Learn how to form and use the preterit tense in Spanish to describe simple past actions
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Fernando: “Am I losing my Spanish speaking mine?” |
| JP: Fernando, what are we going to talk about in this lesson? |
| Fernando: En esta lección vamos a revisar el tiempo pretérito. Esta conversación toma lugar en casa y la conversación es entre Gina y Pepe. Estarán utilizando el registro familiar. |
| JP: Let’s listen to this dialogue. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Gina: ¿Dónde carajos están mis llaves? |
| Pepe: Busca en tu bolsa. El otro día encontré la licuadora ahí. |
| Gina: No estoy para bromas en este momento. Ya voy tarde al trabajo. |
| Pepe: Mejor dicho, ni te has ido. Llévate mi auto si gustas. Yo me quedo a buscarlas. |
| Gina: Gracias, pero necesito las llaves para abrir la tienda. He buscado en todos lados y nada. |
| Pepe: De seguro las dejaste en tu auto anoche que llegaste. |
| Gina: ... ¡Sí, ahí están! No sé qué haría sin ti. |
| Pepe: Es pregunta retórica, creo. |
| Gina: Where the hell are my keys? |
| Pepe: Look in your bag. The other day I found the blender in there. |
| Gina: I'm not in the mood for jokes right now. I'm late for work. |
| Pepe: In other words, you haven't even left. Take my car if you want. I'll stay and look for them. |
| Gina: Thanks, but I need the keys to open the store. I've looked everywhere...and nothing. |
| Pepe: You probably left them in your car when you arrived last night. |
| Gina: ...Yes, there they are. I don't know what I would do without you. |
| Pepe: That's a rhetorical question, I think. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| JP: All right, Fernando. What just happened? Gina can’t find her keys. |
| Fernando: Gina al parecer no y esta un poco frustrada. “¿Dónde carajos están mis llaves?” |
| JP: Ok. “¿Dónde carajos están” – “Where the hack/Where the Hell are my keys?”All right, Fernando. What just happened? Gina can’t find her keys. “ |
| Fernando: “Where the Hell are my keys?” |
| JP: Oh, my goodness. |
| Fernando: Poquito fuerte. |
| JP: Sí. |
| Fernando: Pero pasable. |
| JP: Ok, it’s not vulgar. |
| Fernando: No, para nada. |
| JP: Ok. Pepe, being helpful, says “Look in your bag.” |
| Fernando: “Busca en tu bolsa. El otro día encontré la licuadora ahí.” |
| JP: “The other day I found the blender in there.”? |
| Fernando: Al parecer está siendo un poquito sarcástico. |
| JP: Ok. Because, you know, there’s all that stuff in the bag. |
| Fernando: Siempre. Siempre. |
| JP: There’s like lipstick, there’s coins, there’s gum, there’s, you know… |
| Fernando: Pañales, botellas, agua... |
| JP: Elephants… |
| Fernando: Elefantes... |
| JP: Jugglers… all kind of things in the purse. |
| Fernando: De todo. |
| JP: So, look in your purse. She does not think it’s that funny. |
| Fernando: No para nada. “No estoy para bromas en este momento.” Perdón, estoy sonriendo pero es muy serio esto. |
| JP: Ok, “No estoy para bromas” – “I am not in the mood for jokes.”, right? “I am just not here in that right now.” |
| Fernando: Y aparte va tarde al trabajo. |
| JP: Ok, so… |
| Fernando: “Ya voy tarde al trabajo.” |
| JP: Right. ““Ya voy tarde”. Ok, so “I’m leaving for work and I’m late.”, right? “I’m on my way to work and I’m late.” |
| Fernando: Pepe todavía bromeando le dice, “Mejor dicho, ni te has ido.” |
| JP: Ok, “You haven’t even left yet, so how can you say that you’re on your way?” |
| Fernando: Exacto. |
| JP: “When you haven’t even left.” That joke makes more sense in Spanish than in English. It’s hard to get the translation, but “Mejor dicho” – “rather”, you know… |
