Mini – Lesson: Week of 8/19
la mini-leccion
The conditional:
la mini-lección: el condicional
Today we will take a look at the conditional tense in Spanish.
The conditional tense is used to describe what someone would do or what would happen in the future.
It can also be used to express ambitions and intentions.
For example:
Yo compraría los boletos de avión lo antes posible.
(I would buy the plane tickets as soon as possible.)
El viernes sería un buen día para ir a la playa.
(Friday would be a good day to go to the beach.)
The three kinds of verbs; -ar, -er, -ir; have the same conjugation in the conditional. The conjugation is simply attached to the infinitive, the non-conjugated form of the verb.
Let’s look at an example with the verb beber:
Yo bebería
Tú beberías
Ella, él, usted bebería
Nosotr@s beberíamos
Ellas, ellos, ustedes beberían
Verbs that change meaning in the reflexive form
la mini-lección: verbos reflexivos que cambian de significado
Today we will take a look at some verbs that change meaning in the reflexive form.
The difference in meaning between a simple verb and its corresponding reflexive form is often very small.
However, there are some verbs with significantly different meanings, depending on which one of the two forms is used.
For example:
Cambiar (to change) – cambiarse (to switch items, clothes or houses)
Dormir (to sleep) – dormirse (to fall asleep)
Gastar (to spend) – gastarse (to wear out, to use up)
Ir (to go) – Irse (to go away, to leave)
Llevar (to carry) – llevarse (to take, as in: the con artist took my wallet)
Negar (to deny) – negarse a (to refuse)
Ocurrir (to happen) – ocurrirse (to have a sudden idea)
