Learn about talking about conditional situations
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Natalia: Buenos días, soy Natalia. |
| Carlos: What’s going on? My name is Carlos. “It looks like you’ve been robbed.” |
| Natalia: ¡Hola a todos! |
| Carlos: What’s going on pod101 world? My name is Carlos and next to me as always is the better part of this pod101.com team, Natalia. |
| Natalia: Carlos. |
| Carlos: Oh man, what are we looking at today? |
| Natalia: The conditional tense. |
| Carlos: Okay, we can do this. |
| Natalia: So who is talking in today’s conversation? |
| Carlos: Well, it looks like Paul is talking to a receptionist when he finds out something that no-one likes. |
| Natalia: What’s that? |
| Carlos: He finds a hole in his back pocket. |
| Natalia: He’s been robbed?! |
| Carlos: Yes. Man, those guys are skillful. |
| Natalia: A little too skillful sometimes. So well you know the conversation is formal. |
| Carlos: Receptionists tend to keep things formal. |
| Natalia: True. |
| Carlos: And don’t forget you can leave us a comment on this lesson |
| Natalia: So if you have a question... |
| Carlos: Or some feedback... |
| Natalia: Please leave us comments. |
| Carlos: It’s very easy to do. Just stop by spanish101.com... |
| Natalia: Click on comments, enter you comment and name, that’s it. |
| Carlos: We are looking forward to hearing from you. |
| Natalia: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| RECEPCIONISTA: Aquí tengo su reserva. Es usted el señor Paul Feldman, ¿cierto? |
| PAUL: Sí, soy yo. Aquí tiene mi pasaporte. |
| RECEPCIONISTA: Perfecto. ¿Desearía pagar ahora o al salir? |
| PAUL: Prefiero pagar ahora... A ver... ¿¡Qué!? ¿¡Dónde está mi billetera!? |
| RECEPCIONISTA: Hay un hueco en el bolsillo trasero de su pantalón. Parece que le han robado, señor. |
| PAUL: ¡Estoy frito! ¿Señor, disculpe si lo molesto, pero podría usar la computadora para mandar un correo? Como usted sabe, es muy urgente. |
| RECEPCIONISTA: Por supuesto. Hay una computadora en el lobby, pasando los muebles, a la derecha. |
| RECEPTIONIST: I have your reservation here. Sir, you are Mr. Paul Feldman, right? |
| PAUL: Yes I am. Here's my passport. |
| RECEPTIONIST: Perfect. Would you care to pay now or when you leave? |
| PAUL: I prefer to pay now... Let's see... What!? Where is my wallet!? |
| RECEPTIONIST: There's a hole in the back pocket of your pants. It looks like you've been robbed, Sir. |
| PAUL: I'm done! Sir, excuse me if I inconvenience you, but could I use the computer to send an email? As you know, it's very urgent. |
| RECEPTIONIST: Of course. There's a computer in the lobby, just on the other side of the furniture on the right. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Carlos: Naty, ¿alguna vez te han robado la cartera? Have you ever had your purse stolen? |
| Natalia: Not exactly my purse but my cellphone. |
| Carlos: I remember that. |
| Natalia: How about you? ¿Te han robado la billetera? Have you ever had your wallet stolen? |
| Carlos: Nunca. |
| Natalia: ¿Nunca? |
| Carlos: No. |
| Natalia: ¿Y alguna otra cosa? |
| Carlos: No |
| Natalia: ¿Algo más? Algo… la billetera, cámara, carro, casa... |
| Carlos: Nunca. |
| Natalia: Anything? |
| Carlos: No one has ever robbed me. |
| Natalia: Why? |
| Carlos: I don’t know. I never get robbed and I mean I’m lucky. |
| Natalia: Well, that’s a good thing I guess. |
| Carlos: Actually no, they did rob me once in Spain but I got my stuff back. |
| Natalia: I say we move on to vocabulary. |
| Carlos: Okay, so now the time to move on to the vocabulary section of today’s lesson guide. Here we are going to break these words down giving you the word class and translation of each. First word we have a verb. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Natalia: “Desear”. |
| Carlos: “To desire”, “to wish”, “to care for.” |
| Natalia: “De-se-ar”, “desear”. |
| Carlos: Como por ejemplo... |
| Natalia: “Deseo todo lo mejor para ti”. |
| Carlos: “I wish all the best for you.” Esta vez tenemos un sustantivo masculino. |
| Natalia: “Hueco”. |
| Carlos: “Hole.” |
| Natalia: “Hue-co”, “hueco”. |
| Carlos: And the sample sentence is... |
| Natalia: “Hay un hueco en tu camisa. ¿Qué pasó?” |
| Carlos: “There’s a hole in your shirt, what happened?” This time an adverb. |
| Natalia: “Ahora”. |
| Carlos: “Now”, “just now”, “right away.” |
