Learn the verbs dar (to give), ser (to be), ir (to go), and venir (to come)
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Dylan: Buenos días, soy Dylan. |
| Carlos: What’s going on? I’m Carlos. “Preterit tense. Mental anticipation.” What’s up, Pod101 world? My name is Carlos. |
| Dylan: Hello everybody. Yo soy Dylan. |
| Carlos: Welcome to the 18th lesson of the Verb Conjugation Series. I have to make a small joke. Now, we’re legal. |
| Dylan: What? |
| Carlos: Nothing. See Costa Rican 18 for an explanation. Dylan, you see how I did that? Nice little plug. |
| Dylan: Okay, Carlos. While your regional series is interesting, we are doing something a little more, shall we say, practical here? |
| Carlos: Okay, I got to admit a little more practical, but if you want to have some fun with Spanishpod101.com other than with me and Dylan, the original series, Costa Rican versions are very, very cool. |
| Dylan: We’re moving right along with the Verb Conjugation Series. |
| Carlos: Are we still on the preterit tense? |
| Dylan: That’s right. |
| Carlos: Men, there are lots of ways to discuss the things that happened in the past . |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Dylan: Yes. Today we’re looking at the preterit tense mental anticipation. |
| Carlos: That sounds like a movie. The suspense, get it? Suspense, anticipation… All right, Dylan, what verbs are we giving our undivided attention today? |
| Dylan: Today we have “dar”, “ser”, “ir”, “venir”. |
| Carlos: “Dar” - “to give”, “ser” - “to be”, “ir” - “to go”, “venir” - “to come”. |
| Dylan: And we have something special today, too. |
| Carlos: What’s that? |
| Dylan: Today we have a bonus paradigm track. |
| Carlos: A bonus paradigm track? |
| Dylan: For our premium members, we have a bonus paradigm track dealing with the verbs “vestir”, “querer”, “pedir”. |
| Carlos: That’s sounds like a good bonus. |
| Dylan: Spanishpod101.com is for the people. |
| Carlos: Get that premium subscription, it’s well, well, worth it. And, if you want, you can get 7 days bonus for free. And for use today, you said we’re going to look at… |
| Dylan: The preterit tense when it expresses mental anticipation. |
| Carlos: Man, that sounds intense. To be honest, I’m not really sure what you mean by that. |
| Dylan: Well, let’s think back to lesson 17. Remember how we saw that the preterit tense can be used to express completion of an action in the past? |
| Carlos: Yeah, for example we said “Aprendí la noticia”, which means “I found out about the news.” She didn’t correct me, she was about to start. She didn’t correct me, I said it right. |
| Dylan: That’s awesome. And, in that case, we are going to express the moment in which you are finding out became complete, right? |
| Carlos: Right. |
| Dylan: Well, let’s build on this. We can say that the sense of completion is also a kind of punctuality. |
| Carlos: Punctuality? |
| Dylan: Yes. And this punctuality that refers to the completion of the act can totally make room for expressions in which the preterit condition is forgotten . |
| Carlos: Wait, wait. So, you are saying the preterit tenses doesn’t always refer to a past action? |
| Dylan: Well, Carlos, consider the moment in a trip when you’re about to arrive. You’re on a bus and it’s about to pull into the station, but you’re not quite there yet. |
| Carlos: Okay. |
| Dylan: In Spanish, you can say, “ya llegué”. |
| Carlos: Doesn’t that mean, “Now, I’ve arrived”? |
| Dylan: Kind of. The thing is that it expresses that mental anticipation of the speaker. |
| Carlos: You know, that’s pretty cool. |
| Dylan: Or another example – you’re hanging out at a friend’s house. When you are about to leave, you can use the preterit tense and say “Me fui”. |
| Carlos: All right, wait, wouldn’t that literally mean “I left”? But you’re saying that, in this usage, it means something like, “I’m out of here”? Is that right? |
| Dylan: You got it! So, when we use the preterit tense this way, we express mental anticipation. We talk about an action as if it had already happened when, in fact, it has not. Entonces Carlitos, veamos la formación verbal. |
| Carlos: Time to learn how to conjugate verbs. |
| Dylan: First up, we have the verb “dar”. |
| Carlos: “To give. “ |
| Dylan: So, there’s a really easy trick for this verb in the preterit indicative. All you have to do is get the stem from the infinitive form, which is simply the letter “d”, and then add the personal endings, which we use for regular “ir” verbs. |
| Carlos: I see, wait. So, that would mean “-i”, “-iste”, “-io”, “-imos”, “-istais”... |
| Dylan: “-isteis” |
| Carlos: “-isteis” I have a problem with that one… and “-ieron”, right? |
| Dylan: Yeah, but ojo, this time we’re not going to use any accent marks. |
| Carlos: Got it. Let’s conjugate this sucker. |
| Dylan: “Dar”. |
| Carlos: “To give.” |
| Dylan: “Yo di”. |
| Carlos: “I gave.” |
| Dylan: “Tú diste”. |
| Carlos: “You gave.” |
| Dylan: “Él dio”. |
| Carlos: “He gave.” |
| Dylan: “Nosotros dimos”. |
| Carlos: “We gave.” |
| Dylan: “Vosotros disteis”. |
| Carlos: “You all gave.” |
| Dylan: “Ellos dieron”. |
| Carlos: “They gave.” Dylan, how about some examples with “dar” in the preterit tense in the indicative mood? |
| Dylan: How about “ella no te dio su número de teléfono”? |
| Carlos: What does that mean? |
