Learn about talking about actions in the past
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| INTRODUCTION |
| Natalia: Buenos días, soy Natalia. |
| Carlos: What’s going on? My name is Carlos. “You’d better, I’m waiting for you.” What’s up pod101 world? My name is Carlos and with me as always is the better half of this pod101.com team, Naty. |
| Natalia: ¡Hola! |
| Carlos: She liked that. |
| Natalia: I know, yes I did. |
| Carlos: Alright Naty, you know what, the rainy season is almost over in Costa Rica. |
| Natalia: Carlos, you are so hopeful. |
| Carlos: I am! I mean seriously. |
| Natalia: Sir, let me announce to you that there’s a couple of more months, but you’ve almost made it through. October is the worst. |
| Carlos: All right. You know, it’s wild to think that you can go from rain every day to no rain for months. And yesterday, I’m sitting in my apartment and the water is just like beating down on the ceiling. |
| Natalia: Man, houses are falling apart. Have you seen the news? They come down, crumbling down. There’s so much rain and the thing is that here, there’s no rain for a little bit and the sky just breaks and like pooh! |
| Carlos: Opens. I mean I try to tell Joe that I wanna get most of my work done in the afternoon and evening because I can’t leave my apartment I mean it’s too much rain. |
| Natalia: There’s too much rain. Carlos! |
| Carlos: Yeah. |
| Natalia: Welcome to Central America. |
| Carlos: Thank you. |
| Natalia: I wonder why you are making all this small talk. |
| Carlos: What do you mean? |
| Natalia: Well, I mean the most mundane subject to talk about is the weather, why are you talking about it? |
| Carlos: Hey coming up with clever ways to open up our lessons is not so easy after about seventy of them. |
| Natalia: Seventy, man. Have we done seventy? |
| Carlos: Something like that. |
| Natalia: Wow. I didn’t know, you see it feels like it was yesterday. |
| Carlos: It does and also, remember when we’re around the car the other day and just put on our like original like demo? |
| Natalia: You people. And they should put it up on the site and I was like [*]. |
| Carlos: Hello and welcome to SpanishPod101.com. |
| Natalia: [*]. |
| Carlos: Alright but you do know what, we do have an awkward situation in today’s conversation. |
| Natalia: Why? |
| Carlos: Well, Daniel is explaining and Fátima buys his explanation. |
| Natalia: Why? What is he saying? |
| Carlos: Well, I’ll wait until after the conversation to see your reaction. But I will tell you that this conversation is informal. |
| Natalia: Okay. |
| Carlos: But Naty, what’s our grammar point for today? |
| Natalia: [Laughs] |
| Carlos: I never like that. |
| Natalia: The preterit perfect. |
| Carlos: Sounds complicated. |
| Natalia: Carlos, after the lesson it won’t be. By now you should get the hold of it. |
| Carlos: Okay then, let’s get in today’s conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Natalia: Now would be the time to open up the lesson guide in your pdf reader. |
| DANIEL: No te llamé a las dos porque yo entendí a las doce, o sea, a la medianoche. |
| FATIMA: Realmente he pasado un mal día, pensando que no te importo. |
| DANIEL: Claro que me importas. ¿Qué dices si te recojo ahorita? Te invito a cenar. |
| FATIMA: ¿Me recogerás de verdad? |
| DANIEL: Sííííííí... sí. Te recojo de todas maneras. Insisto. |
| FATIMA: Más te vale. Te espero. |
| DANIEL: I did not call you at two, because I understood twelve, I mean, midnight. |
| FATIMA: I have really had a bad day, thinking that you do not care about me. |
| DANIEL: Of course I care about you. What do you say I pick you up right now? Dinner is on me. |
| FATIMA: Are you really going to pick me up? |
| DANIEL: Yesssssss.... yes. I'll pick you up no matter what. I insist. |
| FATIMA: You had better. I am waiting for you. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Carlos: Man, that was easy for him. |
