We will learn names of downtown businesses, what you can buy/do there, irregular verbs in the preterite (ir, ser, tener, estar, poder) and direct object pronouns.
Objectives
• Talk about things you did and where you did them
• Explain why you couldn’t do certain things
• Describe things you bought and where you bought them
• Understand cultural perspectives on shopping
Vocabulary
Grammar
Irregular verbs in the preterite
First thing to know is that these verbs do not follow the regular preterite conjugations we learned in unit . Second, they don’t have any accents and none are stem-changing. Many stem-changing verbs in the present are not stem-changing in the preterite, but some are.
ir and ser in the preterite
As you may have noticed, ser and ir are irregular in almost all conjugations. In this case, the conjugation of both of these verbs is exactly the same. How do we tell them apart? By the context in which they are used.
| ir | ser | |
| yo | fui | fui |
| tú | fuiste | fuiste |
| Ud. él ella |
fue | fue |
| nosotros nosotras |
fuimos | fuimos |
| vosotros vosotras |
fuisteis | fuisteis |
| Uds. ellos ellas |
fueron | fueron |
Irregular verbs in the preterite
One good thing about irregular verbs in the preterite is that they have a pattern that works for almost any irregular verbs. Another great thing is that we are only learning these 4 irregular verbs: hacer, tener, estar, poder.
Places around town
How to get to places around town
Irregular preterite of tener, estar and poder
The endings of irregular verbs do not follow the pattern of regular -ar and -er/-ir verbs, but there is a pattern, but it repeats for all four of these irregular verbs (sadly, the irregular conjugation of ir and ser in the preterite has to be memorized. On the positive side, there are no accents needed for these verbs!
Irregular preterite verb conjugations
| stem of verbs | irregular verb endings | |
| yo |
tuv- | -e |
| tú | estuv- | -iste |
| Ud. él ella |
pud- | -o |
| nosotros nosotras |
hic- | -imos |
| vosotros vosotras |
-isteis | |
| Uds. ellos ellas |
-ieron |
Direct Object pronouns
Direct object pronouns are words that replace nouns that are the object of a verb. If you were to say to someone, I bought a…. and they did not get the last part of the sentence they would ask, what did you buy? The answer would be the direct object.
These are the direct object pronouns.
| Subject PNs | Direct object PNs | Subject PNs | Direct object PNs |
|---|---|---|---|
| yo | me | nosotros nosotras | nos |
| tú | te | vosotros vosotras | os |
| Ud. él ella | lo la | Uds. ellos ellas | los las |
Part 1
Part 2
I bought a book. – Yo compré un libro.
I bought it. – (Yo) lo compré.
He saw a movie. – Él vio una película.
He saw it. – Él la vio.
We drank sodas. – Bebimos refrescos.
We drank them. – Los bebimos
We ate French fries. – Comimos papas fritas.
We ate them. – Las comimos
• Notice that direct object pronouns in Spanish always go in front of a conjugated verb in Spanish. However, we can put them in front of or attached directly after an infinitive or a continuous/progressive tense verb.
For example:
Voy a ver la película.
La voy a ver.
Voy a verla.
Yo estoy comiendo unas galletas. (notice that estoy comiendo is a compound verb)
Las estoy comiendo.
Estoy comiéndolas.*
*When you add las to verb, you move the stressed syllable (comiendo) to the third syllable from the end. When the stress is located on the third syllable from the end, you have to accent the (strong: A, E, O) vowel in the syllable.