Learn about talking about past actions and events
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Natalia: Buenos días me llamo Natalia. |
| Carlos: What’s going on? My name is Carlos. |
| Natalia: Did you finish your homework? |
| Carlos: What’s going on pod101 world? Welcome to spanishpod101.com, the fastest, easiest and most fun way to learn Spanish. |
| Natalia: I am Natalia and thanks again for being here with us for this newbie series, season 2 lesson. |
| Carlos: You know Natie, you have to love the excuses the students give. |
| Natalia: Do they have another one though? |
| Carlos: Of course they do, but even on a lie, they are formal. |
| Natalia: One must have priorities. |
| Carlos: So it’s still a conversation between the students and a teacher. So what is the grammar teacher teaching us today Ms. Natie? |
| Natalia: Ms. Natie, okay the preterit tense Carlos. |
| Carlos: Let’s get into today’s conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| MAESTRA: ¿Todos terminaron la tarea? |
| GABRIEL: ¡Ay, maestra! Dejé el libro en un bus, pero sí hice la tarea! |
| SUSANA: ¡Ja! Gabriel, eso no lo cree nadie. |
| GABRIEL: ¡Shhh! Cállate, Susana! |
| SUSANA: Maestra, yo en cambio sí traigo mi tarea y unas oraciones extra! |
| MAESTRA: ¡Qué bien, Susana! |
| Carlos: And now slower. Una vez más esta vez lentamente. |
| MAESTRA: ¿Todos terminaron la tarea? |
| GABRIEL: ¡Ay, maestra! Dejé el libro en un bus, pero sí hice la tarea! |
| SUSANA: ¡Ja! Gabriel, eso no lo cree nadie. |
| GABRIEL: ¡Shhh! Cállate, Susana! |
| SUSANA: Maestra, yo en cambio sí traigo mi tarea y unas oraciones extra! |
| MAESTRA: ¡Qué bien, Susana! |
| Carlos: And now with the translation. Ahora incluiremos la traducción. |
| MAESTRA: ¿Todos terminaron la tarea? |
| TEACHER: Did everyone finish the homework? |
| GABRIEL: ¡Ay, maestra! Dejé el libro en un bus, pero sí hice la tarea! |
| GABRIEL: Ah professor, I left my book on a bus, but I did do the homework. |
| SUSANA: ¡Ja! Gabriel, eso no lo cree nadie. |
| SUSANA: Ha! Gabriel, no one is going to believe that. |
| GABRIEL: ¡Shhh! Cállate, Susana! |
| GABRIEL: Shhh! Be quiet, Susana! |
| SUSANA: Maestra, yo en cambio sí traigo mi tarea y unas oraciones extra! |
| SUSANA: Professor, I on the other hand have my homework and some extra sentences |
| MAESTRA: ¡Qué bien, Susana! |
| TEACHER: That is great, Susana. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Carlos: Man, Susanne is a sucker! |
| Natalia: No she is responsible. |
| Carlos: No she is like, okay “Gabriel left his book on the bus” and she is like, “but you know what, I did my homework and some extra sentences”. I would like to give her a bad grade just for that. |
| Natalia: Why? You see… |
| Carlos: Because it’s annoying. |
| Natalia: You can’t… |
| Carlos: That’s being annoying. |
| Natalia: You cannot grade a person just for being annoying. |
| Carlos: I can too. I am the teacher. |
| Natalia: Oh… |
| Carlos: Natie apparently disagrees with it. |
| Natalia: Yes of course. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Carlos: Okay fine. Let’s look at the vocabulary for today’s lesson. First we have a masculine and feminine noun. |
| Natalia: maestro, maestra |
| Carlos: Teacher, master, expert. |
| Natalia: ma-es-tro, ma-es-tra, maestro, maestra. Por ejemplo. Extraño a mi maestro de escuela. |
| Carlos: I miss my school teacher and now a verb. |
| Natalia: terminar |
| Carlos: To end, to finish, to terminate. |
| Natalia: ter-mi-nar, terminar. Por ejemplo. Ya termine la tarea. |
| Carlos: I already finished the homework and now a pronominal verb. |
| Natalia: callarse |
| Carlos: To be quiet, to shut up. |
| Natalia: ca-llar-se, callarse. A veces es mejor callarse. |
| Carlos: Sometimes it’s better to be quiet and now an indefinite pronoun. |
| Natalia: nadie |
| Carlos: No one, nobody. |
| Natalia: na-die, nadie. Por ejemplo. Nadie está en la casa. |
| Carlos: No one is home and now a verb. |
| Natalia: creer |
| Carlos: To believe, to think. |
| Natalia: cre-er, creer. Por ejemplo. ¿Crees que será divertido? |
| Carlos: Do you think it will be fun and finally a masculine noun. |
| Natalia: libro |
| Carlos: Book. |
| Natalia: li-bro, libro. Mi padre lee muchos libros. |
| Carlos: My father reads many books. |
| Natalia: Carlos, can you tell me all those words. They are pretty easy. |
| Carlos: Sure let me think of it. |
| Natalia: callarse |
| Carlos: callarse |
| Natalia: nadie |
| Carlos: nadie |
| Natalia: creer |
| Carlos: creer |
| Natalia: libro |
| Carlos: Libro. Okay. |
| Natalia: You should tell me a sentence with creer. |
| Carlos: Yo no creo. |
| Natalia: Carlos, not a short, short sentence. |
| Carlos: Why? It’s a sentence. |
