Vocabulary (Review)

Learn New Words FAST with this Lesson’s Vocab Review List

Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.

Lesson Notes

Unlock In-Depth Explanations & Exclusive Takeaways with Printable Lesson Notes

Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.

Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Dylan: Buenos días, soy Dylan.
Carlos: What’s going on? I’m Carlos. “Imperfect with conditionals”.
Dylan: Hola, hola, everybody. How’s it going on?
Carlos: What’s going on? My name’s Carlos and I’m here with Dylan. Dylan, how’re you doing today?
Dylan: Good, Carlos. How was your trip?
Carlos: That was nice being back in New York, you know, one cool thing was using more Spanish than when I had left.
Dylan: So, you’re learning.
Carlos: Well, a good teacher’s around me, how could I not?
Dylan: Where are you trying to get to?
Carlos: Nothing. What? I can’t give compliments when I’m not too emotive?
Dylan: No, you can, but it’s just a little suspicious.
Carlos: Well, no. It’s the truth, none the less. Between the Costa Rica series, newbie and the verb conjugation I’m truly getting my money’s worth.
Dylan: But you’re an employee, you don’t pay for the site.
Carlos: Exactly. So, it’s easy for me to get my money’s worth.
Dylan: Good. Because today we’re continuing with the Imperfect.
Carlos: The Imperfect no longer intimidates me. I’m ready for whatever.
Dylan: Under any conditions?
Carlos: Absolutely.