| Fernando: Exacto |
| JP: Or, in other words, “You haven’t even left yet.”. |
| Fernando: “Llévate mi auto si gustas” |
| JP: Ok, “Take my car if you like.” |
| Fernando: Ya hablando en serio. “Yo me quedo a buscarlas.” |
| JP: Ok, so… |
| Fernando: Las llaves... |
| JP: “Las llaves” – “I’ll stay and find the keys.”, “I’ll stay and look for the keys.” |
| Fernando: “Gracias, pero necesito las llaves para abrir la tienda.” |
| JP: So, that still did not solve the problem. |
| Fernando: Desafortunadamente no. |
| JP: No, Gina needs the keys “para abrir la tienda” – “to open up the store”. So, even if she did leave now, she needs the keys when she gets there. |
| Fernando: “He buscado en todos lados y nada.” |
| JP: Ok, she looked everywhere - “en todos lados” and she didn’t find anything - “nada”. |
| Fernando: Pepe siendo el más pragmático de los dos, le dice, “De seguro las dejaste en tu auto anoche que llegaste.” |
| JP: Ok, “I’m sure you left them in your car”, right? “Last night when you came in.” Ok. |
| Fernando: Así le pasa a mi mamá. |
| JP: Oh, really? Ok. Well, that happened to Gina, too, because she says “Yes, there they are.” |
| Fernando: “ ¡Sí, ahí están!” Y luego le sigue, “No sé qué haría sin ti.” |
| JP: Ok, “I don’t know what I would do without you.” |
| Fernando: Pepe regresando al bromista que es, “Es pregunta retórica, creo.” |
| JP: Ok, that’s a rhetorical question, I think. |
| Fernando: Exacto. |
| JP: “I don’t know what I do without you.” “You’re not going to be without me.” Groovy. Let’s move on to the vocabulary. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Fernando: buscar |
| JP: “To seek”, “to look for” |
| Fernando: bus-car, buscar. Broma |
| JP: “Prank” |
| Fernando: bro-ma, broma. Mejor dicho |
| JP: “Rather”, “in other words” |
| Fernando: me-jor di-cho, mejor dicho. En todos lados |
| JP: “Everywhere” |
| Fernando: en to-dos la-dos, en todos lados |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| JP: All right, Fernando. Let’s talk about these words. What do you want to start with? |
| Fernando: Buscar. |
| JP: “Buscar”. Ok, “to seek”, “to look for”. Now, this is a beginner level word “buscar”, but I just wanted to remind everyone that “buscar” takes direct objects. The thing that you’re looking for is the direct object. It doesn’t take any prepositions. In English we say “to look for something”, but we don’t need the word for “for” in Spanish, because it’s in there. It’s in “buscar”, right? So, if I’m looking “for” my car? |
| Fernando: Busco mi coche. |
| JP: “Busco mi coche”. There’s no “for” word in there, right? |
| Fernando: Busco mi auto. |
| JP: All right. What’s next? |
| Fernando: La broma. |
| JP: “La broma”. Ok. Pepe was all about “bromas” today, right? |
| Fernando: Al parecer, sí. |
| JP: Now, “broma” means “joke” or “prank”, but be careful because there’s this other word in Spanish, it’s “chiste” which is also “a joke”, and this is a joke of the punish line, right? |
| Fernando: Sí. |
| JP: Whereas the “broma” is “a prank”. |
| Fernando: Prank, más que nada. O es bromista. |
| JP: Yes, Pepe is really “bromista”. |
| Fernando: La siguiente: mejor dicho. |
| JP: “Mejor dicho”. Ok, this is when you want to rephrase what somebody’s saying, right? So, actually, you’re saying this “rather”, you mean this, right? So, in other words, you mean this. “mejor dicho”, literally, “to say it better”. |
| Fernando: Sí es a es buena traduccion. |
| JP: Ok. |
| Fernando: Definitivamente. La última: en todos lados. |
| JP: Oh, “en todos lados”. Ok. This is an idiomatic phrase and it means “everywhere”. |
| Fernando: Everywhere. |
