Lección 58: Repaso del Pasado (Preterito) y Conversación con el jardinero (Conversation with the gardener)

Today we continue review of the preterite. It enables you to discuss activities that occurred in the past. It translate to phrases like I ate, I walked, I did, I slept. You get the idea.

Here are the endings for  regular -ar verbs:  -é / -aste / -ó  / -amos / -aron
Here are the endings for regular -er and -ir verbs:  -í / -iste / -ió  / -imos / -ieron
Examples:
hablé / hablaste / habló / hablamos / hablaron
comí / comiste / comió / comimos / comieron
viví / viviste / vivió / vivimos / vivieron

Keep in Mind:

1. of all the past tenses, the preterite is the most used. The yo and él/ella/Usted forms have an accent on the last syllable. This feature distinguishes the preterite frion most other tenses.
2. the -o ending moves from 1st person singular (Yo) in the present tense (hablo, I speak) to 3rd person singular in the preterite (plus the accent; él/ella/Usted), eg. habló (he/she/you formal spoke)
3. The first person plural (Nosotros form) past tense is exactly the same as the present tense for -ar and -ir verbs    e.g.  hablamos  (we speak or we spoke)  and vivimos (we live or we lived). The true meaning is determined via context.   -er verbs do change slightly (comemos - we eat; comimos (we ate) Just a simple vowel change.

Optional: Diálogo / Dialogue

See if you can figure out this exchange I had the other day with the gardener, all via SMS texts.

Me: Hola Sotero. Es Armando Oliva. ¿Tienes tiempo este fín de semana para limpiar las palmas? Son tres, ya que la palma real se puso demasiado grande y la cortamos.

Gardener:  Hola. Puedo ir el domingo después de medio día.

Me:  ¡Gracias! Nos vemos el domingo entonces. La basura se la llevan el lunes.

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Translation:

Me: Hi Sotero. It's Armando Oliva. Do you have time this weekend to clean (i.e. trim) the palms? They are three, since the royal palm became too big and we cut it down.

Gardener: Hi I can come Sunday after mid-day (noon).

Me: Thank you. We see each other then. The trash (i.e. clippings) are taken away (hauled away, removed) on Monday.

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This mini-dialogue taking place no more than a minute is so full of learning points:

Notice there are no Subject pronouns (Yo, tú, ella), since the verb endings give that away.

Present tense:   tienes (do you have); puedo venir (I can come); nos vemos (we see one another), llevan (they take away, remove)

Past tense (preterite):  se puso (from ponerse, to become) it became; la cortamos (we cut it down)

Reflexive / Passive:  se puso (it became): se la llevan (they take it away)

Regarding the use of the expression "ya que" (since): The word "since" in English has two uses....it can be used to describe a time interval of an action (He's been hanging around since yesterday) and also used to describe a reason for something (He ate his food very quickly since he hadn't eaten all day).  Surprise:  Spanish use two different words to separate out these two meanings. The first meaning, we use "desde"  (él está por aquí desde ayer)  and the second meaning is "ya que" (El se comió la comida bien rapido ya que no habia comido el día entero; He ate his food very quickly, since he hadn't eaten all day)

Regarding the use of the word "demasiado (too much)" When describing quantities of something, there is a simple scale:

nada/ poquito/poco / suficiente / mucho / bastante / demasiado
nothing/ a little bit/a bit / enough /a lot / more than enough / too much

Time permitting, we'll discuss the 2nd episode of our telenovela: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7xaSjfO1LU&t=958s