Lightspeed Spanish - Advanced Intermediate Spanish Lessons podcast - Page 8

January 14, 2014 Advanced Intermediate 24 – Spanish Podcast Ser and Estar in the Past

Ser and Estar in the Past.

For every self respecting student of the Spanish language, getting SER and ESTAR right is not only a challenge but often becomes and obsession.

“Why on earth they have to have two verbs ‘to be’ I’ll never know!”we often mutter to ourselves. Still, no matter how long you look at it, there they are, defying us to get our heads around them.

The main issue is that to use these verbs, particularly in the past, we have to perform a series of mental gymnastics before we can even get a word out of our mouths.

Mental Gymnastics.

We reach a WAS in our sentence and stop… then begin the questions:

Is this SER or ESTAR?

Is this a PERMANENT was or a TEMPORARY was?

Is this a ONE OFF ACTION or is it an ONGOING ACTION?

By the time we’ve reached a conclusion, either our listener has gone to make a coffee or their eyes have glazed over as they escape to their happy place.

As we have said before, native speakers do not have this problem. They have learnt to speak by ear, and so to them, it either sounds right or wrong.

We, unfortunately, do not have that luxury and must manually trawl through our rules to arrive at the correct tense and conjugation.

Fear not!

The truth is, it’s not as difficult as you might imagine. Nor is it life threatening to get it wrong. Sometimes it can change the meaning, however, if your listener is paying attention to what you are saying, they will know if you have chosen the wrong verb or tense.

We have produced this video podcast to help you with SER and ESTAR in the past in conjunction with the video in EL AULA which covers the 4 ways to say WAS.

Probably, it would be best to watch THIS VIDEO first before listening to the one we are presenting here.

The Good News.

The good news is that the more you practice the easier it gets. You really do learn by ear and the way to do that is to practice, practice, practice. Read every day. Even if you really struggle with the story, you are learning all the time. It’s impossible not to learn.

Read out loud! This also allows you to hear the Spanish being spoken whilst giving you great practice for your pronunciation.

Listen as much as you can to as much variety as possible. By doing so, you will learn the melody of the language, which is how native speakers have learnt it.

Our podcasts come with great Helpsheets that go into far more depth than the podcast allows us to do. We hope you enjoy them and find them of value.

Buena suerte, chicos.

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12 min

January 11, 2014 Advanced Intermediate Spanish Podcast 23 – Spanish Commands

Spanish Commands

The Imperative tense is a widely and oft used tense in all Spanish speaking countries. If you learn to use it well then you will find people will respond positively to your requests. However, like all tenses, if you use it badly then it could work against you.

Here in the UK and in many English speaking countries the imperative is used a lot less than you will find it used in Spanish speaking countries. Certainly in England it tends to be used along with copious amounts of pleases and thank yous.

This is less the case with Spanish Commands. The reason for that is that there is a certain amount of politeness already built into them. You can tell someone to sit using an informal tone, or, if needed, you can tell them to sit whilst remaining very formal.

Siéntate = Sit down (my friend/family member TÚ)

Siéntese = Sit down (stranger/elderly person/not my friend/someone I want to respect USTED)

It’s for this reason that it’s best to have this tense fairly clear in your mind before you start running around telling people what to do in Spanish.

I recall moving to Mexico and starting to work in my company’s new factory in Aguascalientes. I had only six months of Spanish classes (self taught, too) behind me and without doubt I must have made a mountain of mistakes, especially when I was trying to get people to do what I wanted them to do.

What was even more impactful was that it was there that I first came across the Spanish Commands. Before, whilst I worked in Morocco, the people in my factories talked to me with lots of pleases and thank yous and they called me Monsieur Gordon (lol).

Then, I arrived at the factory in Mexico and discovered that my name meant ‘Fat man’ which was a blow. Then, I found people were saying to me things like: ¡VEN! = Come here, without even a please!

For the first few times I made them say: VEN, POR FAVOR but after a while I gave up and accepted that the Spanish commands were just a normal part of their spoken Spanish.

