Coffee Break Spanish - CBS 2.37 | Review of tenses

Episode Date: April 5, 2011

In this episode María-José tells Andrew about her visits to the Canary Islands. She uses lots of examples of the imperfect tense to describe what she used to do when she went there several times when she was younger. Please note that lesson 37 of Season 2 was originally known as lesson 237 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, y'indininos to Coffee Break Spanish. Welcome to Coffee Break Spanish. Now, in this lesson, Marie-Hose and Andrew are talking about the Canary Islands, and they're using lots of past tenses. So there will be examples of the perfect tense, the press-root tense, and the imperfect tense in there, too. We hope that you find this lesson a useful review of the past tenses in Spanish. Okay, so as usual, we're going to begin by listening to the conversation between Maria Jose and Andrew.

And this time, Andrew is asking Maria Jose about the island of Tenerife, which is one of the Canary Islands of the coast of Africa. It belongs to Spain and they speak Spanish. However, you will find out that they do actually use some different words in Canarias, and that's what Maria Jose is going to be talking about in this conversation. Now, Kara, I'd like you to see if you can spot the things that Maria Jose used to do in Tenerife when she was there on holiday. before we even listen to this conversation, if we're talking about what she used to do,

which tense will she be using? We'll be using the imperfect. That's right. So if Maria Jose is talking in the imperfect, then we're going to be listening for what types of endings with the imperfect tense? We'll be looking out for the IA endings and the Abba endings. Absolutely.

Have a listen to the conversation and see how much you understand. stand. Maria Jose, you have visited Tenerife? My friend of Inglaterra go to the end of the next year.

Yes, many times. When I was a young, we'd have to Tenerife. My Tia had a

house in the Christianos and we used to go to the month of Augusto with her.

And what did you? It was great. It was always there much people

and we had many many people we're we're to the

play we're we're in restaurants and we're we're

there night there there is the it's the attraction

tourist most famous of the island of Tenerife it

is the name the Cary you use an

Spanish a little distinct. Ah, so? Yes. For example,

in instead of a bus, they're they're wawa, and

almost never they're they're they always they're they

they're not you don't say you don't you

say you know they're you also they have

another word to chasker. It difficult. Yes, and in Canarias, not it's difficult, but difficult.

But the Spanish that I'm that's all the part of the world, right? Ombred, it's like the English. The English that I learned I in London is distinct to your, and the Americans

are distinctly too. But if you were If you were talking with an American, he would you understander, no? And if I'm my Spanish in Madrid, or Canarias, or Buenos Aires, or Cusco, me entient perfectly. And that is the important. Claro.

So, Kara, I asked you if you could try to work out what Maria Jose used to do when she went on holiday to Tenerife. Can you tell me if you recognized anything in there? Yes, absolutely. She said when she used to go to Los Christianos, she would usually go to the beach, she would eat in restaurants, and she would go out every night.

That's it. Ivamos to la playa, cenavamos in restaurants, and we saliamos every night. So three different verbs, each of which are in the imperfect tense. How would you say I went to the beach? Iba to the beach.

Iva to the playa, exactly. And I dined in a restaurant. Tenaba in restaurants. Yeah, cenaba in restaurants, tenaba in an restaurant. And I went out each night. Salia, catanoche. Okay, so your verbs which are regular

and are ER verbs, for example, senar or senar, take the Ava endings. Cenava, cenabas, denabes, denabes, tenabes, tenabes, tenab. and the verbs which are iR or er endings like salir, they take the ia endings. So salir becomes salia, salia, salia, saliaes, salian. Now, there are some verbs which are irregular in the imperfect tense. Can you remember what they were?

We've had one already in this sentence. It's ear. Yeah, that's right. So we've got ear, which becomes iva, iva. Iva. i bimos ibaiz i ban

very so that's ier can you remember any other verbs which are irregular in the

imperfect tense ser very very which would become er eras era

eras eras eras eras eran very any other ones that you can remember

that are irregular in the imperfect tense what about the verb to see

bear bear that's right so how would you say I used to see or I was seeing beer almost right it's bea

beia okay it's very very slightly irregular it keeps the e of the VER infinitive and then it adds the ia endings on after that so

bea bea beias bea beaamos beais beaian and any other verbs in the

imperfect tense which are irregular? Nope, there are only three. That's correct. Ber, ser and ear. However, one thing to mention, sometimes with verbs in Spanish and indeed in other languages, you have derivatives of a particular verb. So take, for example, the verb there, which means to see. The verb pre-ver, which means to foresee, is also conjugated like there. So if you say, I was foreseeing,

if that happened to be what you were trying to translate, you would say preveaia. Prevea. So using the same form as beaia, but just sticking pre in front of it, prebeia. Preveaia. Preveiamos.

