Coffee Break Spanish - CBS 2.01 | The present tense

Episode Date: January 10, 2010

Hello and welcome to another season of Coffee Break Spanish! In level 1 we concentrated on learning useful words and phrases for a whole range of situations you’re likely to encounter on a trip to a Spanish-speaking part of the world. However, to a certain extent we’ve been concentrating on set phrases. In level 2 it’s now time to look more deeply at how the language is constructed, and you’ll learn to create the language yourself.Episode 1 introduces the idea of verbs and you’ll learn to conjugate a verb in its six forms. You’ll be talking about what you do at the weekend, and answering the question ¿Qué haces durante el fin de semana?. Please note that lesson 1 of Season 2 was originally known as lesson 201 of Coffee Break Spanish. We have renumbered the lessons of each season as lessons 1-40 to make things more simple for our listeners.This season of Coffee Break Spanish features a total of 40 lessons, all of which will be included in the podcast feed. Just stay subscribed to the podcast to enjoy each episode. If you’d like to benefit from video versions, lesson notes and bonus audio materials, you can access the premium version of Coffee Break Spanish in the Coffee Break Academy.Don’t forget to follow Coffee Break Spanish on Facebook where we post language activities, cultural points and review materials to help you practise your Spanish. Remember - a few minutes a day can help you build your confidence in the language. Access the Coffee Break Spanish Facebook page here.If you’d like to find out what goes on behind the scenes here at Coffee Break Languages, follow @coffeebreaklanguages on Instagram.You can also check out our Coffee Break Spanish Twitter page and the Coffee Break Languages YouTube channel. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello and welcome to Coffee Break Spanish. Welcome back to Coffee Break Spanish. This is Lesson 41 and it's the first lesson in Level 2 of our course. Level 2 in a sense is going back to the beginning but looking at things in a grammatical way. So you're going to be learning how to construct phrases yourself rather than just concentrating on learning and memorizing phrases that in a sense we've done until now. Today we're going to be looking at conjugating regular verbs in this case the regular AR verbs in the present tense. So you'll be learning the six forms of the verb. The yo part, the two part, the El or Eja part, the Nosotros part, the bothotras part, and the Ejos part. And that will only make much more

sense when you listen to the lesson. So I hope you enjoy the lesson. So to begin with in this lesson, I'm going to ask you a question, Kara. It's a question that you've not probably heard before, but something that you'll probably understand if you can piece together. the various parts of this sentence. The question is, what athes during the fin of semena? What do you askes during the end of the same de semana?

Now, let's see if you can work out what that means from the different words included in this sentence. First of all, the word what. Yeah, it's what. So, what, now,

aces, going by the spelling rules that you're already aware of, how do you think? you spell athes. A, C, E, S. Okay, it could be that. A, C, E, S.

You got the C there, correct, because the athes, it's got a T-H sound in Spanish-S-S-U-Lanish, although if we were in Latin America, that would be said as Ases, Ases. Now, if you think about that word, athes, K-A-thes, in actual fact, there's a silent H at the beginning of that word.

Athes is spelled H-A-S-A-S-E. C-E-S and it's impossible to know that other than recognising that word that you may have come across before. You've not necessarily seen athes, but you will have seen athé, for example, in the phrase athesol. What does that mean? It's sunny. It's sunny, yeah. Athesol, although it means it's sunny, it literally means it does sunshine. So, athi means it does.

Or in some cases, it could mean he does. or she does. For example, he does much work. He does lots of work or she does lots of work.

Ace. So if I'm asking you what do you do? Yeah, exactly. Ke Aces, or in Latin America, what you do? And then the end of the sentence was

during the end of the Semana. During? During, during, the fin de Semana. You'll know the word Semana. Does it mean the week? The week, yeah. And the fin de Semana? The end of the week? The end of the week. The weekend, exactly. What do you do during the fin of the semester? What do you do during the fin de seminar? Very well. Can we all repeat that together?

