Learn about talking about actions in the past
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Natalia: Buenos días, me llamo Natalia. |
| Carlos: What’s going on? My name is Carlos. |
| Natalia: “It makes you feel like eating there.” |
| Carlos: What’s going on pod101 world? My name is Carlos and welcome to spanishpod101.com. The fastest, easiest and pretty much best way to learn Spanish. |
| Natalia: I’m Natalia and thanks again for being here with us on this beginner series season two lesson. |
| Carlos: Naty, you know I had lunch at the best soda the other day. |
| Natalia: What did you have? |
| Carlos: I had a “casado con pollo”. |
| Natalia: You know sometimes, that’s like the only thing that hit’s the spot. |
| Carlos: You know Patricia and Rebeca are trying to make a decision too but Rebecca wants a “casado”. |
| Natalia: That’s a good choice. I love sodas you all know that already but they are very informal. Just like the conversation. |
| Carlos: Ah very slick, Naty. |
| Natalia: Not as slick as my explanation for irregular verbs in the preterit tense, Carlos. Wait and see. |
| Carlos: Alright, well, before that, let’s get into today’s conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| PATRICIA: Yo creo que deberíamos ir a una soda a almorzar. |
| REBECCA: Hoy es sábado, en la soda de la esquina hay un casados buenísimo. |
| PATRICIA: Sí, esa señora fue inteligente en abrir una soda, ¡cocina tan rico! |
| REBECCA: ¡Y lo mantiene todo tan limpio!... que dan ganas de comer ahí. |
| PATRICIA: ¡Decidido! Vamos por un casado. |
| PATRICIA: I think we should go have lunch at a Soda. |
| REBECCA: Today is Saturday, in the soda on the corner there are really good Casados. |
| PATRICIA: That lady was smart to open a Soda, she cooks so well! |
| REBECCA: And she keeps everything so clean!... it makes you feel like eating there. |
| PATRICIA: It is decided, let's go for a Casado. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Carlos: Alright, let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. What we have first, Naty? |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Natalia: Tenemos un verbo auxiliar, “deber”. |
| Carlos: “Should”, “ought to”, “duty.” |
| Natalia: “De-ber”, “deber”. |
| Carlos: Como por ejemplo... |
| Natalia: “Debemos hacer algo diferente”. |
| Carlos: “We should do something different.” To continue, tenemos un adverbio. |
| Natalia: “Hoy”. |
| Carlos: “Today.” |
| Natalia: “Hoy”, “hoy”. |
| Carlos: Como por ejemplo... |
| Natalia: “Hoy va a ser un buen día”. |
| Carlos: “Today is going to be a good day.” A continuación tenemos el sustantivo masculino... |
| Natalia: “Sábado”. |
| Carlos: “Saturday.” |
| Natalia: “Sá-ba-do”, “sábado”. |
| Carlos: A ver un ejemplo... |
| Natalia: “Hoy es sábado”. |
| Carlos: “Today is Saturday.” Y ahora estudiaremos un verbo. |
| Natalia: “Abrir”. |
| Carlos: “To open.” |
| Natalia: “A-brir”, “abrir”. |
| Carlos: Como por ejemplo... |
| Natalia: “¿Puedes abrir la puerta, por favor?” |
| Carlos: “Can you please open the door?” La próxima palabra es un adjetivo. |
| Natalia: “Limpio, limpia”. |
| Carlos: “Clean.” |
| Natalia: “Lim-pio, lim-pia”, “limpio, limpia”. |
| Carlos: A ver otro ejemplillo, Naty? |
| Natalia: “La casa está limpia”. |
| Carlos: “The house is clean.” La próxima palabra es un verbo. |
| Natalia: “Almorzar”. |
| Carlos: “To have lunch”, “to eat lunch.” |
| Natalia: “Al-mor-zar”, “almorzar”. |
| Carlos: Como por ejemplo... |
| Natalia: “Nosotros almorzamos pollo”. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Carlos: “We have chicken for lunch.” Alright, let’s take a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases for this lesson. |
| Natalia: Okay, the first word phrase we’ll look at is “deber”. |
| Carlos: “Deber”. That means “ought to”, “duty”, right? |
| Natalia: Yes and the Spanish definition is “estar obligado a algo por la ley divina, natural o positiva”. |
| Carlos: Ah there we go, covering it from both angles. |
| Natalia: Do you know what kind of verb it is? |
| Carlos: It’s an auxiliary verb. |
| Natalia: Right how about an example sentence? |