Preveeamos. Preveeamos. And so on. Now, in this text, there are quite a number of interesting language points that we can pick up on. We've already looked at the imperfect tense, and there were quite a number of these

when Maria Jose was talking about what she used to do when she was younger and when she went to visit her aunt's house in Tenerife in Los Christiansanos but there were also some other points that we're going to pick up on now and one of these was Mary Jose's use

of the verb Soler and this is a very interesting verb indeed. It's spelled S-O-L-E-R Soler Soler that's right we'll talk about first what it means and then we'll look at how it's conjugated Soler is quite a

tricky verb to translate because it doesn't have an equivalent in English. If I say, Suelo, I hear al-cine, el-biernes. That means I normally, or I tend to go to the cinema on Fridays. So if anything, Soler means to tend to do something. So I'm sure-o-ir-in-al-cine the virenes. That's it. So I tend to do something. Suelo

to do something. Suelo to do something. Suo to do something. Now this verb works in lots of different tenses. So Maria Jose said soliamos to go to the

playa. So we tended to go to the beach. Soliamos to go to the playa. Soliamos a la Playa. Exactly. So we tended to go or we normally went to the beach. So it's this idea of

normally doing something and it's a really nice verb to use in Spanish. It demonstrates that you're that bit more developed in your Spanish vocabulary and your range of expression. Let's think now about how to actually conjugate this verb because as you've probably guessed from the present tense, it's what kind of verb kind of? It's a radical changing verb. It is indeed. So the O of the the infinitive, Soler, becomes a U-E. In the present tense, exactly. So, I tend to do something is... Suelo.

Suelo, I say something. You tend to do something? Sueles. Sueles to do something. He, she, or it tends to go to the swimming pool. Sole to hear a pistina. Sule to hear a pistina. Very well.

What about we tend to eat gazpacho Solemos Comeer Gaspacho Exactly And well done You remember that

It's no longer Suelo, sule It goes back to So in the Nosotros and Vosotros Form And you remember What Gazpacho is?

No It's a cold tomato-based soup Very nice, very garlicky as well El gazpacho Solemos Comeer Gapacho

Solemos Comer Gaspacho And what about you all tend to read a book? Solais Lear a book. Solese learn a book. Very well. And what about they tend to watch the television?

Suellen be the television. Television. Swellen see the television. The television. So they tend to. So, suelo,

sulees, sulemos, soleis, sulemen, soleis, sullen. Suelo, sulees, solemos, solaise, swelling. 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. Okay, in the text, Maria Jose used the, well, which tension did she use? She said soliamos. She used imperfect.

Of course she did. So let's conjugate this in the imperfect and because of course it's regular in the imperfect, it should be very easy. Very easy. Very facile. So in the imperfect tense, what would the I form be, the yo form? Solia.

Solilla. And the two form? Solias. So you tended to go to the swimming pool. Solias to go to the pistina. Uh-huh. He, she or it tended to go by car. Solia

in coach solia in coach or caro depending on where you are solia in coach we tended to

go to the beach like Maria Jose Soliamos to the playa very soliamos to go to the informal

plural version used in Spain of course you all tended to listen to music. Solieais listen to the music?

If you say listen to listen the music, then you would have to go on and say which music it was. So soliais to listen to the music that me gustav. You tended to listen to the music that I liked. So if you just want to say

you listen to music, solieamos to listen music, music just on its own. Okay. And they tended to write a letter. Solian escribier a card. Very well. Solian

to be honest with Soler it tends just to be used in the present and the imperfect because the chances of you saying something like, I will tend to do such and such in a future life. It's not the most obvious

of situation. So if you know it in the present, and in the imperfect, you can put it together with an infinitive, and it's a much more expressive way of saying that you tended to do something rather than just saying you used to do something, or indeed what you normally do on a particular day or at a particular time. Okay, before we move on, I'm just going to mention a couple of things that Marie-Hose said in relation to the Spanish used in the Canary Islands.

First of all, she mentioned some particular words that are used. For example, Al-Tawuos is not used. it's the Wawa and people say that it's because that's what the sound of the bus makes as it chugs along the road and it's actually used in Cuba as well Wawa is used in parts of

Cuba to talk about the bus she also mentioned the word chaskar and chascar means normally in standard Spanish to eat something very quickly or to gobble it up it also means to click when you're talking about

your tongue chascar Now, it's probably better that you don't use this. You can recognize it if you're in the canaries. But if you say, I want chascar la tortilla, it doesn't really sound as nice as I want to comeer la tortilla or something like that. So just be careful with chascar.

