Learn present tense of the indicative mood can be used to talk about past events to give their actions a greater sense of liveliness
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Beatriz: Buenos días, me llamo Beatriz. |
| Joseph: How’s it going? I’m Joseph. “The Historical Present”. |
| Beatriz: ¿Qué dices Joseph? |
| Joseph: Beatriz, todo tranquilo. ¿Y cómo vas tú? |
| Beatriz: Muy bien, gracias. |
| Joseph: Bienvenidos. Welcome to the ninth lesson of the Verb Conjugations here at Spanishpod101.com. |
| Beatriz: Ya estamos en la lección 9. |
| Joseph: That’s right. Today, we’ve got a really interesting topic. |
| Beatriz: Aren’t they all interesting? |
| Joseph: Well, yes, but I think today’s topic is a particular interest. |
| Beatriz: And why is that? |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Joseph: Well, we’re going to look at a way of transporting oneself into the past. |
| Beatriz: Oye, ¿de qué hablas, loquito? |
| Joseph: No, seriously. I’ve got a time machine. |
| Beatriz: Por favor, ¡ignórenlo! |
| Joseph: What I’m talking about is a way that we use the Present Tense to talk about something that occurred in the past. |
| Beatriz: Ah, ok. So, you can stop ignoring him now. |
| Joseph: With this usage, the past is actualized. |
| Beatriz: How is that done? |
| Joseph: Well, you need a flux compositor. |
| Beatriz: Bueno, hoy estudiaremos los verbos “tener”, “hacer” y “parecer”. |
| Joseph: That’s right. “Tener” – “to have”, “hacer” – “to do” or “to make” and “parecer” – “to seem”. |
| Beatriz: This should be interesting. |
| Joseph: There’s no doubt in my mind. |
| Beatriz: Empecemos. |
| Joseph: Yes, let’s get into today’s lesson. |
| Beatriz: I’m afraid to ask, but what is this usage that we are looking at today? |
| Joseph: Well, let me ask you a question. |
| Beatriz: ¿Cuándo no? |
| Joseph: In Spanish, how would you say “The Inca Empire flourished in the 15th century”? |
| Beatriz: A ver. “El imperio incaico floreció en el siglo XV”. |
| Joseph: And what’s the verb of this sentence? |
| Beatriz: “Floreció”. |
| Joseph: And what tense is it in? |
| Beatriz: Está en tiempo pretérito. |
| Joseph: Right. It’s in the preterit or Past Tense. So, the Inca Empire flourished in the 15th century. Now, when we speak this sentence, we’re talking about it from the standpoint of the present, right? |
| Beatriz: Sí. |
| Joseph: And how do you say “flourishes”? |
| Beatriz: That would be “florece”. |
| Joseph: Got it, “florece”. And what’s the tense of this verb? |
| Beatriz: It’s in the Present Tense. |
| Joseph: So, if we replace the verb “floreció” with “florece”, what would the sentence sound like? |
| Beatriz: “El imperio incaico florece en el siglo XV”. |
| Joseph: So, the only thing that we’ve changed here is the verb, right? |
| Beatriz: That’s right. |
| Joseph: And can we translate the sentence like this: “The Inca Empire flourishes in the 15th century”? |
| Beatriz: Sure. That makes sense. |
| Joseph: And does the action of the verb in this sentence take place in the present or the past? |
| Beatriz: In the past. |
| Joseph: But it’s conjugated in the present, right? |
| Beatriz: It is. “Florece”. |
| Joseph: So, what’s going on here? Is that we’re using the Present Tense to express a past situation. |
| Beatriz: Claro, cuando expresamos un acto así decimos que el verbo expresa el presente histórico. |
| Joseph: Right. The verb here expresses the Historical Present. |
| Beatriz: Cuando la acción pasada se actualiza por el verbo se presenta con más vivacidad. |
| Joseph: Right. As the past action is actualized, it’s presented with more liveliness to the speaker. The speaker is mentally transported to the past. It’s like we’re travelling back in time and witnessing the past action as it happened. |
| Beatriz: Ya llegó el tiempo para ver algo de la formación. |
| Joseph: Yes, the formation. Good idea. |
| Beatriz: Ti-ti-ti-ti-ti. |
| Joseph: What is that, Bea? |
| Beatriz: It’s the time machine. |
| Joseph: Oh, yes, ok. |
| Beatriz: All right. |
| Joseph: Okay. So, today we’re looking at three verbs. We’re looking at “tener”, “hacer”and “parecer”. “Tener” – “to have”, “hacer” – “to make” or “to do” and “parecer” – “to seem”. Beatriz, with the verb “tener” we have some irregular forms, right? |
| Beatriz: Yes, they are irregular. |
| Joseph: And with the verb “tener” there are two main changes that we notice in the Present Tense of the Indicative Mood. We’re going to see a “go” ending in the first person singular and then, with the rest of the forms, we’re going to see that stem change which we’ve seen in other verbs and this is the “e” to “ie”. So, from “tener” we’re going to have “tienes”. Beatriz, shall we go through the paradigms? |