Lesson focus
Dylan: Good. Because today we’re looking at the Imperfect with conditionals.
Carlos: Nice leading.
Dylan: I try.
Carlos: Okay. So, which verbs am I going to stumble to today?
Dylan: Three you already know.
Carlos: Good. I like that.
Dylan: “Ser”.
Carlos: “To be.”
Dylan: “Ver”.
Carlos: “To see.”
Dylan: And “ir”.
Carlos: “To go.” Yes, you weren’t joking. I do know those.
Dylan: Don’t be so sure yet. I think you’re about to be thrown for a loop.
Carlos: Well, seems to me, I might have to spend some time learning after this lesson.
Dylan: Oh, is it good bet, Carlos? Always a good bet. So, in our last lesson, we looked for the Imperfect Tense in relation to…
Carlos: Courtesy. Always try to be courteous.
Dylan: Right. But now, we’re taking things a little differently.
Carlos: How so?
Dylan: Well, it may be a little advanced.
Carlos: I told you. I’m not scared. Come with it.
Dylan: Now, Carlos, I know that we haven’t studied the Conditional Tense in this Series yet, but it has come about elsewhere.
Carlos: Like where?
Dylan: I thought you were supposed to be the studious one.
Carlos: Okay, ok. So, I put sometimes and I make people think that I study a lot, but I really don’t.
Dylan: All right. Seriously, you can check out lower intermediate lesson one to three for a comprehensive look at these tenses. And I’m pretty sure we’ll be looking at them in this series, too.
Carlos: Word.
Dylan: All right. Now, today’s topic: the Imperfect Tense with Conditional statements. Let’s look at this example: “Si tuviera más tiempo, leería cada día” – “If I had more time, I would read every day.” So, here, we have two verbs: “tuviera” which is the Imperfect Subjunctive and “leería” which is the Conditional.
Carlos: The Imperf-Subj?
Dylan: Don’t worry, we’ll get there. The thing is: in everyday speech, we often replace the Imperfect Subjunctive with the Imperfect Indicative in such a way that we can say “si tenía más tiempo, leería cada día”.
Carlos: You know, like, another example might like help me, like more than a little bit.
Dylan: All right. All again. We can say “si manejabas a la playa, te acompañaría” – “If you drove to the beach, I would join you.” But, again, we’re using the verb in the Imperfect Indicative here, which is “manejaba” and this is replacing “manejara” which is the Imperfect Subjunctive.
Carlos: Okay, right, right.
Dylan: So, another way to say this would be “si manejaras a la playa, te acompañaría”. And again, this is much more common to hear in spoken Spanish than it is to read in literature. In fact, to a purist, this might even make them rang their teeth. But the fact that matters is the people often speak this way.
Carlos: Well, luckily, I’m no purist. I’m far from it. So, I just think I just learned something new.
Dylan: But I thought you like reading.
Carlos: No, I do actually, you know, I would love to have more time for reading, but you know, Spanishpod101.com keeps me pretty busy.
Dylan: Reading in Spanish really helps when you’re learning it.
Carlos: How so?
Dylan: You can see the verb tenses in action. The written word is a lot different than simply hearing it.
Carlos: You know it isn’t that the truth. That’s why we encourage our audios to read along with the PDF.
Dylan: Any opportunity, huh?
Carlos: Hey, come on. Our basic and premium features are worth it, really worth it. If I could learn, anybody can. Now, is there any difference in the formation here?
Dylan: Well, these are irregular verbs.
Carlos: Those?
Dylan: Yes, these are verbs that have to be learned individually. Not everything follows a pattern.
Carlos: I guess not.
Dylan: Let’s go through one at a time and see what happens.
Carlos: Okay, sure.
Dylan: Let’s start with “ser”.
Carlos: Ready when you are.
Dylan: “Ser”.
Carlos: “To be.”
Dylan: “Yo era”.
Carlos: “I used to be.”
Dylan: “Tú eras”.
Carlos: “You used to be.”
Dylan: “Él era”.
Carlos: “He used to be.”
Dylan: “Nosotros éramos”.
Carlos: “We used to be.”
Dylan: “Vosotros erais”.
Carlos: “You all used to be.”
Dylan: “Ellos eran”.
Carlos: “They used to be.” You know, Dylan, how about some examples with “ser” in the Imperfect Tense?
Dylan: All right. “Cuando era niña, siempre me confundían los idiomas”. – “When I was a little girl, I always used to confuse languages.”
Carlos: That might sound pretty funny, you know what I mean, I guess that’s a risk of growing up in a bilingual household. Could you speak a lot of like Spanglish when you’re at home?
Dylan: No, English at home and Spanish out of home.
Carlos: So, like, did you ever like, come home from school and then, like, just start speaking Spanish?
Dylan: My tongue got twisted. Kind of, depends on who I was talking to. I guess with my brother, yes.
Carlos: All right. That’s really cool, that’s a benefit. So, how about another example, just to like really hammer at home?
Dylan: Okay, here we go. “Eran las 3 de la tarde”. – “It was 3 in the afternoon.” Remember, we use the Imperfect to talk about time in the past.
Carlos: I will try my best to remember, as I massage my temples. Remember, remember, remember.
Dylan: Let’s go through “ver”. “Ver”.
Carlos: “To see.”
Dylan: “Yo veía”.
Carlos: “I used to see.”
Dylan: “Tú veías”.
Carlos: “You used to see.”
Dylan: “Él veía”.
Carlos: “He used to see.”
Dylan: “Nosotros veíamos”.
Carlos: “We used to see.”
Dylan: “Vosotros veíais”.
Carlos: “You all used to see.”
Dylan: “Ellos veían”.
Carlos: “They used to see.” Well, Dylan, now that we’ve gone through “ver”, can we have a few examples using the word “ver” in the Imperfect Tense? I mean, I would do it, but you know…
Dylan: Yes, yes, I know. All right. Here it goes. “Pensabas que no te veía, pero lo vi todo”. – “You thought that I wasn’t watching you, but I saw it all.”
Carlos: That’s kind of weird. What are you talking about?
Dylan: Spooky. All right. Here’s another one. “En esa época, veía todas las películas que encontraba”. – “Back then, I used to watch every movie that I could find.”
Carlos: You know I still watch every movie I can find.
Dylan: Just an example, Carlos. Just an example.
Carlos: Well, I hope so, I mean I don’t want anybody watching me when I am looking.
Dylan: Yes?
Carlos: Yes, definitely. I mean, come on. That’s kind of messed up.
Dylan: I told you: “Pensabas que no te veía, pero lo vi todo”. Let’s go through “ir”. “Ir”.
Carlos: “To go.”
Dylan: “Yo iba”.
Carlos: “I used to go.”
Dylan: “Tú ibas”.
Carlos: “You used to go.”
Dylan: “Él iba”.
Carlos: “He used to go.”
Dylan: “Nosotros íbamos”.
Carlos: “We used to go.”
Dylan: “Vosotros ibais”.
Carlos: “You all used to go.”
Dylan: “Ellos iban”.
Carlos: “They used to go.” So, to finish this off, let’s put “ir” in a context with some examples of it in the Imperfect Tense.
Dylan: Okay, here we go. “Iba a la casa de un amigo, cuando me encontré con tu hermana”. – “I was going to a friend’s house, when I ran into your sister.”
Carlos: Okay.
Dylan: Here’s another one, ready?
Carlos: Yes.
Dylan: “Iba a llamarte, pero no tuve tiempo”. – “I was going to call you, but I didn’t have time.”
Carlos: Excuses, excuses, Dylan.
Dylan: Hey, notice how we can still use “ir” and “a” at Infinitive to express a future action, even if this action is in the past. So, “iba a” plus the Infinitive equals “was going to do something”.
Carlos: Okay, you know what? That does make a kind of clear. Cool.

Outro
Dylan: Cool. So, what do you think?
Carlos: So, I think is a fair draw between the Imperfect Subjunctive and the Imperfect Indicative.
Dylan: Really?
Carlos: Well, no, not really. I just think since it was more commonly used the Imperfect Subjunctive in speech, it has a little edge.
Dylan: Whatever you say.
Dylan: All right, everybody. I hope you had a good time, learned some stuff. See you next time!
Carlos: Later!

Paradigms

Quiz

Comments

Hide