Now, Maria Jose also mentioned some slight differences in usage, for example, with the usage of vosotros, which doesn't really get used at all in the canaries. and instead people say Ustédes, so Ustés Ustés com in pan as opposed to

vosoteos comis pan so in that sense it's very like most places in Latin America and another thing that links it to most places in Latin America is the use of the sound

rather than the th sound for example with grazias in most of mainland Spain and grazias in Canarias so for example

exactly the same as in most parts of Latin America you would say and not in the text, Maria Jose said, in Canarias, no say difficult,

sino difficult. Okay, Mark, that sounds good and I get that. But what does Sino mean? You said, no se dificil, sinno, difficult. Yeah, si no, it's the words yes and no together.

Si, no, so if not that, then that. It's kind of like saying rather or but rather, So that could be translated in the Canary Islands. One doesn't say difficult, but rather difficult. So it's a little word that's used in that kind of situation. You don't do that, but you do do that. So that one little word, Sino, can mean but rather or a more complicated explanation

depending on the actual context. Okay. When Marie-Jose is explaining the fact that speaking a particular type of language, which, whether it's Spanish or English, doesn't necessarily mean that other people in other parts of the world don't understand you. She uses quite a complicated sentence in Spanish. Have a listen to the whole sentence and then we're going to talk about it. But if you estuieres ha'no-on-an-americano, he'd te entenderea. Okay, so there's two verbs in there.

The first is, estubieras-ablando, and the second is, Entenderia. Let's go to the Entenderia first. Kara, can you tell me which tense? Entenderia is. It's the conditional tense. Exactly. The Ia ending,

after the infinitive in this case, or the future stem, Entenderia. It's the infinitive. So, El Té, Entenderia means He will understand you. He will understand you. He would understand you. He would, good, yeah. He would understand you,

would being the conditional and will being the future. Yeah. So he would understand you. Let's go back to the first part of the sentence now. If you're estu-estubieras Ablando con an Americano. So it's got something to do with Al-Qar con an Americano, which would mean just the infinitive of Ablar. To talk

with an American. Yeah, so it's something about to talk with an American, but we're using Estubieras Ablando. And that's the imperfect subjunctive of estar plus the gerent. You remember when we were learning a couple of weeks back, I am doing something at the moment.

For example, I am eating. How would you say I am eating? I'm eating. Very well. I'm coming. How would you say then I am talking? I'm talking. I'm talking.

Let's think about this a little, because if you say, Estoy Ablando, for I am eating, how would you say I was, speaking. I was speaking. I was speaking. Estabba

Ablando. I am speaking. Estoy about I will be speaking. Estre able to be being. Estreya

ablando, yes. So the future tense of estar plus the gerent and I would be speaking becomes Estreya ablando. Excellent.

Estadia ablando. So, You can use the estar plus the gerund in all these different tenses. I'm talking, Estabha-ablan-ablando, estare-a-blando, estaria-a-blando,

or indeed any other thing that you might be doing. So, in this situation, we're saying, si tu estuvieras a bologna con an Americano, and estuieras is a type of imperfect is the imperfect subjunctive that goes along with,

it's matched up with the conditional, And it's quite complicated. It's just the same as if were a rich, Compraria a house. If I were rich, I would buy a house. Exactly. And even in English, we use this slightly strange form, this subjunctive form.

If I were rich, I would buy a house. If you were speaking with an American, he would understand you. If you were talking with an Americano, he'd be entendreya. Can you try saying that whole sentence, Kara? But if you were talking with an Americano,

he'd you understanderia. Exactly. Now, we have covered a couple of really quite complicated things in this lesson, so we're going to leave it there. There will be more explanations of some of the other aspects when we publish the bonus materials

for this lesson. In the meantime, have a listen to the conversation once more, and this time it will be nearer normal speed, and see how much of these points that we've mentioned, you can pick out from the text. Maria Jose, you have visited Tenerife. My friend of Englandra, va to the Christianos the end of the week. Yes, many times. When it was

a young, we always went to Tenerife. My tia had a house in the Christianos, and we used to pass in the month of August with her. And what did you? It was a genial. It was always there was a lot of people and we had many of the Christians. Solioms, we'd go to the playa, we'd in restaurants, and we'd go to the night. There's a volcano there, right?

Yes, it's the attraction touristic more famous of the island of Tendrife. It's called the TID. You know, that in the Canarias, they use a Spanish a little different. Ah, so? Yes, for example, in instead of saying

bus, they're and they're and they're never used in the both others. They're

saying they're for example not it says, you know, you're they're

they're they're and also they're other word to

chaskar Uth is difficult Yes and in canary not it's

difficult but difficult But the Spanish that I'm I'm trying to all the parts of the world, right? Oh,

sure, that's the English. It's like the English that I in London, is distinct to your, and the Americans

are different too. But if you were you were talking with an American, he'd

understanderia, no? And if I know my Spanish in or Madrid or Canaries or Buenos Aires or

Cusco, Me entienten Radiolingua.com