Learn the difference between gerunds and the absolute tense in Spanish verbs
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Dylan: Hola, hola everybody. This is Dylan, ¿cómo están? |
| Carlos: What’s going on pod101 world? My name is Carlos. In this lesson, you will learn about the gerund with the present. |
| Dylan: This conversation takes place in a home. |
| Carlos: The conversation is between Jorge and Andrea. |
| Dylan: The speakers are friends, so they are speaking informally. |
| Carlos: Okay, let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Jorge: Andrea, la música ranchera es muy famosa. |
| Andrea: Pues, aunque sea famosa, a mí no me gusta. |
| Jorge: ¿Cómo puedes decir que no te gusta si nunca la has oído? |
| Andrea: Tienes la razón, nunca la he oído. |
| Jorge: Escucha esta canción, si te gusta vamos al concierto, ¿está bien? |
| Andrea: Mmm, ¡¡ me gusta!! ¿De quién es la canción que estamos escuchando? |
| Jorge: De Vicente Fernández, como sí te gusta, ¡entonces vamos al concierto! |
| Jorge: Andrea, ranchera music is very famous. |
| Andrea: Well, even if it's famous, I don't like it. |
| Jorge: How can you say you don't like it if you've never heard it? |
| Andrea: You're right, I've never heard it. |
| Jorge: Listen to this song. If you like it, we'll go to the concert…okay? |
| Andrea: Mmm, I like it! Whose song are we listening to? |
| Jorge: Its Vicente Fernández…since you like it, we're going to the concert!! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Dylan: Hah, she got caught. |
| Carlos: Yeah, I mean it’s kind of obvious. “Listen and see if you like it and we will go to the concert.” “Hey whose song is this?” |
| Dylan: Hahaha… |
| Carlos: Yeah, I don’t want to go seeing the concert around. |
| Dylan: Yes. |
| Carlos: No. So actually no. You know I do hear at Ranchera a lot and I do – if you are in a bar. |
| Dylan: No, yeah. |
| Carlos: And that guys and the girls are singing and they put the beer in the air…. |
| Dylan: You know where you hear it more? |
| Carlos: Where? |
| Dylan: At karaoke. Everybody sings karaoke Rancheras here. |
| Carlos: Everyone? |
| Dylan: Ah, when the Ranchera starts, you better go home. |
| Carlos: Why? |
| Dylan: Because it’s never going to stop. |
| Carlos: Why? I want to go and like see and have fun. |
| Dylan: No, that’s like at the end when there is just like so out of it. |
| Carlos: Okay. |
| Dylan: They go for the Rancheras. |
| Carlos: Let’s keep it close to PG then. Okay. |
| Dylan: That’s why I said... |
| Carlos: Out of it. |
| Dylan: Out of it. |
| Carlos: Okay guys, let’s have a closer look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Dylan: “Aunque”. |
| Carlos: “Even though”, “although.” |
| Dylan: “Aun-que”, “aunque”. “Cómo”. |
| Carlos: “How”, “why”, “what.” |
| Dylan: “Có-mo”, “cómo”. “Nunca”. |
| Carlos: “Never.” |
| Dylan: “Nun-ca”, “nunca”. “Escucha”. |
| Carlos: “Listen”, command, informal. |
| Dylan: “Quién”. |
| Carlos: “Who.” |
| Dylan: “Quién”, “quién”. “Escuchando”. |
| Carlos: “Listening.” |
| Dylan: “Es-cu-chan-do”, “escuchando”. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Carlos: Okay guys, let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Dylan: The first word we will look at is “aunque”. |
| Carlos: “Aunque”. I always like the sound of that word although I must say it has not yet become part of my everyday speech. |
| Dylan: It should. “Aunque” is a quite useful conjunction that means “even though”, “although.” |
| Carlos: “Pues, aunque sea famosa, a mi no me gusta”. |
| Dylan: “Well, even if it’s famous, I don’t like it.” |
| Carlos: Andrea sounds like quite the close-minded person. |
| Dylan: That she is. |
| Carlos: I mean don’t get me wrong. I know what she means. I mean, I don’t like some concert music even if it is famous. |
| Dylan: True, but let’s look at “aunque” in a sample sentence. |
| Carlos: Sure. |
| Dylan: “Aunque es caro, me lo voy a comprar”. |
| Carlos: “Although it’s expensive, I am going to buy it.” |
| Dylan: We could also say “I am going to buy it even though it’s expensive.” |
