Learn how to use present tense of the indicative mood and how it can be used to ask for someone's approval
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Beatriz: Buenos días, me llamo Beatriz. |
| Joseph: Joseph here. “Present of Approval”. |
| Beatriz: ¿Cómo andas, Joseph? |
| Joseph: Bueno, no me puedo quejar. Great to be back for another lesson of the verb conjugation series, Beatriz. |
| Beatriz: Lesson 6. |
| Joseph: ¡Así es! |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Beatriz: Hoy vamos a dar un gran paso. |
| Joseph: And how are we going to take such a big step? |
| Beatriz: Al estudiar un verbo irregular por primera vez. |
| Joseph: By studying one irregular verb for the first time? |
| Beatriz: Not just one, three. |
| Joseph: Wow. This is a big step. |
| Beatriz: Pero no se asusten. Los verbos irregulares no son tan difíciles. |
| Joseph: Yes. When we say it’s an irregular verb, “un verbo irregular”, it sounds like some kind of mutant. |
| Beatriz: Right. The thing is that these have special patterns. |
| Joseph: Right. And our job is going to be to recognize these patterns so that we know how to form the endings. |
| Beatriz: And what verbs do you want to look at today? |
| Joseph: I’d like to look at the verbs “volar”, “perder” y “pedir” – “to fly”, “to lose” and “to request”. |
| Beatriz: “Volar”, “perder” y “pedir”. |
| Joseph: That’s right. Let’s talk about the way we can use Spanish verbs in the Present Tense to ask someone for something. |
| Beatriz: En otras palabras, aprenderemos cómo usar el presente de aprobación. |
| Joseph: Before we jump in, don’t forget to pick up the premium audio for this lesson where you get a vocab review track, a grammar quiz and the paradigms for today’s verbs. |
| Beatriz: ¿Ya vamos? |
| Joseph: Sí, vamos. Beatriz, I’d like to start out today by going back to Iberian Lesson 10. In that lesson, David and Megan are at a restaurant. He asks her... |
| David: “¿Pedimos una botella?” |
| Beatriz: Right. I remember that. |
| Joseph: Now, here, the verb “pedimos” is used, right? |
| Beatriz: Right. |
| Joseph: And, it’s in the Present Tense? |
| Beatriz: Yes. |
| Joseph: And, what’s the person and the number of it? |
| Beatriz: It’s in the first person, plural: “nosotros pedimos”. |
| Joseph: And, what does that mean? |
| Beatriz: It means “we order” or “we request” or “we ask for”. |
| Joseph: Okay. So, he’s saying “We order a bottle”? Sound pretty strange. |
| Beatriz: Lo que pasa es que David solicita la aprobación de Megan para pedir una botella de vino. |
| Joseph: So, David’s asking for Megan’s approval to order a bottle of wine together. Let’s hear once more... |
| David: “¿Pedimos una botella?” |
| Joseph: So, he’s asking her a question. |
| Beatriz: Right. The Present Tense is also used barely frequently in the interrogative form to ask for approval. |
| Joseph: Can you give us another example? |
| Beatriz: “¿Vamos a la playa?” |
| Joseph: ¿Y qué significa eso? And what does that mean? |
| Beatriz: “Should we go to the beach?” |
| Joseph: I see. So, whether or not the act happens, and when it happens for that matter, depends on the answer to the question. |
| Beatriz: Yup. |
| Joseph: So, I can say “¿Te llamo más tarde?” |
| Beatriz: On how will you translate it? |
| Joseph: “Should I call you later?” |
| Beatriz: Nice. Another example, “¿me acompañas a la tienda?” |
| Joseph: Which is? |
| Beatriz: “Do you want to go with me to the store?” |
| Joseph: Right. So, what’s really at the heart of this is a request for approval. |
| Beatriz: Por eso lo llamamos el presente de aprobación. |
| Joseph: Which is why we call it the Present of Approval. |
| Beatriz: Yes. Okay. Veamos la formación. |
| Joseph: Me suena muy bien. Sounds good. Let’s look at the formation for a few verbs. |
| Beatriz: “Volar”, “perder”, “pedir”. |
| Joseph: “To fly”, “to lose”, “to request”. Now, Beatriz, we mentioned earlier that we’re going to look at irregular verbs today, right? |
| Beatriz: Yup. Yes. |
| Joseph: Well, this is one of those big scary terms that makes us all not want to study Spanish. Is there another way that we can put this? |
| Beatriz: El verbo irregular es el que se conjuga combinando la raíz o las desinencias de la conjugación regular. |
| Joseph: Okay. So, an irregular verb is one that’s conjugated by changing the stem or it’s ending from the regular conjugation. It’s a lot easier when you put it like that, I mean we have the regular conjugations and then an irregular verb is simply a slight alteration of one of those regular verbs either with a change in the stem or the ending. Beatriz, why didn’t you explain this to me before? |
| Beatriz: Because you didn’t ask. |
