Coffee Break Spanish - CBS 2.19 | Describing the past

Episode Date: August 6, 2010

This week we’re continuing to look at the imperfect tense. We’ll go through the conjugation of -ar, -er and -ir verbs and talk about how the imperfect tense is used to describe things in the past. Please note that lesson 19 of Season 2 was originally known as lesson 219 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 veninos, a coffee break Spanish. Welcome back to Coffee Break Spanish. It's lesson 59, and we're still focusing on the imperfect tense. Now, in this lesson, we'll be looking at ER and IR verbs in the imperfect. Plus, we'll take a look at some of the irregular verbs. And there's some good news about irregular verbs in the imperfect tense. But we'll hear about that in the lesson. I hope you enjoy it.

So we're going to start tonight by thinking again about some of the things that we covered last week. Kara, can you remember any of the situations in which you would use the imperfect tense? When you're using was or where plus an action, like I was swimming? Yep, uh-huh, anything else? When you used to do something? Exactly, yeah. And when you would do something talking about the past. Yeah, exactly. It's that wood in the past when you're thinking back to what you would do in the evenings in a particular time and so on.

So your three key phrases that you're thinking of are the was or we're doing something situation. So as you suggested, I was swimming. We were walking along the beach. The used to do something situation. So when I was young, I used to go to swimming lessons on a Thursday afternoon or something like that. So they used to do something. And the last one that you mentioned was the would do something in the past. So thinking back to a particular time in your life when

you would walk along the beach in the evenings looking at the sunset and all that kind of stuff so those are your three situations or three of the situations rather where you would use the imperfect in Spanish now the other thing that we looked at last week was the difference between the preterate and the imperfect and situations where for example

the preterate interrupts the imperfect can you think of an example of this kind of? When I was walking along the beach the tide came in? Exactly. When I was walking along the beach, the tide came in. When I was doing the preparation for this podcast, the phone rang.

And so on. So the preter action here, the thum, breaks up the dum-de-dum of the imperfect. So I was walking along the beach, dum-de-dum-de-dum when the tide came in. It started to come in. Thum. I was preparing this podcast when the phone rang. So I was preparing

the podcast, dum-de-dum-de-dum, when the phone rang, the phone started ringing, although the phone would probably make a different sound other than th-tum. Okay, we also learned the endings of AR verbs in the imperfect. Can you remember the AR endings? It sounds like a very famous pop group. It does indeed, a famous pop group. The Swethia from Sweden. So the tense would go, for example, with Aulhar.

how would you say I was speaking? Ablaba. Avlava, because your ending is Ava. A, B, A, B, like the pop group, but ABA. Ablava. Avlava. And you were speaking? Ablavas.

He, she, or it was speaking. Ablava again. Uh-huh, and we were speaking? Ablabamos. Mm-hmm, and the U-plural form, the Bosodros form used in Spain, Ablavais. Ablavais. And they were speaking.

Ablaban. Very well. And obviously, when we're talking about the Ustead form, the Ustead would be... Ustead Ablaba. Uh-huh. So you were speaking using the formal form in the singular. And in the plural, you were speaking would be... Usteades?

Usteades ablaban. Usteades ablaban. You were speaking. Okay, excellent. That's A.R verbs, using the A.R. endings. Now what we're going to do today is learn the endings for ER verbs and for IR verbs. And here's the first bit of good news today. They're the same. So ER verbs and IR verbs take exactly the same endings in the imperfect tense. So let's learn these endings now. It's not

Abba this time but yeah. Okay, so if we take for example the word bender, which means to sell so i was selling the house would be ben d'ia la casa ben dia la casa ben dia so if ben dia is bender in the joe form of the imperfect tense how would you say i was eating comia Comia. Comeia. Very bien. From Comer. Comia. I was eating. And let's take another ER verb. Can you think in any kind of?

Beber. Perfecto. Beber. How would you say that means, of course, what does it mean? To drink. To drink, yeah. So how would you say I was drinking? Bebia. Bebia. Bebia a cafe. Bebia a coffee.

Okay, so I was drinking a coffee. Bebia a coffee. Bebia a coffee. Can you remember the other word that's used when you have a drink in a bar or a cafe, another word that you would use to have a drink? It doesn't literally mean to have a drink. It literally means to take a drink. Don't remember.