In this Video podcast we help you with this rather troublesome but vitally important tense so that you can use it with confidence and not be shocked when Spanish people start ordering you around. lol

All of our podcasts are backed up by comprehensive helpsheets and transcriptions of any spoken Spanish to provide you with the best learning experience possible.

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The post Advanced Intermediate Spanish Podcast 23 – Spanish Commands appeared first on Lightspeed Spanish.

11 min

January 07, 2014 Advanced Intermediate Spanish Podcast 22 – The Mediterranean Diet

The Mediterranean Diet is renown throughout the world not only for its delicious dishes but also for its health benefits.

In this podcast we hear from Mercedes, la madre de Cynthia y de Maribel, su tía, who talk us through what they perceive as the typical Mediterranean diet.

The challenge in this podcast is understanding just exactly what it is they are saying. Normally, at this level you have been listening to Cynthia and I. You have probably become accustomed to our voices and the expressions we use.

Now we have two new people with different voice tones and new idiomatic expressions. For this reason, it’s worthwhile suggesting that you have a number of attempts at this one.

Listen to it at least three times unless, of course, you captured everything beforehand. Fortunately, both Mercedes and Maribel speak very clearly and at a moderate speed and so you should find it fairly straightforward to capture the idea of what they are saying.

Both Mercedes and Maribel are wives and mothers and have spent many years preparing a wide range of food for their families. Because of this fact, they can be classed as experts on the subject of what we know as the Mediterranean Diet.

In Spain, within the dynamic of the family, it falls upon the woman of the house to prepare the food. Adding to that the fact that food is probably the most important past time in Spain, then it falls upon the woman of the house to ensure she is able to prepare a wide gamut of tasty food for her family.

One of the things that I personally have noted about a typical meal with our family in Spain is that there are always many different flavours and varieties of food. The table is littered with various types of salad, vegetables and a range of tastes that far exceed anything that I have experienced here in the U.K.

The other interesting part of eating in Spain is that there always seems to be far too much food (and there is) for the amount of people at the table. Once the meal is done then all the surplus food goes back into the fridge to be eaten later.

Probably, the biggest fear that any Spanish mother has is that there isn’t enough food to go around. So important is it to eat heartily in Spain that you can almost guarantee that if you opened any fridge in Spain it would be loaded up with Tupperware filled with the left overs from meals earlier in the week.

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160+ free podcasts & lessons, each with a comprehensive helpsheet to guide your learning.

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Week-long immersion near Madrid to boost your confidence — Socios get €50 off.

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Gordon’s Diaries

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The post Advanced Intermediate Spanish Podcast 22 – The Mediterranean Diet appeared first on Lightspeed Spanish.

10 min

January 06, 2014 Advanced Intermediate Spanish Podcast 21 – Saber Conocer & Decir in Preterite

Saber, Conocer and Decir in Preterite Past.

These three verbs are surely some of the more interesting Spanish verbs because of the additional complications they pose to English speaking students. The fact that Saber and Conocer both mean To Know and yet those ‘knowings’ are most often very different makes learning them an interesting process.

To add insult to injury, once they move into the past they become even more complex and their meanings change yet again.

Some interesting question are:

Which verb and tense do we use if we want to say: “I knew it.”?

How would I say: ” I knew her when I was in school.”?

What about: “I found out the truth yesterday.”?

and finally:

“Where did you meet your wife?”

If you already know how to say these sentences in Spanish then we would say to you: “Enhorabuena.”

However, if you have any doubts then this is the ideal podcast for you to listen to.

Decir in Preterite and Imperfect Past.

Now, let’s discuss some of the more important aspects of the verb “to say”. The reality is that this verb is one, if not the most important verb that any serious student of Spanish should “dominar” totally.

Why?

Think about the conversations you have in your own language. How many times do you find yourself telling someone about a conversation you had earlier.

“Well, I said to him that…..And he said to me that… then he said that his sister had said that….”

