Hola lessons

Lesson 33 Spanish prepositions

2014-05-06T03:26:00.001-07:00

The Spanish prepositions works almost in the same way than the English prepositions do, so you just have to learn them and of course use them.

Here we go:

A (by, at, to) ex: voy A tu casa (I'm going to your home), vamos en coche (we are going by car)
ANTE ,antes de, (before, in the face of) ex: antes de ir te llamaré (Before I go, I'll call you)
BAJO (under) ex: los apuntes están bajo los libros (the notes are under the books)
CON (with)
CONTRA (against) ex: no estoy contra nadie (I'm not against anyone)
DE (of, from, possession) ex: no soy de aquí (I'm not from here), está hecho de madera (is made of wood)
DESDE (since)
DURANTE (during)
EN (in) ex: las llaves del coche están en el cajón (car keys are in the drawer)
ENTRE (between)
HACIA (Toward) ex: va hacia tu casa (he/she goes towards your home)
HASTA (until) ex: he llegado hasta el final (I have come until the end)
PARA (for) have a look on lesson 28 here
POR (for) have a look on lesson 28 here
SEGÚN (acording to)
SIN (without)
SOBRE (over, about) ex: hablan sobre los conflictos actuales (they talk about current conflicts)
TRAS (After, behind) ex: lloraban tras su muerte (they cried after his death)

Lesson 32 how to use umlauts

2013-12-29T04:28:00.002-08:00

The spanish umlaut : (diéresis) is used just to change the sound of some words with "gu" followed by the vowels"e" and "i" , Let's see it:

Agua (water) click here and listen to me
Guerrero (warrior)
Guirnalda (wreath)
Guapo (handsome)
Pingüino (penguin)
Antigüedad (Antique)

Well, when gu is followed by the vowels a,o, the vowel u always sounds but if "gu" is followed by "e" and "i" the vowel u can sound if we use the "diéresi" but if we do not put the "diéresi" the vowel u does not sound

More words with diérisis:

click here and listen to me

Paragüero (umbrela stand)
Cigüeña (stork)
Ambigüedad (ambiguity)
Bilingüismo (bilingualism)
vergüenza (shame)
desagüe (drain)

LESSON 31 Llevar versus Traer

2013-10-18T04:22:00.004-07:00

Llevar and traer are two verbs that if we translate them into English, both would mean to bring, yes yes both mean the same!!!. but there is a difference, we use Llevar when we are going to bring something from we are right now to another place and we use traer when we are going to bring something from another place to the place that we are right now.

Let's see some examples:

Mañana es el aniversario de Ana y le llevaré un regalo
(tomorrow is the Ana's birthday and I'll bring her a present)

Vienes a la fiesta de Ana? traes algo?
(Are you coming to the Ana's party? do you bring something?)

Trae el coche que te lo necesito
(bring the car because I need it)

te llevaré el coche mañana
(I'll bring it tomorrow)

Vocabulari:
Regalo: gift/present

All the forms of verbs llevar and traer will be uploaded very soon on the verbs list here: verbs list

LESSON 28 when to use por or para

2013-07-21T04:09:00.003-07:00

In this lesson we are going to see when we must use the words POR or PARA with some examples that are going to make it understandable:

---we will use the word "PARA" when:

---we are looking for a target:

My boss: "lo quiero PARA mañana!!" (I want it for tomorrow)
Me: "no te preocupes lo tendré hecho PARA las tres" (do not worry I'll have done it at three)

---Shows a direction:

Voy PARA tu casa ( I go to your house)
Vienen PARA quedarse (they are coming for staying)(well this also shows a target)

---Shows an opinion:

PARA mi está bien(for me is ok)
PARA él no es lo más importante(for him is not the most important)

---we use the word "POR" when:

---shows where we are doing something:

Estamos caminando POR la playa(We are walking on the beach)
está subiendo POR las escaleras(is going up the stairs)

---Shows a distribution:

Vale 100 dólares POR cada uno (It cost 100 dólares each one)
Hay que dividirlo POR dos( we must divide by two)

---Is also used as "pick up"

Vengo a POR ti (I go to pick you up)

---shows the way of tranfer something:

Mándalo POR correo (send it by mail)
envíalo POR carta (send it in a letter)

LESSON 30 SABER Y CONOCER

2013-03-24T06:21:00.002-07:00

Do you know what the verbs saber and conocer means? well both means to know but we use them in a different way, we use the verb conocer when you know a person or a place and the verb saber when you know information or you know how to do something.

