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Times Tables. * PRESENT.

By Oz

¡Feliz Año Nuevo gente! = ¡Happy New Year people!  I hope you had a Feliz Navidad.  ¡Bendiciones=Blessings! 

I know, I know.  I know that this is NOT an article about matemáticas, but I want to start this year giving you (according to me) the twelve most important verbs EVER.  I call them “The Times Tables” because as in math, if you learn them by heart you will be able to do bigger operations and; most important, you will know how to play with them the rest of your life. Here we go!!!
 

Spanish Pura Vida

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Feliz Navidad

 By Os 

¡Feliz Navidad amig@s!  Quick review, before we start I need you to be sure that you can both understand and say these lifesaving pregunta words. 

  • ¿Cómo?    =           ¿How?
  • ¿Qué?    =              ¿What?
  • ¿Dónde?    =          ¿Where?
  • ¿Cuándo?    =        ¿When?
  • ¿Cuál?    =              ¿Which?
  • ¿Quién?    =           ¿Who?
  • ¿Cuánt@?    =       ¿How much?
  • ¿Cuánt@s?    =     ¿How many?
  • ¿Por qué?    =        ¿Why?

Spanish Pura Vida

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Let’s play with VERBOS. PAST.

 By Os 

Hola amig@s. ¿Todo bien?  Today this column is celebrating two years of being around.  Muchas gracias for reading it, and saying good things about it.  You can find this and the other 22 (veintidós) articles on this website:  www.OsCostaRica.com. 

I saw my friend Tom yesterday and he started to ask me questions about my weekend.  Check the conversation… 

Spanish Pura Vida

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Let’s play with VERBOS. PRESENT.

 By Os 

Hola amig@s. ¿Todo bien? ¿Remember what we learned one year ago? I do. Let’s review it pretty quick. 

We learned that there are three big types of verbs: 

The verbos that end in “AR”,   like  HablAR;

The verbos that end in “ER”,   like  ComER;

The verbos that end in “IR”,    like  VivIR.

 We learned three important “action words” or verbs.  Notice that they all end in –R and they all mean to do something:

HablAR=TO speak;    ComER=TO eat;    VivIR=TO live. 

We learned that when we “play” with them, we change the endings according to “who” does the action.  Just for the record, the endings of a verb are called CONJUGATIONS.  Let’s review the three patterns of endings that we learned. 

Spanish Pura Vida

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¿To be or not To be? Parte IV.

 By Os 

I suppose that you have learned and memorized the “to be” words by now, haven‘t you?  Well, just in case here they are: 

ESTAR

TO BE

SER

Estoy

I’m

Soy

Está

you’re,  s/he’s

Es

Estamos

we’re

Somos

Están

y’all are,  they’re

Son

 Now fill the box without cheating: 

ESTAR

TO BE

SER

 

I’m

 

 

you’re,  s/he’s

 

 

we’re

 

 

y’all are,  they’re

 

 ¿Ready to mingle them?

Spanish Pura Vida

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¿To be or not To be? Parte III.

 By Os

Let’s review what we learned last month.  Look at these dialogues and see how “ESTAR” works: 

¿Cómo está usted?

Estoy bien.

¿Está bien?

– Sí, estoy bien.

¿Está mal?

– No, no estoy mal.  Estoy bien.

 

Spanish Pura Vida

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¿To be or not To be? Parte II.

By Os

Look at these numbers and try to guess the next number in the pattern:

0 – 1 – 1 – 2 – 3 – 5 – 8 – 13 – 21 – 34 – ??

55?  ¡Yeah!  If you said 55 you figured it out correctly.  If you didn’t, maybe knowing that the next number on the list is the result of the sum of the two last numbers may help you to figure out the pattern.  Look again:

0 + 1 = 1.    1 + 1 = 2.    2 + 1 =3.    3 + 2 = 5.    5 + 3 = 8.