| Carlos: Two for the price of one, not bad. |
| Dylan: Well, let’s get more than you think of a related word. |
| Carlos: Well, in that situation, I would usually say “sin embargo”, “regardless.” |
| Dylan: That would be a perfect fit. |
| Carlos: What’s next? |
| Dylan: “Cómo”. |
| Carlos: Wait, “cómo” or “como”? |
| Dylan: That is exactly why we are going over this now. “Cómo”. |
| Carlos: Okay, with the accent. So “how”, “why”, “what.” |
| Dylan: Exactly, but you could have told that from the example from the conversation. “¿Cómo puedes decir que no te gusta si nunca la has oído?” “How can you say you don’t like it if you’ve never heard it?” I hate people like that. |
| Carlos: Like what? |
| Dylan: Well, people that make up their mind without knowing about something or someone. |
| Carlos: Yeah that can get pretty annoying. |
| Dylan: So Carlos, what is the most common way you could use “cómo”? |
| Carlos: “¿Cómo estás?” |
| Dylan: “How are you?” |
| Carlos: Or “¿cómo te llamas?” |
| Dylan: “What’s your name” or more directly, “how are you called?” |
| Carlos: I want to start saying that in English. “Hello, how are you called?” |
| Dylan: Yeah. You let me know how that works out for you. |
| Carlos: You will be the first to know, Dylan. What’s next? |
| Dylan: “Nunca”. |
| Carlos: “Never.” A nice common adverb. |
| Dylan: And luckily we have already heard it in today’s conversation. “¿Cómo puedes decir que no te gusta si nunca la has oído?” “How can you say you don’t like it if you’ve never heard it?” |
| Carlos: Oh wait, wait, I got one. “Cuando estuve en Costa Rica nunca vi un tucán”. |
| Dylan: “When I was in Costa Rica I never saw a toucan”. |
| Carlos: Ah wait, wait, I am lying. When I went to Drake Bay, I saw three like colorful ones, really, really colorful, just like chilling in the trees. |
| Dylan: Wow, out there, ¿en el puro pueblo? |
| Carlos: “Puro pueblo”, doesn’t begin to describe it. |
| Dylan: I know you know the related words. |
| Carlos: One of my favorite, “jamás”, “jamás”, which also means “never.” |
| Dylan: Well, next up we have a verb in the informal imperative. |
| Carlos: Which? |
| Dylan: “Escucha”. |
| Carlos: Which comes from the verb “escuchar”, “to listen.” |
| Dylan: “Escucha esta canción”. |
| Carlos: “Listen to this song.” Now that is a good command. |
| Dylan: What kind of music do you like listening to, Carlos? |
| Carlos: Really all kinds, but really depends on my mood. When I am working, I love listening to classical music. It occupies the busy part of my mind. |
| Dylan: So how would you say that you like listening to classical music? |
| Carlos: “A mi me gusta escuchar música clásica”. |
| Dylan: “I like to listen to classical music.” Now related word is one that is also in the conversation. |
| Carlos: Oh, yeah. |
| Dylan: Well, it is another form of the verb “escuchar”, “escuchando”, which is... |
| Carlos: “Escuchar” in the gerund. |
| Dylan: This is where Andrea comes off a little bad or actually no like open minded. “¿De quién es la canción que estamos escuchando?” |
| Carlos: “Whose song are we listening to?” |
| Dylan: That’s when we know that she has found out that she likes it and that happens to include our final word. |
| Carlos: Oh yeah, what? |
| Dylan: “Quién”, another interrogative pronoun. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Carlos: We are big on the basics again today. |
| Dylan: “Quién” means “who.” |
| Carlos: “¿De quién es la canción?” |
| Dylan: “Whose song?” |
| Carlos: Dylan, ¿quién es tu cantante favorito? |
| Dylan: It’s so easy. It’s Shakira. |
| Carlos: I should have known. Does she have a concert here? |
| Dylan: No. |
| Carlos: Well, because I just saw the buzz outside and they have like a poster. |
| Dylan: Oh, that guy just loves her. |
| Carlos: Oh, wow! It’s a lot of love. It’s like posted all over his van. |
| Dylan: Oh, yeah. |
| Carlos: Okay now we saw a different structure. |
| Dylan: I was waiting for you to mention that, right? “De quién”, “from whom.” |
| Carlos: So really instead of “whose song”, we are hearing “from who is the song.” |