| Carlos: You read my mind. |
| Natalia: “Debes acabar antes de que lleguen”. |
| Carlos: “You have to finish before they arrive.” You know I can think of a related phrase. |
| Natalia: Which would be? |
| Carlos: “Tener que”. |
| Natalia: And why is that related? |
| Carlos: Because they both express a sense of obligation. |
| Natalia: Right, when you combine “tener” plus “que” plus an infinitive you get another expression of obligation or necessity. Do you have a sample sentence? |
| Carlos: Sure. “Tengo que estudiar mi lección”. “I have to study for my lesson.” Which I did before this one so that I can answer this exact question. |
| Natalia: Plan your work, work your plan right? |
| Carlos: What’s our next word Naty? |
| Natalia: “Hoy”. |
| Carlos: “Hoy”, pretty easy. “Today.” An adverb right? |
| Natalia: Right, in Spanish we define “hoy” as “en este día, en el día presente”. |
| Carlos: Pretty easy you know I think I can give us a sample sentence for this one as well. |
| Natalia: Be my guest. |
| Carlos: “¿Qué día es hoy?” |
| Natalia: “What day is today?” Here are some related words. |
| Carlos: Let me guess, “ayer”, “yesterday” and “mañana”, “tomorrow.” |
| Natalia: Well Carlos if you want to do everything! Go ahead. |
| Carlos: No, no. You can do the next one. |
| Natalia: Okay, “abrir”. |
| Carlos: A verb which means? |
| Natalia: “To open”. “Descubrir o hacer patente lo que está cerrado u oculto”. |
| Carlos: Thanks for that definition. And a sample sentence? |
| Natalia: “Ya puedes abrir los ojos”. |
| Carlos: “You can open your eyes now.” |
| Natalia: Carlos you have to let me do some of this. Sample sentences as well or else they are going to fire me because if you know all this Spanish then what do I do? |
| Carlos: True. |
| Natalia: I’m worried. “Abrir” means “to open.” Take a guess what “cerrar” means. |
| Carlos: That means “to close.” |
| Natalia: Well, next we have an adjective that is very important in life. |
| Carlos: Which is? |
| Natalia: “Limpio, limpia”. |
| Carlos: Clean. |
| Natalia: In Spanish we define “limpio, limpia”, “que no tiene mancha ni suciedad”. |
| Carlos: Well, how about an example sentence? |
| Natalia: “Este detergente lo deja todo muy limpio”. |
| Carlos: “This detergent gets everything beautifully clean.” Man, I wish I had a washing machine. You know Naty, it’s the little things in life. |
| Natalia: I know Carlos, don’t I know it. I want a fridge a new fridge, well last but not least, “almorzar”. |
| Carlos: I know this one too. “To have lunch” or “to eat lunch.” |
| Natalia: “Comer algo en el almuerzo”. |
| Carlos: “To eat something for lunch.” So do you have an example sentence for this verb? |
| Natalia: “Los viernes almuerzan pescado”. |
| Carlos: “On Friday’s they eat fish.” Like good Catholics. Nat, do we have another verb that might relate to “almorzar”. |
| Natalia: Well, on the other meals also have verbs you know “desayunar”. |
| Carlos: “To have breakfast.” |
| Natalia: “Cenar”. |
| Carlos: “To have dinner.” Speaking of which, what’s for dinner? |
| Natalia: I haven’t though that far ahead, Carlos. Okay Carlos, today’s grammar point deals with something irregular. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Carlos: Those wouldn’t be verbs would they? |
| Natalia: Give the man a cookie and a clap. Yes Carlos, we are looking at irregular verbs and the preterit tense. Carlos, tell me what the function of the preterit tense is? |
| Carlos: Well the preterit tense expresses an action completed prior to the moment of speech or to another action. |
| Natalia: Right and in the preterit tense, there are a number of irregular verbs. So that means they have to be learned individually. They do not follow the regular pattern. |
| Carlos: So what makes them irregular? |
| Natalia: The verbs in question have a stem change in the preterit tense. |
| Carlos: Okay, which verbs are we looking at for examples? |
| Natalia: “Hacer”. |
| Carlos: “To do.” |
| Natalia: “Venir”. |
| Carlos: “To come.” |
| Natalia: “Ser”. |
| Carlos: “To be.” |
| Natalia: “Ir”. |
| Carlos: “To go.” |