PRESENT

Click here and listen to me

Yo...................................sé................conozco
Tú....................................sabes..........conoces
El.....................................sabe...........conoce
nosotros/as.......................sabemos.....conocemos
Vosotros/as......................sabéis.........conocéis
Ellos/as............................saben...........conocen

Let's go to see some examples

Click here and listen to me

yo sé la lección...........I know the lesson (Information so we use the verbo saber)
el sabe mi nombre......he knows my name (Information so we use the verbo saber)
Conozco a tu amigo...I know your friend (to know a person so we use the verbo conocer)
ella sabe conducir muy bien.....she.knows how to drive very well (how to do something so verbo saber)
ellos conocen la lección pero no la saben......they know the lesson but they do not know it...(here they know the lesson which they should memorize but they do not memorizet yet)

Sabes qué hora es?......do you know what time is it?
Ha sido un placer conocerte.....Has been a pleasure to meet you
conozco algún detalle pero no los sé en profundidad.....I know some detail but do not know in depth
no sabe cómo lo hago.....he/she does not know how I do it
saben cocinar muy bien...They know how to cook very well

LESSON 29 acentuación

2013-02-09T06:46:00.000-08:00

As you know the words are formed by sillables, and each word has and strong one, listen to these audio file to see what i am talking about:

pa-TA-ta (potato)
ca-miÓN (truck)
se-MÁ-fo-ro (traffic light) click here and listen to these words
di-FÍ-cil (difficult)
va-GÓN (wagon)

well as you can see some of those words are marked with a(´) and I am sure that you are asking yourself why some of those words are marked and some are not?? let's go to see it:

There are three kind of words, the words where the strong sillable is the last one like camión, vagón...which are called "palabras agudas", the words where the strong sillable is second to last like: difícil,patata..which are called "palabras llanas"and the words where the strong sillable is the third to last like: semáforo which are called "palabra esdrújula" (esdrújula is a palabra esdrújula it self: es-drú-ju-la)

Let' start with the easy one: all the esdrújulas words must be marked on the vowel of the strong sillable!!!
the agudas words must be marked when the word ends in N, S or a VOWEL
the llanas words must be marked when always if the word ens with a consonant and consonant+S(bíceps(bicps))

There is another kind of words, like when we make the conditional ex: caminaría(ca-mi-na-rí-a) that is llana and ens with a vowel but we also marked it to show that when we tallk we split the last sillable(we call at this exeption"diptongo"

LESSON 28 when to use POR or PARA

2013-01-18T08:07:00.002-08:00

LESSON 27 Pretérito pluscuamperfecto

2013-01-05T09:32:00.001-08:00

I am sure that when you have read the head of this post you may have said pluscuamwhat????....well is easier that you think, and in a few minutes or maybe less you are going to say: "I already had read the post head and for a while I thought I would not undertand it but after have read just the begining I already had undrestood!!"

Did you see something odd?? yes i marked something in yellow, and what i have marked is the pretérito pluscuamperfecto.

The pretérito pluscuamperfecto show us that in a specific point of the past we have done something.
In English we use the verb to have in past form and the participle of the action that we have done, in spanish we use the verb Haber in a pretérito imperfecto and the participle of the action (I do not like teach like that is better the firs part)

pretérito imperfecto verbo haber:

yo................había
tú.................habías
él.................había
nosotros.......habíamos
vosotros.......habíais ( i'll put all forms of the verb haber very soon on verb's list)
ellos.............habían

Well now we now the imperfecto of verb Haver now just we have to add the participle:

ya lo había hecho..........................I already had done
nosotros habíamos comido........... we had eaten
ellos habían venido........................they had come

Lesson 26 verbo Deber

2012-11-25T05:31:00.001-08:00

The verb Deber as a noun can be translated as a duty, obligation, ought, task...but as a verb means must, should, shall, owe.....

as a noun:
mi deber es explicar bien las lecciones......my duty is to explain well the lessons

as a verb:

Present:

yo debo.............................I should, must, owe
tú debes............................you should...
el/ella debe........................he/she should
nosotros debemos.............we should
vosotros debeis.................you should
ellos deben.......................they should

Building a sentence: person(I,you...)+deber+verb infinitive

yo debo venir................I must/should come

In english, the verb should is used a lot with the verb to have and in spanish language we use the verb haber but with the verb deber in conditional let's go to see it:

deber in conditional+haver(infinitive)+verb(participle)

deberías haber llegado pronto..........you should have arrived soon
deberíamos haber comprado más....we should have bought more

making a conditional click here:
making the participle click here
the verb haber click here

Lesson 25 creating adverbs

2012-11-16T11:21:00.001-08:00

What is an adverb?

An adverb is a word that we add to describe how is something or someone doing the action, is just a kind of describtion of the verb that it is following, there are adverbs of place like aquí(here) allí(there), adverbs of time like: más tarde(later).después(after).... but in this lesson we are going to talk about advebs made from adjectives, lets go to learn how:

There are some adverbs that you can create them from a adjective like bad(badly), friend(friendly), well as you can see in English language we can create them just adding "ly", in spanish language is the same but we add the letters "mente" ex:

Feliz (happy)..........felizmente(happily)
Cansado(tired).....cansadamente(wearily)
nuevo(new)..........nuevamente(newly)
lento(slow)...........lentAmente(slowly)
pesado(heavy).....pesadAmente(heavily)

Did you see something weird?? wes!! you are right we make the adverbs adding "mente" always from the female word like the two last adverbs lento and pesado, I do not why but is just like that(you know languages)

We have also adverbs with a preposition, you can have a look on vocavulary list block 2 here

Lesson 24 The imperfect tense

2012-11-05T02:50:00.001-08:00

In Spanish, the imperfect, along with the preterit, is used to talk about past actions as we have seen on lesson 13 here, well the imperfect is used to talk about actions that do not have a clear begining and end.

Cuando era joven yo Iba a la playa..............When I was young I would go to the beach

caminábamos por el malecón...... .................We used to walk along the boardwalk

-The imperfect of verbs that finish with -ar

Luckily, the imperfect has hardly any irregular forms, with these verbs just drop the-ar and add-aba, -abas, - ábamos, -abais, -aban ex:

from cantar: yo cantaba, tu cantabas, el cantaba, nosotros cantábamos, vosotros cantabais, ellos cantaban.

-The imperfect of verbs that finish with -er and -ir drop the er or ir and add -ía, -ías, -ía, -íamos, -íais, -ían ex: from verb comer and decir ( to eat, to say): yo comía, tu comías, el decía, nosotros decíamos, ellos comían.

ex: el lunes te decía lo mismo.............On monday I said the same
cuando era pequeño me lo comía todo....when I was young i ate all
leía todas las cartas.................................I read all the letters.

LESSON 23 conditional/pretérito imperfecto

2012-10-07T03:29:00.001-07:00

When we make the conditional in English we just use the word if and the verb in past form ex: if I was... well the structure in spanish language is similar, we use the word "si" instead of word "if" and instead of verb in past form we use the verb in pretérito imperfecto de subjuntivo. What is that?? well is a verbal time that does not exist in english so you just have to learn, here there is a good site with all spanish verbal times , have a look at pretérito imperfecto de modo subjuntivo and lets start to build conditionals:

At first check out on this site the pretérito imperfecto de modo subjuntivo: http://www.verbolog.com/conjuga.htm and also read the lesson 16

If I had money......si tuviera dinero......
If I was a child.....si fuera niño.......
If you were here...si estuvueras aquí.....

I'm sorry but the only way is learn the verbal time but try with the most important tener, hacer,poder...
Now, and after had read the lesson 16 here lesson 16 you are able to build a full conditional tense:

If I had money I would buy a car.....si tuviera dinero compraría un coche
If I was a child I would be playing....si fuera niño estaría jugando
If you were here I would be happy...si estuvieras aquí estaría feliz

Structure: "si + verb in pretérito imperfecto de subjuntivo + (verb conditioned(as we saw in lesson 16))
here there are some examples of pretérito imperfecto de subjuntivo here

Comer=to eat comiera=from comer but pretérito imperfecto de subjuntivo. Estaría=from verb estar but conditioned as we saw in lesson 16.

