OTHER VERBS THAT ACT LIKE GUSTAR
Do you remember how different GUSTAR was to get used to? In fact, I'm sure you're still getting
used to it, the way that you have to "reverse" your thinking when you deal with it.
ex: I like to play piano. (In Spanish: It pleases me to play piano.)
ex: She likes to listen to rock music. (In Spanish: It pleases her to listen to rock music.)
Written IN Spanish, each of these phrases would be:
(A mí) me gusta tocar el piano.
(A ella) le gusta escuchar la música rock.
These other verbs are easier, because we use some of them the same way in English.
First, one more "strange" one:
ENCANTAR
(A él) le encanta esa actriz. (He really likes that actress.)
(A nosotros) nos encantan las estrellas. (We love the stars.)
(A ellos) les encanta estudiar filosofía. (They love to study philosophy.)
Now, three that act more like our verbs in English:
FASCINAR = to fascinate
ex: ¿Qué te fascina? (What fascinates you?)
ex: Me fascina la historia de Inglaterra. (The history of England fascinates me.)
ex: Esa ciudad nos fascina. (That city fascinates us.)
ex: Les fascinan los nuevos coches deportivos. (The new sports cars fascinate them.)
(See how the sports cars, being PLURAL, make us have to use "fascinan" ...THEY are fascinating...)
MOLESTAR = to bother, to annoy
ex: Me molesta tu actitud. (Your attitude bothers me.)
ex: ¿Cuánto te molesta? (How much does it bother you?)
ex: Los exámenes me molestan mucho. (Exams bother me a lot.)
FALTAR = to be lacking, to be missing
ex: Me falta la fuerza necesaria. (I lack the necessary strength.)
ex: Nos faltan las horas que necesitamos. (We are lacking the hours that we need.)
ex: ¿Qué te falta? (What do you need? literally: What is lacking to you?)
HOW DO I USE INDIRECT- AND DIRECT-OBJECT PRONOUNS TOGETHER?
Direct and Indirect Object Pronouns Used Together
Here are the direct object pronouns and the indirect object pronouns side by side:
DO
Pronouns
IO
Pronouns
English
Equivalent
me
me
me
te
te
you
(familiar)
lo,
la
le
him,
her, it, you (formal)
nos
nos
us
os
os
you-all
(familiar)
los,
las
les
them,
you-all (formal)
When you have both a direct object pronoun and an indirect object pronoun in the same sentence,
the indirect object pronoun comes first.
Ellos me los dan.
They give them to me.
IO pronoun: me
DO pronoun: los
Ella te la vende.
She sells it to you.
IO pronoun: te
DO pronoun: la
Whenever both pronouns begin with the letter "l" change the first pronoun to "se."
le lo = se lo
le la = se la
le los = se los
le las = se las
les lo = se lo
les la = se la
les los = se los
les las = se las
The reason for changing "le lo" to "se lo" is merely to avoid the tongue-twisting effect of two short consecutive words that begin with the letter "l". To demonstrate this, first quickly say "les las" and then quickly say "se las." See how much easier it is to say "se las?"
In negative sentences, the negative word comes directly before the first pronoun.
No se lo tengo.
I don't have it for you.
Nunca se los compro.
I never buy them for her.
Because the pronoun se can have so many meanings, it is often helpful to clarify it by using a
prepositional phrase.
Él se lo dice.
Ambiguous. He tells it to (whom?).
Él se lo dice a Juan.
He tells it to him. (to Juan)
Él se lo dice a María.
He tells it to her. (to María)
Él se lo dice a ella.
He tells it to her.
In sentences with two verbs, there are two options regarding the placement of the pronouns.
Place them immediately before the conjugated verb or attach them directly to the infinitive.
She should explain it to me.
Ella me lo debe explicar.
Ella debe explicármelo.
I want to tell it to you.
Te lo quiero decir.
Quiero decírtelo.
You need to send it to them.
Se la necesitas enviar a ellos.
Necesitas enviársela a ellos.