What does during the fin of Semana. What do you do during the end of semester? Okay, so in this

week's lesson, we're going to be answering that question by using some words like, for example, I

work, I do, I go, I go out, I spend, I speak. All these words are present tense verbs,

and in this case, they're the I part, the part referring to yourself. So let's take, for

example, during the weekend, I work in a restaurant. So I work would be Trebajo Excellent. You remember that back from when we were talking about our jobs,

way back in Unit 1 I think. Travajo means I work. Now, Travajo is also the noun for work. For example, El Travajo. El travajo means the work or the job. But travajo means I work. So repeat that. Travajo.

work very now can you then say that you work in a restaurant Kara Travajo in an restaurant

Travajas in a restaurant Yes I'm a restaurant Okay so I asked Kara Kara that Travaz in a restaurant

using the As ending for you the too form which is of course the informal form So if Kara says, Travajo, I work,

I'm asking Kara, do you work? Travachas. So, Travajo. Travajo? Travajas. Travahas. So that's I work and you work. Now, you may also want to ask someone

do you work in the formal form? And the formal form is Travaja. Travaja. And that would be, Uste, Youte, Travaja in an restaurant. Usteedrabaugh in an restaurant. Okay, so we've got

Travajo, Travajas, Travaha. Travajo, Travajas, Travaha. Very well. Now, the Travaja part there can also be used for he or she. So, for example, if I'm telling our listeners, Kara, works in a restaurant

during the weekend, I would see Kara Travaja in a restaurant during the end of the

year Karah Traba meaning she works So we've got Travajo which means

I work Travaz You work And Travah And trabacher You formal work He works

or she works Exactly Well done So Travaja, this third part, can mean those three things. And it depends on the context. Obviously, if I said, this is my amiga Kara,

Travaja in a restaurant. So this is my friend Kara, Travaja, she works in a restaurant. It's obvious there that Travaja means she works. Now, we have come across these patterns before, and what we're going to do in this program is extend the patterns so that we can talk about anyone. So we've got I work.

U-informal work. He or she, or indeed you formal, works. And then let's add in we work. Now, we, the we form, is something again that we've come across once or twice. And the ending for that is amos. So we work is Travacamos.

Now, when you're learning verbs, the next part that you need to look at is the U-Plural form. And this in Spanish is slightly complicated because in Spain there is a form called Bosotros or Bosotras. And that's the U-plural, informal version. And the ending is Ais. So, Travachais. Travahais Travahais

Travahis Travahis Travahis Yeah Now Travahis is the informal plural version If you're speaking to a group of people

that you know people who are the same age as you Travachais The other possibility is that you would be talking to a group of people who perhaps are older than you

or to whom you want to be respectful and in that case you would use the city form of the verb and that is Travachan Travachan

Travachan Travachan So Travachan is the plural formal version and also in many parts of Latin America the standard plural version. So in lots of parts of Latin America

Travachais isn't used and you say Travachan instead regardless of whether people are wanting to be formal or informal. So So, Travachan. Travachan. Now, Travachan also means they work.

So, Travachan again for they work. Travachan. Travachan. Very well. Now, let's think about this. In English, we have work, as in I work, you work, they work, we work, and we work, and we have works, as in he works and she works so there are two different forms in English

in Spanish unfortunately you have six different forms but of course because of the ending you can tell exactly who is doing the working so if I say Travachas you know immediately that I'm talking about you you yeah in the informal version

so Travahas would be you work yeah and if I say say, Travachamos, we work. If I say Travachan,

they work, or you are plural formal. Exactly. Very well. So, let's think about this a little more.

We're going to go through the whole verb. We're going to conjugate the verb in its six parts. If, again, just to mention, if you're

concentrating on Latin American Spanish, then you might not want to bother about the fifth part in here, but obviously we are teaching Spanish to cover a

sort of international audience and therefore we will be covering the Bosotros or the Boisotres part, the U plural informal. Okay, we'll be back in just a moment. When you're not listening to Coffee Break Spanish, you can still practice your Spanish with our regular posts on social media. Find us on Facebook, just search for Coffee Break Spanish. We're Learn Spanish on Twitter and you can keep up with the team through our regular posts on Instagram.

Follow Coffee Break Languages. It's our mission to help you turn your downtime into your due time. Okay, let's get on with the lesson. So let's run through the whole verb from Travajo right through to Travahan. And it's six parts. Here goes. Travajo. Travajas. Travajas.

Travaja. Travha. Travajamos. Travajas. Trabahais. Travajan. Trabahan. Very well.

Let's do it one more time. Trabho. Trabha. Travaz. Travaz. Travah. Travah. Travah.