"si yo comiera no estaría tan delgado" ..."If I ate i would not be that thin"

REALLY IMPORTANT: do not translate just keep the idea, the pretérito imperfecto de subjuntivo does not exist in english!!!
WSCBJF2SY7AK

LESSON 22 the verbo HABER

2012-09-12T11:02:00.003-07:00

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The verbo Haber is really important because we use it to build compound times, is an auxiliary verb and is important to know it.The verb Haver shows to us exactly the point when the actions happens, happened or will happen even the in conditional, I know that sounds a bit estrange, lets go to see some examples:

Ex1: today is 12 of september and tomorrow i will be in Barcelona,

el 13 de septiembre habré estado en Barcelona(on 13 i will have been in Barcelona)
Well as you can see at the sentence above we are speaking about something that will be done in the future from the present, we must put the verb Haber in future and the participle of verb of the action that will happen.
Yo habré....comido--------------------I will have eaten
Tu habrás...comido--------------------you will have been eaten
El/ella habrá......comido----------------he /she will have eaten
Nosotros habremos......ido------------we will have gone
vosotros habréis...........ido------------you will have gone
ellos habrán..................ido------------they have gone

person(yo,tu,el...)+haber in future+participle of action, to see how to do the participle of a verb have a look at lesson 21.

Ex2: Now imagin that we are in a place where we alredy have been there:

aquí yo ya había estado(here I alredy had been) this form is called pretérito pluscuamperfecto and show to us that it happened in the past and you have alredy done it
Yo había+verb in participle
tu habías "
el/ella había "
nos. habíamos "
vos. habíais "
ellos/ellas habían "

Ex3 we can also use it in a conditional form

si tuviera dinero lo habría comprado(if i had money i would have bought)
yo habría+verb in participle
tu habrías "
el/ella habría "
nos.habríamos "
vos habríais "
ellos/ellas habrían "

Well they are just the most useful forms there are more but i think is enought for the moment just try to quue the idea and in the futere i'll write more about it(come on i know is not esay but you are just starting!!)

LESSON 21 pretérito perfecto

2012-08-31T12:12:00.001-07:00

The pretérito perfecto expresse actions made in the past that persist in the present...well this is the formal explanation but for people who speaks english is better an more easy if we just compare this examples because is the same:

yo he comprado.....................I have bought
tu has venido..........................you have come
el/ella ha hecho.....................he/she has done
nosotros hemos saltado..........we have jumped
vosotros habeis sonrreido.......you have smailed
ellas/ellos han habalado..........they have spoken

As you can see is the same structure yo, tu, el....+ verbo HABER (in each form market in black above)+ participle of verb which says what we have done (never said better)

well now I am sure that you want to know how we know the participle of each verb...well there is a kind of rul that just works with rregular verbs but is so good because you are going to make a big step in spanish knowledge:

the verbs that his infinitive ends with -ar just remove the r and add -ado

the verbs that his infinitive ends with -er and -ir just remove the -er -ir and add -ido

Examples:

infinitive participle

cantar(to sing)............................................cantado
comprar(to buy).........................................comprado
saltar(to jump)...........................................saltado
comer(to eat)..............................................comido
correr(to run)...............................................corrido
venir(to come...............................................venido

There is a short listening about this lesson here listening 3

La lección ha terminado..................the lesson has finished

LESSON 20 presente de subjuntivo

2012-08-27T06:57:00.002-07:00

Well there is not this kind of verb form in English but i thing that is easy to understand it with a few examples:

lets stard with the verb trabajar:
presente de subjuntivo del verbo trabajar:

yo...................trabaje
tu.....................trabajes
el/ella...............trabaje
nosotros/as......trabajemos
vosotros/as.....trabajeis
ellos/ellas........trabajen

