Track 15

1. A stressed e splits into ie Rule

This fills in the grey area you may already have been wondering about: how tener gives tiene, and how querer gives quiero.

When an e sits inside the root of the verb, not in the -er ending, stressing it usually splits it into ie.

querer → quiero · tener → tiene · venir → viene

By the plain rule you would get "quero" and "tene". The accent lands on that e in the present tense, and under that pressure it splits.

It does not happen in tengo and vengo, where the n and g seem to hold it up.

2. You can see the split between English and Spanish Pattern

The rule looks abstract until you spot it sitting between the two languages. English has a word for time that it only uses in music: tempo. Spanish for time is tiempo.

tiempo
time (English tempo)

concierto
concert

noviembre
November

These between-words are the useful hook. Once you have seen tempo becoming tiempo, the verb behaviour stops feeling arbitrary.

3. It does not always split Heads-up

Most of the time it happens, but not always. You have already met two verbs where it does not.

llegar → llego

to arrive, I arrive: no split

esperar → espero

to wait, I wait: no split

4. Go back to the "to" form or vowel harmony wins Method

For he thinks the student offers "piense", because after ie an e sounds like it matches. That is Turkish grammar, not Spanish.

pensar is an -ar verb → piensa, never "piense"

You must know where you are with any verb, and to know where you are you must go back to the "to" form. Then you are confident. Otherwise the base affects which vowel you want to put on.

Pienso · Piensa · Piensas · ¿Qué piensas?

5. Deciding what type of word it is Method

Asked what pensar means, the student answers "thoughtful". But there is no verb to thoughtful. The answer is to think.

It is very useful to group words into families. "Verb" is a family. Once you decide what type of word you are looking at, you narrow down its possible behaviours and it becomes much easier to manage. Making that connection clearly is really helpful.

6. New vocabulary Vocabulary

querer
to want

pensar
to think (English pensive)

entender
to understand (the e splits)

comprender
to understand (no split, but less common)

perder
to lose (English perish, perishable)

pasar
to pass, and also to happen

Entender is the more common word for to understand and the better one to use, but comprender is easier to remember and does not split, so it is a fair fallback.

¿Qué pasa? (what's happening) · Quiero saber qué pasa · Entiendo · Entiende · Entienden · Pierdo · Lo pierdo · Los pierdo

Pensar plus a "to" form means to plan on: pienso comer más tarde is I plan on eating later.

¿Qué pasó?, with the accent on the end, is the past: what happened? That comes later.