Explanation

Quick Answer

¡Hola!(Hello!) Do you want to communicate en español(in Spanish) on your first day of school? Talking to your compañeros(classmates) about your clases(classes) and your profesores(teachers) is a great way to start! This article will help you master the main phrases that you will need on your first day of school!

Spanish Classroom Vocabulary

Let's start off with the vocabulary words in this skill! First, let's look at the different classes you may take at school.

Class Names in Spanish

SpanishEnglish
EspañolSpanish
LiteraturaLiterature
BiologíaBiology
MatemáticasMath
FísicaPhysics
CienciasScience
FrancésFrench
AlemánGerman
QuímicaChemistry
InformáticaComputer Science
EstadísticaStatistics
HistoriaHistory
GeografíaGeography
ArteArt
MúsicaMusic
ReligiónReligion
Educación FísicaPE

Just like in English, words like Música (Music) and Historia (History) are capitalized in Spanish when they refer to the name of a class. When they're used in general, they are not capitalized.

For example:

examples

Mi clase favorita es Música.
My favorite class is Music.

Me gusta tocar música.
I love to play music.

Want to practice these words? Check out the following vocab list!

School Supplies in Spanish

Let's look at the words related to material escolar(school supplies) that you will need on your first day of school.

SpanishEnglish
la mochilathe backpack
la pizarrathe board
la tizathe chalk
el cuadernothe notebook
el librothe book
la mesathe table
la sillathe chair
la puertathe door
el bolígrafothe pen
el lápizthe pencil
el papelthe paper
el estuchethe pencil case
la agendathe planner
el diccionariothe dictionary
la computadorathe computer
los rotuladoresthe markers
la gomathe eraser
la calculadorathe calculator

Want to practice these words? Check out the following vocab list!

Finally, let's look at some more words that will definitely come in handy once you start interacting at school.

Useful Spanish School Words

SpanishEnglish
el profesorthe (male) teacher
la profesorathe (female) teacher
el compañerothe (male) classmate
la compañerathe (female) classmate
el amigothe (male) friend
la amigathe (female) friend
el salón de clasethe classroom
el despachothe office
las horas de oficinathe office hours
el edificiothe building
el gimnasiothe gym
la residenciathe dormitory

Want to practice these and other school words? Check out the following vocab lists!

Grammar

Ready to review the grammar you'll need to talk about school life in Spanish? Let's get to it!

Short-Form Possessive Adjectives in Spanish

Short-form possessive adjectives are the most common way to express possession in Spanish. They must agree with the noun they describe in gender and number. This doesn't end up being too complicated, because only nosotrosand vosotroshave distinct masculine and feminine forms.

Remember that these adjectives match the possessed entity in gender and number, not the possessor.

List of Short-Form Possessive Adjectives

EnglishMasculine Singular FormMasculine Plural FormFeminine Singular FormFeminine Plural Form
mymimismimis
your (singular, informal)tutustutus
your (singular, formal)susussusus
his, her, itssusussusus
ournuestronuestrosnuestranuestras
your (plural, Latin America)susussusus
your (plural, Spain)vuestrovuestrosvuestravuestras
theirsusussusus

Let's look at some examples:

examples
Mi profesor es Ramón.
My teacher is Ramon.
Mis clases favoritas son Español y Biología.
My favorite classes are Spanish and Biology.

Want to learn more on possessive adjectives and pronouns? Check out the following skill!

Ser in Spanish

You can use the verb ser(to be) to talk about your teachers, classes, and classmates. Let's review the present tense conjugation of ser!

Ser Conjugation

SubjectSpanishEnglish
yosoyI am
eresyou are
ustedesyou are (formal)
él, ellaeshe/she is
nosotrossomoswe are
vosotrossoisyou are
ustedessonyou are (plural)
ellos/ellassonthey are

Check out these examples of sentences with short-form possessive adjectives and the verb ser.

examples
Mis profesores son Paulina y Roger.
My teachers are Paulina and Roger.
Mi mochila es amarilla.
My backpack is yellow.

Want to learn more about the verb ser? Check out out the following skill!

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