Learn about conditional tense
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Kathy: ¡Muy buenos días! Soy Kathy. |
| Ana: Soy Ana. “Las buenas maneras. Primera parte”. |
| Kathy: ¿Cómo están todos? |
| Ana: Es un gran placer estar aquí ante ustedes. |
| Kathy: Soy Kathy Vargas. |
| Ana: Y yo Ana Madrigal. |
| Kathy: Welcome to the very first Lower Intermediate Lesson at spanishpod101.com. Ana, ¿cómo has estado? |
| Ana: Muy bien, Kathy. ¿Y tú qué tal? |
| Kathy: Excelente. |
| Ana: Here in the Lower Intermediate Series, you are going to be hearing “mucho más español”. |
| Kathy: This is a place where we help you get used to hearing Spanish spoken conversationally. |
| Ana: Con todos los giros y gestos del lenguaje. |
| Kathy: Entonces Ana, ¿por qué no nos haces acordar de los modos verbales que estudiamos en los ciclos de novato y principiante? |
| Ana: There, the focus has mainly been on actions that are expressed as real. |
| Kathy: Well, today, we are going to look at something a little different. |
| Ana: How so? “¿Cómo es eso?” |
| Kathy: We are going to learn how to express an action that is unreal. |
| Ana: Unreal? |
| Kathy: Humm, digamos “posible”. |
| Ana: So then, an action that’s possible? |
| Kathy: Right. Among other aspects, it is like asking, “Will you go out with me to the party?” |
| Ana: ¡Pero claro! Es decir, ¿me acompañarías a la fiesta esta noche? |
| Kathy: So while the Newbie and Beginner Series have focused mainly on the numerous usage of the present and future tenses, we are going to begin these series by taking a look at conditional statements. |
| Ana: And Kathy, today’s lessons conversation takes place in “tu tierra natal, el Perú”. |
| Kathy: That’s right. Today, we will hear Gregorio, María, Antonio y Rosana. Conversando en una antigua bodega de Lima, conocida por su buen pisco. |
| Ana: “Una bodega”, in this sense, it’s kind of like an all time wine bar and a place where the wine was also distilled. |
| Kathy: Y antes de comenzar la conversación de hoy, no se olvide de hacer click en el botón de su iPod, para ver la transcripción en la pantalla. |
| Ana: Let’s get into today’s conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| GREGORIO: ¿Quién tomaría un vino conmigo? |
| MARÍA: ¡Yo! Un buen vino tinto suena provocativo. |
| ANTONIO: Yo preferiría tomar un pisco. |
| ROSANA: Yo también. Gregorio y María ¿no toman pisco? |
| GREGORIO: Bueno... el pisco puede ser bien rico, mientras es pisco puro. |
| MARÍA: Es verdad. No tomaría pisco acholado. |
| ANTONIO: Voy a pedir un pisco puro pues, para los verdaderos conocedores. |
| ROSANA: ¿Sirven comida en esta bodega? |
| GREGORIO: Creo que sí. |
| MARÍA: ¿Qué comerían ustedes? |
| ANTONIO: Me gustaría comer unos panes con queso. |
| ROSANA: Comería algo así también, quizás con aceitunas. |
| This time, with the translation. |
| Ahora incluimos la traducción. |
| GREGORIO: ¿Quién tomaría un vino conmigo? |
| GREGORIO: Who would drink wine with me? |
| MARÍA: ¡Yo! Un buen vino tinto suena provocativo. |
| MARÍA: I would! A good red wine sounds provocative. |
| ANTONIO: Yo preferiría tomar un pisco. |
| ANTONIO: I would prefer to drink pisco. |
| ROSANA: Yo también. Gregorio y María ¿no toman pisco? |
| ROSANA: Me too. Gregory and María, don't you all drink pisco? |
| GREGORIO: Bueno... el pisco puede ser bien rico, mientras es pisco puro. |
| GREGORIO: Well... pisco can be really delicious, as long as it is pure pisco. |
| MARÍA: Es verdad. No tomaría pisco acholado. |
| MARÍA: It is true. I would not drink blended pisco. |
| ANTONIO: Voy a pedir un pisco puro pues, para los verdaderos conocedores. |
| ANTONIO: I am going to order pure pisco then, for the real connoisseurs. |
| ROSANA: ¿Sirven comida en esta bodega? |
| ROSANA: Do they serve food in this wine bar? |
| GREGORIO: Creo que sí. |
| GREGORIO: I think they do. |
| MARÍA: ¿Qué comerían ustedes? |
| MARÍA: What would you all eat? |
| ANTONIO: Me gustaría comer unos panes con queso. |
| ANTONIO: I would like to eat some bread and cheese. |
| ROSANA: Comería algo así también, quizás con aceitunas. |
