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Spanish/Lesson 3
Reference material by Wikibooks contributors. This retains its source identity and is not 411 news reporting.
Text
Here are a couple of sentences and short dialogs about people planning/doing leisure activities. Besides the new vocabulary you should also have a look at how the verbs are conjugated depending on the subject of the sentence.
Los Verbos Maria viaja a México
Luis: ¿Qué hacen por la noche?Ana y Carmen: Nosotras bailamos en la fiesta.Raúl: ¿Qué haces mañana?Carlos: Mañana practico al tenis.Marco mira la televisión porque hace mal tiempo.Pedro y Mario toman unos refrescos.Rosalía escribe a sus padres los domingos.
As you may see, each verb is bolded. These verbs are conjugated, that is, changed by the person(s) to which they are referring. Notice that subject pronouns are not necessary.
Vocabulary for text
Viajar Travelling viajar
hacer
la noche
bailar
la fiesta
mañana
practicar
mirar
porque
buen tiempo
mal tiempo
tomar
beber
el refresco
el domingo
escribir
los padres to travel
to do, to make
night
to dance
party
tomorrow
to practice
to watch, to look at
because
nice weather
bad weather
to take, to drink
to drink
soda, soft drink
Sunday
to write
parents
Regular Verbs
Spanish has three different types of regular verbs: -ar, -er, and -ir verbs. The subject pronoun is not necessary and in conversational Spanish it is only used for emphasis. For this lesson, we will omit it. One can still use pronouns, however. The conjugation pattern is the
following:
El presente regular Person
-ar
-er
-irInfinitive
hablar
comer
vivirEnglish
to talk
to eat
to live1
hablo
como
vivo2
hablas
comes
vives3
habla
come
vive1 plural
hablamos
comemos
vivimos2 plural
habláis
coméis
vivís3 plural
hablan
comen
viven
As one can see, the endings for each person are different. This is similar to other Romance languages, such as Portuguese and Italian (the notable exception is French). This is the reason why we may omit the pronouns while we speak. Remember that sometimes it is best to clarify whether él, ella, or usted is speaking, because they share the same form. However, the context of the rest of the sentence sometimes clarifies this. There are a few steps involved with conjugating a verb. Here are the steps involved:
Take the ending off of the infinitive. This is either an -ar, -er, or -ir.
Without the -ar, -er, or -ir, the verb is in its base form.
Add the appropriate ending to the base of the verb.
Notice that there are only two differences between the conjugations of -er and -ir verbs. The nosotros (4) and vosotros (5) forms are the only differences. Those forms have an "i" in the stem instead of an "e."
Exercise: Regular Verbs
"G" Verbs
The verb hacer means to do or to make. Hacer is irregular in the first person singular form (I) of the present tense only. The irregular form is hago. Hacer is one of the many verbs in Spanish which add a "g" in the first person singular of the verb. This is the present indicative of the verb hacer.
El verbo hacer Person
Verb form1
hago2
haces3
hace4
hacemos5
haceis6
hacen
Note that the verb hacer is translated as to do and to make when
referring to activities. But it can also be used to talk
about some weather conditions:
El TiempoThe WeatherHace buen tiempo.The weather is good.Hace mal tiempo.The weather is bad.Hace frío. (also: Está frío)It's cold.Hace fresco.It's chilly.Hace calor.It's hot.Hace sol.It's sunny.Hace nublado.It's cloudy.Hace viento.It's windy.
But:
El TiempoThe WeatherEstá fresco.It's chilly.Está caluroso.It's hot.Hay sol/está soleado.It's sunny.Hay nubes/está nublado.It's cloudy.Hay viento/está ventoso.It's windy.
When speaking about the weather using hacer, the Ud. form (third singular form) is always used.
El vocabulario (Vocabulary) - Los días (Days)
Los dias de la semana
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
el lunes
el martes
el miércoles
el jueves
el viernes
el sábado
el domingo
Audio: OGG (157KB)
The Spanish week begins on Monday (el lunes), unlike the English week (which begins on Sunday/el domingo).
Una fiesta
File:Una fiesta.jpg
Una fiesta entre amigos. Nosotros bailamos y lo pasamos bien en el jardín de esta casa.
A party among friends. We dance and enjoy ourselves in the patio (garden) of this house.