Lesson Transcript

Let's look at the sentence pattern.
Do you remember how the character said,
"We got up early every day."
Nos levantamos temprano todos los días.
Nos levantamos temprano todos los días.
This sentence follows the pattern here:
[Reflexive Pronoun] + [Reflexive Verb in Preterite] + (complement)
In Spanish, reflexive verbs are used to describe actions we do to ourselves, like getting up, getting ready, or relaxing. When we talk about completed past actions, we use the preterite tense of reflexive verbs. The complement can tell us when, where, or how the action happened.
Here's how the line from the dialogue uses the pattern.
Nos levantamos temprano todos los días.
"We got up early every day."
Let's break it down.
Here, nos levantamos means "we got up,"
followed by temprano meaning "early,"
and todos los días meaning "every day."
This is a good example of how we use reflexive verbs in the preterite to talk about vacation routines.
Let's review how to conjugate a common reflexive verb, levantarse, meaning "to get up" in the preterite.
me levanté – "I got up"
te levantaste – "you got up"
se levantó – "he or she got up"
nos levantamos – "we got up"
se levantaron – "you all/they got up"
Now you can use reflexive verbs in the preterite to talk about what you did on your vacation.
Let's also look at one more example from the dialogue.
The character says:
Sí, nos divertimos mucho y nos olvidamos del trabajo por completo.
"Yes, we had a lot of fun and completely forgot about work."
This sentence follows the same pattern we've been practicing:
[Reflexive Pronoun] + [Reflexive Verb in Preterite] + (complement).
There are two reflexive verbs here: nos divertimos, from divertirse, meaning "to have fun" or "to enjoy oneself," and nos olvidamos, from olvidarse, meaning "to forget." Both verbs use reflexive pronouns and are conjugated in the preterite tense.
Let's take a quick look at both verbs in the preterite:
divertirse – "to have fun"
me divertí – "I had fun"
te divertiste – "you had fun"
se divirtió – "he or she had fun"
nos divertimos – "we had fun"
se divirtieron – "you all/they had fun"
olvidarse – "to forget"
me olvidé – "I forgot"
te olvidaste – "you forgot"
se olvidó – "he or she forgot"
nos olvidamos – "we forgot"
se olvidaron – "you all/they forgot"
In the dialogue, nos divertimos shows they had fun, and nos olvidamos shows they forgot about work—both are completed actions during their vacation.
This shows how you can use reflexive verbs to talk about fun things you did on a trip.
Now let's look at some speaking examples.
Me desperté tarde el sábado.
"I woke up late on Saturday."
Can you see how the pattern applies here?
Let's break it down:
me desperté – which means "I woke up"
This is the reflexive verb despertarse in the preterite, first person singular. It shows a completed action.
tarde – meaning "late"
Describes when the action happened.
el sábado – meaning "on Saturday"
Gives us the specific day in the past.
So this sentence describes a completed personal action in the past: I woke up late on Saturday.
Here's another example
Nos relajamos en la playa todo el día.
"We relaxed on the beach all day."
Nos relajamos en la playa todo el día.
"We relaxed on the beach all day."
Let's try one more,
¿Te acostaste temprano anoche?
"Did you go to bed early last night?"
¿Te acostaste temprano anoche?
"Did you go to bed early last night?"
Another one.
Se prepararon rápidamente para la cena.
"They got ready quickly for dinner."
Se prepararon rápidamente para la cena.
"They got ready quickly for dinner."
One last example.
Me sentí muy bien después del ejercicio.
"I felt very good after exercising."
Me sentí muy bien después del ejercicio.
"I felt very good after exercising."

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