Handout 4 HOMEWORK 4/TAREA 4

Homework 4
1. Review all the material that we have covered so far in the last 4 sessions
2. bring 10 new regular verbs and conjugate them in the first person of the singular or you can decide what person would you like to conjugate them.
3. find a partner and prepare a presentation in Spanish where you have to introduce a person to somebody else, you have to present the presentation to the class. Use the greetings, numbers, personal pronouns, verb GUSTAR, interrogative pronouns, and all the vocabulary that you are familiar with.

EL VERBO GUSTAR
THE VERB GUSTAR
1. The verb "gustar" (to like) belongs to a special category of verbs in Spanish. These verbs function differently from other verbs in two ways:
1.- They do not use subject or personal pronouns such as YO o TÚ, instead they use the indirect object pronouns (ME, TE, LE, NOS, OS, LES).
2.- They do not have 6 different endings according to the person doing the action. They only have two endings: one for singular, one for plural.
2. The way we would conjugate a verb like GUSTAR would be as follows:
SINGULAR FORM
PLURAL FORM
ME GUSTA
ME GUSTAN
TE GUSTA
TE GUSTAN
LE GUSTA
LE GUSTAN
NOS GUSTA
NOS GUSTAN
OS GUSTA
OS GUSTAN
LES GUSTA
LES GUSTAN
3. The singular forms are used when only one thing is liked whereas the plural forms are used when more than one thing is liked.
Example:
Me gusta el café (I like coffee)

Me gustan los coches rojos (I like red cars)
4. There is not a total equivalence between the Spanish sentence and the English translation. The reason for that is that in English the verb "to like" works with a direct object. In a sentence like " I like the room", "I" would be the subject; "like" would be the verb and "the room" would be the direct object. In Spanish we use a different construction. Basically, if we were to translate the sentence "I like the room" into Spanish we would say "The room is pleasing to me". The meaning is the same, they are different expressions of the same idea. In Spanish the subject of the sentence is not the person but the object, in this case, "the room"; the verb would be "is pleasing" and the indirect object would be "to me".
5. Sometimes there might be cases where the sentence could be ambiguous such as in "Le gusta la casa" which could be understood as
1.- He likes the house
2.- She likes the house
3.- You (usted) like the house
To avoid this kind of ambiguity it is quite common to add a prepositional phrase at the beginning of the sentence, which would clarify the issue.
1.- A él le gusta la casa.
2.- A ella le gusta la casa.
3.- A usted le gusta la casa.
The structure of GUSTAR in sentences would be as follows:
GUSTA + singular noun
Me gusta la casa

GUSTA + infinitive
Me gusta cantar


GUSTAN + plural nouns
Me gustan las películas románticas

6. OTHER VERBS LIKE GUSTAR
INTERESAR
TO INTEREST
ENCANTAR
TO REALLY LIKE, TO LOVE
IMPORTAR
TO BE IMPORTANT TO

Regular Verbs
In Spanish, there are three categories of verbs. The category is determined by the last two letters of the infinitive:
-ar verbs (like hablar)-er verbs (like comer)-ir verbs (like vivir)
The infinitive is the base form of the verb, such as to speak, to eat, to live, etc. In Spanish, all infinitives end in -ar, -er, or -ir.
-ar verb hablar (to speak)-er verb comer (to eat)-ir verb vivir (to live)
To conjugate a verb means to manipulate the infinitive so that it agrees with the different possible subjects. Here is the present tense conjugation of the infinitive "to speak":
to speakI speakyou speakhe speaksshe speakswe speakyou-all speakthey speak
The present tense in Spanish can mean three things. The Spanish phrase "yo hablo" can mean:
yo habloI speak
yo habloI am speakingyo habloI do speak
Many Spanish verbs are completely regular, meaning that they follow a specific pattern of conjugation. In this lesson you will learn to conjugate regular -ar, -er, and -ir verbs (in the present tense). Before you can do that, you must memorize the following subject pronouns.
yo (I)tú (you - informal)él (he)ella (she)usted (you - formal)nosotros/nosotras (we)vosotros/vosotras (you-all - informal)ellos/ellas (they)ustedes (you-all formal)
Spanish infinitives are divided into two parts: the ending and the stem. The ending is the last two letters. Remember, all infinitives end in -ar, -er, or -ir. The stem is everything that's left after you remove the ending.
habl + ar = hablarcom + er = comerviv + ir = vivir
In this lesson, we will use three model verbs: hablar, comer, and vivir. In Spanish, you conjugate verbs by changing the ending. If the subject is I (yo), conjugate by dropping the ending and add -o.
yo hablo (hablar - ar + o = hablo)I speak, I am speaking, I do speakyo como (comer - er + o = como)I eat, I am eating, I do eatyo vivo (vivir - ir + o = vivo)I live, I am living, I do live
If the subject is you - informal (tú), conjugate by dropping the ending and add -as (for -ar verbs) or -es (for -er and -ir verbs).
tú hablas (hablar - ar + as = hablas)you speak, you are speaking, you do speaktú comes (comer - er + es = comes)you eat, you are eating, you do eattú vives (vivir - ir + es = vives)you live, you are living, you do live
If the subject is he (él), she (ella) or you - formal (usted), conjugate by dropping the ending and add -a (-ar verbs) or -e (-er and -ir verbs).
él/ella/usted habla (hablar - ar + a = habla)he speaks, she is speaking, you (formal) do speakél/ella/usted come (comer - er + e = come)he eats, she is eating, you (formal) do eatél/ella/usted vive (vivir - ir + e = vive)he lives, she is living, you (formal) do live
If the subject is we (nosotros/nosotras), conjugate by dropping the ending and add -amos, -emos, or -imos, depending on whether the verb is -ar, -er or -ir.
nosotros hablamos (hablar - ar + amos = hablamos)we speak, we are speaking, we do speak
nosotros comemos (comer - er + emos = comemos)we eat, we are eating, we do eatnosotros vivimos (vivir - ir + imos = vivimos)we live, we are living, we do live
If the subject is you-all - informal (vosotros/vosotras), conjugate by dropping the ending and add -áis, -éis, or ís.
vosotros habláis (hablar - ar + áis = habláis)you-all speak, you-all are speaking, you-all do speakvosotros coméis (comer - er + éis = coméis)you-all eat, you-all are eating, you-all do eatvosotros vivís (vivir - ir + ís = vivís)you-all live, you-all are living, you-all do live
If the subject is they (ellos/ellas) or you-all - formal (ustedes), conjugate by dropping the ending and add -an (-ar verbs) or -en (-er and -ir verbs).
ellos/ellas/ustedes hablan (hablar - ar + an = hablan)they speak, they are speaking, you-all (formal) do speakellos/ellas/ustedes comen (comer - er + en = comen)they eat, they are eating, you-all (formal) do eatellos/ellas/ustedes viven (vivir - ir + en = viven)they live, they are living, you-all (formal) do live
As you can see, to conjugate regular -ar verbs, simply drop the ending (-ar) and add one of the following:
o as a amos áis an
To conjugate regular -er verbs, simply drop the ending (-er) and add one of the following:
o es e emos éis en

To conjugate regular -ir verbs, simply drop the ending (-ir) and add one of the following:
o es e imos ís en