| Natalia: That was easy actually. |
| Carlos: I’ll come get you right now, baby. |
| Natalia: I’ll be like don’t ever come again. |
| Carlos: Don’t ever call me. |
| Natalia: I wouldn’t even answer the call. |
| Carlos: No, she wouldn’t. |
| Natalia: Why is it always the saying, forgive and forget? |
| Carlos: Forgive and forget. |
| Natalia: Yes. |
| Carlos: Well, she’s going to forgive, I don’t know if she’s going to forget. |
| Natalia: I have to wait on that. |
| Carlos: Because remember, he who does it once, does twice and maybe three times. |
| Natalia: Carlos, poor thing. Anyway, vocabulary, move. |
| Carlos: Okay, that sounds like a good idea. So let’s move to vocabulary section in today’s pdf lesson guide. Now we are going to start with a feminine noun. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Natalia: “Medianoche”. |
| Carlos: “Midnight.” |
| Natalia: “Me-dia-no-che”, “medianoche”. |
| Carlos: Now we have a verb. |
| Natalia: “Importar”. |
| Carlos: “To matter.” |
| Natalia: “Im-por-tar”, “importar”. |
| Carlos: Now we have a feminine noun. |
| Natalia: “Verdad”. |
| Carlos: “Truth.” |
| Natalia: “Ver-dad”, “verdad”. |
| Carlos: Then we have another feminine noun. |
| Natalia: “Manera”. |
| Carlos: “Manner”, “way.” |
| Natalia: “Ma-ne-ra”, “manera”. |
| Carlos: Next we have a verb. |
| Natalia: “Valer”. |
| Carlos: “To be worth.” |
| Natalia: “Va-ler”, “valer”. |
| Carlos: And last but not least, another verb. |
| Natalia: “Insistir”. |
| Carlos: “To insist.” |
| Natalia: “In-sis-tir”, “insistir”. Carlos. |
| Carlos: Yes, Natalia. |
| Natalia: Go ahead do them. |
| Carlos: What? “Medianoche”? |
| Natalia: “Medianoche”. |
| Carlos: “Medianoche”. |
| Natalia: “Medianoche”. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Carlos: “Importar”, “verdad”, “manera”, “valer”, “insistir”. You know I actually have a funny story about one of those. |
| Natalia: What a marvelous story Carlos, thank you. That has touched my heart, that has touched my heart. Oh my God, you know what? Ya llegó la hora de estudiar el uso de alguno de los vocablos. |
| Carlos: Me parece bien, ¿con cuál quisieras empezar? |
| Natalia: “Importar”. |
| Carlos: “Importar”, “to be important.” |
| Natalia: Carlos, we just want to learn the vocab. |
| Carlos: I know, I just thought I’d try to bother you. |
| Natalia: No fastidies. Bueno Carlos, you know you don’t need to try, what does “importar” mean? |
| Carlos: This verb means “to matter.” |
| Natalia: But it’s often translated as “to care.” |
| Carlos: Naty, do you have an example? |
| Natalia: “Me importas”, “you matter to me” or “I care about you.” |
| Carlos: Well. Thanks Naty, you matter to me too. |
| Natalia: O también, “no me importas”. |
| Carlos: Okay, I see how it is. |
| Natalia: We can link this verb to the feminine noun “importancia”, “importance”, and the adjective “importante”. |
| Carlos: Por ejemplo... |
| Natalia: Por ejemplo una frase muy común es “no me importa”. Y podemos traducirla como “I don’t care” or “it doesn’t matter to me.” |
| Carlos: You know that is a very common phrase and I do use it all the time, “¿qué quieres hacer? No me importa”. |
| Natalia: “So what do you want to do? It doesn’t matter to me.” |
| Carlos: What’s next? |
| Natalia: “Verdad”. |
| Carlos: “Verdad”. |
| Natalia: No, say it like you usually say it. |
| Carlos: “Verdad”. |
| Natalia: Why do Costa Ricans change r’s to l’s? |
| Carlos: Buena pregunta, but no matter how you say it, it means truth. |
| Natalia: Have you noticed when Carlos talks Spanish he kind of changes his voice a little like “buena pregunta”. |
| Carlos: Esta noche en Sábado Gigante... |
| Natalia: I’m speechless anyways, it was used differently today here. |
| Carlos: “¿Me recogerás de verdad?” |
| Natalia: “re” |
| Carlos: “re” |
