Learn about talking about past actions and events
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Natalia: Buenos días me llamo Natalia. |
| Carlos: What’s going on? My name is Carlos. |
| Natalia: Asking for permission. |
| Carlos: What’s going on pod101 world and welcome to spanishpod101.com, the fastest, easiest and most fun way to learn Spanish. |
| Natalia: I am Natalia and thanks again for being here with us for this newbie series, season 2 lesson. |
| Carlos: Okay Natie, the time has come for Adolfo. |
| Natalia: Why? |
| Carlos: Well he is having the conversation with Martha’s father, Señor Fuentes. |
| Natalia: Ah so he is breaking the news. |
| Carlos: Yeah and he makes a big mistake. |
| Natalia: What? Not speaking formally? |
| Carlos: No, no, no, no Natie, something worse. What about grammar? |
| Natalia: Well today we tackle the preterit. |
| Carlos: Uh okay I am waiting for that. |
| Natalia: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| ADOLFO: Buenas tardes, Señor. |
| SR. FUENTES: Pase adelante, lo estaba esperando. ¿Un café? |
| ADOLFO: Un doble, por favor. Me imagino que sabe, usted, a lo que vengo. |
| SR. FUENTES: A pedir la mano de mi hija, mi orgullo. |
| ADOLFO: ¡Qué bien que tomó tan bien la noticia del embarazo! |
| SR. FUENTES: ¿Cuál embarazo? |
| ADOLFO: Ehhhh... el de su orgullo. |
| SR. FUENTES: ¡Qué...! ¡Corre, muchacho, corre! |
| Carlos: And now slower. Una vez más esta vez lentamente. |
| ADOLFO: Buenas tardes, Señor. |
| SR. FUENTES: Pase adelante, lo estaba esperando. ¿Un café? |
| ADOLFO: Un doble, por favor. Me imagino que sabe, usted, a lo que vengo. |
| SR. FUENTES: A pedir la mano de mi hija, mi orgullo. |
| ADOLFO: ¡Qué bien que tomó tan bien la noticia del embarazo! |
| SR. FUENTES: ¿Cuál embarazo? |
| ADOLFO: Ehhhh... el de su orgullo. |
| SR. FUENTES: ¡Qué...! ¡Corre, muchacho, corre! |
| Carlos: And now with the translation. Ahora incluiremos la traducción. |
| ADOLFO: Buenas tardes, Señor. |
| ADOLFO: Good evening, Sir. |
| SR. FUENTES: Pase adelante, lo estaba esperando. ¿Un café? |
| MR. FUENTES: Come in, I was waiting for you. Would you like an espresso? |
| ADOLFO: Un doble, por favor. Me imagino que sabe, usted, a lo que vengo. |
| ADOLFO: A double, please. I imagine that you, Sir, know why I have come here |
| SR. FUENTES: A pedir la mano de mi hija, mi orgullo. |
| MR. FUENTES: To ask for the hand of my daughter, my pride. |
| ADOLFO: ¡Qué bien que tomó tan bien la noticia del embarazo! } |
| ADOLFO: You took the news about the pregnancy really well! |
| SR. FUENTES: ¿Cuál embarazo? |
| MR. FUENTES: What pregnancy? |
| ADOLFO: Ehhhh... el de su orgullo. |
| ADOLFO: Uhhhh... your prides... |
| SR. FUENTES: ¡Qué...! ¡Corre, muchacho, corre! |
| MR. FUENTES: What? Run, boy, run! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Natalia: Wow! So funny. |
| Carlos: Talk about putting your foot in your mouth. |
| Natalia: What would you do in a situation like that? |
| Carlos: Run. |
| Natalia: Well run but how do you get out of it? |
| Carlos: I don’t know. It’s like oh man! You’ve come to ask my hand. Oh man, you are checking it so well. I mean you know what happened, we just met in the club and she just got pregnant. I don’t know. You know how it is. |
| Natalia: He was pretty dumb. |
| Carlos: You’ve been young one time. What are you doing with that gun? |
| Natalia: No, no, no that’s called talking too much. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Carlos: Okay that happens sometimes. Well you know what, let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. First up tenemos un verbo. |
| Natalia: imaginar |
| Carlos: To imagine, to assume. |
| Natalia: i-ma-gi-nar, imaginar. |
| Carlos: ¿Y un ejemplo sería? |
| Natalia: Me imagino que sabes mucho sobre la cultura local. |
| Carlos: I assume you know very much about the local culture. A continuación tenemos el sustantivo. |
| Natalia: orgullo |
| Carlos: Pride |
| Natalia: or-gu-llo, orgullo. |
| Carlos: ¿Como por ejemplo? |
| Natalia: El entrenador expresó su orgullo por haber podido trabajar con el equipo. |
