Future Perfect in Spanish. Al + infinitive. Perder

Puntualidad

En este momento llaman a la puerta y entra Miguel. Al ver a Miguel José se levanta, toma un libro y se lo da abierto. Este sorprendido lee lo siguiente:

— ¿A qué hora almuerza usted? — le pregunto.

— Por ahí, por ahí ... dice mi amigo. — Yo almuerzo de una a dos. A veces me siento a la mesa cerca de las tres ... De todos modos, a las cuatro siempre estoy libre.

— A las cinco. Muy bien. A las cinco ... es decir, de cinco a cinco y media .... Uno no es un tren, ¡qué diablos!

— No hay derecho — exclama días después al encontrarme en la calle. — Me hace usted fijar una hora, me hace usted correr, y resulta que no me aguarda usted ni diez minutos. A las ocho y media en punto yo estaba en el café ...”

Vocablos

Notes

The meaning of words and expressions

hacer + infinitive make do smth.

Uno + 3^rd person singular verb

In Spanish, the indefinite article uno, una + 3^rd person singular verb forms impersonal turns of speech that are translate into English using either ‘you’ or the impersonal pronoun ‘one’, for example:

Que, ¿qué?

As in English, ¿qué? what? used both as an interrogative pronoun-noun and as an interrogative pronoun-adjective.

¿Qué? as the interrogative pronoun-noun is used independently and usually goes before a verb, for example:

¿Qué? as the interrogative pronoun-adjective is always used with a noun, defining mainly the quality both an object or a person.

The que that, used as a conjunction before a question, repeats the question and gives the answer simultaneously, for example:

In the second interrogative sentence que is used intead of Vd. pregunta or Vd. dice.

Learn the expressions:

Grammar points

1. Future perfect of the indicative mood (futuro perfecto de indicativo).

Future perfect of the indicative mood (futuro perfecto de indicativo) is used to talk about something that will have been completed at a certain point in the future, just like Future perfect in English. However, Futuro perfecto is also used to indicate probability, or what might have, could have or must have happened. For example:

Futuro perfecto of the indicative mood is formed with the auxiliary verb haber in Futuro imperfecto de indicativo and the passive participle of the main verb.

The verb haber in the future imperfect tense is conjugated in the following way:

Negative form:

Interrogative form:

The conjugation of the reflexive verb lavarse
in futuro perfecto de indicativo

Affirmative form:

Negative form:

Interrogative form:

2. Construction al + infinitive

In Spanish, in order to express different adverbial relations, different infinitive constructions are used that consist of prepositions and the infinitive.

The construction al + infinitive replaces gerundio. This constructions performs as subordinate adverbial clause of time, emphasizing simultaneous or preceding action directly concerned with the subject of the sentence.

This construction is translated into English using ‘upon,’ ‘on,’ or ‘when’ followed by the gerund (-ing), for example:

If there is another verb in the sentence with the construction al + infinitive, which is not connected with the subject of the construction, then it would be better to translate the construction al + infinitive with the subordinate clause with the conjunction when.

You can also replace al + infinitive with the subordinate clause with cuando and a verb in the indicative mood, for example:

3. The verb perder

The verb perder to lose is conjugated as the verb comenzar (group I of deviating verbs, see lesson 10). For example:

pierdo, pierdes, pierde, perdemos etc.
I lose, you lose, he loses, we loses etc.

Exercises

I. Put the verbs in brackets in the correct form of Future perfect:

Juan (leer) este libro. Juana (ir) al cine con Juan. José y María (reñir) de nuevo. No podemos encontrar la casa, (perder) el camino. Recuerdo esta película, la (ver) ya. Estás palido, (trabajar) mucho.

II. Change the sentences using al + infinitive, according to the example:

Example: Me encontró y exclamó — Al encontrarme exclamó.

III. Translate into English:

Miguel ha llegado tarde. Todos pensaron que había perdido el camino, pero Miguel les dijo que había olvidado a qué hora quedaron en encontrarse. Todos fueron a ver la corrida. Al verla Miguel decidió escribir a casa. Usted habrá escrito ya muchas cartas. He escrito muchas, mis padres y mis amigos estarán contentos. Al llegar a Madrid pensé quedarme aquí pocos días, pero quedaré unos días más y así habré visto todo.

IV. Translate into Spanish (use the topics of the lesson):

Miguel must have met someone, because it is already late and he’s not coming. He must have forgotten that we are waiting for him. Upon hearing a voice, Carmen opened the door and Miguel came in. When everyone saw him, they all started talking to him. Why are you coming so late? You must have met a beautiful (g....) Spaniard. — Jose says. I have met many beautiful Spaniards — Miguel says — but I couldn’t talk to them. — Were they with their boyfriends? — One was alone and upon meeting her I decided to start a conversation with her, but she looked at me and when I saw the look in her beautiful (b.....) black eyes I said nothing.