It's tommar, to take a cupa, to take a coffee. So literally to take a coffee. Tomar a coffee. Now, I maybe want to point out here that, Queres Tomar Un Café is a very popular phrase. Do you want to have a coffee, to take a coffee? Quere's to Tomar a Café? And that is, in fact, one of the phrases featured on our merchandise

that you can find at the Radiolinguay website at www.org.com. Anyway, coming back to the lesson, Tomar is obviously an AR verb. So how would you say I was having a coffee using Tomar? Tomada a coffee. Tomava a coffee. but using Beberr, the ER verb, you would say. Bebia a coffee.

Bebea a coffee. Bebea a coffee. Okay, let's go through the whole tense, using all the endings, and we'll start with, we'll use as Comer, I think. So, comer, I was eating, would be... Comia. Comia. You were eating, guess it?

Comias? Comias. And he she or it was eating? Is it the same as the yo form? Comia. Comia. So comia, comia is comia.

And then we were eating. Comiamos? Ah, almost right. Just watch your stress here. The stress is on the i. So comiamos. Comiamos. Just like,

Tomabamos. Tomavamos. Comiamos. Comiamos. Comiamos. So the U plural form, the vosotros form would be. Comiais.

Very good. Comiais. It's quite difficult to say. that one. Comiais. Comiais. Comiais. Comiais. And then they were eating would be... Comian? Perfect.

Comian. Comian. Comeian. Very well. Okay, let's go through the whole verb. I'll say the first three. You repeat them. And then I'll say the next three. So, first of all, comia, comias, comia. Comia, comia, comia comia's comia. Comia most,

comiaisais, comian. Comeyamos, comiais, comian. Yeah, there are a lot of vowels in there with that comiais, comiais. Comiais. Yeah, comiyamos, comiais, comian. Comiamos, comiais, comian. Perfecto. Let's take Beber again.

So it would be I was drinking. Bebia? You were drinking? Bebias. He was drinking or she was drinking. Bebia? We were drinking. Bebiamos.

You were drinking. Bebiyas. They were drinking. Bebien. Perfect. The whole thing, bea, bea, bea, beaos, bebeyeys, be bien. Bebia, bebeyea. Bebia, bebeys, be bien.

Very well. Now, as I said earlier, the good thing is that the IR verbs do exactly the same thing. So can you think on any IR verbs, Kara, Kara, Kada? Be beer. Bivir, okay, don't get mixed up with Bivir and Beber. Okay, so Bivir means to live. To live. So how would you say I was living?

Bibia. Bivia. And you were living? Bibia. And can you continue on? Bibia? Bibiamos, Bibiais, bivian. Perfecto.

Easy, easy, easy. Vivia, vivias, vivia, viviamos, vivian. Bebia. Hang on one second. You're saying bea. Oh, sorry, bibia. Bia, yeah. Bevia means I was drinking. Bivia, I was living. Two different things there, okay.

So, bibia, bibiaas, bivia. Bibiamos, bivayas, bivian. Bibia, bibia, bibiaes, biais, biais, biais. Very well. Bibiais, biais. Again, it's that difficult one. Okay, so you get the idea. IR verbs and ER verbs take exactly the same endings in the imperfect tense. You remember your Ava endings for the AAR verbs

and your IA endings for ER and IR verbs. Okay, we'll be back in just a moment. Now, if you'd like to get more out of your coffee break Spanish experience, then you can sign up for the full premium version of our course, and that includes video versions of our lessons, where you'll see the words and phrases on the screen of your... device while you listen. There's also a set of lesson notes for every lesson with vocabulary and additional examples and bonus audio. All of our premium courses are

available at the Coffee Break Academy. That's at coffeebreakacademy.com. Okay, let's get on with the lesson. What's missing? Irregular verbs. Yeah, irregular verbs and normally we've got to learn loads of different irregular verbs when we were learning the tenses. Remember when we did the preterate and we were looking at traduce and etho and all that kind of thing? Well, there's some more good news here. And that is

can we have a drum roll? I think so. That there are only three irregular verbs in the imperfect tense in the whole of the Spanish language. Yay! Can we have a fanfare now? It was the only one I could find, sorry. At short notice, you didn't really

give me much time to prepare that yet. There are only three irregular verbs in The imperfect tense. And they are ear, which means... To go. Ser. To be. And ver.