| Carlos: The coach expressed his pride for having worked with the team. La proxima palabra es un verbo. |
| Natalia: pedir |
| Carlos: To ask for |
| Natalia: pe-dir |
| Carlos: ¿Como por ejemplo? |
| Natalia: Pediste un plato de arroz con pollo. |
| Carlos: You asked for a dish of rice with chicken. Y ahora estudiaremos otro sustantivo masculino. |
| Natalia: embarazo |
| Carlos: Pregnancy. |
| Natalia: em-ba-ra-zo, embarazo |
| Carlos: Y el ejemplo sería... |
| Natalia: ¿Ya le dijiste del embarazo o todavía no? |
| Carlos: Have you already told them about the pregnancy or haven’t you yet? La proxima palabra es... |
| Natalia: cual |
| Carlos: Which. |
| Natalia: cual, cual |
| Carlos: Como por ejemplo. |
| Natalia: ¿Cual quisieras escoger, el carro rojo o el azul? |
| Carlos: Which car would you like to pick, the red or the blue one? Y la última palabra de hoy es un sustantivo masculino o femenino. |
| Natalia: muchacho, muchacha |
| Carlos: Boy, girl. |
| Natalia: mu-cha-cho, mu-cha-cha, muchacho, muchacha |
| Carlos: A ver otro ejemplillo, Natie. |
| Natalia: Es un muchacho especialmente callado, |
| Carlos: He is an especially quiet boy. |
| Natalia: Carlos. |
| Carlos: Yeah. |
| Natalia: embarazada |
| Carlos: embarazada |
| Natalia: Imaginate cual es la que está embarazada. |
| Carlos: Well you said that a little fast Natie. |
| Natalia: Imaginate cual es la que está embarazada. |
| Carlos: Imagina... |
| Natalia: Imaginate cual es la que está embarazada. |
| Carlos: See this is not fair. You see how fast she is doing this. I am trying to learn and she is trying to… |
| Natalia: Imaginate cual es la... |
| Carlos: Imaginate... |
| Natalia: Let me finish the sentence. |
| Carlos: But I need to – it’s different parts. |
| Natalia: Imaginate |
| Carlos: Imagina |
| Natalia: Imaginate |
| Carlos: Imani... |
| Natalia: Ima |
| Carlos: Imaginate |
| Natalia: cual |
| Carlos: cual |
| Natalia: es |
| Carlos: es |
| Natalia: la |
| Carlos: la |
| Natalia: que |
| Carlos: que |
| Natalia: está |
| Carlos: está |
| Natalia: embarazada |
| Carlos: embarazada |
| Natalia: Imaginate cual es la que está embarazada. |
| Carlos: Yeah. |
| Natalia: Say it. |
| Carlos: Imagina... |
| Natalia: Imaginate cual es |
| Carlos: Imaginate cual es |
| Natalia: la que está embarazada |
| Carlos: la que está embarazada |
| Natalia: Imaginate cual es la que está embarazada. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Carlos: Yeah okay I am not doing that fast. Okay let’s closely look at the usage for some of the words or phrases from this lesson. |
| Natalia: The first one we will look at is imaginar, to imagine, to assume. |
| Carlos: Imaginar. Natie, what’s this verb mean? |
| Natalia: To imagine or to assume. |
| Carlos: One of my favorite things. |
| Natalia: You know what they say about people who assume? |
| Carlos: Well ssh Natie, this is a podcast it’s PG. |
| Natalia: Carlos, how about this example? |
| Carlos: You read my mind. |
| Natalia: No puedes imaginar cuanto me enfadé. |
| Carlos: You can’t imagine how anger I was. I don’t believe that. You are pretty easy to read when you are angry. |
| Natalia: Any ways Carlos, please, I am like so calm and peaceful. |
| Carlos: But Natie, how is it used in today’s conversation? |
| Natalia: Me imagino que sabe, usted, a lo que vengo. |
| Carlos: I imagine that you sir know why I have come here. Man, is he in for a surprise? See never assume. |
| Natalia: Good advice. Here are some words that relate. |
| Carlos: Shoot. |
| Natalia: How about the feminine noun imaginación. |
| Carlos: They always said I had a very active imagination. |
| Natalia: Next up is one that’s dear to your heart. |
| Carlos: Which? |
| Natalia: orgullo |
| Carlos: orgullo |
| Natalia: Then what does it mean? |
| Carlos: It’s a masculine noun that means pride. |
| Natalia: Carlos, come on what other? |
| Carlos: Okay well that… |
| Natalia: Things are in this conversation? |
| Carlos: Natie let me ask you this. How was it used in today’s conversation? |
| Natalia: A pedir la mano de mi hija, mi orgullo. |
