Grupo Básico Español – lección treinta

Grupo Básico Español – lección treinta

Buenos días señores y señoras. Bienvenidos a la lección treinta de la clase de español.

¿Qué tenemos esta semana?

1.    A new tense

2.    Chapters 3 and 4 of La profe

3.    My grandson’s favourite song

4.    Getting around

New tense

This morning, I want to tell you about the imperfect tense. Now I know you want to hear about yet another tense like you want a hole in the head, but I know you’ll enjoy it once it’s over!

There’s a lot of imperfect in Chapters 3 and 4 of La profe. I’ll go through its use and how the verb is formed but don’t worry about trying to learn it all. At this stage, I just want you to recognise it when you come across it in a story.

The Spanish imperfect tense (el pretérito imperfecto) is used to describe past habitual actions or to talk about what someone was doing when they were interrupted by something else.

Uses of the Imperfect Tense

In general, the imperfect is used to talk about past actions, conditions, or events that occurred habitually or repeatedly or that were in progress at a point in the past. It is also used to tell time, talk about dates, give a person's age, and describe characteristics, conditions, and feelings in the past. Read on for more about these uses of the imperfect.

1. Habitual or Repeated Actions

Habitual or repeated actions are those that were done over and over in the past. These are often things a person used to or would do.

Almorzábamos cada día. We used to eat lunch together every day.

Todos los sábados las mujeres iban de compras. Every Saturday the ladies would go shopping.

2. Actions that Were in Progress in the Past

It's quite common to see the imperfect used to talk about something that was happening when something else occurred. It's also used for actions that continued in the past for an unspecified period of time.

When talking about a past action in progress that was interrupted, the action in progress is in the imperfect, while the interrupting action is in the preterite.

Iba a clase cuando sonó el teléfono. I was going to class when the telephone rang.

Mi papá cocinaba cuando entré a casa. My dad was cooking when I came in the house.

A veces le dolían las manos y las piernas. Sometimes her hands and feet ached.

3. Times and Dates

The imperfect is used to talk about times and dates in the past.

Eran las tres de la tarde. It was three o'clock in the afternoon.

Era el 9 de mayo. It was May 9th.

4. Age

The imperfect is commonly used to talk about age in the past.

La niña tenía 4 años. The little girl was 4 years old.

Los perros tenían dos años cuando los adopté. The dogs were two years old when I adopted them.

5. Descriptions of Characteristics, Conditions, and Feelings

The imperfect is used to give descriptions in the past, especially those that set the scene in terms of the senses.

Mi profesor era alto y tenía el pelo ondulado. My professor was tall and had wavy hair.

El campo era bello. The countryside was beautiful.

Hacía calor esa noche. It was hot that night.

Me sentía feliz con mi trabajo nuevo. I was happy with my new job.

Quería mudarme a otro país. I wanted to move to another country.

Regular Imperfect Forms

There are only two sets of endings for regular imperfect verbs in Spanish, one for -ar verbs and one for both -er and -ir verbs.

To conjugate a regular verb in the imperfect tense in Spanish, simply remove the infinitive ending (-ar, -er, or -ir) and add the imperfect ending that matches the subject.

Regular Imperfect Verb Endings

Subject	-ar Verbs	-er and -ir Verbs
yo	-aba	-ía
tú	-abas	-ías
él, ella, usted	-aba	-ía
nosotros	-ábamos	-íamos
vosotros	-abais	-íais
ellos, ellas, ustedes	-aban	-ían

Irregular Imperfect Forms

There are only three verbs with irregular conjugations in the imperfect: ir, ser, and ver. Here they are!

Irregular Imperfect Conjugations

Subject	Ir (to go)	Ser (to be)	Ver (to see)
yo	iba	era	veía
tú	ibas	eras	veías
él, ella, usted	iba	era	veía
nosotros	íbamos	éramos	veíamos
vosotros	ibais	erais	veíais
ellos, ellas, ustedes	iban	eran	veían

This information is from SpanishDict.com – a great website for reference ad answering tricky questions.