| Natalia: Those are three words. Think, creer. Tik-tok tik. Okay, moving on. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Carlos: Let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Natalia: The first word we will look at is a masculine and feminine noun. Maestro, maestra. |
| Carlos: Maestro, maestra. Teacher, master, expert. I miss the sound of that word. |
| Natalia: Me too. |
| Carlos: How was maestro used in the conversation? |
| Natalia: ¡Ay, maestra! Dejé el libro en un bus, pero sí hice la tarea! |
| Carlos: Ah professor, I left my book on a bus but I did do the homework but Natie, would you ever call your teacher maestro. |
| Natalia: I only call maestro my jewelry teacher. That’s the only one that deserve to be called that. |
| Carlos: Okay true but how about another sentence with another meaning of maestro, maestra. |
| Natalia: Well if you need directions, you could say: Bueno maestro, usted me lleva al bulevard. |
| Carlos: Hi there sir, will you take me out to the boulevard. That’s awesome. I’m gonna start calling people maestro. |
| Natalia: Okay let me know how that works for you? |
| Carlos: You know I will. You know what’s next on our plate. |
| Natalia: The verb terminar. |
| Carlos: Ah we’ve gone through this one before, terminar to finish. |
| Natalia: Like in our conversation, the teacher asks the classic question, ¿Todos terminaron la tarea? |
| Carlos: Did everyone finish the homework? You know, I used to always ask that question and I never got an honest answer. |
| Natalia: Of course not. What are they going to do? Raise their hand and volunteer that they didn’t do their homework? |
| Carlos: True. |
| Natalia: Carlos, you know the book you’re reading? |
| Carlos: Yeah why? |
| Natalia: Cuando termines ese libro, ¿me lo prestas? |
| Carlos: Of course you can borrow the book when I am finished as long as I get it back. |
| Natalia: What do you think I am? Carlos, I always give books back because I’ve gotten too many stolen and I know the pain. So no I… |
| Carlos: I am not saying that at all. Relax. Well I know that face okay. |
| Natalia: What face? That’s a nice face. |
| Carlos: Okay Natie, what’s our next word? |
| Natalia: Very fittingly the verb callarse, a pronominal verb that means what Carlos? |
| Carlos: To be quiet, to shut up. |
| Natalia: Okay like in the conversation, when the teacher says ¡Shhh! Cállate, Susana! |
| Carlos: Shhh! Be quiet, Susana! Hmm…I sense another example coming. |
| Natalia: Good because it is not that I have ever said this to you but you know. Callate antes de que te dé una cachetada. |
| Carlos: Shut up before I give you slap across the face. I know you never say that to me. |
| Natalia: I would just like to say that I am not as bad as I am pictured here. |
| Carlos: Yes it’s all a misunderstanding. She is so misunderstood. |
| Natalia: I know. I am not violent. |
| Carlos: Okay let’s move on to next word. |
| Natalia: Okay we go through an indefinite pronoun, nadie. |
| Carlos: Nadie. No one, nobody. |
| Natalia: Like seriously when Gabriel gives the excuse, the only natural response for the teacher is: ¡Ja! Gabriel, eso no lo cree nadie. |
| Carlos: Hah Gabriel, no one is going to believe that. I mean leaving the book on a bus is a better excuse than my dog ate it at least. You know, I always wondered about that because listen, my dog ate it. Since when the dogs eat paper? |
| Natalia: What would happen if actually a dog well not eat it but rip it all in pieces but then think about it. What if a dog actually ripped your homework? Nobody would believe you. |
| Carlos: That’s true. |
| Natalia: Well Carlos, what – everyone enjoys your deep philosophical questions. Here is another sentence using nadie. No hubo nadie en la fiesta, ¡que aburrido! There wasn’t anyone on the party, how boring! |
| Carlos: I hate when that happens on parties or even worse when it’s all guys. |
| Natalia: Ay Carlos, Carlos focus! |
| Carlos: Okay fine. |
| Natalia: Think of the sentence, not the situation in real life and how it towers to you. |
| Carlos: I see. |
| Natalia: Okay. |
| Carlos: Uhoo. |
| Natalia: Well a good use for our next word the verb creer. |
| Carlos: Creer. It means to believe, to think. |
| Natalia: We just saw the sample sentence from our conversation but again the teacher responds to Gabriel. ¡Ja! Gabriel, eso no lo cree nadie. |
| Carlos: Hah Gabriel, no one is going to believe that. Yeah, creer is a verb I use a lot especially when I am having like an extended conversation. It’s one of those words that I notice myself using all the time. |
| Natalia: Or it can be used like this: El doctor no cree que suceda de nuevo. |
| Carlos: The doctor doesn’t think it will happen again. So that could also be translated as, the doctor doesn’t believe it will happen again. |