| Carlos: To ask for the hand of my daughter, my pride. So really, here it is being used like the English saying like my pride and joy. |
| Natalia: Exactly but it can also be used as an adjective orgulloso, orgullosa. |
| Carlos: So that would describe someone is proud or prideful. Natie eres muy orgulloso. |
| Natalia: Orgullosa, Carlos. |
| Carlos: Oh that’s right concordance sorry. Natie, see, even when I am trying to insult her, she corrects me. |
| Natalia: Imagine that. |
| Carlos: Natie, eres muy orgullosa. |
| Natalia: Un poquito. I am very proud especially of spanishpod101.com |
| Carlos: And you say I have the shameless plugs. |
| Natalia: Allow me. Next up we have pedir. |
| Carlos: Another verb, cool. What does it mean? |
| Natalia: Pedir means to ask for. |
| Carlos: Okay like, pedir algo a alguien. |
| Natalia: Pedir algo a alguien. |
| Carlos: Pedir algo... |
| Natalia: Pedir |
| Carlos: Perdir |
| Natalia: algo |
| Carlos: What did I say? |
| Natalia: Perdir. It’s pedir. |
| Carlos: Okay. Okay like pedir. Pedir algo a alguien. |
| Natalia: Uhoo. |
| Carlos: To ask somebody for something. |
| Natalia: Right or like in today’s conversation again, a pedir la mano de mi hija, mi orgullo. |
| Carlos: To ask for the hand of my daughter, my pride. So here it is about asking for hand in a marriage. |
| Natalia: The next word is a bit confusing. |
| Carlos: Which? |
| Natalia: Embarazo. |
| Carlos: Right. You know what, at first glance, you would think that it means embarrassing or embarrassed. |
| Natalia: Right but in actuality, this masculine noun means pregnant. |
| Carlos: And right now, it looks like Adolfo has found himself in the middle of un embarazo no deseado. |
| Natalia: You could say that this was an unplanned pregnancy. |
| Carlos: Well when Señor Fuentes asks ¿Cuál embarazo? |
| Natalia: What pregnancy? |
| Carlos: We know that Adolfo wasn’t the only one who was surprised. |
| Natalia: We have some related words too. |
| Carlos: Which are? |
| Natalia: There is the verb embarazar and the adjective embarazada. Again not to be confused, preñada is only used for animals. |
| Carlos: Wouldn’t think of mixing that up. Okay grammar point. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Natalia: Here we are getting into that slippery slope of verb conjugation. |
| Carlos: Why do you say that? |
| Natalia: Because the present tense is usually the first thing that students learn. |
| Carlos: Understandably okay. |
| Natalia: But then they get confused with other tenses. |
| Carlos: Yeah it’s a little daunting. |
| Natalia: Well as promised today, we are going to learn how to form and use the preterit tense of the indicative mood. |
| Carlos: Natie, I am all yours. |
| Natalia: In today’s conversation, we heard ¡Qué bien que tomó tan bien la noticia del embarazo! |
| Carlos: Right. You took the news about the pregnancy really well. |
| Natalia: Which verb do you use here? |
| Carlos: Tomar. To take. |
| Natalia: Right. Here tomó is the preterit tense. |
| Carlos: Okay so, qué bien que tomo tan bien la noticia del embarazo |
| Natalia: tomó |
| Carlos: Okay so, qué bien que tomó tan bien la noticia del embarazo |
| Natalia: Uhoo… |
| Carlos: Right. You took the news about the pregnancy really well. |
| Natalia: Exactly. The preterit tense expresses an action prior to the present or to another action. |
| Carlos: So like I saw him two days ago or I spoke with her while you are working. |
| Natalia: Exactly. You completed the action prior to right now. |
| Carlos: So how do we form the preterit tense? |
| Natalia: To form the preterit tense for regular verbs, we first must remove the ar, er or ir ending to get the root of the word and then we add one of the correct preterit endings. |
| Carlos: Which are? |
| Natalia: Well let’s take our example tomar, to take and conjugated in fully to the preterit tense. Do you remember er endings? |
| Carlos: Yeah I think so. I have them somewhere. |
| Natalia: Okay then conjugate. |
| Carlos: Okay. Yo tomé. |
| Natalia: I took. |
| Carlos: Tú tomaste. |
| Natalia: Tú tomaste. |
| Carlos: Tú tomaste. |
| Natalia: You took. |