La profe

OK, let’s see if we can spot some imperfect tense in our story …

Chapter 4 has an interesting use of an interesting verb: soler (to used to). You can use soler as an easier way of creating the imperfect tense when you’re talking about things that happened regularly in the past.

Use soler in the imperfect and add any verb …

For example:

I used to be a journalist – solía ser peridoista (era periodista)

You used to be very fat – solías ser muy gordo (eras muy gordo)

She used to have blonde hair – ella solía tener el pelo rubio (ella tenía el pelo rubio)

We used to go to London every week – solíamos ir a Londres todas las semanas (íbamos a Londres todas las semanas)

You (plural informal) used to have three dogs – solíais tener tres perros (teníais tres perros)

They used to go to Spain every winter – solían ir a España cada invierno (iban a España cada invierno).                                                                     

I like solía (soler). I learned it quite early on from my son and I find it a useful way of talking about things that I used to do in the past.

Homework is to read Chapters 5 and 6

Video - Chu-Chu-Uá

This is my grandson, Aureliano’s, favourite song at the moment – he’s obsessed by it – so I thought I’d share it with you.

It’s in the same genre as the Hokey-cokey, Simon Says or Superman. If anyone feels like standing up and doing the actions, feel free. See how many of the instructions you can get …

Video: https://youtu.be/Yr_N-sRbIk8

Let’s just go through the instructions (some useful body parts revision here):

Brazos extendido
Puño cerrado
Dedos arriba – thumb is pulgar (thumbs, pulgares)
Hombros fruncido (hunched shoulders, shrug) con el ceño fruncido (frown) ceño = brow
Cabeza hacia atrás – backwards, towards the back
Cola hacia atrás
Pies de pingüïno – feet of pengiun
Lengua afuera

I thought it would be fun if we played our own version of Chu-Chu-Uá. ¿Están de acuerdo?

Look down – mira abajo (bajar los ojos – lower your eyes) If you look down on someone, use despreciar.

Look to the left – mira a la izquierda

Look up – mira arriba (mira hacia arriba – look upwards)

Look to the right - Mira a la derecha

Put your hands on your head – pon tus manos sobre tu cabeza

Close your eyes – Cierra tus ojos

Wave your hands - agita tus manos. To greet someone with a wave you’d saludar con la mano.

Well done - Dense un aplauso

Travelling

OK we’re back in Chapter 10 and busy travelling. Can you remember what these phrases mean?

¿Cómo puedo ir a Barcelona?

There is a bus every hour - Hay un autobús cada hora

¿Cómo podemos ir de Barcelona a Madrid?

The train is best. You need to leave from Sants station and the journey takes two hours, thirty minutes. El tren es el mejor. Tienes que salir de la estación de Sants y el viaje dura dos horas y treinta minutos.

¿Puede darme un horario de trenes?

You can get one from the tourist office - Puedes conseguir uno en la oficina de turismo.

¿A qué hora sale el tren?

They leave every hour at 20 minutes past - Salen cada hora pasados veinte minutos.

¿Cuánto tiempo se hace?

The fast train takes 45 minutes - El tren rápido tarda cuarenta y cinco minutos.

¿El autobús se detiene por un descanso?

The journey lasts three hours, it stops once - El viaje dura tres horas, se detiene una vez.

¿Se puede hacer reservas?

One can reserve seats - Se puede reservar asientos

Quisiera reservar un asiento para el tren de las tres mañana por la tarde.

Let me think, yes you can - Déjame pensar, sí se puede.

Quisiera comprar un billete para ir a Barcelona

¿Quiere turista o preferente? Ave trains also have turista plus where you get an airline-style meal.

Necesito un billete de ida a vuelta

Are you returning the same day? ¿Regresa el mismo día? ¿Vuelve el mismo día?

I want to leave at 9am and return at 8pm

Quiero salir a las nueve de la mañana y volver a las ocho de la noche.

Can one pay by credit card?

¿Puede pagar con tarjeta de crédito?

I prefer to pay by card, but I have cash if you prefer.

Prefiero pagar con tarjeta de crédito, pero tengo efectivo sí prefieren.

¿Puede detener el autobús por favor? Necesitamos un descanso.