Learn about present tense
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Beatriz: Buenos días, me llamo Beatriz. |
| Joseph: How is it going? I’m Joseph. “Present with a Future Value”. |
| Beatriz: Muy bienvenidos. |
| Joseph: How’s everyone doing today? |
| Beatriz: ¿Cómo te va, Joseph? |
| Joseph: Muy bien, felizmente. Y tú Beatriz, ¿cómo vas? |
| Beatriz: Tranquila, como siempre. |
| Joseph: Great to be back for another verb conjugation lesson. |
| Beatriz: Lesson 7. |
| Joseph: Tú lo has dicho. You said it. Today we have a really interesting topic to cover. |
| Beatriz: ¿Y qué es? |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Joseph: Well, we’re going to look at how the Present Tense of the Indicative Mood can be used to talk about “el futuro” – “the future”. |
| Beatriz: Claro, esto sucede muchísimo en el español. |
| Joseph: It does happen a lot in Spanish which is precisely why we’re devoting a lesson to it. In fact, this usage comes up in just about every lesson published in Spanishpod101. |
| Beatriz: Really? |
| Joseph: Would I lie to you? |
| Beatriz: Sin comentarios. |
| Joseph: ¡Ay, por favor! Bueno. We’ll look at that in just a bit. |
| Beatriz: ¿Y qué verbos estudiaremos hoy? |
| Joseph: Which verbs are we going to look at? |
| Beatriz: Yes. |
| Joseph: Today we’re going to focus on the verbs “estar”, “ser” and “ir”. |
| Beatriz: ¡Ah! Verbos fundamentales. |
| Joseph: These are fundamental verbs, you’re right. Because they are used so much in everyday Spanish. |
| Beatriz: Así es. |
| Joseph: Now, before we jump in, remember to check out the premium audio for this lesson, to get the review track, the paradigms and the quiz. |
| Beatriz: ¡Estoy emocionada por escuchar esto! |
| Joseph: Bueno, no hay que esperar. Let’s get into today’s lesson. |
| Beatriz: Empecemos. |
| Joseph: So, Bea, to begin, let’s look at this usage of the Present Tense. |
| Beatriz: Me suena muy bien. |
| Joseph: Déjame hacerte una pregunta. Let me ask you a question. |
| Beatriz: Adelante. Go ahead. |
| Joseph: What day is today? |
| Beatriz: What? |
| Joseph: Just answer the question. |
| Beatriz: Last night gone to a party, yes… I think today is Sunday. Hoy es domingo. |
| Joseph: Okay. And, in Spanish, how would you say “I always call you on my cell phone?” |
| Beatriz: “Siempre te llamo de mi celular”. |
| Joseph: And the verb “llamo” here, what tense is it in? |
| Beatriz: Es el tiempo presente. |
| Joseph: The Present Tense. And, the mood? |
| Beatriz: Es el modo indicativo. |
| Joseph: The Indicative Mood. Great. And, with that word always in there, “siempre”. It sounds like a habitual action, right? |
| Beatriz: Claro, “siempre te llamo de mi celular”. |
| Joseph: “I always call you on my cell phone.” And now, let’s swap this word “siempre” with the phrase “más tarde”. Now, how would this example sound? |
| Beatriz: “Más tarde te llamo de mi celular”. |
| Joseph: And, the phrase “más tarde” means “later”, right? |
| Beatriz: Right. |
| Joseph: But the verb “llamo” – “I call”, is still in the Present Tense, isn’t it? |
| Beatriz: Así es, está en tiempo presente. |
| Joseph: But the phrase “más tarde”, which means “later” or “later on”, seems to be telling us that this action is not taking place now, nor it takes place habitually. |
| Beatriz: Right. |
| Joseph: But that it will take place in the future. |
| Beatriz: Es que el tiempo presente también se usa para referir a una acción futura. |
| Joseph: So, the Present Tense is also used to refer to a future action? |
| Beatriz: Correcto. |
| Joseph: So, we can translate this example “más tarde te llamo de mi celular” as “I’ll call you later on my cell phone”? |
| Beatriz: Así es, sí podemos. |
| Joseph: Can you think of another example? |
| Beatriz: “Nos vemos mañana”. |
| Joseph: Right. And this is the one that I was talking about, which is used in so many of these lessons. “Nos vemos mañana”, that’s what people always say when they’re ending the lessons. “Nos vemos mañana”. Now, literally, this means “We see each other tomorrow” but now that we see that the Present Tense can be used to refer to a future action, we understand it as “I’ll see you tomorrow” or “We’ll see each other tomorrow.” |
| Beatriz: Claro, es interesante cómo el tiempo presente puede tener un valor en el futuro. |
| Joseph: De acuerdo. I agree. It’s really interesting to see how the Present Tense can have a future value. It’s like when we use the Present Tense in this way, we’re psychologically bringing the future to the present. |
| Beatriz: And at the same time we signify the present intention of relation of future action. |
| Joseph: ¿Todos listos para estudiar la formación verbal? |
| Beatriz: Time to get down to business. |
| Joseph: So, today, we’re looking at three very unique verbs: “estar” – “to be”, “ser” which also means “to be” and “ir” which means “to go”. |
| Beatriz: Son verbos muy comunes. |