Just keep the idea
well imagine a family where the young boy is really bad at school and he spend the whol day in front of the computer (like me) and his father is really ungry wit him and he dicedes talk with the mother:" would be great if he go to work, or he should work or whatever " well of course we can translate it literally but in spanish we have the subjuntivo and this form can be used just to show this idea.
:

quiero que trabaje......................I wnat that he work
me gustaría que tu trabajes duro......I would like that you work hard
quiero que trabaje conmigo...............I want that he work with me
es mi deseo que trabajemos bien.........Is my wish that we works well
no me importa cómo trabajeis pero hacedlo....I do not care how you work but do it

As you can see is used when there is a wish., we can also use it in a probability ex: quizás estudie todos los días(may be i study every day)

me gustaría is the conditional of verb gustar gave a look at lesson 16

LESSON 19 pronombres reflexivos

2012-08-26T08:57:00.001-07:00

I know that is not going to be easy to undertand for english speakers, but I will try to put some examples and remember to do not just translate, the best way of learn is to keep the first idea and look for more examples.

A pronombre reflexivo is a pronoun that shows to us that the action is done for the same subject and for who is done always depending of verb forn that follows (ffff well more or less)

Pronombres reflexivos:

yo................me

tu.................te

el/ella........... se

nosotros.......nos

vosotros.......os

ellos/ellas......se

ex:

me compré un coche...........I bought a car ( show to us that I bought the car and is going to be just for me or shows that the car is going to be mine)

Te compré un coche...........I bought a car (but here shows to us that I bought the car but is for you, I bought it because the verb is past and the first person of singular "yo compré")

Te compraste un coche.....you bought a car ( this shows to us that you bought a car because the verb is secont person of singular and past "tu compraste" and is for you "te"

Te comprarás un coche........you will buy a car (here is the same case as above,you bought because is the verb is second person of singular...is for you "te" but as you can see the verb is future)

se maquilla........she is making up

Nos queremos.....we love each other

Nos comeremos un pastel ......we are going to eat (because the verb is future and is we who will eat it because the verb is first person of plural and future)

os veis amenudo.......you see each other

Se fueron todos. deprisa......All of them left in a hurry( because the verb is third person of plural and past "se fueron")
ex: Me compraré el mismo coche que Juan se ha comprado (I'm going to by the same car that Juan has bought)

FFFFF this one is not easy i know!!

LESSON 18 pronombres relativos

2012-08-23T03:26:00.000-07:00

We use the pronombres relativos to link two pharses and the second one qualifies the first one

Que is the most common and we use it to link people or things:

El niño que ha venido es mi hermano....the boy that has come is my brother

El que, la que are used when we link a name alredy said and we avoid to repet it:

Donna es una amiga de USA y es la que me ha preguntado sobre estos pronombres......
Donna is a friend from USA and is ho has asked about these pronombres
( in this case you can also say...Donna es una amiga de USA y es quien me ha preguntado sobre estos pronombres and is more formal)

Esta casa es la que compraremos....this house is the house that we are going to buy

Lo que we use it when we are talking about ideas,actions or concepts:

lo que necesitamos es una chaqueta.....what we need is a jacket

Esto es de lo que te estoy hablando.....is this what I am talking about

Remember that i I have been talking just in singular and they can also be used in plural like los que, las que
next lesson more pronombres demostrativos

LESSON 17 BIG, BIGGER, THE BIGGEST

2012-08-21T04:33:00.000-07:00

In Spanish to say big, bigger and biggest, we use a diferent way from Enghish speakers just learnt how to do it and forget translate it.

Este coche es el más bonito.....this car is the niciest

Esta casa es la más grande.........this house is the biggest

Este paraguas es más grande .....this umbrella is bigger
Esta playa es menos grande........this beach is less bigg

Constuccion: the subject(car,Maria,house...) + el más,más,menos,la/el más+ adjective(grande,pequeño,bonito.....)

