Por el camino compra un periódico

El señor López está en casa en la cama y escucha la radio. Entra la señora de López con el desayuno. El señor López toma el desayuno y cuando termina, va a la fábrica. Por el camino compra un periódico. El señor López es ingeniero. La fábrica donde trabaja es muy grande, es una fábrica gigantesca. Cuando llega a la fábrica, el ingeniero habla con el director, después visita los talleres y habla con los obreros y con las obreras. Cuando el ingeniero López termina el trabajo, regresa a casa.

Audio:

Vocablos

Notes

Pronunciation

Pay attention to the words with transcription in the vocabulary above. These were the last hints about pronunciation. If you still can’t read words without trancription, return to the first lesson and repeat it.

The meaning of words and expressions

El señor López está en casa. - Mr. Lopez is at home.

Note the preposition en here and the article at the beginning..

Va a la fábrica. - He goes to the factory.

The verb va goes is 3^rd person singular of the verb ir to go. The verb ir always requires the preposition a, which show the direction, like the English preposition to.

López es ingeniero. - Lopez is an engineer.

Note that there is no indefinite article in the Spanish version of the sentence here and remember not to put it in similar sentences with occupations.

Learn the expressions:

Grammar points

1. The use of acento

Remember that acento, the accent mark in Spanish, is placed not only to show stress of the words that are pronounced not according to the general rule, but also to show their different meaning, for example:

More usage of acento will be shown in the further lessons.

2. Personal pronouns

The English speakers should be careful here, because you don’t have polite forms in English, but Spanish and other languages do. You can’t just say ‘tú’ to a stranger or your boss or older people.

Another distinctive feature is that personal pronouns are often omitted in Spanish, if the person is easily understood:

tomo el desayuno I’m having brekfast (but literally: Having/have breakfast)

The form tomo (1^st person singular) shows what person we are talking about.

However, if the sentence may cause ambiguity, the pronouns should be used, for example:

Yo voy a la fábrica y tú tomas el desayuno.
I’m going to the factory, and you’re having breakfast.

The personal pronouns we, you (pl.), they in Spanish have two genders: masculine — nosotros, vosotros, ellos and feminine — nosotras, vosotras, ellas. And if the group of people is mixed? Good question, boyo. If there is at least one male, you need to use nosotros, vosotros, ellos.

The plural forms vosotros, vosotras you are used only to address more than one person, who you already know, or a group of people in a meeting, or, for example, if an author would address the readers. Vosotros is a gender-neutral pronoun. Vosotros is rarely used in Latin America. The counterpart to vosotros in Latin America is ustedes. Ustedes is used in Latin America in both formal and informal situations. Nowadays, using vosotros in Spain expresses a certain familiarity to the person or people you’re conversing with, and it’s used in casual conversation. It’s similar to saying ‘you guys’ or ‘you all’ in English.

The forms usted singular (Vd. or Ud. for short) [usˈteð] and ustedes plural (Vds. or Uds. for short) [usˈteðes] are polite forms in Spanish. If you are not sure that you may say tú to people, than use them. Usted — Vd. originates from the combination of two words: V(uestra) (merce)d — your worship/grace.

3. Conjugation I. Present tense of the indicative mood (presente del modo indicativo)

There are three classes or conjugations of verbs in Spanish.

The first class, we’ll call it ‘conjugation I’, include the verbs that end in ‘-ar’ in their infinitive form, for example:

The present tense of the indicative mood of the first class is formed from the stem of an infinitive verb with the help of the following endings:

In order to form the present tense of a verb, we drop the ending -ar from the infinitive verb and add the appropriate ending of the present tense, for example:

Note: all the translations above and below can be in the continuous forms as well, depending on the context. The simple form is used by default because it’s... simple :) and more close to the original meaning.

Presente
Present tense
(indicative mood)

tomar to take
Affirmative form

singular
yo tomo			I take
tú tomas			you take
él	toma		he	takes
ella			she
usted toma			you take

plural
nosotros tomamos		we take (m.)
nosotras tomamos		we take (f.)
vosotros tomáis		you take (m.)
vosotras tomáis		you take (f.)
ellos toman		they take (m.)
ellas toman		they take (f.)
ustedes toman		you take

Notes:

1. The singular and plural form of 3^rd person agrees with the polite form of the verb, for example:
   

   él	toma		ellos	toman
   ella			ellas
   usted			ustedes

2. The masculine plural form of 1^st and 2^nd person agrees with the feminine form of the same person and number, for example:

    

   nosotros tomamos

   vosotros tomáis

    

   nosotras tomamos

   vosotras tomáis

Interrogative form

Negative form

yo no tomo			I don’t take
tú no tomas			you don’t take
él	no toma		he doesn’t take
ella			she doesn’t take
Vd.			you don’t take
nosotros no tomamos			we don’t take
vosotros no tomáis			you don’t take
ellos	no toman		they don’t take (m.)
ellas			they don’t take (f.)
Vds.			you don’t take

4. The conjugation of the verbs ir and estar in the present tense

Just like in English, there are irregular verbs in Spanish. The verbs ir to go and estar to be are two of them.

In the present tense, these verbs are conjugated in the following way (pronounce v as [β] in the word ir below):

Presente

ir to go

estar to be

singular
yo estoy			I am
tú estás			you are
él	está *		he	is
ella			she
Vd.			you are

plural
nosotros estamos			we are
vosotros estáis			you are
ellos	están *		they are (m.)
ellas			they are (f.)
Vds.			you are

Exercises

I. Answer the following questions:

¿Dónde está el señor López? ¿Qué escucha el señor López? ¿Qué compra López por el camino? ¿Cómo es la fábrica donde trabaja López? ¿Cuándo regresa a casa el ingeniero López?

II. Fill in the blanks with appropriate verb endings:

Yo trabaj tú trabaj él trabaj nosotros trabaj vosotros trabaj ellas trabaj usted trabaj ellos regres vosotros regres nosotros regres él regres tú regres yo regres usted regres nosotros habl vosotros trabaj ella escuch él lleg ustedes lleg tú termin ellos visit nosotros estudi usted escuch ustedes visit yo trabaj tú habl él escuch la radio. Usted entr en la habitación. Nosotros (ir) a la fábrica. Nosotros escuch la radio. Usted termin el trabajo. Ellas habl con la señora de López. El ingeniero López regres a casa. Usted habl con el ingeniero López. Vosotros compr el periódico. Yo tom el desayuno y escuch la radio. Ella est en la cama. Nosotros compr un periódico, después tom el desayuno y después (ir) a la fábrica donde trabaj.

III. Translate into English:

El señor López no trabaja, está en la cama. La señora de López no está en casa, está en la fábrica. La señora de López compra un periódico. Cuando llega a casa habla con el señor López y después escucha la radio. Nosotros trabajamos en la fábrica. Cuando terminamos el trabajo, regresamos a casa y por el camino compramos un libro. ¿Cuándo regresa Vd. a casa?

IV. Translate into Spanish:

I’m in bed and I’m having breakfast. She works. I go to the factory, she works at home. I come back home, she talks with Mrs. Lopez. We’re having breakfast when you go to the factory. When we work, they (f.) talk. When you come back home, we’re having breakfast. When he enters (in) the room, you (pl.) finish the breakfast and go to the factory. Engineer Lopez enters the room. There are three books on the table. He is an engineer. Mrs. Lopez doesn’t work. There are mugs on the table. Where do you work? (polite form) Does engineer Lopez work with you? (p. f.)