| JP: Ok. “el lado” literally means “the side”, so “I’ve looked on all sides.”, right? And, if you looked on all sides or something, then you’ve looked everywhere. “En todos lados”. Shall we move to the grammar section? |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Fernando: Sí. |
| JP: All this grammar that we’re doing today is pretty easy, Fernando. In fact, I think it’s actually below level, but this is a good time for a review. We’re reviewing the Preterit Tense, which is the Past Tense that you use for simple actions in the past. These are actions that happened once, they started and they finished, they didn’t repeat themselves, and from our perspective, they didn’t last long time. We just, they just happened. Ok. So, when you’re making a bulleted list of other things that happened, you’re going to use the “pretérito”. Now, the reason we’re going over the “pretérito” today, is because in the dialogue Gina is looking for the keys, and Pepe tell her to look in her purse. He says “The other day I found the blender in there.” |
| Fernando: “El otro día encontré la licuadora ahí.” |
| JP: Ok. “Encontrar la licuadora” – “finding the blender” it’s not a process, it’s not a repeated action, it’s just something that he did. He opened up her bag and he found it in there. It’s an action that happened like “Bam, it happened.”, right? It didn’t last over time, so we use the Preterit “encontré” – “I found”. We hear the Preterit two more times, where Pepe suggests to Gina that the keys are in her car. He says “I’m sure you left them in your car last night when you arrived.” |
| Fernando: “De seguro las dejaste en tu auto anoche que llegaste.” |
| JP: Ok. So, we heard two verbs in the Preterit there. The first one was “you left them”. |
| Fernando: Las dejaste |
| JP: And the second one was “you arrived”. |
| Fernando: Llegaste |
| JP: That’s the verb “llegar”. So, we had “dejar” in “las dejaste” and “llegar” in “llegaste”. All right. Now, these are both Preterit forms, and you hear actually that that’s the second person, singular, because it ends in “aste”. All right. Now, all of the “ar” verbs in the second person, singular, are going to add in “aste”. All right? So, if I want to say “You danced”? |
| Fernando: Bailaste. |
| JP: “You lifted” |
| Fernando: Cargaste. |
| JP: How about “You robbed”, “You stole”? |
| Fernando: Robaste. |
| JP: All those “ar” verbs are going to end in “aste” in the second person. In the first person they are going to end in “e”, right? So, “I stole”? |
| Fernando: Yo robé. |
| JP: “I danced”? |
| Fernando: Yo bailé. |
| JP: “I lifted”? |
| Fernando: Yo cargué. |
| JP: Now those are “ar” verbs, for “er” and “ir” verbs you’re going to hear a different sound. For example, if I say “I ate”? |
| Fernando: Yo comí. |
| JP: “I wrote”? |
| Fernando: Yo escribí. |
| JP: “I lived”? |
| Fernando: Yo viví. |
| JP: All of those end in “í”, right? In a stressed “í”. To put it in second person, “You ate”? |
| Fernando: Tú comiste. |
| JP: “You wrote” |
| Fernando: Tú escribiste. |
| JP: “You lived”? |
| Fernando: Tú viviste. |
| JP: All of those end in “iste”, right? What I’m doing right now is just trying to show you a pattern, and I know I’m skipping around the chart, which it might be disorienting to some of you, but I just wanted you to hear that pattern, “iste, iste, iste, aste aste aste, e,e,e,i,i,i ”. Every part of that chart has a pattern that you follow, that you can pick up on with your ear, all right? |
Outro |
| JP: I think that’s it for today, Fernando. |
| Fernando: Perfecto, nos despedimos. |
| JP: Hasta luego. |
| Fernando: Adios. |
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