Complete Spanish

Track 61

1. Line and point together in one sentence Grammar

The two pasts do their most natural work side by side, in a structure both languages share.

Cocinaba cuando sonó el teléfono.

Sort the halves before you build: I was cooking is the line, the phone rang is the point.

Hablaba por teléfono cuando llegó María · Cocinaba cuando el teléfono sonó

Word order is flexible, and putting the verb before the subject is often the more natural Spanish: cuando sonó el teléfono.

2. The choice often lives only in your mind Concept

Do not look for direct translations here. English would never say "I wasn't liking it", yet no me gustaba is perfectly good Spanish.

no me gustó
an event, something closed
no me gustaba
ongoing, over a period of time
A lot of the time the two are completely interchangeable. The difference is just which way you were thinking when you said it. That is where the distinction originates: in the mind, not in the facts.

Me pareció bien · Me parecía bien · Me parecía bien, pero cuando lo vi, no me gustó

3. gustar in the past Grammar

Same inverted structure, now in the point past. Take the middle step every time: I liked it is it pleased me.

me gustó
it pleased me, I liked it
me gusté
I pleased myself, I liked myself

Me gusta · Me gustó · No me gustó · No me gustaba

The student, working on intuition, threw in both me and lo: "me lo gusto". Process it literally instead. It pleases is gusta; it pleases me is me gusta. No lo anywhere.

4. New vocabulary Vocabulary

el teléfono
the telephone, the "distant voice"
sonar
to sound (used for a phone ringing)
llegar
to arrive
aparecer
to appear

Teléfono is Greek: tele- is far and -fono is voice. For a phone ringing, Spanish says it sounded.

Parecer is related to apparent, and aparecer is to appear. Transparent comes from the same root.

Llegué · Llegó · Llegamos · Por teléfono (on the phone, literally "by phone")

5. Reflexives in the point past Grammar

Look up to stay and you find quedarse. You still have to do something with that se.

me quedé
I stayed
se quedó
he/she stayed
nos quedamos
we stayed, or we stay

6. por also means "by" Note

Another entry in the growing list of things por does. On the phone is por teléfono, by phone.

Hablaba por teléfono cuando llegó María.