| Joseph: Let’s begin with the verb “estar”, an irregular verb. |
| Beatriz: Okay. |
| Joseph: There are two main points to mention here. First, in the first person singular we’ll see an “oy” ending, “estoy”. And, second, every form, except the first person singular and plural has a written accent on the “a” of the personal ending. |
| Beatriz: Good to know. |
| Joseph: Shall we go through the conjugation? |
| Beatriz: Sure. |
| Joseph: Okay. Let’s start with the verb “estar”. Beatriz, would you like to begin? |
| Beatriz: Okay, let’s begin. “Estar”. |
| Joseph: “To be.” |
| Beatriz: “Yo estoy”. |
| Joseph: “I am.” |
| Beatriz: “Tú estás”. |
| Joseph: “You are.” |
| Beatriz: “Él está”. |
| Joseph: “He is.” |
| Beatriz: “Nosotros estamos”. |
| Joseph: “We are.” |
| Beatriz: “Vosotros estáis”. |
| Joseph: “You all are.” |
| Beatriz: “Ellos están”. |
| Joseph: “They are”. Very good. And how about a couple of examples with the verb “estar”? We can say “él está bien” – “He’s well.” Beatriz, can you think of another example? |
| Beatriz: “Yo estoy en la playa”. |
| Joseph: “I’m on the beach.” Sound pretty good. How about another one? |
| Beatriz: “Nosotros estamos en el aire”. |
| Joseph: In what sense would that be? |
| Beatriz: “Nosotros estamos en la radio”. |
| Joseph: “We’re on the air.” |
| Beatriz: On the air, yes. |
| Joseph: There you go. Okay. Well, now, let’s move on and look at the verb “ser”, an irregular second conjugation verb. And one that has forms unlike any other verb. |
| Beatriz: Yes, it’s really unique. |
| Joseph: That being said, really the best way to learn this verb is just to memorize it. |
| Beatriz: Así es. |
| Joseph: But, the thing is: it’s used so often that it won’t be that hard to remember. Beatriz, let’s conjugate the verb “ser” in the Present Tense of the Indicative Mood. |
| Beatriz: Okay. “Ser”. |
| Joseph: “To be.” |
| Beatriz: “Yo soy”. |
| Joseph: “I am.” |
| Beatriz: “Tú eres”. |
| Joseph: “You are.” |
| Beatriz: “Él es”. |
| Joseph: “He is.” |
| Beatriz: “Nosotros somos”. |
| Joseph: “We are.” |
| Beatriz: “Vosotros sois”. |
| Joseph: “You all are.” |
| Beatriz: “Ellos son”. |
| Joseph: “They are”. All right, that’s great. And now, if we can give a couple of examples of this verb to really make it easier to remember. We could say “Soy Joseph” – “I’m Joseph” or “Eres peruana” – “You’re Peruvian.” |
| Beatriz: “Nosotros somos hermanos”. |
| Joseph: “We’re brothers” or “We’re siblings”, right? All right. And now with the verb “ir” we have another really unique verb. This one is one of a kind. |
| Beatriz: ¿Y por qué? |
| Joseph: Because, while it’s a third conjugation verb, an “ir” verb, it’s pretty much conjugated like a first conjugation verb, an “ar” verb. Even though, we’ll see that irregular “oi” ending in the first person singular. |
| Beatriz: And are there any accents? |
| Joseph: Nope, with the verb “ir” in the Present Tense of the Indicative Mood there’re no accents. Shall we go through the conjugation? |
| Beatriz: Okay. Let’s go. “Ir”. |
| Joseph: “To go.” |
| Beatriz: “Yo voy”. |
| Joseph: “I go.” |
| Beatriz: “Tú vas”. |
| Joseph: “You go.” |
| Beatriz: “Él va”. |
| Joseph: “He goes.” |
| Beatriz: “Nosotros vamos”. |
| Joseph: “We go.” |
| Beatriz: “Vosotros vais”. |
| Joseph: “You all go.” |
| Beatriz: “Ellos van”. |
| Joseph: “They go.” Great. And now, just a couple of examples with the verb “ir”. We could say “Vas a la tienda” – “You go to the store” or “Voy a la playa” – “I’m going to the beach.” |
| Beatriz: “Nosotros vamos caminando”. |
| Joseph: “We go walking.” Okay, there you have the gerund “caminando” after the verb “vamos”. |
| Beatriz: “Nosotros vamos despacio”. |
| Joseph: Right. “We go slowly”, that’s a good one. |
| Beatriz: “Vosotros vais a la iglesia”. |
| Joseph: “You all go to the Church.” Another great example. |
| Beatriz: “Ellos van juntos”. |
| Joseph: Right. “They go together.” That’s great. Having these examples makes it a little bit easier to understand how the forms of the verbs are used. |
Outro |
| Joseph: All right. Well, this is as far as we’ll go for today. |
| Beatriz: It’s been a great lesson. |
| Joseph: Yes, it’s really nice to see all of these different usages of the Present Tense. I know when I was starting out. I used to get so confused by it since they are so many usages, I mean there’re so many more usages of this tense than any other tense in the Spanish language. |
| Beatriz: Por eso es que es tan importante estudiarlo con paciencia. |
| Joseph: Exactly. That’s why we need to study it patiently. I mean, even for you, beginners out there, who know how to conjugate most verbs in the Present Tense, you may be surprised to learn all the different ways that it can be used. |
| Beatriz: Bueno, ha sido un gusto. |
| Joseph: Igualmente, Bea. See you next time! |
| Beatriz: ¡Hasta la próxima! |
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