| Natalia: “Are you really going to pick me up?” Right, so it means really. |
| Carlos: Okay, so “verdad” on its own means “truth” but in a phrase “de verdad” means “really.” |
| Natalia: Yes, we can link the feminine noun “verdad” to the adjective “verdadero” and we can even see something of this in English. For example. Por ejemplo, no sería fuera de lugar decirte “de verdad, Carlos, tienes que estudiar si quieres hablar español mejor”, “really Carlos, you’ve got to study if you want to speak Spanish better.” |
| Carlos: Trust me I know, Nat. |
| Natalia: “Manera”. |
| Carlos: “Manera”. |
| Natalia: “Una manera” is “a manner” or “a way” but once again in today’s conversation we saw a different meaning. |
| Carlos: Which was? |
| Natalia: We heard the expression “de todas maneras “which means “by all means” or “no matter what.” |
| Carlos: When? |
| Natalia: Cuando Fátima pregunta, “¿me recogerás de verdad?”. Daniel le responde, “te recojo de todas maneras”. “I’ll pick you up no matter what”, by all means come hell or high water. “Valer”. |
| Carlos: “Valer”, “to be worth.” Like “ese anillo vale un montón”. |
| Natalia: “That ring is worth a lot.” But we’ve also seen it in the expression “vale la pena”, “to be worth it” but today we have a new expression, “más te vale”. |
| Carlos: And what does that mean? |
| Natalia: Carlos, you are going to hear this often. |
| Carlos: I haven’t heard it once and I’ve been here… |
| Natalia: No, but I told you I’m going to start speaking Spanish to you the whole time. |
| Carlos: That’s right. Just quit talking. Completely turn around now. |
| Natalia: Yes, you know like “más te vale, voy a tomar café”, after we record because I’m dying for a coffee. |
| Carlos: Okay so still, what does it mean? |
| Natalia: Okay Carlos, okay we’ve seen the expression “vale la pena”, que significa “to be worth it” but today we have a new expression, “más te vale”. |
| Carlos: Which means... |
| Natalia: Carlos, you are so anxious can you try it again? Oh my God! Well, it definitely depends on the context. But in general it’s like saying “you had better”. Por ejemplo, “si me invitas a almorzar y al final dices ‘no te preocupes, yo voy a pagar’, yo te podría responder ‘más te vale’”, so you see it was implicit that you were going to pay from the start. |
| Carlos: Sounds about right. |
| Natalia: “Medianoche”. |
| Carlos: Ah time. This feminine noun means “midnight.” |
| Natalia: Let’s break it down, “media”. |
| Carlos: That sounds kind of like “medium” which would infer “halfway.” |
| Natalia: “Noche”. |
| Carlos: Nice. “Usualmente me acuesto a la medianoche”. |
| Natalia: “I usually go to bed at midnight.” |
| Carlos: I do. I usually go to bed at midnight. |
| Natalia: I go like at one or two in the morning. Carlos. |
| Carlos: Naty. |
| Natalia: Today our grammar point is a little, let’s just say embold. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Carlos: Oh God! |
| Natalia: Carlos, don’t be dramatic. Today we are studying the preterit perfect. |
| Carlos: You know I don’t like it when verb tenses have two names. I mean that’s what makes it complicated. |
| Natalia: Well, like any other tense let’s look at how and when it’s used. |
| Carlos: Makes sense, now is this topic in the grammar bank? |
| Natalia: Of course, Carlos. |
| Carlos: Good, so I can review. |
| Natalia: The preterit perfect tense expresses an action in the past that is in some way linked to the present or that is near the present. |
| Carlos: So I know that the action took place before noun but it still kind of lingering. |
| Natalia: Right so with that in mind the preterit perfect is just alive with temporal expressions. |
| Carlos: Why? |
| Natalia: It helps make things more clear. Like listen to in the conversation when Fátima says “Realmente he pasado un mal día, pensando que no te importo”. |