To see. Okay, so let's take ear. And the best bit about this is once we get the pattern, then it's fairly obvious what's going to happen. So to go, I was going, becomes Iva. Iba. Yep, we're back to those B-A endings. It's not Abba, but Iba. Iba.

Then you were going as Ivas. Ibas? He sure it was going, Iva? Iva. Can you guess perhaps what we were going would be? Ibamos. Very bien, and you were going, plural form, vosoteuos?

Ibais. And then they were going. Ivan? Ivan. Iva, ivas, ivamos, ivais, ivans, ivamos, ivais, ivan. Iba, ivas, ivamos, ivais, ivan. Perfecto. So with iir, we're sort of combining the fact that I suppose you could say it's an IR verb,

it is in fact the verb that is spelled IR, but it's an irregular verb as we know. So we're combining that with the ABBA endings, although dropping the first A. So once we get into the pattern, as I said, you do recognize it. Iva, Ivas, Iba. Ivamos, ibais, Ivan. Let's take ber. What does bear mean? To C. Yeah, it means to C.

And normally with an ER verb, you take off the ER and add the endings. Ia, EAS, and so on. But with ber, the irregularity is that the stem is VE. So it's not Bia, but bea. Beia. Yeah, it's another one of those, see how many vowel sounds you can fit into the one word. Beia. Beia.

So it goes bea, bea, beaas, bea. Beia. Be'yas, bea. Yeah, with the stress each time on the I. Beia, beaias, beaia. Beia, beaas, beaia. Now, we were seeing, or we used to see, would be. Beiamos.

Beallamos. And let's see how many vowel sounds we can fit into this next one. The Vosotros form, you all were seeing, used in Spain. Beallais. Beillais. Yep, that's it, beaise. Pei y'ais. Beallais.

Beiais. And they were seeing. Peihan. Pei'an. Okay, let's go through the whole of Baird again. Beia, peas, pea. Pea, peias, pea. Beallamos, beaise, pei'an.

Peiamos, beaise, pei'an. Perfecto. Okay, so that's Bair and the imperfect. and there's one more imperfect, irregular verb we've got to learn, and that is the verb ser, which means, of course, to be. Ser to be. So, in the imperfect tense, ser becomes era. Era.

Era. Erra. So I was, or in a sense, I was being, era. Era. You were being Erres? Eras.

Eras. Okay, eras. Eras. And he, she or it was being? Era. Ere. Okay. And that one is very, very common indeed.

Think of when you're describing something in the past, for example, it was difficult. Era difficult. Era difficult. It was interesting. Era interesting. Era interesting. It was good fun. Era divertido.

Era is very, very common indeed. Let's go through the rest of the verb, though. So we were being, or we were, eramos. And then the vosotros form is erais. Erais. And then they were being or they were eran. Erran. Now, ser, in the present tense,

is used to tell the time. How would you say it is 2 o'clock? Son las dos. So las dos. Remember it's last because it's last hours. Son las dos. So last dos.

Okay. And how would you say it is noon? Midday. Es midi-yo. That's it. It's medio-dia. It's medio-dia.

Okay, so es medio-dia. This is the present tense of ser. Now, if you you're talking about the past in the past, then you would use the imperfect to talk about time and say, it was 2 o'clock. So not son las dos, but the verb that we've just learned in the imperfect, eran los das. Erran las dos. Erran las dos. Eran las dos. And by the same rules, how would you say it was noon? Era medi-day. Yeah, that one is singular so it's era

medio-dia very well so in this week's lesson we've covered quite a lot we've covered three irregulars that's iir ser and ber in the imperfect tense and we've also looked at the endings for er and iar verbs both of which conjugate the same way with iya yas i amos yais ian

as the endings and that's where we're going to leave it today for this edition of 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 coffeebreak Spanish and follow at Learn Spanish on Twitter. Much grazie and hasta pronto. This is the production of the Radiolingua Network. Find out more at