| Carlos: Él tomó. |
| Natalia: He took. |
| Carlos: Ella tomó. |
| Natalia: She took. |
| Carlos: Usted tomó. |
| Natalia: You took formal, good. Now the plural. |
| Carlos: Okay let’s see. Nosotros tomamos. |
| Natalia: We took |
| Carlos: Vosotros tomasteis. |
| Natalia: You all took. |
| Carlos: Ellos tomaron. |
| Natalia: They took masculine. |
| Carlos: Ellas tomaron. |
| Natalia: They took feminine. |
| Carlos: Ustedes tomaron. |
| Natalia: You all took formal. So you see from the example once again. Qué bien que tomó tan bien la noticia del embarazo |
| Carlos: You took the news about the pregnancy really well. |
| Natalia: So there was an example of a first conjugation ar verb tomar, conjugated in the preterit tense of the indicative mood. |
| Carlos: Nice that we did. |
| Natalia: But Carlos, I have a surprise for our audience. |
| Carlos: What’s that? |
| Natalia: You might know this already actually. |
| Carlos: Okay what is it? |
| Natalia: Let me post a question. What do the preterit endings for all er and ir verbs have in common? |
| Carlos: Ah you know what, I do know this. The preterit endings for all regular er and ir verbs are identical. |
| Natalia: So now you know what we are going to do. |
| Carlos: Let me guess. Conjugate two more verbs. |
| Natalia: Exactly. Let’s do aprender. |
| Carlos: To learn. |
| Natalia: And decidir. |
| Carlos: To decide. |
| Natalia: Ready when you are Carlos. |
| Carlos: Oh I am doing it. Yo aprendí. I learned right? |
| Natalia: Yes. |
| Carlos: Okay. Tú aprendiste. |
| Natalia: You learned. |
| Carlos: Él aprendio. |
| Natalia: aprendió |
| Carlos: Él aprendió. |
| Natalia: He learned. |
| Carlos: Ella aprendió. |
| Natalia: She learned. |
| Carlos: Usted aprendió. |
| Natalia: You learned formal. |
| Carlos: Nosotros aprendimos. |
| Natalia: We learned. |
| Carlos: Vosotros aprendisteis |
| Natalia: You all learned informal. |
| Carlos: Ellos/ellas/ustedes aprendieron. |
| Natalia: They learned masculine/feminine. You all learned formal. |
| Carlos: And Natie, you know what. I know you have some examples. |
| Natalia: Aprendisteis a tomar el metro hace tiempo. |
| Carlos: You all learned to take the subway a while back. |
| Natalia: Y tú hijito, ¿de quién aprendió esas vulgaridades? |
| Carlos: I knew little boy. Where did you learn all those expertise? Okay now you ask for decidir. |
| Natalia: That I did. |
| Carlos: Yo decidí. |
| Natalia: I decided. |
| Carlos: Tú decidiste. |
| Natalia: You decided informal. |
| Carlos: Él/Ella/Usted decidio. |
| Natalia: decidió |
| Carlos: Él/Ella/Usted decidió. |
| Natalia: He, she, you decided formal. |
| Carlos: Nosotros decidimos. |
| Natalia: We decided |
| Carlos: Vosotros decidisteis |
| Natalia: You all decided informal. |
| Carlos: Ellos/Ellas/Ustedes decidieron. |
| Natalia: They decided masculine/feminine formal. |
| Carlos: Good. I did it. Now you do some examples. |
| Natalia: DEcidieron ir a playa a pesar de las inclemencias del tiempo. |
| Carlos: They decided to go to the beach despite the inclement weather. |
| Natalia: ¿Cuándo decidiste mudarte a Costa Rica? |
| Carlos: Why did you decide to move to Costa Rica? |
| Natalia: Listen, for regular ar and ir verbs, the present indicative and preterit indicative forms are identical. For example, terminamos el trabajo ayer. We finished the job yesterday or terminamos el trabajo a las seis de la tarde. We finished the job at 6 in the evening. |
| Carlos: Okay. |
| Natalia: As you can see in these examples, the sensing which we are to take, the verbal form depends on the context in which it is used. Er verbs on the other hand do not follow this rule. |
| Carlos: Natie, I will make sure I will keep that in mind. |
| Natalia: I am sure you have any questions Carlos, there will be a comment. |
Outro |
| Carlos: And we will be there to answer. That just about does it for today. All right we are done. Nos vamos, right? |
| Natalia: Nos vemos. |
| Carlos: ¡Nos vemos! |
| Natalia: ¡No se pierdan ya nos vemos! |
| Carlos: Ya nos vemos. |
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