Welcome to another boring post about conjugating verbs in Spanish, today we’re going to make a list of pronouns and then we will make a long and boring list of verbs, and by the way, you will have to learn and memorize which verbs are regular and which ones are irregular, so get ready to get bored! …
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We know, you’re probably thinking:
We got big news for you, this is not a post about a list of verbs or tips to memorize the grammar rules that help you know how to conjugate the verbs or a bunch of rules to memorize, using Spanish as if it was a mathematical formula. Actually, you don’t have to do this anymoreand even better, we don’t want you to do that because the only thing that using these old methods will do for you, is to slow downyour process of learning Spanish.
We know that if you think of Spanish as a grammatical challenge, it actually can be overwhelming, in fact, most of the English speaking people that we have talked to, about what the most difficult thing to master is, when they try to learn Spanish, most of them agreed saying that conjugating Spanish verbs was their Achilles’ heel.
Conjugating Spanish verbs should not be that difficult. What makes it difficult though? The answer is ironically simple: Adults need too many explanations, we always want to know specific reasons for everything, and that is fine, but not for learning languages. Actually, if you think about it, children never ask things like: why does the pronoun go first on every sentence? Why do you have to add “he” or “hemos” when you talk in perfect tenses? What is the past participle? Those questions are fine, but only if you want to study a carrier on linguisticsor something like that, not to learn to communicate effectively in Spanish.
The method that people always use to learn how to conjugate verbs is all wrong. You need to understand that the skill of speaking a language can’t be studied, it actually has to be an automatic process in order to end up speaking proficiently and fluently, just like babies do when they are learning to speak. So, throw out all those textbooks, Spanish worksheets and the “formulas” to make sentences in Spanish.
Language is not a mathematical formula that you just memorize, it’s not a history topic that you need to collect information in order to learn it, if you do this, you will end up speaking unnaturally and without any fluency.
So, how am I supposed to know how to conjugate those crazy verbs in Spanish? You’re probably wondering; and for that question we have a very common answer that we give on this blog:Listening.
LISTEN TO DIFFERENT TIMES
A month ago, we posted an article telling you about an awesome and effective method to learn Spanish using stories. If you haven’t read it yet, we recommend that you go and read it right nowand then you come back and keep reading this one.
As we said before, stories are an awesome way to improve your listening and train your brain to familiarize yourself with the language. So in order for you to learn to conjugate verbs correctly, we recommend that you listen to a story or to an article or to whatever you are listening in different tenses, but how? …. Well, today we brought you the same story that we had on our previous post, but this time in past tense and then in the future.
This is going to train your brain and ears; and the more times you listen to the story in different times, the easier will be for you to know what tenses use in what situations.Actually, this will be automatic; for example, if your mother language is English, it will sound weird if you hear something like: I was playing with my dog tomorrow.
Why does it sound strange? Because you’ve heard English for such a long time that your brain automatically tells you that the correct way to conjugate this verb in this situation is: I’ll play with my dog tomorrow; and now it sounds weird when you hear it differently.
It’s totally the same thing in Spanish. So in order for you to master Spanish conjugations, you need to listen to specific things conjugated in different tensesand this way you will be teaching your brain the grammar without giving it any explanation. If you do this, you will be approaching to the same process that you went through, when you were just a baby learning your first language.
Having said all of that, here is the story; first we want you to remember the story in present tense and then we will tell you the story in past tense and then in the future tense.
PRESENT
Mateo es malo, él y su amigo Saúl robancarros en las noches y de día los venden como carros legales. Mateo tiene un parqueaderodonde guarda todos sus autos robados, él tiene 600 (seiscientos) autos, así que es un parqueaderomuy grande.
Un día Saúl dice: “Mateo, me canse de trabajar con vos, voy a trabajar soloy así consigo más platapara mí”. Mateo responde: “Listo mijo, como quiera, váyase entonces”.
En la noche, Saúl entra al parqueadero sin que Mateo lo sepa y se roba599(quinientos noventa y nueve) carros. Al día siguiente Mateo llega a su parqueaderoy cuando ve que solo hay un carro se enojamucho y dice: “Saúl, acabaste de prender la guerra…”
Fin.
Download the audio for the story in present tense now!
PAST**
Mateo era malo, él y su amigo Saúl robabancarros en las noches y de día los vendían como carros legales. Mateo tenía un parqueaderodonde guardaba todos sus autos robados, él tenía 600(seiscientos) autos, así que era un parqueaderomuy grande.
Un día Saúl dijo: “Mateo, me cansé de trabajar con vos, voy a trabajar soloy así consigo más platapara mí”. Mateo respondió: “Listo mijo, como quiera, váyase entonces”.
En la noche, Saúl entro al parqueadero sin que Mateo lo supiera y se robó 599(quinientos noventa y nueve) carros. Al día siguiente, Mateo llegó a su parqueadero y cuando vio que solo había un carro, se enojó mucho y dijo: “Saúl, acabaste de prender la guerra…”
Download the audio for the story in present tense now!
FUTURE
Mateo será malo, él y su amigo Saúl van a robarcarros en las noches y de día los venderán como carros legales. Mateo tendrá un parqueaderodonde guardará todos sus autos robados, él va a tener 600(seiscientos) autos, así que será un parqueaderomuy grande.
Un día Saúl va a decir: “Mateo, me cansé de trabajar con vos, voy a trabajar solo y así consigo más platapara mí”. Mateo responderá: “Listo mijo, como quiera, váyase entonces”.
En la noche, Saúl va a entrar al parqueadero sin que Mateo lo sepa y se va a robar599(quinientos noventa y nueve) carros. Al día siguiente, Mateo llegará a su parqueaderoy cuando vea que solo hay un carro, se va a enojarmucho y va a decir: “Saúl, acabaste de prender la guerra…”