| ROSANA: I would eat something like that too, maybe with olives. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Kathy: Ana, do you know why they call it “pisco acholado”? |
| Ana: No exactamente. Sé que es un tipo de pisco que tiene mayor cantidad de alcohol y su sabor es un poco más fuerte. |
| Kathy: El pisco acholado se llama así porque en su elaboración se mezclan distintos tipos de uvas. Because a variety of grapes are added when it’s made. Como uvas aromáticas y no aromáticas en proporciones diferentes. Like aromatic grapes and some not so aromatic and these are added in different proportions. |
| Ana: Bueno, a mí me gusta mucho. But I prefer “pisco puro”. A mí me gusta el “Perú libre”, que es pisco con Coca-Cola. Y a ti, ¿cómo te gusta el pisco? |
| Kathy: A mí también me gusta el pisco puro. |
| Ana: ¿Y a ustedes? And what about you audience? How do you like your “pisco”? |
| Kathy: Bueno, Ana. It looks like we have to wait for their comments on the web page. |
| Ana: Now that we’ve heard the conversation, what do you say we move on to the vocabulary for this lesson? |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Kathy: Suena bien. A ver, okay, let’s start with “conmigo”. |
| Ana: “Conmigo”. |
| Kathy: “With me.” |
| Ana: “Con-mi-go”, “conmigo”. |
| Kathy: Next, “sonar”. |
| Ana: “Sonar”. |
| Kathy: “To sound”, “to ring.” |
| Ana: “So-nar”, “sonar”. |
| Kathy: Next, “provocativo, provocativa”. |
| Ana: “Provocativo, provocativa”. |
| Kathy: “Provocative”, “inviting.” |
| Ana: “Pro-vo-ca-ti-vo, pro-vo-ca-ti-va”, “provocativo, provocativa”. |
| Kathy: Next, we will look at “preferir”. |
| Ana: “Preferir”. |
| Kathy: “To prefer”, “to rather.” |
| Ana: “Pre-fe-rir”, “preferir”. |
| Kathy: Next, “pisco”. |
| Ana: “Pisco”. |
| Kathy: “Peruvian brandy”, “Pisco.” |
| Ana: “Pis-co”, “pisco”. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Kathy: Okay. This time we are going to look at “conocedor, conocedora”. |
| Ana: “Conocedor, conocedora”. |
| Kathy: “Expert”, “connoisseur.” |
| Ana: “Co-no-ce-dor, co-no-ce-do-ra”, “conocedor, conocedora”. |
| Kathy: This time we are going to look at “mientras”. |
| Ana: “Mientras”. |
| Kathy: “As long as”, “while.” |
| Ana: “Mien-tras”, “mientras”. |
| Kathy: Next, “aceituna”. |
| Ana: “Aceituna”. |
| Kathy: “Olive.” |
| Ana: “A-cei-tu-na”, “aceituna”. Hey Kathy, what do we call the fruit of the olive tree? |
| Kathy: An olive? |
| Ana: I mean in Spanish. |
| Kathy: Ahh, es una aceituna. |
| Ana: Right. And if we squeeze the bunch of “aceitunas” really hard and press them down, what do we get out of them? |
| Kathy: We get “aceite”. |
| Ana: So when we place “aceitunas” we get “aceite de aceituna”? |
| Kathy: You will think so but we also use the word “oliva”. We will say “aceite de oliva”. |
| Ana: And when you eat a delicious fresh salad, do you like to add a little “aceite de oliva”? |
| Kathy: I do. Y un poco de vinagre también. |
| Ana: Muy bien, Kathy. Ahora, should we go over some of the vocabulary words we heard today? |
| Kathy: ¡Pero claro! |
| Ana: Okay. What comes to your mind when you think of the word “conmigo”? Como por ejemplo, “¿quieres ir conmigo?” |
| Kathy: Well, when I think in English, the word “con” means “with” and the word “mi” means “me.” |
| Ana: Entonces... |
| Kathy: Entonces la palabra “conmigo” significa “with me.” |
| Ana: And the example “¿quieres ir conmigo?”, what does that mean? |
| Kathy: We will probably translate that as “do you want to go with me?” Now Ana, una pregunta... |
| Ana: A ver, dime. |
| Kathy: If I say “ella viene contigo” what has changed between this example and the last one? |
| Ana: In the last one, we said “conmigo” but now we are saying “contigo”. |
| Kathy: So there is only one letter that has changed here? |
| Ana: Una sola letra. Just one letter. |
| Kathy: What kind of word is “ti”. |
| Ana: Well, that’s a personal pronoun. |
| Kathy: And the word “con”. |
| Ana: Is “preposición”. |
| Kathy: And if I want to say “she comes with you”, we could say “ella viene con ti”? |
| Ana: ¡De ninguna manera! |
| Kathy: ¿Por qué no? |
| Ana: Because these words get joined together, “ella viene contigo”. |