In our own language we sail through sentences without even noticing the complexity of the structures we are using. Yet, once you are in your second, third or whatever language, suddenly things start to get a little more difficult.

It’s for that reason that you should truly have Decir in Preterite and Imperfect past completely under control.

To begin with, Decir in Preterite is irregular and must be learnt apart from the usual preterite structure. That said, it’s used so often that very soon you’ll have it learnt by heart.

If you have any doubts about how to translate the following sentences, then this is the podcast to listen to.

I said to her that…

She said to me that…

I told her it…

Did you tell him?

Clearly, not everything can be covered in a ten minute podcast and for that reason we back up all of our podcasts with a fully comprehensive Helpsheet and Transcription designed with you in mind. The helsheets are filled with helpful and current examples of how these verbs are used and then are backed up by some tests to check your understanding.

We hope you find them useful in your learning journey.

Gordon y Cynthia

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The post Advanced Intermediate Spanish Podcast 21 – Saber Conocer & Decir in Preterite appeared first on Lightspeed Spanish.

11 min

December 14, 2011 Advanced Intermediate Spanish Podcast 20 – How to Use Por in Spanish

We have previously covered the uses of para and now we complete the circle with a look at how to use por in Spanish.

Por is certainly far more idiomatic and has an incredible rich range of expressions that are in daily use. However, more importantly, the rules behind the use of por are vitally important to any student of Spanish.

In this podcast we offer you practical examples and ways of using por correctly. Of all the areas of Spanish learning, por and para are probably some of the most incorrectly used words. If we had a dollar or pound for every time one of our students has confused one with the other, we’d be “forrados”. Jeje.

However, as that is not the case, we consign ourselves to helping them get it “right the first time”, which isn’t as difficult as it may seem.

As we have emphasised, any student worth his or her salt needs to have this word ‘totalmente controlada’ and so, come and join us as we help you learn what’s most important to know about how to use por in Spanish.

Of course, all the additional information and guidance can be found in the comprehensive Spanish worksheets which are crammed full of practical examples of por in action.

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Our Fantastic Books

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The post Advanced Intermediate Spanish Podcast 20 – How to Use Por in Spanish appeared first on Lightspeed Spanish.

11 min

December 07, 2011 Advanced Intermediate Spanish Podcast 19 – Difference between Saber and Conocer

Do you know the difference between saber and conocer? Maybe you think you know these verbs already, however, like many areas of learning in the Spanish language, there are layers within layers of meaning for these two words.

Did you know that the verb saber can be used reflexively giving it another meaning?

Did you know that conocer doesn’t just apply to “knowing people and places”?

This is a wonderful, though admittedly often frustrating, part of learning a language. Many text books just cannot, or will not, delve into these more subtle areas of the Spanish language. But they’re there and we’re going to show them to you.

Listen in as we examine some of the more interesting meanings that you typically won’t find in the study books and help you use these two verbs, not only in their conventional sense, but also in the way only native speakers do. ¿Qué os parece?

The entire podcast is transcribed and translated to give you a full understanding of what we say. What is more, all the additional information and guidance can be found in our Spanish helpsheets that offer you practical examples and fun tests to check your understanding. Try our free samples to check their value for money.

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The post Advanced Intermediate Spanish Podcast 19 – Difference between Saber and Conocer appeared first on Lightspeed Spanish.

11 min

November 30, 2011 Advanced Intermediate Spanish Podcast 18 – How to Use Ya in Spanish

¡Hola! In this free Spanish podcast episode, we’re going to explain exactly how to use ya in Spanish.

Despite being such a small word, just two lonely letters, it is probably one of the most flexible and diverse of them all.

When we compare the uses of ya in Spanish, we find a lot of similarities to the American usage of “already”. And, “already” is exactly the translation the dictionary would give you for this word. But ya is more complicated than that and it has nuances that aren’t always immediately apparent.

In this episode we run through the range of different ways that you can use this surprisingly flexible word and give you some practical examples of how you can put them into conversation.

Listen in as Cynthia and Gordon unwrap the many uses and meanings of ya. “Ya sabes que es importante.”