| Dylan: “She didn’t give you her phone number.” |
| Carlos: Man, come on. You and Nati have been talking. Conspiracy! Conspiracy, I tell you. All right, how about another? |
| Dylan: “Nosotros dimos regalos en Navidad”. |
| Carlos: We gave presents for Christmas? |
| Dylan: Mm-hmm. You got it. |
| Carlos: I got it. My brain hurts. Ah, two languages. All right, no, no, no. Moving on. How about the verbs “ser” and “ir”? |
| Dylan: Muy bien. Well, these are pretty irregular but the good thing is that their forms are identical in the preterit tense. |
| Carlos: What do you mean identical? |
| Dylan: Yes, grasshopper. This means that the context will let us know which one is being used. |
| Carlos: And, Dylan, do you have one of those secret tips for me? |
| Dylan: Actually, Carlos, these ones you just going to have to memorize since they’re really irregular. |
| Carlos: Okay, well, I guess that means I’m going to have to forget something else in other to make room. |
| Dylan: ¡Ay, Dios! Let’s conjugate these verbs. |
| Carlos: Okay. |
| Dylan: “Ser”, “ir”. |
| Carlos: “To be”, “to go.” |
| Dylan: “Yo fui”. |
| Carlos: “I was”, “I went.” |
| Dylan: “Tú fuiste”. |
| Carlos: “You were”, “you went.” |
| Dylan: “Él fue”. |
| Carlos: “He was”, “he went.” |
| Dylan: “Nosotros fuimos”. |
| Carlos: “We were”, “we went.” |
| Dylan: “Vosotros fuisteis”. |
| Carlos: “You all were”, “you all went.” |
| Dylan: “Ellos fueron”. |
| Carlos: “They were”, “they went.” Dylan, now, can we have a few examples with “ser” and “ir” in the preterit tense in the indicative mood? I’m sorry, you’re the resident Spanish speaker, you’re the one who has to give me examples. If you like say, “Carlos, give me an example with the word ‘book’, in English,” I’d be like, “I read books.” Okay? |
| Dylan: Well, all right. For example, with the verb “ser”. Let’s say that we are talking in person and you get a phone call. You take it and you talk for a minute, and then hang up. I could ask you, “¿Quien fue?” |
| Carlos: Let me guess… “Who was it?” |
| Dylan: You got it. |
| Carlos: All right. And what about an example with “ir”? |
| Dylan: That’s easy. Let’s say that there’s a big show downtown and I want to know if you went. I could ask you “¿Fuiste a la exhibición en el centro?”. “Did you go to the art show downtown?” |
| Carlos: Actually, I did and I quite enjoyed it. It was spectacular form of … |
| Dylan: Carlos, Carlos, Carlos… |
| Carlos: I don’t know what I am talking about at all, but am just trying to say, I see. Okay, one more, the verb “venir”. |
| Dylan: Now, for this one I do have a secret tip. |
| Carlos: For real? What’s that? |
| Dylan: Natalia usually makes you beg for things like this, right? |
| Carlos: Seriously, this has nothing to do with anything, so let’s just go down for the... |
| Dylan: You know what, if you don’t want to know… |
| Carlos: Well, I don’t. But, you know, if our audience needs to know, they need to know. So, pretty please with a cherry on top, and whip cream, and all that good stuff that the ice cream people put on… |
| Dylan: Okay, okay. I guess I do it. So, here it goes: with the verb “venir” in the preterit tense of the indicative mood, we have a stem change. |
| Carlos: Now, the stem of the infinitive form is “ven”, spelled “v-e-n”, right? |
| Dylan: Right. And now we’re going to change it to “vin”, spelled “v-i-n”. |
| Carlos: Okay. |
| Dylan: And, from there, we’ll add the following personal endings “-e”, “-iste”, “-o”, “-imos”, “-isteis”, “-ieron”. |
| Carlos: Any accents? |
| Dylan: No. |
| Carlos: Awesome. |
| Dylan: Should we conjugate this one now? |
| Carlos: Yes, ma’am. |
| Dylan: “Venir”. |
| Carlos: “To come.” |
| Dylan: “Yo vine”. |
| Carlos: “I came.” |
| Dylan: “Tú viniste”. |
| Carlos: “You came.” |
| Dylan: “Él vino”. |
| Carlos: “He came.” |
| Dylan: “Nosotros vinimos”. |
| Carlos: “We came.” |
| Dylan: “Vosotros vinisteis”. |
| Carlos: “You all came.” |
| Dylan: “Ellos vinieron”. |
| Carlos: “They came.” Sounds like a party. And, to finish this off, let’s put “venir” in the context with some examples of it in preterit tense of the indicative mood. |
| Dylan: Well, I could say “vine a la casa temprano y no había nadie”. |
| Carlos: And that’s means? |
| Dylan: “I came home early and no one was there.” |
| Carlos: Probably, since I live alone. That will make sense. |
| Dylan: I never said it was to your home. |
| Carlos: I’m just saying, it would bug me out if I came home with someone sitting on my couch, watching TV, eating my food. |
| Dylan: That’d be scary. |
| Carlos: I’m like, “Uh, this is my house, man.” |
| Dylan: Okay. Well, since you mentioned party earlier, “Ellos vinieron a la fiesta”. |
| Carlos: They went to the party, they came to the party? |
| Dylan: “They came to the party.” |
| Carlos: “They came to the party.” Of course they came to the party Spanishpod101.com’s party, man, we get down. You know, like us. |
Outro |
| Dylan: This wraps up today's lesson. |
| Carlos: I think we got our point across. |
| Dylan: I know. I like these lessons. |
| Carlos: Have a good one. |
| Dylan: ¡Chao! Carlos? What happened to “Peace, love and Spanish”? |
| Carlos: You have to keep it fresh, Dylan, you have to keep it fresh. But notice I got you to say it! |
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