Transcription
In this video, I'm going to be talking a lot about the imperfect and the predate. Those are our big um tenses in the past that work together. And you're always like, "Okay, is it fue or is it a?" That's what I'm going to talk about today. And I'm going to put it more in the context of something useful for you.
You know, you're going to reach a point at your Spanish may already be there where you're just going to have conversations with people. And I don't mean like, you know, hey, it's nice weather. Hey, is this where the line starts? I mean, real conversations. You're going to be talking about things you used to do, sharing some of your experiences, listening to their experiences. Those are some of the most rewarding, um, conversations I've ever had living in Mexico.
Um, there was one time I, you know, went by a little cantina. It was about to close. It was near the hotel we were staying at in central Mexico. And, you know, they're about to put up the chairs and I'm like, "Hey, you know, can we get get one more drink?" The guy's like, "Yeah, yeah." And then we ended up spending I don't know hours just talking about everything and it was fantastic experience.
Well, to be able to have those types of conversations, you have to be able to segue into storytelling and you know, smoothly and not have to overthink it. And that's what I'm going to kind of talk about today. I'm going to give you some tips and tricks to get you to do that.
So, the first thing I'm going to do is talk about the predate and the imperfect for folks who aren't really sure um which one they should use just going into this thing. The predate we use for things that are seen as being completed in the past at that point in the story. Now, a lot of people are like, "Okay, everything's completed in the past, Paul. We're talking about the past." No. Listen carefully. Scene is being completed at that point in the story. A lot of times, our English is going to be our indication here. Um, Juan went to the store. Juan at the end. See, it's fue. That's an imperative. It's not. It's clear, right? Even in English, he went to the store. Not he was going to the store. Listen to your English. It'll help you.
Now, the imperfect on the other hand is for things that are seen as going on in the past at that point in the story, not with a clear, you know, beginning or end. This is how we're going to set our background. We're going to talk about habitual actions. And this is how we're going to segue into most of our stories because we're going to say something like when I was young. And that's setting the background for the story. So it's ongoing. So we're already imperfect. When I was young. Now you might want to stick yo in there. Just giving you the tip right now. I know in a lot of these videos, other people's videos and Spanish books, they're like, "Hey, you can always leave off yo because it's always clear from the verb conjugation who you're talking about, so it doesn't need to be there." It is not clear in the imperfect. Let's go ahead and look at this verb said in the imperfect. Look up there. First person where yo is. Now look at the third person where he, she, it all of it is. They're the same. So it's not clear just from the verb conjugation. So it's a good idea at least in the beginning to say yoander when I was young when I was a child something like that and then after that you can drop it if it's very clear we're talking about you now.
Instead of just giving you a bunch of general tips on how to use the imperfect and predate and after a while that's all I'm getting Paul I'm getting nothing out of this let's actually go through like you know I'm telling a story to someone and line by line, we're going to decide if imperfect or predate sounds best. And I think you're going to get a good feel for it by the end of this.
When I was young, I used to work on my grandfather's farm during the summer. Right there in front is what we just talked about when I was young. Right? Setting the stage. Imperfect. Guando join. I used to work on my grandfather's farm during the summer. Predate. Imperfect. Imperfect. We're still setting that background or you could say if you're saying like every summer imperfect imperfect why didn't I put yo in front of because this is all just one sentence. It's clear I'm talking about me now.
Or I used to get up early every day, have a quick breakfast, usually just bread and coffee and of course coffee is always going to be in my breakfast. Um, somebody was joking in my private learning group, the Curu Spanish Crew the other day, um, asking if I was sponsored by Big Coffee since I always have coffee in my videos. and I said, "No, but um a coffee sponsor would be great. So, if you have a coffee company and would like me to talk about your coffee, reach out to me."
All right. So, back to this. I used to get up early every day, predate or imperfect. Imperfect, right? Customary habitual action in the past. Now, this next part, this is going to be a little tricky. Before the sun came up. And there's some different ways to say dawn, things like that, but we're going to say like the sun came up. A very popular one is to use the verb sal and to say the sun left. And that's what we're going to do here. But what tense? And it's not going to be predate or imperfect. And I know you're probably like, Paul, the whole point of this was predator imperfect. Yeah, I know. I know. This one is actually going to be in the imperfect subjunctive. And the subjunctive is a mood in Spanish. And the easiest way to explain it is just think of it as a different set of conjugations that are triggered by certain grammatical constructions. And this is one of them. De plus subjunctive. It's the easiest way to learn it. Reduce the Spanish language to a series of patterns that you can learn quickly. You know, put together in different orders and say what you want. So right here, that's our pattern. Antist plus imperfect subjunctive. So, I'm just going to give it to you. If you don't know anything about the subjunctive, I have an entire playlist about it. Um, you can go binge watch that after this video.
This next part, have a quick breakfast. Um, doesn't translate perfectly into English. It's hard to do word for word translation. So, I tell people don't even try. You look for something that's going to have a similar um meaning. So, we're just going to use to eat breakfast. We're just going to say like without conjugate. I'm not trying to give you the answer. We're going to rapido like to eat something quick for breakfast. You also see in the predominant form in Latin America. You won't see that in Spain. We're just going to use the non-pronomomenal form. A lot of grammatical terms there, folks. Don't let that scare you. What's the whole point here? Is it going to be in the predate or is it going to be the imperfect? The imperfect. We're still setting that background, right? Rapido. And our last part, um, usually bread and coffee. You could say something like panic cafe ore, panic cafe, normal, pani cafe. Those all work.
