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| 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! |
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