Note that when attaching the pronouns to the infinitive, a written accent is also added
to the final syllable of the infinitive. This preserves the sound of the infinitive.
When the pronouns are attached to the infinitive, make the sentence negative by placing the
negative word directly before the conjugated verb.
Ella debe explicármelo.
Ella no debe explicármelo.
Quiero decírtelo.
No quiero decírtelo.
Necesitas enviársela a ellos.
No necesitas enviársela a ellos.
When the pronouns come before the conjugated verb, make the sentence negative by
placing the negative word directly before the pronouns.
Ella me lo debe explicar.
Ella no me lo debe explicar.
Te lo quiero decir.
No te lo quiero decir.
Se la necesitas enviar a ellos.
No se la necesitas enviar a ellos.
(courtesy: www.studyspanish.com)
FORMATION OF THE IMPERFECT TENSE
So as not to get too fancy, I call this the "used to do it" form of the verb.
That is, if you can use the phrase "used to" when talking about past actions in
English, you should use this IMPERFECT form of the verb.
Here's the lengthier explanation:
As one of the Spanish's two simple past tenses, the imperfect indicative has a conjugation that is essential to learn. (If you don't know what the terms in this first sentence mean, be sure to read the top two lessons linked to in the box under "Related Resources.") It is the verb form used most often to describe conditions as they existed in the past, to provide background to events, and to describe habitual actions.
As is the case with some of the other conjugation forms, the imperfect indicative forms are made by removing the infinitive ending of the verb (-ar, -er or -ir) and replacing it with an ending that indicates who is performing the action of the verb.
To take one example, the infinitive form of the verb that means "to speak" is hablar. Its infinitive ending is -ar, leaving the stem of habl-. To say "I was speaking," add -aba to the stem, forming hablaba. To say "you were speaking" (singular informal), add -abas to the stem, forming hablabas. Other forms exist for other persons. (Note: In this lesson, the forms "was speaking," "was learning" and so on are used to translate the imperfect indicative. Other translations also could be used, such as "used to speak" or even "spoke." The translation used depends on the context.)
The endings are quite different for verbs that end in -er and -ir, but the principle is the same. Remove the infinitive ending, then add the appropriate ending to the remaining stem.
The following chart shows the conjugations for each of the three infinitive types. The added endings for each verb are indicated in boldface.
hablar (to speak)
aprender (to learn)
escribir (to live)
yo (I)
hablaba (I was speaking)
aprendía (I was learning)
escribía (I was writing)
tú (you, singular informal)
hablabas (you were speaking)
aprendías (you were learning)
escribías (you were writing)
él (he), ella (she), usted (you, singular formal)
hablaba (he was speaking, she was speaking, you were speaking)
aprendía (he was learning, she was learning, you were learning)
escribía (he was writing, she was writing, you were writing)
nosotros, nosotros (we)
hablábamos (we were speaking)
aprendíamos (we were learning)
escribíamos (we were writing)
vosotros, vosotras (you, plural informal)
hablabais (you were speaking)
aprendíais (you were learning)
escribíais (you were writing)
ellos (they), ellas (they), ustedes (you, plural, formal)
hablaban (they were speaking)
aprendían (they were learning, you were learning)
escribían (they were writing, you were writing)
As you may notice, the -er and -ir verbs follow the same pattern in the imperfect indicative. Also, the first- and third-person singular forms (the "I" and "he/she/it/you" forms) are the same. Thus hablaba could mean "I was speaking," "he was speaking," "she was speaking," "it was speaking" or "you were speaking." If the context doesn't otherwise indicate, a pronoun or subject noun is used before the verb in such cases to indicate who is performing the action.
Note also that the conjugations above are for verbs that follow the regular conjugation. Fortunately, very few verbs are irregular in this tense.
(courtesy:spanish.about.com)
Luckily, there are only THREE irregular verbs in the whole IMPERFECT tense:
SER
era
eras
era
éramos
erais
eran
IR
iba
ibas
iba
íbamos
ibais
iban
VER
veía
veías
veía
veíamos
veíais
veían