers, vocabulary enrichment: Rural Life.
• Unit 37: Present subjunctive in noun clauses functioning as the object of a verb, indefinite adjectives as modifiers, gender in demonstratives, vocabulary enrichment: Latin American history.

Level 6

• Unit 38: Present subjunctive in noun clauses functioning as the subject of a verb, use of definite articles, generalized plurals, uncountables vs countables, indefinite articles with modified nouns after ser, vocabulary enrichment: "Panamericanism".
• Unit 39: The derivational suffix -(es)it-, the derivational suffix -ísim, the compounding suffix -mente, Spanish verbs with included subject, the adjective todo, vocabulary enrichment: The Organization of American States.
• Unit 40: Present subjunctive in noun modifying clauses, adjective position-obligatory postposed adjectives, nominalization of demonstratives, vocabulary enrichment: The OAS and Regional Conflict.
• Unit 41: Obligatory occurrence of present subjunctive in verb modifying clauses, compound phrase relators, nominalization of possessives, vocabulary enrichment: Crime and Law Enforcement in Latin America.
• Unit 42: Conditioned occurrence of present subjunctive in verb modifying clauses, compound clause relators, nominalization of descriptive adjectives, vocabulary enrichment: Traffic Problems in Latin America.
• Unit 43: Comparison of inequality, the position of no in expressing contradictions and reservations, English verb + relator, Spanish verb, vocabulary enrichment: Transportation Problems in Latin America: Roads.

Level 7

• Unit 44: Comparison of equality, exclamatory expressions, irregular -do forms, English verb-relator-verb equivalent to Spanish verb-verb, stress pattern contrast in singular regular and irregular preterit (past I) forms, vocabulary enrichment: Transportation Problems in Latin America: Sea and Air.
• Unit 45: The past perfect construction, shortening of certain adjectives, the -do form for postures, English verb-adverb- "to"-verb vs. Spanish verb-adjective-verb, theme class in present subjunctive forms, vocabulary enrichment: Problems of Daily Life in Latin America.
• Unit 46: Comparison of identity and similarity, word order for verb and verb position of adverbial phrase modifier, English verb + object vs. Spanish verb + relator+ object, Spanish reflexive verb + relator + object, stem changing verbs in present tense, nominalization in present tense, nominalization in comparisons.
• Unit 47: The past subjunctive, present perfect and past perfect subjunctives, Spanish verb+relator+infinitive, the intensifier mismo, hortatory reflexives, readings/vocabulary enrichment.
• Unit 48: The conditional tense and the conditional perfect construction, conditional sentences with a subjunctive verb and a conditional verb, the periphrastic conditional, the neuter article lo with nominalized adjectives, stem changing verbs in Past 1 (preterit), the present progressive construction with alternate conjugated verbs, readings/vocabulary enrichment.
• Unit 49: Idioms and sentence structures, the future tense and the future perfect construction, conditional sentences, irregular present, irregular Past I (preterit) forms, gender in pronouns after phrase relators, readings/vocabulary enrichment.

Level 8

• Unit 50: Idioms and sentence structures, past subjunctive in main clauses, past subjunctive after ojalá, aunque and como si, Spanish indirect clitic for English "for", Spanish second person familiar commands, Past I (preterit), past perfect, and present perfect in contrast, readings/vocabulary enrichment.
• Unit 51: Sentence structures and idioms, indicative and subjunctive after expressions of uncertainty, the future and conditional of probability, the passive voice, formal and familiar forms of address in Past I (preterit), Past I (preterit) and Past II (imperfect) in contrast, commands with velar stem extended verbs, readings/vocabulary enrichment.
• Unit 52: Sentence structures and idioms, pero vs. sino: special uses of sino, constructions with desde, desde que, hace, desde hace, hacía, desde hacía, adjective position, English noun-noun: Spanish noun-relator-noun, sequence of tenses with subjunctive constructions, readings/vocabulary enrichment.
• Unit 53: Sentence structures and idioms, irregular -ndo forms, relative pronouns, second person plural vosotros forms, por and para, the indirect command, future and conditional, readings/vocabulary enrichment.
• Unit 54: Sentence structures and idioms, short answer patterns, correlatives, the familiar vos forms (the voseo), subjunctive after clause relators, readings/vocabulary enrichment.
• Unit 55: Sentence structures and idioms, common derivational suffixes, the noun-forming suffix -idad, the noun-forming suffixes -ero and -ería, the noun-and-adjective forming suffixes -ante and -(i)ente, the noun-forming suffix -dor(a), the noun-forming suffix -ción, the noun-forming suffix -miento, the noun-forming suffix -ista, the noun-forming suffix -ez, the noun-forming suffix -eza, the adjective-forming suffix -oso(a), review Units 31-55, readings/vocabulary enrichment.

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