Learn how to form the conditional tense
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Fernando: “If you could be learning anything in Spanish, what would it be?” JP, ¿cómo estas? |
| JP: Muy bien gracias Fernando ¿y tú? |
| Fernando: Bien bien aquí con esta nueva lección. |
| JP: Yes. Hello, everyone. What are we going to talk about in this lesson? |
| Fernando: En esta lección vamos a revisar la formación del tiempo condicional. la conversación toma lugar en un salón de clases. La conversación es entre un profesor, Valentina y Abelardo y estarán utilizando el registro formal. |
| JP: Yes, actually they’re not going to address each other directly, but if they were to address each other directly, it would probably be in the formal register. |
| Fernando: Tienes razón. |
| JP: Now, before we listen to this dialogue, I want to remind everyone to go to our website, which is www.Spanishpod101.com and to find the lesson notes for this lesson. That way, you cannot only listen to this lesson, but you can also follow along with the transcript of the dialogue, which we’re about to hear right now. Are you ready? |
| DIALOGUE |
| Profesor: Debo hacerles una pregunta... Si hubiera una crisis humanitaria en su país, ¿qué harían? |
| Abelardo: Lo primero que haría es hablar a mi casa para saber si están bien mis papás. Luego vería la mejor forma de poder contribuír a la causa. |
| Valentina: Sí. Si fuera afectada mi ciudad o familia cercana incluso regresaría para ayudar. |
| Profesor: Recientemente hubo una catástrofe humanitaria causada por un terremoto. ¿Qué hicieron? |
| Abelardo: Bueno, en ese caso, hice una donación de dinero a una de las organizaciones mejor establecidas para tratar con esa situación. |
| Valentina: Lo primero que hice fue saber de qué había más necesidad. Luego me puse en contacto con esa organización y doné ropa y comida para los damnificados. |
| Profesor: Me parece tan bueno eso. Y es que una ayuda, sin importar si es pequeña o grande tiene un impacto muy fuerte en reducir el sufrimiento. |
| Prof: I have to ask you all a question... If there were a humanitarian crisis in your country, what would you do? |
| Abelardo: The first thing I would do is call home to see whether my parents are okay. Then I would see the best way to contribute to the cause. |
| Valentina: Yes. If my city or close family were involved, I would even go home to help. |
| Prof: Recently there was a humanitarian crisis caused by an earthquake. What did you all do? |
| Abelardo: Well, in that case, I made a donation of money to one of the best-established organizations to address that situation. |
| Valentina: The first thing I did was to find out what was most in need. Later I got in contact with that organization and I donated clothing and food to the victims. |
| Prof: To me, that seems so nice. Help, whether it's big or small, has a strong impact in reducing the suffering. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| JP: Ok, Fernando, we’re back. And today we have kind of a long dialogue, but that’s ok, because the grammar section is going to be a little shorter. |
| Fernando: Sí, exacto. De hecho es una conversación, parece ser que hubo alguna crisis humanitaria recientemente en algún país. |
| JP: Right. Now the teacher of course starts off with asking a hypothetical question, like what if there were humanitarian crises, what would you do? |
| Fernando: Sí. “Debo hacerles una pregunta... “ Así empieza el profesor. “Si hubiera una crisis humanitaria en su país, ¿qué harían?” |
| JP: ¿Qué harían? – “what would you do”, Abelardo is the first one to answer. |
| Fernando: Sí. “Lo primero que haría es hablar a mi casa para saber si están bien mis papás.” |
| JP: “Hablar a mi casa” – “to talk to my house”, he’s really saying he’s calling home. |
