Learn about present tense
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Beatriz: Buenos días, me llamo Beatriz. |
| Joseph: Joseph here. The Actual Present. |
| Beatriz: ¿Cómo estás Joseph? |
| Joseph: Beatriz, estoy muy bien. Great to be back here for our fourth Verb Conjugation Lesson. |
| Beatriz: Yeah, it’s good to see such a variety of lessons being published on SpanishPod101. |
| Joseph: Everyday this course is becoming more and more comprehensive. So what tense are we looking at today? |
| Beatriz: We are going to continue with the present tense. |
| Joseph: Ahh, that’s a great idea. You know, with verbs it’s really important to go step by step and take your time. |
| Beatriz: Así es. Paso a paso. |
| Joseph: Paso a pasito. And are we looking at the present tense with actions that are expressed as real or just possible? |
| Beatriz: As real. |
| Joseph: So that means we are looking at the present tense in the indicative mode, right? |
| Beatriz: That’s right. |
| Joseph: Well, I am really excited about today’s Lesson because, well, we are going to go over the same tense and mode as last time. We are going to look at a new use of the present. |
| Beatriz: I can’t wait, Joseph. |
| Joseph: Well, don’t worry because you don’t have to. Here comes another lesson from SpanishPod101.com. |
Lesson focus |
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| Beatriz: So what’s this new usage that we are going to look at today? |
| Joseph: It’s called the Actual Present, “el presente actual”. By this we are talking about an action that last a certain amount of time and when we express this action we are indicating a point within that duration. |
| Beatriz: Sounds interesting. |
| Joseph: There’s a lot to verbs, which is one of the reasons why it’s so important to study them in an organized way. |
| Beatriz: Claro, con la organización vas aprendiendo y construyendo estructuras que perdurarán por mucho tiempo. |
| Joseph: That’s a great way to put it. With our organization, you go on learning and building long lasting structures and with these structures you are going to start to recognize patterns and that’s really what grammar is all about: learning to recognize patterns. |
| Beatriz: Okay, let’s see what patterns we can recognize today. |
| Joseph: To get a clear idea of what we are talking about today, let’s go back to Newby Lesson 15. There Marcelo and Daniela are about to go outside into some cold weather and Daniela says “¡Sí! Yo tengo frío”. |
| Beatriz: Yeah, I’m cold. |
| Joseph: Now Beatriz, do you think that Daniela was cold before she said that she’s cold? |
| Beatriz: Así parece. It seems so. |
| Joseph: And do you think that she will still be cold after she is done saying that she is cold? |
| Beatriz: I would be surprised if she wasn’t. |
| Joseph: So is it safe to say that there is a certain duration to this action of being cold? |
| Beatriz: Yeah. It seems to last for an amount of time. |
| Joseph: Right. And when she says that she’s cold, does this occur within the duration or outside of it? |
| Beatriz: Within it. |
| Joseph: Nice. And the verb that she’s using “tengo”, does this express an action that’s real or merely possible? |
| Beatriz: Oh, it's real alright. |
| Joseph: And with this verb, she’s expressing an action that’s occurring now , before now or after now? |
| Beatriz: It seems to be occurring now. |
| Joseph: So we can say that this verb is in the present tense of the indicative mode and that this usage is the actual present, “el presente actual”. Well, this reminds me of Beginner Lesson 3, where Hernán is thanking Abraham for his hospitality, because Hernán stayed at Abraham’s Inn and Hernan says “Agradezco su ayuda”. “I appreciate the help.” |
| Beatriz: Good example. |
| Joseph: So do you think that Hernán appreciates Abraham’s help before he tells him? |
| Beatriz: For sure. |
| Joseph: So it’s like this expression that Hernán makes takes place within the duration of his appreciation. Now, there are a lot of example of this. For instance, in Newby Lesson 12, Juana and Felipe have just enjoyed a delicious “ceviche” prepared by Felipe’s Aunt, Rosa, and when Aunt Rosa offers Juana another helping, Juana responds “Estoy satisfecha”, “I’m satisfied.” |
| Beatriz: I see. So Juana is satisfied before and after she tells Aunt Rosa. |
