The Spanish Preterite.

Why is it so challenging?

If you are new to Spanish, or a seasoned student, the Spanish preterite will always be a challenging area of learning. The reason for that is that if we set it against any other tense found within Spanish grammar, it will come out hands down as the most irregular.

It’s the only tense that doesn’t follow the standard endings that we find repeating themselves in every other and along with that, it often creates vague and changeable meanings to the verb.

All the more reason to learn it.

It’s for these very facts that the Spanish preterite is so important. We use the preterite tense so frequently that unless we can command it well “hasta dominarlo” our Spanish will always struggle along.

The good news is that because of the fact that we have no choice but to frequently use it, these irregularities can be easily learned through dogged repetition. (The greatest way of learning.)

Regularity with its irregularities.

This mean seem like an ‘oxymoron’, but the simple truth is that the irregular preterite, which is what we focus on in this particular podcast, is really quite regular. It would be better to view it more like an extra tense than a weird preterite one.

Apart from vowel changes which in themselves are grouped into families, the pattern of what is called the irregular Spanish preterite is very reliable and consistently repeats itself.

Pronunciation.

A frequent error made by students when they use the irregular Spanish preterite is to continue to add the emphasis to the end of the word, as though it had a tilde/accent like the regular preterite.

This is not the case and if you look at the conjugations of the irregular, stem changing Spanish preterite. There are no accents, thus demanding that the emphasis or ‘golpe de voz’ goes on the second last vowel.

Therefore, to say, “He said”, you must not push the emphasis to the end as many people do and say: “Él dijÓ”. Rather, the emphasis falls on the letter ‘I’ to give you the more smooth (and beautifully sounding) “dIjo.”

This applies to all of the stem changing preterite verbs, so be ever so careful when you use them. When you listen in to the following video podcast pay special attention to the way we pronounce the examples we give.

Remember that all of our podcasts come with a transcription, translation and a great Helpsheet that will guide you through the important parts of each grammar subject as well as test your understanding.

Hasta luego 🙂

Video for This Spanish Lesson

Audio for This Spanish Lesson

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 10:15 — 23.5MB)

There’s a right and a wrong way to do everything.

Culturally, Spain is unique in as much as it has its own ways of doing things and behaving. Just like any country, there are certain rights and wrongs in how you relate to others.

What might seem like an innocent comment or a meaningless gesture to you can be taken as quite rude by a Spanish person if, unbeknown to you, you cross the line of what they consider “comportamiento aceptable.”

No te preocupes.

Before you start getting into a panic, we are not saying that the Spanish are intolerant. Quite naturally, they make allowances for anyone who isn’t from their culture and so, even if you were to commit a total “traspié” or faux pas, they would forgive you. If you are living in Spain or simply visiting, however, it’s best to know how to behave.

After all, to be forewarned is to be forearmed.

The Cultural Divide.

Let me give you an example of something quite simple, yet radically different.

In Spain, when you are a guest in someone’s house and you want to leave, there is a process that you should adhere to.

You must give notice that you are planning to leave LONG before you actually want to leave. There is rarely a speedy get away form a Spanish household unless there really is an emergency. Rather, the geust begins to throw into the conversation that they really must be going as they have things to do.

The host then poo-poo’s that suggestion and offers more beer, food, crisps etc.

After much to-ing and fro-ing, which can last for a good hour or more, the guest then makes a move for the door.

Only when it is absolutely clear that they really are serious about leaving does the host go and get their coat.

The Spanish doorway stand-off.

This is when things get interesting. Their being by the door and having their coat on does not, by any means, indicate that the visit is over.

It’s here, in the doorway that the Spanish stand-off begins. A good fifteen minutes can pass in which host and guest talk about a wide range of subjects, the family, what happened with so and so, the plans for the following week or whatever happens to “surgir”.

At no time does the host give any indication that they wished the guest would just “irse de una vez” even though I have always had the feeling that deep down that’s exactly what they would love to say.

The repercussions of rushing out the guest.

I heard a story of a lady who was a once guest in someone’s house. Knowing that she had to leave within the next hour and a half, she did the normal thing by saying that she really needed to go.

To her shock and horror, the host went immediately and got her coat.

This was more than ten years ago and she still talks about it to this day! lol.

Listen into our podcast so you don’t have to be the talking point of some future host for the next twenty years. 🙂

Gordon: (Cynthia will kill me when she reads this. Gulp.)

