Complete Spanish

Track 41

1. The second future: -ía for "would" Rule

Spanish has two futures, will and would. Both add endings to the whole "to" form, both stress the ending, and both use one set of endings for -ar, -er and -ir alike.

-ía = I / he / she / it / you (formal) would

Note that I jumps in with he, she, it and formal you here, the way it does in some other tenses.

bailaría
I / he / she would dance
bailaríamos
we would dance
bailarían
they would dance
bailarías
you would dance

The accent stays on the ía even in the "we" form: bailaríamos.

Iría · No iría · Comería · Comería, pero no tengo tiempo · Transformaría la situación

2. Recap of "will" Grammar

The will endings are the sounds of haber, without the silent h.

bailaré
I will dance
bailaremos
we will dance
bailará
he/she will dance
bailarán
they will dance
bailarás
you will dance

Vamos a bailar · Bailamos más tarde · Vamos a bailar más tarde

All three routes to the future remain available: present with context, ir a, or the future tense proper. The ir a structure is used even more in Spanish than in English.

3. se for "gets" Rule

Spanish has no gets in this sense. Where English says it gets transformed, Spanish says it transforms itself.

transformaría la situación
it would transform the situation
se transformaría
it would get transformed

Contamina (it contaminates) · Se contamina (it gets contaminated) · Se contaminaría

Nobody thinks the river is responsible for contaminating itself. It is simply the structure that replaces the missing gets.

In English the context alone tells you whether you mean transforming something else or being transformed. In Spanish you usually have to put that se in.

4. Sometimes the reflexive changes almost nothing Note

Not every se or me shifts the meaning. You will often hear me imagino where imagino would do just as well.

imagino
I imagine
me imagino
also just "I imagine"

Me imaginaría que no quiere ir

5. New vocabulary Vocabulary

bailar
to dance
bailarín
dancer (English ballerina)
transformar
to transform
contaminar
to contaminate
imaginar
to imagine

Ballerina comes from bailar: the Spanish word for dancer is bailarín.

6. que for "that" Grammar

The same que as what, used to join two clauses together.

Me imaginaría · que · no quiere ir

Me imaginaría que no quiere ir.