Juan se ha comprado una casa que es la más bonita del barrio y es la que tiene el jardín más grande pero con la picina menos honda

Juan has bought a house that is the niciest of district and it is which has de biggest garden but with the less deep pool

Piscina....pool
Jardin .....Garden
Bonito/a......nice, beautiful

LESSON 16 FIRST CONDITIONAL

2012-02-26T04:00:00.002-08:00

-Forming the conditional

To form the present conditional, add the endings ía, ías, ía, íamos, íais, ían to the infinitive verb, as I said at the previous lesson you should start to know the verbs and this is a really good web site where you will find them and all the their formshttp://users.ipfw.edu/jehle/VERBLIST.HTM, well lets go to see how make the conditional:

Infinitive conditional
hablar...to speak-------yo hablaría (I would speak)
comer...to eat-----------tu comerías (you would eat)
vivir......to live----------el/ella/ vivirías (he/she would live)
estar.....to be-----------nosotros estaríamos (we would be)
correr...to run----------vosotros correríais (you would run)
dormir...to sleep-------ellos dormirían (they would sleep)

As always, the forms above are for regulars verbs here you can see some of the irregulars verbs and his conditional forms:

Decir(to say)...................yo diría (I would say)
hacer(to do,make)...........tu harías (you would make)
haber(to have).................el habría (he would have)
poder(to can)..................nosotros podríamos (we would be able)
tener(to have)..................vosotros tendríais( you would have)
saber(to know)................ellos sabrían (they would know)

*Did you see the verbs haber and tener? well lets me explain, the verb haber is used like to have but just in this form: yo he estado....i have been , we use the verb tener in possessive forms yo tengo...I have
now I'm sure that you undertand this "yo he tenido" is just "I have had"

Please is so important to learn the verbs check out this web and come back http://users.ipfw.edu/jehle/VERBLIST.HTM

LESSON 15 THE PRESENT PROGRESSIVE

2012-01-15T06:29:00.000-08:00

In addition to verb estar,the verb ir(to go) and seguir(to keep going) can be used as an auxiliary with the present participle.These two verbs ad diferent sahde of meaning.The verb ir sounds a bit more colloquial and give the sense of to go along doing something or gives an immediate,simple feeling to a sentence.

ex:el niño va andando a la escuela.....the boy goes to school on foot
the boy goes along walking to school
Seguir, when used with the present participle,means to keep(on) doing something or continue something.

ex: sigue hablando......keep speaking,please.

The construction can also be used to wxpress a future intention.

ex: seguimos trabajando mañana....we'll continue working tomorrow.

Seguir hablando..........keep speaking (as you can see we have remove the"ar" from the infinitive hablar verb and we add -ando what it means? well is the same than in when in English we add -ing and shows that the action is happening (never better said) just while we are explaining what is going on ex:

estoy cantando..........i'm singing
está comprando........he is bying
well you have to get it as a rul but be careful because there are irregulars verbs like decir,ir...

Have a look at verbo ir here

Well I stared to speak to much with verbs I think that you have to start to know them a bit, this is a really good web where you will find all of them http://t.co/Bym7rg7 here you have all the verbs with a annotations in english please check it out and try to learn the verbs ser ,estar, ir ,seguir.

Feel free to add a comment

LESSON 14 THE FUTURE TENSE

2012-01-04T07:54:00.000-08:00

To make the future in spanish with a regular verbs is really easy, you just have to add the endings é, ás, á, emos,éis,án

comprar (to buy) comer (to eat)

yo compraré ...I'll buy yo comeré...I'll eat

tu comprarás ..you'll buy tu comerás...you will eat

el comprará ..he will buy el comerá....he will eat

nosotros compraremos...we will buy nosotros comeremos...we will eat

vosotros compraréis....you will buy vosotros comeréis.....you will eat

ellos comprarán...they will buy ellos comerán...they will eat

There are a number of irregular verbs that use a unique stem to construct the future, instead of the infinitive, here you have some of them which are important:

poder (can) Hacer( to do)

yo podré........ I'll be able yo haré.. .I'll do

tu podrás tu harás

el podrá el hará

nosotros podremos nosotros haremos

vosotros podréis vosotros haréis

ellos podrán ellos harán

There are a lot of irregular verbs like poder and hacer and the only one way to know is learn them (sorry).
We also can use the verb ir and infinitive like in english go and verb infinitive

voy a comprar..........I'm going to buy
vas a comprar..........you are going to buy
va a comprar............he/she is going to buy
vamos a comprar.....we are going to buy
vais a comprar.........you are going to buy
van a comprar..........they are going to buy
but we only use this forme when the action is going to do immediatly.