| Fernando: Sí. Abelardo continúa diciendo: “Luego vería la mejor forma de poder contribuír a la causa.” |
| JP: “And then I would see what the best way to contribute to the cause was.” |
| Fernando: Sí. Exacto. |
| JP: Now, these senses have long words and they’re kind of, they’re kind of longish senses, but they’re pretty easy to understand. There’s a lot of cognates, so that even if you don’t recognize these words, like “contribuir”, you can guess that “contribuir” means “to contribute”. And you can guess that “la causa” is “the cause”, right? |
| Fernando: Así es. |
| JP: Ok. So, anyway, Valentina chimes in and she said what she would do if there were the case that there was a… |
| Fernando: Claro. “Sí. Si fuera afectada mi ciudad o familia cercana incluso regresaría para ayudar.” |
| JP: Ok. |
| Fernando: Eso dice. |
| JP: So, if it’s my hometown or if it’s my family, I would even go back, right? “incluso regresaría” – “I would even go back”. |
| Fernando: Sí, ella querría estar más involucrada en esta situación, en esta crisis, digamos. |
| JP: Right. And that’s understandable if it’s somebody or some places very close to your heart. |
| Fernando: Exacto. |
| JP: So, the prof points out that recently there was an earthquake. |
| Fernando: Sí. “Recientemente hubo una catástrofe humanitaria causada por un terremoto. ¿Qué hicieron?” Les pregunta. |
| JP: Now, here we have the verb “hubo”, which is very rarely used, this is the verb “haber” in the Preterit, and it’s used for like surprising events. Here, the surprising event is an earthquake. |
| Fernando: Recientemente hubo una catástrofe humanitaria. |
| JP: Quake, right? |
| Fernando: Que fue causada por un terremoto. |
| JP: All right. So, he asked what the students did… |
| Fernando: ¿Qué hicieron? |
| JP: And Abelardo said well, he gave money. |
| Fernando: Bueno en ese caso hizo una donación de dinero a una de las organizaciones mejor establecidas para tratar con esta situación. Parece ser que estos estudiantes hablan bastante. |
| JP: Yes, that’s right. |
| Fernando: Pero sí, eso fue lo que contestó Abelardo. |
| JP: Right. Looks like the teacher’s trying to find out how, how giving they are, how nice they are. |
| Fernando: Sí y yo creo también para motivarlos a que en verdad hagan algo. DE forma indirecta, no diciéndoles tienen que donar, tienen que hacer esto, tienen que hacer lo otro. |
| JP: Yes, you got to do something though. |
| Fernando: Exacto. |
| JP: So, Valentina says “The first thing I did…” |
| Fernando: “Lo primero que hice fue saber de qué había más necesidad.” |
| JP: Ok, “ de qué había más necesidad.” – “what was most needed” |
| Fernando: Sí en este caso pudo haber sido agua, comida, ropa, de todo tipo de cosas. |
| JP: Right. And she said, actually, that she donated food and cloth, we say food and clothing in English, but she says clothing and food. |
| Fernando: “...doné ropa y comida para los damnificados.” |
| JP: Ok. “damnificados” is “the stricken”, right? The ones that were affected… Ok. |
| Fernando: Así es. |
| JP: Now, that sense started off “then I put myself in contact with that organization.” |
| Fernando: “y luego me puse en contacto con esa organización “ |
| JP: Now, often it’s those organizations that are the most trustworthy, right? Because if you just go and throw money at a situation without finding out where the money goes, it can be problematic. |
| Fernando: Definitivamente. |
| JP: So, she got in contact with that organization. Now, the teacher has a nice summary, right? He says “Oh, that’s all very nice.” |
| Fernando: “Me parece tan bueno eso.” |
| JP: Ok. |
| Fernando: “Y es que una ayuda, sin importar si es pequeña o grande tiene un impacto muy fuerte en reducir el sufrimiento.” |
