Spanish verbs: conjugations, moods and tenses

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There are three types of conjugations in Spanish and we recognised them looking at the  infinitive ending:
1st conjugation: -ar     Examples: comprar, bajar, limpiar, trabajar….
2nd conjugation: -er    Examples: aprender, beber, correr, vender….
3rd conjugation: -ir      Examples: recibir, abrir, subir, vivir, repartir….
When we want to conjugate a verb in any of  its  tenses  we take the conjugation ending (ar,er,ir) and we add to the “root” of the verb the corresponding ending of the person doing the verb action.
There are three persons for the singular and three persons for the plural:

Singular
I – Yo
You – Tú
He – Él, She – Ella. There is no “it” in Spanish, you refer to things in masculine or feminine.
Plural
We – Nosotros, nosotras
You – Vosotros, vosotras
They – Ellos, ellas.

It’s very important to know the endings of the verbs because most of the time we omit  the subject pronom in Spanish so, by knowing the endings, you will be able to tell what person is doing the action and in what tense is the action taking place (present, past, future).

Depending on the attitude of the person doing the action, the Spanish verbs are structured in different moods. The most common one is the Indicative, but there are three more subjunctive, conditional and imperative.

Spanish Verb tenses:
INDICATIVE MOOD

Simple tenses

Present –  Present simple
Imperfect – Pretérito imperfecto.
Preterit – Pretérito perfecto simple o indefinido.
Future –  Futuro.
Conditional – Condicional.
Compound tenses

Present perfect – Pretérito perfecto compuesto.
Pluperfect – Pretérito pluscuamperfecto.
Preterit Perfect – Pretérito anterior.
Future Perfect – Futuro perfecto.
Conditional Perfect – Condicional compuesto.
SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD

Simple tenses
Present – Present simple.
Imperfect – Pretérito imperfecto.
Compound tenses
Present perfect – Pretérito perfecto compuesto.
Pluperfect – Pretérito pluscuamperfecto.

1,2,3 vamos a contar!

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Numbers are part of our everyday life so it´s good to learn them. On this post I added a little song that will help you to get the right pronunciation. Get on counting everybody! 🙂

1   uno

2   dos

3  tres

4  cuatro

5  cinco

6  seis

7  siete

8  ocho

9  nueve

10 diez


Different ways of greeting people

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“Hello” is  one the first word you need to learn in Spanish, if you don’t already know it :  Hola. It’s the most common word for greeting your friends.

There are other greetings  you might want to learn.  Use them depending on the time of the day:

Buenos días (Good morning. Have a good day)

Buenas tardes (Good afternoon)

Buenas noches  (You say Buenas noches in the evening and at bedtime)

 

If you want to greet someone and ask how they are then you say:

Hola,  ¿ cómo estás ?  (Hello, how are you?)

Muy bien, gracias. (Very well, thanks!)    ¡No muy bien! (This means that things aren´t too good).

If you want to say “Goodbye” then you say Adiós.

You can also say  Hasta luego  if you want to say “See you again”.

At the restaurant

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There are some common situations such as getting around the airport, ordering a lunch menu at a restaurant or shopping at the supermarket where you might find  handy to learn very basic Spanish vocabulary or  standard  conversation.

In this section I want to  give you some tips. I hope you find them useful!

 

At the restaurant.

These are some of the most popular dishes you would find in a  Spanish bar-restaurant menu:

Tapas:

  • Patatas bravas (Deep fried potatoes topped with a spicy red chilli  and tomato sauce)
  • Boquerones (Anchovy fillets marinated in a seasoned olive oil dressing)
  • Mejillones a la Marinera (Steamed green lip mussels in a cream, white wine, lemon and garlic sauce)
  • Pan de Ajo (V,  Homemade garlic bread slices)
  • Tortilla Espanola (V, Traditional Spanish omelette filled with potatoes, peppers and onion)

Primer Plato:

  • Ensalada con tomate (tomato salad)
  • Sopa de ajo con bacon (garlic soup with bacon)
  • Ensalada de lechuga y cebolla (lettuce and onion salad)
  • Aceitunas (Olives)

Segundo Plato:

  • Pollo con verduras ( Chicken with vegetables)
  • Pollo con patatas fritas y huevo frito ( Chicken with chips and a fried egg)
  • Macarrones con salsa de tomate y ternera ( Pasta with beef on tomato sauce)
Postres (Puddings):
  • Arroz con Leche  (Rice Pudding w/Crackle Glaze)
  • Tarta de Chocolates (Chocolate cake)
  • Tarta de Santiago  (Traditional Almond Cake that the pilgrims received on their journey to Santiago de Compostela)
  • Crema catalana (The original “Crème Brûlèe,” a creamy-style Custard topped with caramelized sugar)
  • Churros con chocolate (Sweet Spanish Fritters with thick Spanish Hot Chocolate).
  • Fruta fresca (Fresh fruit)
  • Yogur (Youghurt)
Bebidas (Drinks):
  • Agua (water)
  • Cerveza (beer)
  • Vino (Wine): Blanco (White), Tinto (Red), Rosado (Rosé)
  •  Zumo de piña o naranja ( Pinapple or orange juice)

If you speak very basic Spanish you may want to have a look at the following conversation example:

Customer: ¡Oiga camarero! Me pordría traer el menú, por favor! (Waiter, could you please bring me the menu)
Camarero: Ahora mismo ( Rigth now)  ¿Qué van a tomar? (What would you like to eat?)
Customer: De primer plato, sopa de ajo con bacon y de segundo, pescado con patatas ( I would like garlic and bacon soup for first dish and fish with chips as second dish).
Camarero: ¿Qué va a beber? ( Anything to drink? )
Customer:  Una cerveza, por favor. ( A beer, please!)
Customer: ¿Me podría traer la cuenta?
Camarero: Son 50 euros (It´s 50 euros)
Customer: ¿ Puedo pagar con tarjeta? ( Can I pay by card?)
Camarero: Por supuesto….. Introduzca su número PIN. ( Of course. Could you type you PIN number?)  Aquí tine su recibo. Muchas gracias por su visita. ( This is your ticket. Thanks!)

It´s a very basic one but it´ll help you with your order.

After reading the conversation translation you might  realize that is very hard to translate a sentence “word by word”. It´s almost impossible most of the time, but don´t worry because if you practice long enough you get used to the Spanish expressions.
Don´t hesitate to post any comments or doubts you might have. I´ll be happy to help!

Las Fallas de Valencia.

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One of the craziest, noisiest and most entertaining celebrations you could witness in Spain is “Las Fallas”. This Valencian celebration that praises Saint Joseph is very popular for its big street monuments made out of paper, wax, wood and styrofoam. The height of the falla statues might vary, some can be up to five stories high but  they all try to make fun of our society recreating all sorts of popular figures like politicians, actors, footballers… A falla is just a parody of our everyday reality.


Each city neighbourhood has its own “club” called “Casal Faller” and its members work hard during the whole year to create la falla that eventually is burnt on a bonfire on the 19th of March, St. Joseph day.


The Fallas usually last for 5 days and during those days Valencia is an enormous street party.

From very early in the morning, the falleros, those are the members of the “casal faller”, and their local wind band go on the street throwing firecrackers and playing popular songs to wake up all the neighbours. After they all go to the “casal” for a popular breakfast made out of hot chocolate, buñuelos and other traditional food.

Around lunch time, at the main square, takes place “la mascleta”. This is the noisiest and craziest part of the whole celebration. At the mascleta an unbelievable amount of fireworks are fired and the noise and the smoke is just incredible. It feels like you are in the middle of a war fire but everybody is there in expectation, enjoying it , waiting for the big cheer at the end of the mascleta.

On the afternoon of the  16th and 17th of March the “falleros and fallelas” wearing their popular costumes walk on a music parade to bring flowers to the cathedral where a big Virgin momument is build up out on the street.

And if you thought the party was over wait for the evening, there are more firework displays, more music festivals…. the party goes on until very late hours.


On the night of the 19th the fallas are burnt and after a few days the normality comes back to the city. It’s time to relax from the big celebration days but it’s also time  to get ready for the next year. The falleros don’t waste anytime and soon after the fallas they get on again.