| Dylan: Right, but how clumsy does that sound? |
| Carlos: It sounds very clumsy. I am also unable to say it. |
| Dylan: Well, true, but you know what is in clumsy? |
| Carlos: What? |
| Dylan: We know that “el gerundio”, “the gerund”, functions as an adverb and we use it to express simultaneous or continuous action. |
| Carlos: Yes, we do. I mean at least I do. |
| Dylan: And we’ve also seen how this construction takes the “ando” ending from the stem of the regular “ar” verbs and the “iendo” ending from the stem of regular “er” and “ir” verbs. |
| Carlos: And I know how to find the stem. |
| Dylan: Of course, you do. We’d like to try to find the stem of a verb by simply removing the infinitive ending. For example, “buscar” is “busc-”, “buscando”. However, we must make sure that we do not confuse the usage of the present plus gerund with the present absolute. |
| Carlos: Because that will be bad. |
| Dylan: We know that we use the present absolute to express permanence, origin and most importantly here, generalization and habitual actions. Let’s compare the two verbal constructions to get a clear picture of this. |
| Carlos: Okay, let’s look at the formation. First look at the absolute present or give the English and then we will look at the present gerund and then I will give the English. |
| Dylan: “Yo busco”. |
| Carlos: “I look for.” |
| Dylan: “Estoy buscando”. |
| Carlos: “I am looking for.” |
| Dylan: “Tú buscas”. |
| Carlos: “You look for.” |
| Dylan: “Estás buscando”. |
| Carlos: “You are looking for.” |
| Dylan: “Él busca”. |
| Carlos: “He looks for.” |
| Dylan: “Está buscando”. |
| Carlos: “He is looking for.” |
| Dylan: “Ella busca”. |
| Carlos: “She looks for.” |
| Dylan: “Está buscando”. |
| Carlos: “She is looking for.” |
| Dylan: “Usted busca”. |
| Carlos: “You look for.” |
| Dylan: “Está buscando”. |
| Carlos: “You are looking for.” Okay, good. Let’s look at the plural now also keeping the same pattern with first the absolute present example English and then the present gerund example followed by the English. |
| Dylan: “Nosotros buscamos”. |
| Carlos: “We look for.” |
| Dylan: “Estamos buscando”. |
| Carlos: “We are looking for.” |
| Dylan: “Vosotros buscáis”. |
| Carlos: “You all look for.” |
| Dylan: “Estáis buscando”. |
| Carlos: “You all are looking for.” |
| Dylan: “Ellos buscan”. |
| Carlos: “They look for.” |
| Dylan: “Están buscando”. |
| Carlos: “They are looking for”, masculine. |
| Dylan: “Ellas buscan”. |
| Carlos: “They look for.” |
| Dylan: “Están buscando”. |
| Carlos: “They are looking for”, feminine. |
| Dylan: “Ustedes buscan”. |
| Carlos: “You all look for.” |
| Dylan: “Están buscando”. |
| Carlos: “You all are looking for.” Okay guys, let’s have a look at some sample sentences. |
| Dylan: In the absolute, “La señora busca el periódico”. |
| Carlos: “The lady looks for the newspaper.” |
| Dylan: The gerund “La señora está buscando el periódico”. |
| Carlos: “The lady is looking for the newspaper.” |
| Dylan: Absolute, “Busco un departamento”. |
| Carlos: “I look for an apartment.” |
| Dylan: Gerund, “Estoy buscando un departamento”. |
| Carlos: “I am looking for an apartment.” |
| Dylan: Or the example from the conversation. |
| Carlos: “¿De quién es la canción que estamos escuchando?” |
| Dylan: “Whose song are we listening to?” |
| Carlos: So wait, before we get too deep, what are we comparing and contrasting? |
| Dylan: What we noticed by comparing and contrasting the absolute present with the present plus gerund verb constructions is that the latter is impersonal and expresses the duration of the verbal action. |
| Carlos: So what’s the difference? |
| Dylan: The present in general describes the action of the verb as simultaneous to the moment of speech. What the present plus gerund construction does is stretch out the action of the verb so that the same action lasts for the duration of whatever it is said about it. |
Outro |
| Carlos: Well, that clears it up. Okay guys, that just about does it for today. |
| Dylan: ¡Chao! |
| Carlos: Nos vemos, ¡chao! |
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