8 + 5 = 13.    13 + 8 = 21.    21 + 13 = 34.    34 + 21 = 55

Some people like “formulas” or “rules”; some people prefer to see things first and then try to make their own “deductions” or “patterns”.

Spanish Pura Vida

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¿To be or not To be? Parte I.

By Os

To be, or not to be; that is the question:

Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles… 

¿To be or not To be?  That is NOT the question.

¿Ser or Estar?  ¡That’s the question! 

Today it’s not about Hamlet or Shakespeare.  Today it’s about the verb TO BE. 

Spanish Pura Vida

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I have a question = Tengo una pregunta

By Os 

¿How are you guys?  ¿Cómo están?  ¿Did you get some rest during the Semana Santa?  I hope you did. 

Before we start I need you to be sure that you can both understand and say these lifesaving pregunta words.

Spanish Pura Vida

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Putting things together. Parte III.

By Os 

Hola amigos.  ¿How is everything going on?  This is the third and last article of this series.  So let me ask you this question again: 

Guys:  ¿Do you know how to make a Wh. question in inglés?  ¿Do you start the question with an action word (verb), with the subject (subject), with the helping guy (auxiliary), with something else (the rest) or with a Wh. word?  Let’s see: 

Spanish Pura Vida

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Putting things together. Parte II.

Feliz día de la amistad y del amor – Happy Valentine’s Day.  Let’s start with some lines that you may use this febrero: 

Estoy enamorado(a) = I’m in love.

Te amo = I love you.

Te quiero mucho = I love so much.

Quiero darte un beso = I want to give you a kiss.

¡Qué cursi! = ¡How corny! 

Spanish Pura Vida

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Putting things together. Parte I.

By Os

¡Feliz Año Nuevo gente! = ¡Happy New Year people!  I hope you had a Feliz Navidad and everything is all right.  ¡Bendiciones=Blessings!

Students and friends always tell me that they don’t know how to put the things together in Spanish.  Well, let’s start the year learning that, ok?  ¡It’s time to begin linking your words together! 

Spanish Pura Vida

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Feliz Navidad = Merry Christmas

By Os

¡Feliz Navidad amig@s! Let me show you some vocabulario for these dates: 

Regalo = gift.    Presente = present.

Árbol de navidad = X-mas tree.    Portal = Nativity.

Noche Buena = X-mas Eve.

Papá Noel = Santa Claus.

Aguinaldo = An extra payment that employees get in diciembre.

Tamal = Tamale.   A kind of small dumpling, stuffed with meat and other eatables, and wrapped in banana leaves.

Rompope = Eggnog.  Ponche de huevo.  Huevos, leche, vainilla y ron…  I’m getting drunk…  ¡Salud! 

Just for this month (because it is Navidad) I am gonna show you AGAIN something sweet about Spanish:  The pronunciation of the stuff. 

Spanish Pura Vida

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Feliz cumpleaños = Happy Birthday

By Os

Hola amig@s. ¿Todo bien?  Today this column is celebrating one year of being around.  Muchas gracias for reading it, and saying good things about it.  You can find this and the other 11 (once) articles on this website:  www.OsCostaRica.com 

Last month there were two little (but VERY important) mistakes in some of the patterns we learned.  Specifically #2, the  –ER Pattern and #3, the  –IR Pattern.  One of the endings shown there, instead of being an “A” it should have been an “E”.  (Just for the record, the endings of a verb are called CONJUGATIONS).  Let’s review the three patterns we learned last month very quickly. 

Spanish Pura Vida

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Let’s Play with VERBOS

By Os

Hola gente.  As this is a two months issue I asked permission from the woman in charge to make this article bigger than usual.  I hope you like it. 

Prepare yourselves guys.  VERBOS are here.  Tranquil@s, it’s not the Armageddon, relax. 

A verb is where the action is.  A verb is a word that expresses an action.  And there are two huge families of verbs:  Functional and Dysfunctional. 

Spanish Pura Vida

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