Track 49

1. Three irregular verbs in the line past Grammar

This is a very regular, very safe tense. There are only three irregularities, and they are all in small verbs.

veía
I was seeing (from ver)

era
I was (from ser)

iba
I was going (from ir)

Ver carries the same extra e that gives you veo in the present. Iba is a blend of the two past endings, a bit of -ía and a bit of -aba.

Veíamos · Veían · Veías · Éramos · Eran · Eras · Íbamos · Iban · Ibas

Era is easy to hold onto: an era in English is a line of time in the past, which is exactly what this tense is.

2. The accent does not move in these tenses Pronunciation

Unlike the present, the accent stays put across the whole set.

era → éramos

not "eramos"

tenía → teníamos

the accent stays on the ía

3. iba a: "I was going to" Grammar

Very common and very useful, working just as in English: I was going to call you, but...

iba + a + "to" form

Do not lose the connecting a. Ir is a verb of motion, so it needs it.

Iba a llamarte · Iba a hacerlo · Íbamos a hacerlo · Íbamos a hacerlos · ¿Por qué ibas?

In fluent speech iba a hacerlo blends into something like /ibacerlo/, because all three /a/ sounds run together. That makes it hard to hear whether the a is there, so put it in deliberately.

4. tenía que for "I had to" Grammar

English says had to, not was having to, but the line past is the right tense in Spanish anyway.

tenía
I used to have, I had

tenía que
I had to

Tenía una casa grande · Teníamos una casa grande · Tenía que verte · Tenía que verte ayer · ¿Tenías que hacerlo ayer? · ¿No tenías que hacerlo ayer?

¿No tenías que hacerlo ayer? also does the work of weren't you supposed to do it yesterday?

5. New vocabulary Vocabulary

ayer
yesterday

cuatro
four (English quarter)

estudiante
student

With era you need no word for a: era estudiante is I used to be a student.

¿Eras estudiante? · Éramos estudiantes · ¿Qué eran?

Careful with the little words too: una casa grande, since casa is feminine and the adjective follows the noun.

6. Recap: llamarse and tener as -tain Pattern

Me llamo · ¿Cómo te llamas? · ¿Cómo se llama? · ¿Cómo se llamaba? · ¿Cómo se llamaban?

The line past lets you ask what somebody was called, which is useful when you heard the name once and lost it.

contener
to contain

obtener
to obtain

mantener
to maintain (man- from mano)

sostener
to sustain

Tenía cuatro, pero ahora no me queda (or no me quedan).