Spanish Grammar

Spanish has two verbs 'to be': ser and estar. Ser refers to a permanent state, and estar to a temporary state or location. For example, el perro es gris (ser) = 'the dog is grey' - permanent state, but el perro esta afuera (estar) = 'the dog is outside' - location. Es aburido (ser) means 'he is boring', esta aburrido (estar) means 'he is bored'.

Unlike English, adjectives nearly always follow the noun, for example, un programa interesante is 'an interesting program'. They also agree in gender and number with the noun, for example, el gato negro is 'the black cat', but las vacas blancas is 'the white cows'.

In Spanish, nouns are either masculine (mostly ending in 'o') or feminine (mostly ending in 'a'), for example, la muchacha (the girl), el muchacho (the boy). There are exceptions like el programa, el planeta, el problema, and la mano (hand), la foto and la dinamo.
Nouns ending in 'ion' or 'dad' are also feminine, for example, la organizacion and la unidad. Those ending in any other letter simply have to be learned, for example, la piel (skin), but el nivel (level), and la mujer (woman), but el amor (love).

Universities which offer study abroad courses and Costa Rica real estate forums or anything related to Latin America are good source of information for learning Spanish