| Carlos: “I really had a bad day thinking that you don’t care about me.” So she felt bad all day and might still feel bad when she says this. |
| Natalia: And then notice the formation. |
| Carlos: Well Naty, noticing and explaining are two very different things. |
| Natalia: Well, true Carlos, but you know what, to form the preterit perfect we use the present tense of the auxiliary verb “haber” in the present tense and a participle. |
| Carlos: Okay, which is why Fátima said “he pasado”. |
| Natalia: So here all the forms of “haber” in the present tense “yo he”, “tú has”, “él ha”, “nosotros hemos”, “vosotros habéis”, “ellos han”. |
| Carlos: Exactly, an irregularity occurs when the participle is irregular? |
| Natalia: Yes, but then what about “haber”? |
| Carlos: What about “haber”? You tell me, you are the one, you are the better half of this team. |
| Natalia: Well man, you are just kind of like flowing with the topic I thought you might know. You know the forms of “haber” are the same no matter what kind of participle is used. |
| Carlos: Okay, so really just remove the infinitive ending and add “ado” for verbs of the first conjugation which are “ar” verbs and “ido” for second and third conjugations which would mean “ir” and “er” verbs. |
| Natalia: Well, now that you remember, I would like to see you using them in real life you know just in general. |
| Carlos: Okay, how about this one? “Ha sido una buena lección”, “it has been a good lesson.” |
| Natalia: Well, de acuerdo. “Parece que has aprendido un poquitito pero todavía te falta”. “It looks like you’ve learned a little tiny itsy micro bit but you still need help.” |
| Carlos: Dios me salve. |
| Natalia: Alright, so in today’s grammar topic, we study the preterit perfect tense. Today’s assignment is the following: I’m going to give you five verbs in Spanish, these verbs will be conjugated in the present, future or preterit tense of the indicative mood. What you have to do is change them to the preterit perfect while maintaining their personal number. For example, if I say “hablaré”, “I will speak”, then the answer will be “he hablado”, “I have spoken.” Ready? Number one, “caminarán”. Number two, “disfrutasteis”. Number three, “salí”. Number four, “haremos”. Number five, “jugaron”. |
Outro |
| Carlos: Alright now remember people, you can always check out the answers with comments on the answers in the premium audio track labelled “tarea”, “homework.” Well, that was a very good lesson today Naty, the compound tense was explained very well. |
| Natalia: Did you understand something or you were just talking? |
| Carlos: I understood. |
| Natalia: I’ll test you later. |
| Carlos: Yes, you are going to. |
| Natalia: Well. |
| Carlos: Well, you can also test yourself audience with the “tarea”. |
| Natalia: Good point. |
| Carlos: Good lead in that. |
| Natalia: Hasta luego. Carlos, say goodbye in Spanish. |
| Carlos: Not yet because if they don’t have premium membership, they need to know they can sign up for seven days and see what it’s all about. |
| Natalia: ¡Vamos a tomar café! |
| Carlos: Not yet, we have one more lesson. |
| Natalia: Carlos! Carlos! |
| Carlos: Later. |
| Natalia: No, say goodbye in Spanish. |
| Carlos: Hasta luego. |
| Natalia: [*] |
| Carlos: Hasta luego. |
| Natalia: Luego. |
| Carlos: Luego. |
| Natalia: Hasta Luego. |
| Carlos: See, you know what, a lot of things, I did learn this, is the way I speak. |
| Natalia: Carlos? |
| Carlos: Yes. |
| Natalia: Carlos… |
| Carlos: Naty, Naaaty. |
| Natalia: Carlos. I think you have done 70 lessons, you can do more than hasta luego in Spanish to say goodbye. |
| Carlos: Adiós. |
| Natalia: Lost cause, I give up. |
| Carlos: Okay, good, good, good, give up. |
| Natalia: ¡Hasta luego! |
Easily master this lesson’s grammar points with in-depth explanations and examples. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Comments
Hide