| Natalia: “A-ho-ra”, “ahora”. |
| Carlos: Como escuchamos en el ejemplo... |
| Natalia: “Ahora salimos”. |
| Carlos: “We leave right away.” Moving on we have another masculine noun. |
| Natalia: “Bolsillo”. |
| Carlos: “Pocket.” |
| Natalia: “Bol-si-llo”, “bolsillo”. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Carlos: Como escuchamos en el ejemplo... |
| Natalia: “¿Qué tienes en el bolsillo?” |
| Carlos: “What have you got in your pocket?” La penúltima palabra de hoy es el adjetivo... |
| Natalia: “Trasero, trasera”. |
| Carlos: That could be hard. |
| Natalia: “Tra-se-ro, tra-se-ra”, “trasero, trasera”. |
| Carlos: As we hear in the example... |
| Natalia: “Salgamos por la puerta trasera de la casa”. |
| Carlos: “Let’s leave through the back door of the house.” Y para terminar escucharemos un sustantivo masculino. |
| Natalia: “Mueble”. |
| Carlos: “Piece of furniture”. |
| Natalia: “Mue-ble”, “mueble”. |
| Carlos: And finally the example sentence. |
| Natalia: “No quiero llenar el apartamento con muebles”. |
| Carlos: “I don’t want to fill the apartment up with furniture.” |
| Natalia: Carlos, ¿cómo se pronuncia la “ll” de “bolsillo”? |
| Carlos: “Bolsillo”. |
| Natalia: “Bolsillo”. |
| Carlos: “Bolsillo”. |
| Natalia: “Cuchillo”. |
| Carlos: “Cuchillo”. |
| Natalia: “Tontillo”. |
| Carlos: “Tontillo”. |
| Natalia: That’s fun. Okay, you are doing good. |
| Carlos: Thank you. Ahora estudiemos el uso de algunos vocablos. |
| Natalia: Excelente. |
| Carlos: So our first word can be figured out by the sound of it in my opinion. |
| Natalia: “Desear”. |
| Carlos: Yes, “desear”, “to wish”, which is easily derived at from the similar sounding desire. |
| Natalia: “¿Desearía pagar ahora o al salir?” |
| Carlos: “Would you care to pay now or when you leave?” |
| Natalia: So how is this verb being used here? |
| Carlos: Ya hemos dicho que significa “to wish” but here you can clearly see that it’s used like we use the word “care” in English, especially in the conditional tense. As we’ll find out in today’s grammar point. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Natalia: ¿Desearías continuar? |
| Carlos: ¡Me encantaría! |
| Natalia: Carlos, estudiemos la palabra “hueco”. “Hay un hueco en el bolsillo trasero de su pantalón”. |
| Carlos: “There’s a hole in the back pocket of your pants.” |
| Natalia: It’s funny, this word “hueco” which means “hole” can be used in Spanish like we use the phrase in English. A hole in the wall or to refer to a cheap usually dirty bar or restaurant. |
| Carlos: For example... |
| Natalia: “Me parece que hay un hueco por esa calle”. “I think there’s a hole in the wall somewhere on that street.” |
| Carlos: There’s something usually charming about a hole in the wall in an establishment. |
| Natalia: Okay, moving on I say “bolsillo”. |
| Carlos: “Bolsillo”. |
| Natalia: Okay, what’s a “bolso”? |
| Carlos: A bag. |
| Natalia: So then what’s a “bolsillo”? |
| Carlos: The diminutive of “bolso”? |
| Natalia: Well, yes but that doesn’t answer my question. |
| Carlos: Pues dime tú, ¿qué significa? |
| Natalia: Okay, it means pocket. Escuchamos esta palabra en la conversación de hoy cuando la recepcionista le dice a Paul “hay un hueco en el bolsillo trasero de su pantalón”. |
| Carlos: What’s “trasero” mean? |
| Natalia: Okay, so “trasero” is an adjective related to the word “atrás” which means “behind”. “Trasero” means “back” as in “la puerta trasera”, “the back door”, or “el bolsillo trasero”, “the back pocket.” |
| Carlos: And what’s the opposite? |
| Natalia: “Delantero”. |
| Carlos: Accept my humble offering of one slaughtered lamb grammar goddess. |
| Natalia: I take a coffee and a muffin, Carlos. Okay, I say we move on to “mueble”. ¡Odio esta palabra! |
| Carlos: ¿La odias? |
| Natalia: Can’t stand it. |
| Carlos: ¿Por qué? |
| Natalia: Okay, there’s no good direct translation for it. |
| Carlos: Well, where did it come up in the conversation? |
| Natalia: Cuando la recepcionista dice “hay una computadora en el lobby, pasando los muebles, a la derecha”. |
| Carlos: “There’s a computer in the lobby just on the other side of the furniture on the right.” |
| Natalia: The thing is “mueble” refers to any piece of furniture. |
