35: Practicing Ser and Estar, in all tenses

Let's polish Ser and a Star.

I'm Timothy, and this is Today we're gonna use a huge quiz to practice ser and estar, including every commonly used tense and mood, from the imperfect to the subjunctive to the conditional.

But first, I'd like to point something out about the prepositions de and a. So far we've been practicing putting these before feminine nouns, such as de la chica or a la casa. But we've intentionally avoided putting them before the word lugar, which is a masculine noun. So for example, we haven't practiced saying to the place or from the place. The thing is, you might think that to say from the place, you should say de el lugar.

But in Spanish, the words de and el blend together into one new word, del, spelled D-E-L. Let's practice with a couple of examples. We went from the place to the house and ¡We want del lugar a la casa! Fuimos del lugar a la casa. We are at the guy's house. Estamos en la casa del chico. Estamos en la casa del chico. This also happens with a el or to the. So for example, to the place is not a lugar, it's alugar. This word is spelled A L.

And in fact, this isn't optional. It's a rule. You're not allowed to say de el as separate words, or a el as separate words. They're always blended together like this. Of course, this only happens in cases where you would otherwise use L or the. But we should practice this. Whenever you use a or de right before el, you have to change it to al or del. Let's practice with a few more examples. I want to go to the place. I want to go al lugar. Quiero ir al lugar.

They have gone from the place to the house. They have gone del lugar a la casa. Han ido del lugar a la casa. I said that to the guy. I said eso al chico. Le dije eso al chico.

Before we get to our quiz, there's one example that I need to explain in some detail. In today's quiz, you're gonna see the sentence Our friend masculine or our friend feminine would be here. Of course, we'll start this sentence with nuestro amigo o nuestra amiga. And then you would expect estaría aquí using the singular conjugation estaría, because only one of them is going to do the action.

But for some reason, in Spanish, when you say that one person or another person is going to do something, you usually use a plural verb form afterward. That's weird for English because after all, only one of them is going to do it. But in Spanish, it's natural to use plural panda conjugations in these situations instead of singular conjugations. So we have our friend masculine or our friend feminine would be here. Nuestro amigo or nuestra amiga estarían aquí.

Nuestro amigo o nuestra amiga estarían aquí.

All right, now it's time for our big quiz to practice all the things we've been working on recently. Watch for a few examples of del and al as we go through this. This thing has been here, but that one hasn't. Esta cosa has estado aquí, pero esa no. Esta cosa ha estado aquí, pero esa no. The things that you had that day were from the guy. Las cosas que you had ese día eran del chico. Las cosas que tenías ese día eran del chico. It would be good, but you aren't where I was.

Sería bueno, pero no estás donde estuve. Sería bueno, pero no estás donde estuve. In the next one, the friend is masculine. That day she was at that place with her friend. Ese día estuvo en ese lugar con su amigo. Ese día estuvo en ese lugar con su amigo. The days when we are here are good, but that day won't be. Los días cuando estamos aquí son buenos, pero ese día no lo será. Los días cuando estamos aquí son buenos, pero ese día no lo será.

Our friend, masculine, or our friend, feminine, would be here. Nuestro amigo o nuestra amiga estarían aquí. Nuestro amigo o nuestra amiga estarían aquí. This is the boys. Esto es del chico. Esto es del chico. I didn't go to the place. No, I went al lugar. No fui al lugar. No fui al lugar. I'll be a good guy with your friends. Seré um bom chico com seus amigos. Seré un buen chico con tus amigos. I would be in this house with this boy. Estaría en esta casa con este chico.

Estaría en esta casa con este chico. It isn't the boys, but he is going to his house. No es del chico, pero he is going a su casa. No es del chico, pero va a ir a su casa. In the next one, the person you're talking to is masculine. You aren't being good, or you would be here. ¿No estás siendo bueno o estarías aquí? ¿No estás siendo bueno o estarías aquí? In the next one the boys friends are masculine and the girls' friends are feminine.

That boy has his friends and that girl has her friends Ese chico has sus amigos y esa chica has sus amigas. Ese chico tiene sus amigos y esa chica tiene sus amigas. If that thing is here, that boy will be here. Si esa cosa está aquí, ese chico estará aquí. Si esa cosa está aquí, ese chico estará aquí. My friends and I would be in that place. Mis amigos y yo estaríamos en ese lugar. We don't want to go to the place where you are. No, we want to go al lugar where tú estás.

No queremos ir al lugar donde tú estás. In the next one, this one is masculine. She wouldn't be with this one. No estaría con este. No estaría con este. In the next one, this one is masculine. This one hasn't been my best work. Este no ha sido mi best work. Este no ha sido mi mejor trabajo. In the next one, the friend is masculine. It would be good if your friend came from Mexico. Seria bueno si tu amigo came de Mexico. Sería bueno si tu amigo viniera de México.

In the next one, store is feminine. I'm going from the store to the house. I'm going de la store a la casa. Voy de la tienda a la casa.

For access to the flashcard so that you can practice with all of this, go to lcspodcast.com slash thirty-five. This show is brought to you by LearncraftsPanish.com. The Spanish voice in this episode was our coach Jimena Lamar Rondon. Our music was provided by the Seattle Marimba Quartet, and I'm Timothy, encouraging you to do the hard work of learning Spanish. Acquiring a second language is one of the most fulfilling things you can do, so start your fluency journey today at lcspodcast.com.