| JP: Ok. So, he says “una ayuda”, literally, that’s “a help”, right? But in English we would just say “Helping / Help has a great effect.”, right? “Tiene un impacto muy fuerte”. And it doesn’t matter if it’s a big help or a small help, right? |
| Fernando: Sí en este caso utiliza ayuda como sustantivo. |
| JP: “Una ayuda”. All right. Let’s take a closer look at some of the vocabulary words. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Fernando: La crisis. |
| JP: “Crisis” |
| Fernando: la cri-sis, la crisis. El terremoto. |
| JP: “Earthquake” |
| Fernando: el te-rre-mo-to, el terremoto. El damnificado. |
| JP: “Victim”, “injured party”, “stricken one” |
| Fernando: el da-mni-fi-ca-do, el damnificado. La catástrofe. |
| JP: “Catastrophe” |
| Fernando: la ca-tás-tro-fe, la catástrofe. Saber |
| JP: “To know”, “to find out” |
| Fernando: sa-ber, saber. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| JP: Ok, let’s take a closer look at these words. So, the first one we’re going to start out with is “crisis”. |
| Fernando: La crisis. |
| JP: “La crisis”. Now this is spelled exactly the same in Spanish, as is it in English. |
| Fernando: Exacto. |
| JP: The cognate word. Now, it means “crisis”, of course. One thing I want to point out is that recently when people just talk about “la crisis” and don’t specify what it is, nowadays are talking about the economic crisis, right? |
| Fernando: Sí definitivamente es un tema muy presente con todos nosotros. |
| JP: So, unless you hear them referred to a specific crisis, usually they’re referring to the whole economic down term. |
| Fernando: El terremoto. |
| JP: “El terremoto” is another crisis. In this case, specifically, it’s an earthquake. |
| Fernando: Sí recientemente hubieron dos terremotos, de hecho. Uno en Haití y otro en Chile. Bastante fuertes los dos. |
| JP: Absolutely. And devastating. Now, I included a couple of synonyms for “earthquake”, because you might see or hear these other words in the earthquake coverage on Spanish News. One of them is “el temblor”, ok? It’s the… |
| Fernando: The tremor. |
| JP: “The tremor’, yes. And then, “el sismo”. |
| Fernando: “El sismos” the seismic… |
| JP: Like the seismic activity. Those are both synonyms of “el terremoto” which means “earthquake”. |
| Fernando: El damnificado. |
| JP: El damnificado. Now, “damnificado” is an adjective. When we put the article “el” in front of an adjective it becomes a noun, right? So, if “damnificado” means “stricken” or “injured”, “el damnificado” means “the stricken one” or “the injured one”. |
| Fernando: Así es. |
| JP: Is there a verb “damnificar”? |
| Fernando: Sí, sí hay. |
| JP: Ok, cool. Do you use it a lot? |
| Fernando: No mucho. |
| JP: No. |
| Fernando: No es de los verbos que no quiero usar. |
| JP: Ok, one of those. Ok. What’s the next word? |
| Fernando: La catástrofe. |
| JP: “La catástrofe”. Ok, now this is another of those cognates, just like “la crisis”, that looks exactly the same in Spanish as in English. “La catástrofe”. So, it’s feminine, right? “La catástrofe. Una catástrofe”. |
| Fernando: Sí. |
| JP: Ok. And the last word? |
| Fernando: Saber |
| JP: “Saber” is “to know”, right? Now that’s like a beginner word everybody learns the verb “saber”, and it means “to know information”. But in some cases, you’re going to hear “saber” used as an action. For example, in the dialogue, Valentina says “The first thing I did was to find out what was the most they need.” |
| Fernando: “Lo primero que hice fue saber de qué había más necesidad. ” |
| JP: Ok. “Lo primero que hice ” – “the first thing I did”, all right? And the action was “saber de qué había más necesidad. ”. Now, because “saber” is an action, it might be better to translate it as “to find out”. Right? So, “The first thing I did was to find out what was most, you know, most needed.” |
| Fernando: Claro, definitivamente. Bueno JP ¿pasamos a la gramática? |