| Natalia: You could sure you know. Whichever feels more natural to you and last but not least, one of your favorites. |
| Carlos: And what’s that? |
| Natalia: A masculine noun. |
| Carlos: What is it? |
| Natalia: Libro. |
| Carlos: Ah libro, book yes. If I could live in a library, I would. |
| Natalia: I know you would. In the conversation, we heard: Dejé el libro en un bus. So here it is being used to refer as a school book but once again a question I already asked you was |
| Carlos: What was that? |
| Natalia: Cuando termines ese libro ¿me lo prestas? |
| Carlos: I already said I’d lend you the book when I am finished. |
| Natalia: I have it all recorded okay. Okay take your time, take your time though. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Natalia: Well you’ve defined the preterit tense before. Do you remember? |
| Carlos: Sure of course. The preterit tense expresses an action prior to the present or to another action. |
| Natalia: And formation. |
| Carlos: Oh that depends. |
| Natalia: On what? |
| Carlos: On regular or irregular verbs? |
| Natalia: Regular. |
| Carlos: To form the preterit tense for regular verbs, you must first remove the ar, er or ir ending to get the root of the verb and then we add one of the correct preterit endings. |
| Natalia: Right. |
| Carlos: And luckily the preterit endings for all er and ir verbs are identical. |
| Natalia: So that would always make things easier. |
| Carlos: That they do. |
| Natalia: We have gone through these already but Carlos, from our conversation today, which verbs do you recognize that are conjugated in the preterit tense? |
| Carlos: Terminar, to finish and dejar, to leave. |
| Natalia: Well how are they used in the convo again? |
| Carlos: Well when the teacher says, todos terminaron la tarea. |
| Natalia: Did everyone finish their homework? Right, so let’s conjugate terminar again. |
| Carlos: Okay. Yo terminé, I finished. Tú terminaste, you finished informal. Él/Ella/Usted terminó, he/she/you formal finished. |
| Natalia: And plural |
| Carlos: Nosotros terminamos. We finished. Vosotros terminasteis, you all finished. Ellos/Ellas/Ustedes terminaron, they masculine and feminine and you all formal, finished and that was what we saw in the conversation. |
| Natalia: We also have some sample sentences that apply. |
| Carlos: You know they always help. |
| Natalia: Terminamos el trabajo ayer. We finished the job yesterday. Now they had and how was this used in the conversation again? |
| Carlos: Dejé el libro en un bus, pero sí hice la tarea! Ah professor, I left my book on a bus but I did do the homework. |
| Natalia: So now we know, the first person singular of the had in the preterit tense. |
| Carlos: Yeah. |
| Natalia: Yo dejé. |
| Carlos: Yo dejé. |
| Natalia: So then we might as well keep moving. |
| Carlos: Sure. Tú dejaste, you left. Él/Ella/Usted dejó, he/she/you formal left. Nosotros dejamos, we left. Vosotros dejasteis, you all left informal. Ellos/Ellas/Ustedes dejaron, they masculine/feminine and you all left formal. And some sample sentences. |
| Natalia: Now we already established the fact that er and ir verbs conjugations in the preterit tense are identical. |
| Carlos: That we did. |
| Natalia: The example I can give is: Dejamos las maletas en el carro. |
| Carlos: So we left the suitcases in the car. |
| Natalia: So let’s pick one er, ir verb. |
| Carlos: Okay sounds good. How about conocer to know or to meet. |
| Natalia: Okay I got this one. |
| Carlos: Cool. I will do a sample sentence. |
| Natalia: Yo conocí, I knew, I met. Tú conociste, you knew, you met informal. Él/Ella/Usted conoció, he/she/you knew or met formal. Nosotros conocimos, we knew, met. Vosotros conocisteis, you all knew met informal. Ellos/Ellas/Ustedes conocieron, they masculine feminine you all formal knew or met and your sample sentence please. |
| Carlos: La conocí a ella. |
| Natalia: I met her yesterday. |
| Carlos: Remember, there are many, many irregular verbs in the preterit tense on the indicative mood however many of these are grouped in the categories that can be memorized very easily with just little patience. |
| Natalia: For example, consider the verb tener, to have, if we learned that yo tuve means I had, then we already also know that mantuve means I maintained and that contuve means I contained and that sostuve means I sustained. |
| Carlos: I think we brought that up in another lesson. |
| Natalia: Hey repetition is the key of learning. |
Outro |
| Carlos: Point taken. Well you know what, that just about does it for today. Okay. Hasta luego! |
| Natalia: Chao! |
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