| Joseph: Ouch. Okay. So, this makes me to believe that some of the verb forms will look similar to the regular verbs, but some of them will look different. |
| Beatriz: That’s right. |
| Joseph: Okay. So, with the verb “volar” what changes? |
| Beatriz: La raíz cambia. De “vol” a “vuel”. Y las terminaciones son iguales a los verbos regulares. |
| Joseph: Okay. So, the rule: “vol”, spelled “v-o-l”, changes to “vuel”, spelled v-u-e-l”, and the endings are the same as the regular verbs. So, here, only the stem is changing just a little bit. |
| Beatriz: Y esto sucede en todas las formas del tiempo presente salvo la primera y segunda persona plural. |
| Joseph: Right. And this happens with all of these Present Tense forms, except for the first and second person plural. So, Beatriz, if you would be so kind, let’s run through the conjugation. |
| Beatriz: “Volar”. |
| Joseph: “To fly.” |
| Beatriz: “Yo vuelo”. |
| Joseph: “I fly.” |
| Beatriz: “Tú vuelas”. |
| Joseph: “You fly.” |
| Beatriz: “Él vuela”. |
| Joseph: “He flies.” |
| Beatriz: “Nosotros volamos”. |
| Joseph: “We fly.” |
| Beatriz: “Vosotros voláis”. |
| Joseph: “You all fly.” |
| Beatriz: “Ellos vuelan”. |
| Joseph: “They fly.” Now, another way to talk about a verb like “volar” is to call it an “o” to “ue” stem changing verb. And we do this because we can associate with this verb other verbs that follow the same pattern. We can call it an irregular pattern or whatever, but we can categorize them in the same group. And some of these other verbs are “contar”, “costar”, “jugar”, “mover”, “poder”, “volver”, “dormir”, “morir”. Let’s move on to the second conjugation. |
| Beatriz: Okay. |
| Joseph: And now with the verb “perder” – “to lose”. What changes occur that make it irregular? |
| Beatriz: Aquí la raíz cambia de “perd” a “pierd”. |
| Joseph: Okay. So, the rule: “perd”, spelled “p-e-r-d”, changes to “pierd”, spelled “p-i-e-r-d”. And does this happen again in every form except the first and second plural? |
| Beatriz: Así es. |
| Joseph: All right. Let’s go through that conjugation. |
| Beatriz: Okay. “Perder”. |
| Joseph: “To lose.” |
| Beatriz: “Yo pierdo”. |
| Joseph: “I lose.” |
| Beatriz: “Tú pierdes”. |
| Joseph: “You lose.” |
| Beatriz: “Él pierde”. |
| Joseph: “He loses.” |
| Beatriz: “Nosotros perdemos”. |
| Joseph: “We lose.” |
| Beatriz: “Vosotros perdéis”. |
| Joseph: “You all lose.” |
| Beatriz: “Ellos pierden”. |
| Joseph: “They lose.” And now, just as we saw with the “o” to “ue” stem changing verbs, here we have an “e” to “ie” and other verbs this category include “cerrar”, “pensar”, “comenzar”, “querer”, “defender”, “entender”, “preferir”, “sentir” y “mentir”. Okay. And now, for the verb “pedir” – “to request”, “to ask for”, what changes take place that make this verb irregular? |
| Beatriz: Aquí la raíz cambia de “ped” a “pid”. |
| Joseph: So, here the rule, “ped”, spelled “p-e-d”, changes to “pid”, spelled “p-i-d”. And again, this takes place in every form of the Present Tense, except for the first and second person plural. So, Beatriz, what do you say we look at the conjugation? |
| Beatriz: Of course. “Pedir”. |
| Joseph: “To request.” |
| Beatriz: “Yo pido”. |
| Joseph: “I request.” |
| Beatriz: “Tú pides”. |
| Joseph: “You request.” |
| Beatriz: “Él pide”. |
| Joseph: “He requests.” |
| Beatriz: “Nosotros pedimos”. |
| Joseph: “We request.” |
| Beatriz: “Vosotros pedís”. |
| Joseph: “You all request.” |
| Beatriz: “Ellos piden”. |
| Joseph: “They request.” Now, just like we saw for the other two irregular verbs in this lesson, we can call this one an “e” to “i” stem changing verb, because the “e” from the stem, from “ped”, changes to “i”, “pid”, in the Present Tense. And there are a number of other verbs that follow this pattern and these include “impedir”, “reír”, “repetir”, “seguir”, “servir” and “vestir”. |
| Beatriz: Bueno Joseph, ha sido una lección muy interesante. |
| Joseph: De acuerdo. Tenías razón cuando nos dijiste que con esta lección daríamos un gran paso. |
| Beatriz: Well, it’s a big step to start learning irregular verbs, too. |
| Joseph: It really is. And, with these forms, we’re starting to get a clear image of the system as a whole. |
| Beatriz: Claro, el sistema verbal. |
Outro |
| Joseph: It’s so interesting when you can start to see those larger structures. I mean, first we were looking at just those little endings, and now we’re almost able to see all of the forms of the Present Tense in the Indicative Mood. Alright, this is as far as we go. We’ll see you next time. |
| Beatriz: ¡Hasta la próxima! Chaocito. |
| Joseph: ¡Chao! |
| Beatriz: ¡Chao, chao! |
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