| Natalia: What’s the stem of “hacer” in the present tense? |
| Carlos: Well the stem of “hacer” in the present tense was “hac-”. |
| Natalia: Right and how about “venir”, “ser” and “ir”? |
| Carlos: Well they all had irregular stems in the present. “Venir” changes to “vien-”, “ser” changes to “so-” and “ir” changes to “va-”. |
| Natalia: Exactly and these changes continue into the preterit tense. “Hacer” in the preterit becomes “hic-”, “venir” changes to “vin-” and both “ser” and “ir” changes to “fu-”. |
| Carlos: Oh well, if “ser” and “ir” are both irregular in the same way, we are killing two birds with one stone. |
| Natalia: Yes, the verbs “ser” and “ir” are identical in the preterit. That’s one way to look at it. |
| Carlos: So we took care of the stems. What about the endings? |
| Natalia: Well, for “hacer” and “venir” after these stem changes are made the following endings are used “e”, “iste”, “o”, “imos”, “isteis” and “ieron”. |
| Carlos: Okay, and what about for “ser” and “ir”? |
| Natalia: Well, we have “i”, “iste”, “e”, “imos”, “isteis”, “eron”. Well, let’s just conjugate “hacer” in the preterit tense to make sure the point is solid. |
| Carlos: I assume that means, Carlos conjugate “hacer” in the preterit tense. |
| Natalia: I’m so happy we understand each other. |
| Carlos: “Yo hice”, “I did made”, “tú hiciste”, “you did made”, “él/ella/usted hizo”, “he/she/you formal did made”. |
| Natalia: And plural? |
| Carlos: I was getting there. “Nosotros hicimos”, “we did made”, “vosotros hicisteis”, “you all did made”, “ellos/ellas/ustedes hicieron”, “they masculine did, they feminine did, and you all did made formal.” Now you know if I conjugate, you’ve got to give a sample sentence. |
| Natalia: “Hice lo que pude”. |
| Carlos: “I did what I could.” And I imagine you want me to conjugate “venir” now. |
| Natalia: “To come”, yes. I’m so glad I don’t have to ask anymore. |
| Carlos: “Yo vine”, “I came”, “tú viniste”, “you came”, “él/ella/usted vino”, “he/she/you formal came.” |
| Natalia: And plural? |
| Carlos: “Nosotros vinimos”, “we came”, “vosotros vinisteis”, “you all came informal”, “ellos/ellas vinieron”, “they came”, “ustedes vinieron”, “you all cam formal.” Now come out with that sentence. |
| Natalia: “Vinieron a la casa a las dos de la mañana”. |
| Carlos: “They came home at two in the morning.” Now the next two are easy for me. |
| Natalia: That’s right “ser” and “ir” are identical in the preterit so get to it. |
| Carlos: “Yo fui”, “I was”, “tú fuiste”, “you were”, “él fue”, “he was”, “ella fue”, “she was”, “usted fue”, “you were” and plural “nosotros fuimos”, “we were”, “vosotros fuisteis”, “you all were informal”, “ellos/ellas fueron”, “they were masculine and feminine” and “ustedes fueron”, “you all were formal.” And our example sentence? |
| Natalia: “Cuando era pequeña yo fui bailarina”. |
| Carlos: “When I was small, I was a ballerina.” |
| Natalia: You seem like one, Carlitos. |
| Carlos: Yes. I’m very graceful. And the same formation applies to “ir”. |
| Natalia: So if “ir” in the present tense means “to go” then... |
| Carlos: “Ir” in the preterit tense means “went.” So for example... |
| Natalia: “Fuiste al cine sin invitarme”. |
| Carlos: “You went to the theatre without inviting me.” There you go. Good formation! |
| Natalia: We aren’t done. |
| Carlos: No? |
| Natalia: No, the third person singular of “hacer” in the preterit tense does not have the stem change it “hic” but “hic”. |
| Carlos: Why? |
| Natalia: This is so that the sound “c” is maintained. Notice that with both “ser” and “ir” in the third person singular has the “e” ending and the third person plural has the “er” ending. Again which is unique to irregular verbs in the preterit tense. |
| Carlos: Now that you mention it, I did notice that. |
| Natalia: I’m so sure you didn’t. |
Outro |
| Carlos: Well that just about does it for today. |
| Natalia: Alright. |
| Carlos: Adiós spanishpod101.com |
| Natalia: Spanish! How do you say Spanish in Spanish? |
| Carlos: Yes, but it’s going to confuse them. ¡Español pot! |
| Natalia: ¡Adiós! |
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