| Joseph: Exactly. Again, the action of the verb occurs within a larger duration. Another example comes up in Iberian Lesson 8 , where Megan and David are talking about how thirsty they are and Megan says “Yo estoy deshidratada”, “I’m dehydrated.” |
| Beatriz: Claro. Even though her dehydration is in the present when she says that she’s dehydrated, this takes place within that duration. |
| Joseph: Exactly. So we can see that the present tense in the indicative mode in Spanish has many uses. Last time we saw how it’s used to express truth that isn't bound by time and now we’ve just seen that it can be used to express the actual present. |
| Beatriz: Now, it’s time to look at the formation of some verbs. |
| Joseph: Sounds like a very good idea, Beatriz. Which verbs are we going to look at today? |
| Beatriz: “Preparar”, “beber” y “decidir”. |
| Joseph: And here in the infinitive forms we see “preparar”, “to prepare”, “beber”, “to drink” and “decidir”, “to decide.” |
| Beatriz: Let’s start with the verb “preparar”. |
| Joseph: That is a fantastic idea, Beatriz. |
| Beatriz: So, what kind of verb is this? |
| Joseph: I see that the stem is “prepar” and that it has that “ar” ending, which means that it belongs to the first conjugation. It’s an “ar” verb. |
| Beatriz: Right. It’s also a regular “ar” verb. Do you know what this means? |
| Joseph: Well, it means that it’s going to follow the basic patterns that we saw last time with the verb “amar”, “to love.” |
| Beatriz: That’s it. |
| Joseph: So let’s start out by learning how to say “I prepare. “ |
| Beatriz: All you have to do is drop the “ar” ending and add an “o” to the stem. |
| Joseph: So from “preparar”, “preparo”, “I prepare.” |
| Beatriz: What about if I want to say “you prepare”? |
| Joseph: Well, again we are going to drop that “ar” ending from the infinitive and this time we will add “as” ending to the stem. |
| Beatriz: Exactly. From “preparar”, “preparas”, “you prepare.” |
| Joseph: Great. And now let’s propose that we want to say “he prepares”, how would we conjugate the verb then? |
| Beatriz: In that case we would drop the “ar” ending just like we always do for the verbs in the present and then we would add the “a” ending to the stem. |
| Joseph: From “preparar”, “prepara”, “he prepares.” |
| Beatriz: Now what if we want to say “she prepares”? |
| Joseph: That would be the same one as the one we just used for “he prepares”, that is “prepara” and this same form would also be used if you are addressing someone formally with “usted”, “usted prepara”, “you prepare.” |
| Beatriz: Muy bien hecho. |
| Joseph: Now we’ve gone over the first, second and third person singular for the “ar” verb “preparar”. |
| Beatriz: Let’s move on to the plural. |
| Joseph: Okay. So how would we say “we prepare”? |
| Beatriz: “Preparamos”. |
| Joseph: Right, “preparamos”. So again we have dropped that infinitive ending, the “ar” ending and added “-amos”, “amos” to the stem. So from “preparar”, “preparamos”, “we prepare.” |
| Beatriz: And Joseph, if you address a group of friends speaking informally, how would you say “you all prepare”? |
| Joseph: Well again, I would drop the “ar” ending from the infinitive which we are always doing with these verbs in the present and then I would add “-áis”, spelled “a” with an accent “is”. |
| Beatriz: So from “preparar”, “preparáis”, “you all prepare.” |
| Joseph: Just one more left with this one, Bea. How would you say “they all prepare?” |
| Beatriz: “Preparan”. |
| Joseph: Exactly. So again, we’ve just dropped that infinitive ending and added “an”, “preparan”, “they prepare.” Also, just like we saw with the third person singular with the third person plural, “preparan” would be used for “ellos”, they, the men or the masculine things, “ellas”, they, the women or the feminine things and “ustedes”, you all formally. So “ellos preparan”, “they prepare”, “ellas preparan”, “they prepare” or “ustedes preparan”, “you all prepare.” |
| Beatriz: So now let’s move on to the verb “beber”, “to drink.” |
| Joseph: Beatriz, what kind of verb is this? |
| Beatriz: Well, what’s the stem? |
| Joseph: The stem is “beb”, spelled “b-e-b”. |
| Beatriz: Right. And if the stem is “beb” then what’s the ending? |
| Joseph: Then the ending is “-er”. |
| Beatriz: And do “er” verbs belong to the first, second or third conjugation? |
| Joseph: They belong to the second. |
| Beatriz: There you go. |