| Beatriz: Let’s go. “Tener”. |
| Joseph: “To have.” |
| Beatriz: “Yo tengo”. |
| Joseph: “I have.” |
| Beatriz: “Tú tienes”. |
| Joseph: “You have.” |
| Beatriz: “Él tiene”. |
| Joseph: “He has.” |
| Beatriz: “Nosotros tenemos”. |
| Joseph: “We have.” |
| Beatriz: “Vosotros tenéis”. |
| Joseph: “You all have.” |
| Beatriz: “Ellos tienen”. |
| Joseph: “They have”. Okay. And now, a couple of examples to really help this sink in. We could say “Tengo una máquina del tiempo” – “I have a time machine.” |
| Beatriz: “Tengo mucha hambre”. |
| Joseph: “I’m starving”, “I’m really hungry.” |
| Beatriz: “Yo tengo una buena idea”. |
| Joseph: “I have a great idea.” And what’s that idea? |
| Beatriz: “Tú tienes una gran boca”. |
| Joseph: Okay. Fair enough. “You have a big mouth.” Let’s move on to the verb “hacer” and this means “to make” or “to do”. The thing about the verb “hacer” is that the only irregular form in the Present Tense of the Indicative Mood occurs in the first person singular. And we have that ending “go”, so we’ll say “hago”, and of course, we always remember that the “h” is silent in Spanish, so it’s not “hago”, it’s “ago”. Beatriz, can we go through the conjugation here? |
| Beatriz: Let’s go. |
| Joseph: Okay. |
| Beatriz: “Hacer”. |
| Joseph: “To do”, “to make.” |
| Beatriz: “Yo hago”. |
| Joseph: “I do.” |
| Beatriz: “Tú haces”. |
| Joseph: “You do.” |
| Beatriz: “Él hace”. |
| Joseph: “He does.” |
| Beatriz: “Nosotros hacemos”. |
| Joseph: “We do.” |
| Beatriz: “Vosotros hacéis”. |
| Joseph: “You all do.” |
| Beatriz: “Ellos hacen”. |
| Joseph: “They do.” All right. And, if we could come up with some examples. “Haces un buen trabajo” – “You do a great job.” |
| Beatriz: “Hacemos las paces”. |
| Joseph: “We make peace.” “Haces lo que quieras”. |
| Beatriz: “¡Siempre haces lo que te da la gana!” |
| Joseph: Right. “You always do what you want!” or “You always do whatever you feel like doing.” Okay. So, “hacer” – “to do”. How about an example when “hacer” means “to make” instead of “to do”? |
| Beatriz: “¿Hacemos una lasaña?” |
| Joseph: There you go. “Shall we make lasagna?” That sounds nice. Or we could just go to a restaurant and eat lasagna. |
| Beatriz: All right. I guess we’re hungry. |
| Joseph: Yes. Hambre, hambre. And now, let’s move on to the verb “parecer” – “to seem”. With the verb “parecer”, we see an ending that we haven’t seen yet. With the infinitive of “parecer” we see “c-e-r” in the end. And when a verb ends like this, we’re often going to change it to “z-c-o” in the first person singular. So, from “parecer”, “parezco”. Now, Beatriz, can we go through the conjugation? |
| Beatriz: Of course, let’s go. “Parecer”. |
| Joseph: “To seem.” |
| Beatriz: “Yo parezco”. |
| Joseph: “I seem.” |
| Beatriz: “Tú pareces”. |
| Joseph: “You seem.” |
| Beatriz: “Él parece”. |
| Joseph: “He seems.” |
| Beatriz: “Nosotros parecemos”. |
| Joseph: “We seem.” |
| Beatriz: “Vosotros parecéis”. |
| Joseph: “You all seem.” |
| Beatriz: “Ellos parecen”. |
| Joseph: “They seem.” All right. And the verb “parecer” is really useful because we can use it when we’re not really sure about something but kind of want to say what we think something might be, you know, how it seems to us. So, an example, like “Me parece bien” – “It seems ok to me”, “Seems good.” |
| Beatriz: “Él parece un poco enojado”. |
| Joseph: Right. “He seems a little upset” or “He seems a little angry.” And another interesting way to use the verb “parecer”, you can say “Pareces un estrella de rock”, right? |
| Beatriz: Yes. |
| Joseph: And, in this case it’s like saying “You look like a rock star.” I mean we don’t really say “You seem like a rock star.” I guess you can also translate it “You resemble a rock star” or something like that, right? |
| Beatriz: Yes. |
| Joseph: Can you think of another example when “parecer” is used this way? |
| Beatriz: “Esa monja parece un pingüino”. |
| Joseph: “That nun looks like a penguin.” All right. |
Outro |
| Joseph: Well, I think this is as far as we’ll go for today. This has been a really great lesson, Beatriz. |
| Beatriz: Okay. |
| Joseph: Okay. Well, this has been a pleasure. Ha sido un gusto. |
| Beatriz: Un gusto, un gustazo. |
| Joseph: Un gustazo. And we look forward to see you again soon. |
| Beatriz: Yes. ¡Nos vemos! ¡Nos vemos pronto! ¡Cuídense! |
| Joseph: Cuídense. ¡Chao! |
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