As always, the a full translation and transcription as well as all the additional information and guidance can be found in the comprehensive Spanish helpsheets, which have been created with you, nuestros estudiantes, in mind. With these resources, you’ll learn how to use ya in Spanish in no time at all.

Seguro que os van a gustar.

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The post Advanced Intermediate Spanish Podcast 18 – How to Use Ya in Spanish appeared first on Lightspeed Spanish.

11 min

November 23, 2011 Advanced Intermediate Spanish Podcast 17 – How to Use Para in Spanish

This most recent Advanced Intermediate podcast is all about how to use para in Spanish.

Along with its partner in crime, por, para is one of the mysteries of the Spanish language that we will help you unravel. It seems that no matter how long people study the language, they still have problems choosing between the two.

Like everything, the more you use it, the easier it becomes, however, we have some tips that will help you use Para more effectively and “más importante”, more accurately.

One tip that is worth keeping in mind is that, para tends to be used far more frequently at the beginning of your learning journey. Most times, when students get it wrong, it’s because they’ve used por instead of para.

Thus, the tip is: If in doubt, use para. You have more chance of being correct!

Why not come and join us in this podcast and learn when to use para as well as a quick and easy trick to help you get it right most of the time.

Listen in and become demystified!

A wealth of additional information and guidance on how to use para in Spanish can be found in the comprehensive Spanish help-sheets that we have produced specifically with you, our students, in mind.

Esperamos que os sirven.

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160+ free podcasts & lessons, each with a comprehensive helpsheet to guide your learning.

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Cynthia shares her view on life in Spain and in general through video diaries.

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The post Advanced Intermediate Spanish Podcast 17 – How to Use Para in Spanish appeared first on Lightspeed Spanish.

11 min

November 16, 2011 Advanced Intermediate Free Spanish Podcast 16 – Elena Los Jovenes

In this free Spanish podcast, we interview with Elena Durán (la hermana de Cynthia) we discover an interesting perspective on life as a young person in Spain. Like in every culture, the Spanish youth have a certain lifestyle that they enjoy as well as things that are important to them.

Given the current economic climate in Spain, it’s very common for young people to live at home with their parents until they leave to get married. This is because the cost of living and renting “un apartamento” alone is generally prohibitive.

Another interesting difference about the youth who choose to study in university is that, unlike here in the UK, they study locally and live with their parents. It’s fairly uncommon for them to move away from home to study their “carrera”.

The up side is that the cost of getting your degree in Spain is far less than in other countries in which the young people live in halls of residence and suchlike. The downside, however, is that many children find themselves living with their parents into their thirties!

The full transcription and translation of this free Spanish podcast can be found in our Spanish worksheets as well as an analysis of the expressions used throughout the conversation. ¡Seguro que os va a gustar!

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Gordon’s Diaries

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The post Advanced Intermediate Free Spanish Podcast 16 – Elena Los Jovenes appeared first on Lightspeed Spanish.

5 min

November 09, 2011 Advanced Intermediate Spanish Podcast 15 – Double Pronouns in Spanish

Following on from the previous podcast on indirect object pronouns (IOPs, for short) and their use, we now cover double pronouns in Spanish, or the redundant use of IOPs. What, we hear you ask, is that? Well, unknown to most students are a list of verbs that require the IOP even when the name of the person receiving the action is mentioned.

Because this is not as commonly known as it should be it often causes massive confusion to students. (This is what happened to me, Gordon, when I heard sentences like, “Le dije a mi madre que…”)

Listen in to this free Spanish podcast and discover what this is all about and take your abilities with the language to new levels. Until you understand this fully and can incorporate the rule into your spoken Spanish, it’s probable that you will frequently make this mistake.

“Venga”, let’s get this sorted “¡de una vez!”

Of course, a full transcription, translation and lots of useful notes about this podcast can be found in the ever-useful Spanish help-sheets that also include a list along with working examples of the verbs that require the IOPs.

You won’t be disappointed! Have a listen!

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