| Kathy: “Ella viene contigo”. “She comes with you.” |
| Ana: Or “ella viene conmigo”, “she comes with me.” |
| Kathy: Right and here the words “come” and “me” are joined together. |
| Ana: Así es, amiga. |
| Kathy: Bueno, pasemos a la próxima palabra. |
| Ana: Okay. Let’s move on. |
| Kathy: Una pregunta... |
| Ana: Sí, adelante. |
| Kathy: What do you call the device that is used by submarines to detect other ships in the water? |
| Ana: ¿Qué cosa? |
| Kathy: Just answer it and you will see. |
| Ana: Ah, it’s called “sonar”. |
| Kathy: And they will detect other ships by the frequency of their sound, right? |
| Ana: Right. |
| Kathy: ¿Y cómo se deletrea? How is it spelled? |
| Ana: “S-o-n-a-r.” |
| Kathy: And Ana, if you were to pronounce that in Spanish… |
| Ana: It will be “sonar.” |
| Kathy: And if I say “el auto suena raro”, how will you translate this to English? |
| Ana: Sería… Humm... “The car sounds strange.” |
| Kathy: So the verb “sonar” in Spanish means “to sound”, right? |
| Ana: Así es, significa “emitir algún sonido o ruido”. El verbo “sonar” también se puede usar en otro contexto si decimos “me suena bien”, es como decir “me parece bien”. |
| Kathy: Exactly. So in Spanish, as in English, we use this in both the literal and figurative sense. So that when we say it sounds good to me, what we mean is, it seems good to me. |
| Ana: ¿Tienes una idea de cómo conjugarías a este verbo? |
| Kathy: Yo sé que cuando la raíz del verbo tiene una vocal “o”, en algunas conjugaciones del verbo la vocal “o” cambia por vocales “u”, “e”. Por ejemplo, “la música suena bien”, “the music sounds good.” |
| Ana: ¡Claro! And we can compare this verb “sonar” to others that have this same stem change, como por ejemplo “volver”. |
| Kathy: Right. We will say “ella vuelve”. Again you see that the “o” changes to “ue” in the present tense. |
| Ana: Okay, let’s move on. |
| Kathy: Muy bien. So Ana, something that provokes a lot of discussion can be said to be… |
| Ana: “Provocative.” |
| Kathy: Right, “provocative.” Y si le quitamos la “e” final a esta palabra, ¿qué queda? |
| Ana: Well, if we remove the final “e” from this word, we’d be left with “provocativ”. |
| Kathy: And now, if we add an “o” to the end? |
| Ana: “Provocativo.” |
| Kathy: Y si digo “el almuerzo se ve muy provocativo”, ¿cómo lo traducirías al inglés? |
| Ana: “The lunch looks very provocative.” |
| Kathy: ¿Sabes qué tipo de palabra es provocativo? |
| Ana: Es adjetivo, ¿correcto? |
| Kathy: ¡Correcto! ¿Y sabes lo que significa? |
| Ana: In English, “provocative” means “to produce a state of desire.” Would it mean the same in Spanish? |
| Kathy: Claro que sí. ¿Y sabes qué género tiene esta palabra? ¿Masculino o femenino? |
| Ana: It depends on the noun that this adjective modifies. If the noun is masculine, then the adjective is masculine too. |
| Kathy: And the same happens if the noun is feminine, right? |
| Ana: Estás en lo cierto, Kathy. You can say “la cena se ve provocativa” o “el almuerzo se ve muy provocativo”. |
| Kathy: And the same occurs when the noun is plural. |
| Ana: Por ejemplo... |
| Kathy: Por ejemplo, “los duraznos se ven provocativos”, “the peaches look provocative.” |
| Ana: Así que podemos decir que el adjetivo concuerda con el sustantivo en número como también en género. |
| Kathy: The adjective agrees with the noun in both, number and gender. |
| Ana: Bien dicho, Kathy. |
| Kathy: ¡Gracias! Now one more. |
| Ana: Okay. |
| Kathy: Si Martín conoce a Miguel, then Martín... |
| Ana: Knows Miguel. |
| Kathy: So the verb “conocer” means... |
| Ana: “To know.” |
| Kathy: And what do you call someone who knows a lot about something? |
| Ana: Un “sabelotodo”. |
| Kathy: No…That will be someone who pursues to be wise without being wise. |
| Ana: An expert? |
| Kathy: Good answer. An expert is someone who has an expertise, right? |
| Ana: Yeah. |
| Kathy: So then, what do you call someone who has “mucho conocimiento” about something? |
| Ana: Ah, that will be “un conocedor”. |
| Kathy: Exactly. So a “conocedor” is an “expert” or a “connoisseur.” |