| JP: Ok. All right. The grammar point today is Conditional Tense and this is going to be a review for everyone, because forming the Conditional is not that advanced of a topic, so we’re going to review this a little bit. The Conditional Tense in English is usually translated as “would”, the auxiliary verb “would do something”. And you’ll know when you hear a Conditional Tense, because the verb will always contain the entire Infinitive plus an “es” suffix. So, let’s take, oh I don’t know, my favorite verb, how about “to eat”? |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Fernando: Comer. |
| JP: Ok, so if I wanted to say “I would eat”? |
| Fernando: Yo comería. |
| JP: “Comería”. Ok, did you hear that “comería”? It’s the whole Infinitive “comer” and then “ria” suffix, in this case “comería”. |
| Fernando: Yo comería lo que fuera ahorita. |
| JP: Ok. |
| Fernando: Bueno no todo. |
| JP: Ok. Ok, how about “they would eat”? |
| Fernando: Ellos comerían. |
| JP: “Ellos comerían”. So, if you add the “ia” suffixes on to the vast majority of infinitives, you’ll get a Conditional Tense. Now, Fernando, there are some verbs that don’t use the regular Infinitive. |
| Fernando: Y son muy comunes. |
| JP: They are, they are. In fact, we have it in our dialogue. The teacher asks “If there were a humanitarian crisis in your country, what would you do?” |
| Fernando: ¿Qué harían ustedes? |
| JP: ¿Qué harían?, right? Now, “harían” – “you all would do”, that’s the verb “hacer ” – “to do” or “to make” and the stem of that is not the whole Infinitive, this would be regular. Instead, it’s just “ar”. |
| Fernando: ¿Qué harían? |
| JP: Ok, let’s see what else is in the dialogue. Valentina said she would even go back to help. |
| Fernando: Regresaría. |
| JP: “Regresaría”, ok. Oh, that one’s regular, right? Because it’s the whole Infinitive “regresar”... |
| Fernando: Regresar. Exacto. |
| JP: Plus the “ia” suffix. Let’s see what else we have in our dialogue. Yes, not much else. Ok, I do want to go over some of these irregular ones, what’s another one? How about the verb for “to put”? |
| Fernando: Poner. |
| JP: “Poner”, ok. And if you want to say “I would put”? |
| Fernando: Pondría. |
| JP: Pondría. |
| Fernando: Yo pondría. |
| JP: Ok, “yo pondría”. It’s not the whole Infinitive “poner”, that’s the stem in that case, right? That would be “ponería”. But if you said that, you’d sound like a five years old. So, you had to say “pondría”. |
| Fernando: Pondría. |
| JP: now, there’s a “d” that appeared out of nowhere. |
| Fernando: Quien sabe de donde |
| JP: Ok. The magic “d” comes up in other verbs, as well. |
| Fernando: Salir. |
| JP: Ok, “salir” means “to go out”. If you want to say “She would go out.” |
| Fernando: Ella saldría. |
| JP: “Saldría”. Did you hear that magic “d”? |
| Fernando: Ahí está la “d” de nuevo. |
| JP: Also in the verb “to have”. |
| Fernando: Tener |
| JP: Ok, so “we would have”. |
| Fernando: Nosotros tendríamos. |
| JP: “Tendríamos”. Did you hear that magic “d”? |
| Fernando: De nuevo |
| JP: “Tendríamos”, ok. |
| Fernando: ¿Y otra? ¿Que tal valer? Valdría, valdría la pena. Yo valdría o ella valdría. |
| JP: Ok, also the verb “to come”. |
| Fernando: Venir. Vendría. |
| JP: Cool. Now, there are some other verbs that don’t have a magic “d”, but they do have a Conditional stem. That is not exactly the Infinitive. Like “to fit”. |
| Fernando: Caber. Cabría. |
| JP: Cabría. |
| Fernando: O por ejemplo, saber. |
| JP: “Saber” that would be “sabría”. |
| Fernando: Sabría. |
| JP: Ok. The last one I want to do is the verb “to say” or “to tell”. |
| Fernando: Decir. Diría. |
| JP: “Diría” – “I would say” or “he/she would say” |
| Fernando: Ella diría, él diría. |
Outro |
| JP: So, I guess that's it for today. So, hasta luego. |
| Fernando: Adios. |
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