Video for This Spanish Lesson

Audio for This Spanish Lesson

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 11:15 — 25.7MB)

Great Spanish Vocabulary.

Travelling to Spanish Speaking Countries.

According to the current statistics, more than one million Americans actually live in Mexico. On top of that, many tens of millions travel to Latin American countries every year, not to speak of those who cross the Atlantic to visit Spain.

In the U.K., more than 70% of all people who travel abroad go to Spanish resorts.

In our book, that’s a lot of travelling and of course, when travelling in Spanish speaking countries, it’s important to have the appropriate vocabulary.

We admit that, in most tourist zones there is little need to speak Spanish as the majority of services offered to the travellers cater for multiple languages with English being top of the list.

Off the Beaten Track

However, step only a tiny bit off the beaten track into what we could describe as ” normal people” country, and you will find a distinct lack of bilingual speakers.

This often catches people off guard. We have lost count of the times that people have called us in a panic saying that they have bought a house in Spain and, to quote them, “Nobody in the village speaks English!. Quick! I need lots of Spanish vocabulary!”

To “ASSUME” makes an ASS of U and ME.

Why we should assume that everyone in the world can speak English doesn’t really make sense at all. Naturally, English is the international language for those who move around the world, yet, for the majority, travelling from country to country isn’t an option. Clearly, for them, their native language is all they will ever need to speak.

In Spain, for example, the vast majority of Spaniards choose to holiday in their own country. They rarely travel to other countries as a rule.  So, although you will find in Spain a level of English slightly better than that of the Spanish spoken in the U.K.  it is still spoken at a low level  and with a heavy accent.

At Least have the Minimum.

So, when travelling through a Spanish speaking country, it’s advisable to at least have the basics of Spanish vocabulary. In this podcast we talk you through some key travelling vocabulary for Airports and Taxis. After all, there’s nothing worse than jumping into a taxi and finding that the driver doesn’t speak a word of English.  (Apparently, that can happen in New York these days. haha)

Our podcasts are all backed up with fully padded out helpsheets that explain all of the expressions and terms that we use during the podcast. In addition to that, we provide a full transcription and translation of all of the conversations we have.

We hope you will find them of great use in your studies.

Saludos, Gordon and Cynthia.

Video for This Spanish Lesson

Audio for This Spanish Lesson

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 11:53 — 27.2MB)

Ser and Estar in the Past.

For every self respecting student of the Spanish language, getting SER and ESTAR right is not only a challenge but often becomes and obsession.

“Why on earth they have to have two verbs ‘to be’ I’ll never know!”we often mutter to ourselves. Still, no matter how long you look at it, there they are, defying us to get our heads around them.

The main issue is that to use these verbs, particularly in the past, we have to perform a series of mental gymnastics before we can even get a word out of our mouths.

Mental Gymnastics.

We reach a WAS in our sentence and stop… then begin the questions:

Is this SER or ESTAR?

Is this a PERMANENT was or a TEMPORARY was?

Is this a ONE OFF ACTION or is it an ONGOING ACTION?

By the time we’ve reached a conclusion, either our listener has gone to make a coffee or their eyes have glazed over as they escape to their happy place.

As we have said before, native speakers do not have this problem. They have learnt to speak by ear, and so to them, it either sounds right or wrong.

We, unfortunately, do not have that luxury and must manually trawl through our rules to arrive at the correct tense and conjugation.

Fear not!

The truth is, it’s not as difficult as you might imagine. Nor is it life threatening to get it wrong. Sometimes it can change the meaning, however, if your listener is paying attention to what you are saying, they will know if  you have chosen the wrong verb or tense.

We have produced this video podcast to help you with SER and ESTAR in the past in conjunction with the video in EL AULA which covers the 4 ways to say WAS.

Probably, it would be best to watch THIS VIDEO first before listening to the one we are presenting here.

The Good News.

The good news is that the more you practice the easier it gets. You really do learn by ear and the way to do that is to practice, practice, practice. Read every day. Even if you really struggle with the story, you are learning all the time. It’s impossible not to learn.

Read out loud! This also allows you to hear the Spanish being spoken whilst giving you great practice for your pronunciation.

Listen as much as you can to as much variety as possible. By doing so, you will learn the melody of the language, which is how native speakers have learnt it.

Our podcasts come with great Helpsheets that go into far more depth than the podcast allows us to do. We hope you enjoy them and find them of value.

Buena suerte, chicos. 🙂

Video for This Spanish Lesson

Audio for This Spanish Lesson

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 11:17 — 25.8MB)