Trabahmos. Travahas. Travajais. Travachais. Travachan. Trabahan. Perfect. excellent. Now the good thing about this is that you can see use the same pattern with lots and lots and lots of other verbs. So let's use another example here. Kara, can you give me another example of something that you might do at the weekend?

The verb, bailer. And bailar would mean to dance. Yeah, okay. So, bailar is to dance. So how would you say, Kara, I dance. Bailo. Bailo. Very bien. Bailo. How would you say you dance? The informal, singular version. Baalas.

Baalas. Baalas. Very well. And if I were talking about Kara dancing, I would say Kara dances, Kara. Baila. Baila. So that's bailo. Baailas.

Baila. Let's go on and think about. We dance. Baillamos? Baillamos. Baillamos. That's it. Now, you may be familiar with a song,

I think it was Enrique Iglesias, who did the song, and it sort of went like, Baalamos, and I'll not sing anymore, but the stress in that almost was on the moz, but that's totally wrong.

It's obviously going with the music there, but normally you would say, Baillamos. Baailamos. In comparison to Bailo, Baillas, Baila,

Baalamos. Bailo, Baelazas, Baila, Baalamos. That's it. Now, can you go in and say

the U-Plutal form? Baileis. Baileis. Baalais. Baalais. Baalamos, Baileis. Baalamos,

Baileis. And Ba'lais means you all dance, you plural, informal dance in Spain. Baelais. Baelais. And to say, they dance, or you plural formal dance? Bailan. Bailan. Very well.

Now, it's really important that you get the stress right here. The first three, the stress is bailo, balas, baila. Then the fourth and fifth, you have baillamos, baillais. and then the last one's back to the first stress again. Baelan. Bailo, Baelas, baila, Baailamos,

palais, palan. Okay, so what we're going to do now is add in a couple more verbs that work exactly the same way here. And the first of these is passar. Passar. And passar means to spend or to pass.

So, Paso, So, so I can go, so time with my family passo time with

my family passo time with my family so again passo can go

passo pass passas passas passes passin passos pass pass

pass pass passes passes passes passan yeah just always

remember that the stress is on the first syllable in parts one, two, three and six. Paso, passas, passa and passan at the end. Okay, so passo tempo, con my familia.

What does that mean? I spend time with my family. Exactly. I spend time with my family. Or you could equally say con mis amigos. With my friends. Yeah. What other kind of things would you perhaps do with your friends?

Talk, chat with your friends. Yeah. So chatting with your friends, you could use different words here. You could say, I speak. So I speak, you already know. Ablo? Ablo. Ablo with my friends.

Con my amigos. Ablo con my amigos. Ablo con my amigos. How would you say, do you speak with your friends? Ablas with your friends? Very bien. Ablas with your

Ablas with your in the informal version Ablas with your Ablas with your And we could go on and continue with this and say Abla he or she speaks

Ablamos we speak Ablais you plural speak and Ablan they speak Let's take a different

verb talking verb and chatting in fact is slightly different in Spain in comparison to certain parts of Latin America. You can use the word charler, charler in Spain. Charlo charlas charla. Charlo charlas charla. Charlamos charlamos charlais charlan. Yeah and that's to chat, charlard to chat. So charlamos charlais charlan. Yeah, and that's to chat. Charlard to chat. So charlo, I chat charlo with my amigos charlo with my

amos and in Latin America you would be more likely to say platikar platikar to chat in Latin America platikar So platico

platico platikas platikas platica platica platica platicamos platicamos

platicais platikais platikinin Platikin. Okay, just watch your stress in that one because it's platico, platica, platica, and platicaan. So slightly confusing, perhaps.

Okay. The important thing that you should remember from today's lesson is that there are these six different parts of a verb. And again, just to mention that in Latin America, you probably don't need to worry too much about the fifth part. But it's good to recognise it anyway,

whether you're listening or whether you're reading Spanish, and you recognise that that ice ending is the U plural form. And that's where we're going to leave it today for this edition of Coffee Break Spanish. Thanks for joining us, and we hope it's been useful. You can join the Coffee Break Spanish community on Facebook at Facebook.com slash Coffee Break Spanish and follow at Learn Spanish on Twitter.

Much thanks and this is a production of the Radiolingua network Find out more at Radiolingua.com