| Carlos: Right, you know it was confusing when I was buying my kitchen appliances like my stove, my fridge and what not because they were all called “muebles”. It’s like when I was renting my apartment it said “todos muebles nuevos” and I walked in there was nothing there and I was like “wait what about that?” they meant like the cabinets and like the sink and I was like okay because in English furniture refers to couches and beds and things of that sort. |
| Natalia: Which is exactly why I don’t like the word. |
| Carlos: Stick around and hate with us in the grammar point coming up next. Today on Sapnishpod101.com see Carlos and Natalia hates. |
| Natalia: Carlos. |
| Carlos: Yes. |
| Natalia: Time to flex those verb muscles. |
| Carlos: A definite weak point I’m not going to lie. |
| Natalia: Well, that’s why you work it out. The conditional tense. |
| Carlos: Okay, I kind of got this. |
| Natalia: Okay, so how is it formed? |
| Carlos: Watch with the endings “ia”, “ias” and “ia”. “Ia”, “ias”, “ia”, it is singular and with “iamos”, “iais” and “ian” in the plural for all regular “ar”, “er, and “ir” verbs. I mean seriously, all for the price of one. |
| Natalia: When do you use the conditional? |
| Carlos: Well, the conditional is used: one, to express a future time in the past. Two, to indicate a conjecture or possibility. Three, to show the softening of a statement and four, to show something hypothetic. |
| Natalia: Right, the conditional tense is generally translated with the infinitive verb following either the moral verb, “would” or “could.” “Yo pensaría” means “I would think” or “like to think.” |
| Carlos: And I think I used it most when ordering something “me gustaria”, “I would like.” |
| Natalia: However we also use the verb “poder” in the condition “podrías ayudarme” we saw “podría” in today’s lesson’s conversation. We also saw “desearía”, “would you care”, “would you prefer.” This is a very polite way to speak not confrontational. |
| Carlos: Good to know. |
| Natalia: “Yo invertiría dinero en eso”. |
| Carlos: “I would invest my money on that.” |
| Natalia: “Así parecería”. |
| Carlos: “So it would seem.” |
| Natalia: So we see that for all the regular “ar”, “er” and “ir” verbs, the conditional endings are the same. |
| Carlos: I know this makes them a lot easier to memorize. |
| Natalia: What’s more, if we think back to the future tense, we remember that they were used to complete form of the infinitive and then add the future endings to form the future tense. |
| Carlos: Right, it makes sense that the conditional tense would acquire the complete infinitive and then the conditional endings as well, following the same patterns as the future because the conditional tense is a future tense but it’s clearly not the absolute future. |
| Natalia: Well, this will become clearer as time goes on and you learn more of these tenses. For now try your best to remember the formation of the conditional in the context in which is used, it will make you solve more parts. |
| Carlos: As always context is key. |
| Natalia: Carlos, ya llegó el momento de darle la tarea. |
| Carlos: That’s right, before we wrap up for today it’s time to assign today’s homework. |
| Natalia: In today’s grammar point we studied the uses of conditional tenses in Spanish and said that it can be used to one, express the future time in the past, two, to indicate a conjunction or a possibility, three, to show the softening of a statement and four to show something hypothetic. |
| Carlos: We are going to give you five sentences is Spanish, what you have to do is translate each to English and figure out if the conditional tense is being used. One, to express a future time in the past, two, to indicate conjecture or possibility, three, to show the softening of a statement and four to show something hypothetic. Ready? |
| Natalia: ¡Ahí vamos! Número uno, “¿te podría pedir un favor?”. Número dos, “te dije que vendríamos tarde”. Número tres, “estaríamos contentos de recibiros si vosotros vinierais”. Número cuatro, “¿podría comer un helado?”. Número cinco, “¿me ayudarías?”. |
Outro |
| Carlos: Now remember brainiacs you can always check out the answers and the comments on the answers by downloading the premium audio track titled tarea, homework. Well, that about does it for today. Gracias por escucharnos, búsquenos la próxima semana. ¡Chao! |
| Natalia: ¡Que les vaya bien! ¡Chao! |
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