| Joseph: Okay, so as we’ve seen to conjugate regular verbs in the present tense of the indicative mode, we're going to drop this ending from the infinitive and then add the personal endings. Up to now we’ve shown for each formation how the infinitive ending is removed and the personal ending is added. Now, let’s move at a slightly quicker paste and see if we can conjugate this verb “beber”. |
| Beatriz: Sounds great. |
| Joseph: Alright. So if we want to say “I drink”. |
| Beatriz: From “beber”, “bebo”. “Yo bebo”. |
| Joseph: “I drink.” And to say “you drink” in the informal sentence. |
| Beatriz: From “beber”, “bebes”. “Tú bebes”. |
| Joseph: “You drink.” That’s great. And to either say “he drinks”, “she drinks” or “you drink” in this formal sentence. |
| Beatriz: From “beber”, “bebe”. “Él bebe”. |
| Joseph: “He drinks.” |
| Beatriz: “Ella bebe”. |
| Joseph: “She drinks.” |
| Beatriz: “Usted bebe”. |
| Joseph: “You drink” in the formal sentence. So these were the first, second and third person in the singular are regular, right? |
| Beatriz: Right. |
| Joseph: Let’s move on to the plural. How would we say “we drink”? |
| Beatriz: From “beber”, “bebemos”. “Nosotros bebemos”. |
| Joseph: “We drink.” And if we are talking to a group of people but we are talking to them informally, we’d want to say “you all drink”, how would we do this? |
| Beatriz: From “beber”, “bebéis”. “Vosotros bebéis”. |
| Joseph: “Vosotros bebéis”. This is great. “You all drink.” And finally, if we want to say “they drink.” |
| Beatriz: “Ellos beben”. From “beber” to “beben”. “Ellos beben”. |
| Joseph: “They drink.” |
| Beatriz: “Ustedes beben”. |
| Joseph: “You all drink” and that’s in the formal sentence, this time in the plural, “ustedes beben”. So now we’ve seen the conjugation of the verb “beber” in the present tense of the indicative mode. We really moving on. |
| Beatriz: Should we finish up with a verb from the third conjugation? |
| Joseph: Definitely. And verbs of the third conjugation have what ending? |
| Beatriz: “Ir”. |
| Joseph: So let’s conjugate the verb “decidir”, which means “to decide.” |
| Beatriz: Joseph, what’s the stem of these verbs? |
| Joseph: Well, if I just remove the infinitive ending, which again is “ir”, I get “decid”, so that’s the stem. |
| Beatriz: Right. |
| Joseph: Okay and again. We know that to conjugate regular verbs in the present tense of the indicative mode, we just need to remove the infinitive ending and add the personal endings, right? |
| Beatriz: Right, Joseph. |
| Joseph: So with that being said, how would we say “I decide”? |
| Beatriz: From “decidir”, “decido”. “Yo decido”. |
| Joseph: “Yo decido”, “I decide.” Right. And to say “you decide” if you are speaking to someone informally? |
| Beatriz: From “decidir” to “decides”. “Tú decides”. |
| Joseph: “Tú decides”, “you decide.” Great. And to say “he decides”, “she decides” or “you decide”, if you are speaking to someone formally. |
| Beatriz: From “decidir”, “decide”. “Él decide”. |
| Joseph: “He decides.” |
| Beatriz: “Ella decide”. |
| Joseph: “She decides.” |
| Beatriz: “Usted decide”. |
| Joseph: “You decide.” Again in the formal sentence. So those are the singular forms for the first, second and third persons. |
| Beatriz: So let’s move on to the plural. |
| Joseph: So if we want to say “we decide.” |
| Beatriz: From “decidir”, “decidimos”. “Nosotros decidimos”. |
| Joseph: “We decide.” Nice. And if we are addressing a group of people informally, how would you say “you all decide”? |
| Beatriz: “Decidís”, “vosotros decidís”. |
| Joseph: “You all decide.” Very good, Beatriz. And finally, if we want to say “they decide” either for masculine or feminine subjects or of we want to say “you all decide” in the formal sentence, what would we say? |
| Beatriz: “Deciden”, “ellos deciden”. |
| Joseph: “They decide.” |
| Beatriz: “Ustedes deciden”. |
| Joseph: “You all decide.” |
Outro |
| Joseph: Well, that’s great. Now we’ve conjugated three more verbs. Again, one from the first, second and third conjugations. Beatriz, do you think the patterns are starting to become a little clearer? |
| Beatriz: I think so, Joseph. It’s really great. I really enjoy it too. |
| Joseph: Yeah, this has been a really nice show, Bea. Hope you’ve enjoyed this Lesson and we will see you soon. |
| Beatriz: Ojalá les haya gustado esta lección y ya nos estamos viendo. |
| Joseph: ¡Chao! |
| Beatriz: ¡Chao, chao! |
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