| Ana: Claro, “conocedor, conocedora”. |
| Kathy: And that’s the masculine and feminine singular, and for the plural? |
| Ana: That will be “conocedores” and “conocedoras”. |
| Kathy: Muy bien, Ana. Now what do you say we move on and take a look at some of the grammar that came up today? |
| Ana: Me suena bien. |
| Kathy: Entonces, en el diálogo escuchamos la siguiente pregunta: |
| Gregorio: “¿Quién tomaría un vino conmigo?” |
| Ana: Claro. |
| Kathy: Ahora, what is the verb here? |
| Ana: Bueno, el verbo es “tomaría”. |
| Kathy: “Tomaría”, muy bien. And what’s this first form in the infinitive? |
| Ana: It’s “tomar”. |
| Kathy: Right, “tomar”. So from “tomar” to “tomaría”. |
| Ana: Así es. |
| Kathy: And how would you translate this sentence “¿quién tomaría un pisco conmigo?”? |
| Ana: I would say, “who would have a ‘pisco’ with me?” |
| Kathy: Will you say that the verb “tomaría” expresses possibility or a habitual action? |
| Ana: Humm, posibilidad. |
| Kathy: Okay, possibility. And what’s the tense of the verb “tomaría”? |
| Ana: Ahh, pues está en tiempo condicional. |
| Kathy: Right, it is in a conditional tense. And Ana, the conditional tense, can it be used to express other things as well? |
| Ana: ¡Por supuesto! También puede expresar un tiempo futuro dentro del pasado. |
| Kathy: A future time within the past. |
| Ana: También puede amortiguar una declaración. |
| Kathy: It can also softening a statement. |
| Ana: Y puede expresar una acción hipotética. |
| Kathy: And it can express a hypothetical action. Wow, that’s a lot. |
| Ana: Yeah. |
| Kathy: For today, let’s take to the first usage. |
| Ana: La posibilidad. |
| Kathy: Así es, la posibilidad. Now there is another example of this in today’s conversation. |
| Ana: Rosana says: |
| Rosana: “Comería algo así también”. |
| Kathy: “Comería algo así también”. |
| Ana: “Comería algo así también”. |
| Kathy: And here what’s the verb in the conditional? |
| Ana: Ahora es “comería”. |
| Kathy: “Comería”. And does this mean “I eat” or “I will eat”? |
| Ana: Because it expresses possibility, it means “I would eat.” |
| Kathy: Así es, amiga. So we can say that the conditional tense is used to express possibility. |
| Ana: We use it to talk about what we would do. |
| Kathy: Great, and now what about the formation? |
| Ana: Ahh, la formación. Es muy fácil. |
| Kathy: Is it really easy? |
| Ana: ¡Sí! |
| Kathy: A ver. |
| Ana: Well, the basic model uses a complete form of the infinitive. |
| Kathy: Right. |
| Ana: And then the personal endings just get attached to the end of it. |
| Kathy: So for a verb like “tomar”... |
| Ana: “Yo tomaría”. |
| Kathy: And that means, “I would have”, si tomaría un pisco, “I will have a pisco.” |
| Ana: Así es. And then “tú tomarías”. |
| Kathy: “You will have.” We see these “ía” ending after the infinitive form and the “i” has an accent over it. That’s pronounced “tomaría”, “tomarías”. |
| Ana: And then to say “he would have” or “she would have”, we would use “tomaría”. |
| Kathy: But isn’t it the same as the form we used for “I will have”? |
| Ana: Sí, es igual. |
| Kathy: ¿Igual? |
| Ana: ¡Igualito! |
| Kathy: That means that the first and third person singular of the conditional are conjugated to the same form. |
| Ana: Así es. And to say we would have…. Well, Kathy, let me ask you. |
| Kathy: That would be “tomaríamos”. |
| Ana: Nice! “Nosotros tomaríamos”, and what about “you all would have”? |
| Kathy: Ah, you mean for “vosotros”? |
| Ana: Yeah. |
| Kathy: That would be “tomaríais”. |
| Ana: And finally how would we say “they would have”? |
| Kathy: That would just be “tomarían”, “ellos tomarían”. |
| Ana: ¡Qué buen tema! |
| Kathy: ¡Claro! Bueno, pero a la vez un poco complicado. Por eso vamos a estudiarlo durante las próximas lecciones también. |
| Ana: I look forward to studying it closer next time. |
| Kathy: ¡Me gustaría tomar un pisco para celebrar nuestra primera lección! ¿Quieres un pisco? ¿Desearías un pisco? |
| Ana: ¡Pero claro que sí! No olvides la Coca-Cola. |
| Kathy: Muy bien. |
| Ana: ¡Y muchos hielos! |
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