Then I would walk out into the field where my grandfather was already waiting for me with a mental list of things to do. We have a few verbs going on there, but are we still setting our background? Yes. So, predate or imperfect? and perfect logo. Then I'd walk out to the field. You could have yo there if you need to, but so far I'm the only person in the story. Now grandpa's gonna pop in.
We used to spend the mornings feeding the animals or fixing things here and there. What are we talking about? Something that ended right there in the past? No. Imperfect. Still talking about the imperfect. OS. In the afternoons when it was hot, we would try to work in the shade as much as possible. But there wasn't much shade. What do we got going on here? Wherever the verb is in here, is it going to be imperfect or predate? Are we deviating from that? No. All imperfect.
All right. One day while we were fixing an old fence, one of the horses got loose already. Your English sounds different, right? Okay, we set our background now. Something's happening. Let's look at this. One day, while we were fixing an old fence, h ongoing in the past, setting the background still. Yes. Imperfect oro, whatever you like. One of the horses got loose. We're going to use like salt there. That's pretty easy. But is in the imperfect or in the predate. Predate. Your English helped you with this, didn't it? One of the horses got loose. Not was getting loose. Used to get loose. This happened right there. We're having to change our story right now. And from this point on, it's going to be a lot more of predator and imperfect kind of working together and present tense.
My grandfather shouted at me, "Grab it before it gets to the road." So my grandfather shouted at me predate imperfect predate. Grab it before it gets to the road. What do we got going on there? Well, we have the imperative the command form grab it. I think we talked about ant as being a subjunctive trigger. Correct? So, the verb that follows it has to be in the subjunctive. And since this line, this quote is in the present tense. It's in the present subjunctive alamino.
Without thinking, I dropped the tools and ran after the horse. Without thinking or simplo like without thinking about it. And we're not even conjugating that one. And that's because when we have a preposition or prepositional phrase and this is a preposition seen without, we just drop in infinitives. Even though the English has an ing ending without thinking, right? In Spanish, it's just infinitives after prepositions, prepositional phrases. It's a pattern, folks. That's what I teach. I teach patterns. It's easy to remember that way. I dropped the tools and ran after the horse. Imperfect a predate predate, right?
I wasn't very fast, but luckily the horse wasn't in a big hurry either. What do we got going? I wasn't very fast. H imperfect predate imperfect. He's not very fast at that point in the story. Rapido and we put Joe, right? Yo, sometimes it's pronounced like yo or Joe and in the southern cone show. You just got to get used to that. I wasn't very fast, but luckily pero should be on your word list. It's fantastic. Comes up all the time in Spanish, you know. Luckily, because of luck. The horse was not in a big hurry either. Imperfect predate. Imperfect. Right, this is kind of going on. That's explaining this at this point in the story. That's in the imperfect.
So after a few minutes, I managed to calm it down. Predate or imperfect predate, right? I managed to calm it down. Even in English, not I was managing to calm it down. I managed to calm it down. Boom. It's done. Log calm marlo means to uh manage to do something to achieve it. It's a fantastic uh little sentence starter or phrase starter here. And most of the time you're going to have it in the predator when you're talking about in the past. You're just going to drop in infinitives after it. And I led him back. Predator imperfect predate regresso.
My grandfather didn't say anything, but when I finished, he looked at me, smiled, and handed me a cold soda. We have several verbs going on in there, right? My grandfather didn't say anything. Predator imperfect. Predate. But when I finished predator imperfect predate, he looked at me. Predator imperfect. Predate me. He smiled. Predate sonio. And you might be noticing the pattern. Predator. Predator. Predator. Predate. We got one more to go. And he gave me a cold soda. Predate. Right. You got it. Frio. You've got this.
Wow. Last line. Let's wrap this up with to me like for me. That was worth more than a thousand words. ESO. That was worth. We're going to use the verb here is baler, right? B A L E R. And where are we going to go with this? You know, you could go really either way, but since we're in the storytelling and at that moment this happened and it was worth it to him, he's feeling that emotional connection. It's ongoing at that point still in the story, I'd probably go imperfect here, but I could see it possibly going the other way.
Now, most of the time when you're using the imperfect and predate, it's going to be clear-cut which one fits. It's not going to be an option. And you saw that through the story, right? It's very clear-cut, clearcut, clearcut. But sometimes there's nuances, you know, and you know, as you become more familiar with the language, well, then um you'll start to get those nuances and use them correctly. I mean, that's the goal anyway, right?
Well, I hope you really enjoyed the video and got something out of it. And if you did, just do me a favor and give it a whole thumbs up there. Don't forget. And u if you're not a subscriber, why not subscribe, right? Just uh passed 200,000 subscribers, so there might be something cool on the channel. I mean, 200,000 people thought so. So you might want to, you know, check it out. Anyway, I'm out of coffee, so that's it for the video. Until next time.