LESSON 13 THE PAST ACTIONS

2011-12-25T08:20:00.000-08:00

-In Spanish, we have more than one forms of past, the preterit simple is used when the action is finished and you don't need more information:

Yo comí............I ate
Yo salté............I jumped

To make the preteit simple of a verb that finish with ar just remove ar en ad é, aste, ó, amos, asteis, aron:

from cantar(to sing):
yo canté...................I sang
tu cantaste...............you sang
el cantó....................he/she sang
nosotros cantamos...we sang
vosotros cantasteis..you sang
ellos cantaron..........they sang

To make it from a verb that finish with er and ir (like comer-to eat)or(like salir to leave) just remove er and ir and ad í, iste, ó, imos, isteis, eron
But remember that these ruls just work with a regular verbs ex: the verb tener(to have) his past simple is this

Yo tuve..............I had
tu tuviste
el tuvo
nosotros tuvimos
vosotros tuvisteis
ellos tuvieron

-The pretérito imperfecto is used when we are talking about the past that do not have a clear begining or end.
I know that for English speakers is not easy to understand becouse , the pretérito imperfecto can be translated a number of ways in english:

caminábamos por la calle.....ayer por la noche---- we were walking yesterday at night
.....mientras él hablaba--- while he was speaking
.....cuando ocurrió------ when this happend

yo corría cuando era niño-----------I used to run when i was a child

As you can see you can translate the pretérito imperfecto in lot of English past forms but just when you need more information we use the pretérito imperfecto in spanish

Yo compré................................I bought (here you don't need more information)
Yo estaba comprando...............I was buying while......(here you need more information here you need the pretérito imperfecto)

LESSON 12 WAYS TO TALK ABOUT LENGTHS OF TIME

2011-12-17T05:20:00.000-08:00

There are a number of ways to talk about how long ago something happened beyond mere años/meses/días/horas and minutos (years,months,days,hours and minutes)

un rato...........a while
mucho rato....a long while
mucho tiempo...a long time
un par de horas...a couple of hours
unos minutos.......a few minutes
unos años............a few years

We use the verb hacer to ask or describe how long something happens

- ¿cuando llegaste a casa?.................when did yo arrive at home?
- llegué hace unos minutos.................I arrived a few minutes ago

-hace mucho tiempo que no te había visto........long time I had not see you
-sí!! es verdad!! almenos un par de años..........yes!! that's true!! at least a couple of years

-hace unos minutos que terminé........................I finished a few minutes ago

-estudiaré un rato.............................................I will study for a while

you can have a look at the verb "hacer" and all his forms here: verbo hacer

LESSON 11 TALKING ABOUT WEATHER

2011-12-08T05:23:00.001-08:00

A lot of expressions used to talk about the weather in spanish use the verb hacer with a noun

hace frío........it's cold
hace calor.....it's hot
hace sol........it's sunny
hace viento...it's windy
hace buen tiempo.....the weather is good
hace mal tiempo.......the weather is bad

with the verb hay you can make more expressions

hay niebla....it's foggy
hay humedad....it's humid
hay neblina.......it's misty

even we use the verb estar

está nublado.....it's cloudy
está lloviendo...it's raining
está nevando....it's snowing

¿qué tiempo hace?..........what's the weather like right now?

*you can see the seasons in the vocabulary's lash or just clicking here

LESSON 10 DEMOSTRATIVE ADJECTIVES

2011-12-04T04:46:00.001-08:00

In English we have only one way to say this or that, in addiction to the plural forms these and those, in spanish we have three demostrative adjectives each with four forms.

To say this/these we use the adjective este/estos/estas depending whether is singulsr/plural male or femele

este coche...this car esta casa......this house (because casa is femenine)
estos árboles.......these trees ( masculine and plural)
estas galletas.......these cookies (femenine and plural)

To say that we use ese /ese refers to something that is close to the person spoken to, but no to the speaker.It also has four forms

ese cuchillo.........that knife esos cuchillos.......those knifes (masculin and plural)
esa casa..............that house esas casas............those houses (femenine and plural)

there is another way to say that when refers to something that is far away for both the speaker and te person spoken to

aquel libro.......that book aquellos libros.......those books(masculine and plural)
aquella niña....that girl aquellas niñas........those girls(femenine and plural)

*To know about singular/plural and masculine/femenine look the lesson 2 clicking here