Semana 6 – La comida y el pasado

Vocabulario: la comida, las tiendas de comida, la lista de compras y los ingredientes

Are you hungry? Maybe you should eat before because we are going to talk about food! Learn and practice the vocab. because from now on, if you eat something, you should think, what is this called in Spanish?

Las tiendas o secciones del supermercado:

La frutería​:	Fruit store
La verdulería	Green grocer​
La pescadería	Seafood/fish store
La panadería	Bakery
La carnicería	Butcher

Una lista de compras para la frutería (a shopping list for fruit store):

La banana / el plátano	Banana
La naranja	Orange
El limón​	Lemon
El coco	Coconut
El melón	Melon
La sandía	Watermelon
La piña​	Pineapple
La toronja / el pomelo	Grapefruit
La manzana	Apple
Las uvas​	Grapes
El kiwi​	Kiwi
El mango	Mango
La papaya	Pawpaw
La pera	Pear
El melocotón	Peach​
El aguacate / la palta	Avocado
La fresa	Strawberry
El tomate​	Tomato

Una lista de compras para la verdulería (a shopping list for the greengrocer):

El maíz​	Corn
La cebolla	Onion
La lechuga	Lettuce
El calabacín​:	Zucchini
Los frijoles	Beans​
Las habichuelas verdes	Green beans
Los pimientos​	Capsicum
El ajo	Garlic
La patata / la papa	Potato
Los champiñones (las setas)	Mushrooms ​
La zanahoria	Carrots
La calabaza	Pumpkin
Los guisantes	Peas

Una lista de compras para una barbacoa (a shopping list for a bbq- a visit to the fishmonger and the butcher):

Carne	Meat
Pollo	Chicken
Carne de cerdo	Pork
Carne de res	Beef
Salchichas	Sausage
Jamon	Ham
Tocino	Bacon
Bistecs	Beef steaks
Chuletas	Chops
Pavo	Turkey
Huevos	Eggs
Carne picada	Ground / minced beef
Langostas	Prawns
Atún	Tuna

Cereales (grains):

Arroz	Rice
Pan	Bread
Galletas	Biscuits
Harina	Flour
Pasta	Pasta

Lácteos (dairy):

Leche	Milk
Mantequilla	Butter
Queso	Cheese
Yogur	Yogurt

Postres (desserts):

Dulces	Sweets
Flan	Flan
Helado	Ice cream
Pastel	Pastry / cakes

Condimentos (condiments):

Sal	Salt
Pimienta	Pepper
Azúcar	Sugar
Aceite de oliva	Olive oil

The simple past tense: el pretérito indefinido (regular verbs)

Finally, a different tense, the tense that allows us to talk about previous things that happened in the past!

In the past weeks, we have been talking about things that we normally do with the present tense, things that we are doing with the present progressive and what we are going to do using ir + a+ infinitive verb. We will talk now about what we did. Languages usually have several ways to refer to things that have happened in the past.

For instance, you can talk about what you did yesterday at 7:23PM, and that would require a very direct past tense (pretérito)

 

However, you can also talk about things that you used to do all the time in the past (using the pasado imperfecto)

 

In this unit, we’re only going to focus on the simple past: el pretérito (in English, the preterit).

This past tense lets us talk about things that happened at specific points in time in the past, as well as actions that are finished.

 

We’ll talk about its use more in the coming weeks; for now, let’s simply get used to seeing it and conjugating it. Though it will be hard work to master, you’ll love it because now you can finally have more complete and natural conversations.

You already know how to use the present tense to express ideas

 

Now, you’ll also be able to talk about things that happened in the past:

 

So, let’s start by looking at the regular verbs.

Remember, they’re our best friends because they follow all the rules!

We’ll start by taking our -AR, -ER and -IR ending verbs

 

For a complete set of endings and subjects, we will need to learn the table below:

Pronombres personales	-AR Ej: Hablar	-ER Ej: Comer	-IR Ej: Vivir
Yo	Hablé	Comí	Viví
tú	Hablaste	Comiste	Viviste
Él/ella, usted	Habló	Comió	Vivió
Nosotros/as	Hablamos	Comimos	Vivimos
Vosotros/as	Hablasteis	Comisteis	Vivisteis
Ellos/ellas, ustedes	Hablaron	Comieron	Vivieron

You will have noticed that the -ER and -IR endings remain the same. Bonus!

Now, you can practise these regular conjugations with the following verbs: amar, escuchar, mirar, viajar, pintar, cantar, descansar, pescar, limpiar, beber, vender, correr, barrer, subir, despertarse, levantarse, ducharse, acostarse, tumbarse.

With this past tense, we are going to need specific time expressions used with el pretérito indefinido

Ayer	Yesterday
Anoche	Las night
Antes de ayer/ anteayer	Day before yesterday
El otro día	The other day
El lunes pasado, el jueves pasado, el viernes pasado (specific days)	Last Monday, last Thursday, last Friday…
La semana pasada, el año pasado…	Last week, last year
en 2011 (dos mil once)	In 2011
El 3 de junio (specific date)	On June 3
Hace dos días	Two days ago

 

Regular verbs are the easy ones, so let’s not underestimate them and take the time you need to master these new tenses!

Exclamations!!! ¡Exclamaciones!

In English, when we want to emphasise that we don’t like anything at all, that we really like something, or that we are surprised by something, we can say, “that is so…”, for example, “that is so interesting” or just “so interesting”. In Spanish, we use the expression “¡qué…!”; for example, ¡qué interesante!

To express an exclamation, you simply need to use the following construction:

“Qué” + adjetivo/adverbio/nombre… and some exclamation marks (at the beginning and the end).

Remember that adjectives need to agree in gender and number with what they describe: ​

¡Qué buena (es esta música)!​	This music is awesome!
¡Qué buenos (son estos músicos)!​	These musicians are great!
¡Qué bien tocan!​	They play really well!
¡Qué mal cantan!	They sing horribly!

​And some food-related expressions/exclamations:

¡Qué rico! / ¡Qué rico está!​	How tasty!
¡Qué sabroso!/ ¡Qué sabroso está!​	How flavourful!
¡Qué rica es la comida de aquí! ​	The food here is delicious!
¡Qué buena está esta salsa!​ ¡Qué mala está esta comida!​	This sauce is excellent! This food is terrible!
¡Qué bien sabe!​	These tastes great!
¡Qué asco!	Disgusting!

Exclamations will come in handy when we are listening to a conversation and want to give a quick affirmation that we are listening or when we want to react to something like food.

Well… that is all for this week, see you next!

¡Nos vemos!