The Weather

21.1 Basic Sentences — The Weather

Molina and White continue their visit to the base with Lieutenant La Cerda. They discuss the changeable weather and make plans to head back to the city.

Dialog

English	Spanish
How did you all like the base?	¿Qué les ha parecido la base?
Very interesting. It’s the first time I’ve visited one.	Muy interesante. Es la primera vez que yo visito una.
It sure is cold!	¡Qué frío hace!
Sure is. The weather is mighty changeable here.	Es verdad. ¡Cómo cambia el tiempo aquí!
Yesterday was a pleasant, sunny day.	Ayer hizo un día de sol muy agradable.
Or rather, it was just plain hot.	Más bien hizo calor.
We took a ride.	Nosotros dimos una vuelta.
We went to the country.	Fuimos al campo.
I only took a walk through the park.	Yo sólo anduve por el parque.
It’s cloudy now. Looks like it’s going to rain.	Ahora está nublado. Parece que va a llover.
And there’s considerable wind.	Y hay mucho viento.
Why don’t we go inside and have a good hot cup of coffee?	¿Por qué no entramos y nos tomamos un café bien caliente?
Thanks a lot but we can’t. We’ve got to leave.	Se lo agradecemos mucho, pero no podemos. Tenemos que irnos.
I’m going to the city. Do you want to come with me?	Yo voy para la ciudad. ¿Quieren venir conmigo?
You won’t need to bother, lieutenant. I brought my car.	No se moleste, teniente. Yo traje mi auto.

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21.10 Notes on the Basic Sentences

(1) This sentence more nearly literally says, “How have you all liked the base,” so there is some question as to whether a translation in simple present (“How do you like…”) or in simple past (“How did you like…”) is better.

(2) Here is a problem of translation which precisely reverses the one just examined: the Spanish says, “It’s the first time I visit one,” which is quite impossible in English. We substitute “have visited,” and it begins to be clear that the Spanish present perfect verb phrase and the English present perfect verb phrase are likely to appear in rather different situations.

(3) This particular sentence and two of those just below (Ayer hizo un día… and Más bien hizo calor) illustrate the use of hacer in weather expressions. We say, “It’s hot”; they say, “It makes heat.”

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21.2 Drills and Grammar

21.21.1 Irregular Past I verb forms — An -ar verb taking regular -er/-ir endings

The verb dar is unique in the pattern of its past I tense forms. It is the only instance where the stem of a verb of one theme class combines with the regular endings of another theme class in the conjugation of a verb paradigm.

	dar (d-)
yo	di
tú	diste
él/ella/Ud.	dio
nosotros	dimos
ellos/Uds.	dieron

Translation drill

English	Spanish
He and I gave the sofa to Carmen.	Él y yo le dimos el sofá a Carmen.
I also gave her a suitcase.	Yo también le di una maleta.
They gave her the photos.	Ellos le dieron las fotos.
What did she give her?	¿Qué le dio ella?
Who did you give the bill to?	¿A quién le dieron la cuenta?
He gave her the key to the car.	Él le dio la llave del auto.
I didn’t give her permission.	Yo no le di permiso.

21.21.2 Irregular Past I verb forms — Verbs with extended stems

Three Spanish verbs have extensions — additional sounds added to their stems when they appear with past I tense endings. They are furthermore irregular in having a set of alternate past I endings that differ significantly from the endings which occur with regular formations.

Verb	Regular stem	Extended stem
estar	est-	estuv-
andar	and-	anduv-
traer	tra-	traj-

Alternate endings
yo	-e
tú	-iste
él/ella/Ud.	-o
nosotros	-imos
ellos/Uds.	-ieron (-eron after -j-)

The extension -uv- is added to the stems of estar and andar before the endings in past I tense forms. The extension -j- is added to the stem of traer. The 2-3 pl alternate ending -ieron appears as -eron (the -y- dropping out) after the sound -j- in most dialect areas.

Translation drill

English	Spanish
Yesterday I brought the car.	Ayer traje el coche.
He also brought (one).	Él también trajo.
On Sunday we didn’t bring it.	El domingo no lo trajimos.
They didn’t bring anything.	Ellos no trajeron nada.
We walked around downtown.	Anduvimos por el centro.
They also walked around there.	Ellos también anduvieron por allá.
We were at Immigration.	Estuvimos en Inmigración.
He wasn’t there.	Él no estuvo allí.
Where were they?	¿Dónde estuvieron ellos?

21.21.3 Irregular Past I verb forms — Verbs with modified stems

The common feature of these verb stem changes is a high vowel (/u/ or /i/) in the past I stem. A vowel or a consonant or both may change in the formation of the past I stem.

Vowel change	Consonant change	Vowel + consonant change
poder → pud-	traducir → traduj-	querer → quis-
saber → sup-	decir → dij-	venir → vin-
caber → cup-		tener → tuv-
hacer → hic-/hiz-		poner → pus-

All these verbs use the same alternate endings as the extended-stem verbs above. None of the formations have strong stress on their final syllable; rather all have strong stress on their next-to-last syllable. No -ar theme class verbs appear in this group of irregular verbs.

Translation drill

English	Spanish
I didn’t say that.	Yo no dije eso.
We didn’t say anything.	Nosotros no dijimos nada.
What did she say?	¿Qué dijo ella?
Last night I didn’t want to go out.	Anoche no quise salir.
What did you do last night?	¿Qué hizo Ud. anoche?
How many people were able to get in the car?	¿Cuántas personas cupieron en el auto?
Why couldn’t you go?	¿Por qué no pudo ir?
What did you have to do last night?	¿Qué tuvo que hacer Ud. anoche?
We had to work.	Tuvimos que trabajar.
Where did you all put the books?	¿Dónde pusieron Uds. los libros?
We put them on the table.	Los pusimos en la mesa.
Did you translate well?	¿Tradujo Ud. bien?
Why couldn’t you?	¿Por qué no pudo?

21.21.4 Irregular Past I verb forms — Verbs with suppleted stems

The verbs ser and ir have the same stem (/fw-/) for past I as well as the same unique endings. The resulting past I forms of these verbs are, therefore, identical. They are differentiated only by context.

	ser / ir
yo	fui
tú	fuiste
él/ella/Ud.	fue
nosotros	fuimos
ellos/Uds.	fueron

Translation drill

English	Spanish
We were your neighbors.	Nosotros fuimos sus vecinos.
Who was your neighbor?	¿Quién fue su vecino?
She was very good to (with) us.	Ella fue muy buena con nosotros.
They were very good neighbors.	Ellos fueron muy buenos vecinos.
Who went with you?	¿Quién fue con Ud.?
I didn’t go with them.	Yo no fui con ellos.
Where did you all go?	¿A dónde fueron Uds.?

21.21.5 Statement intonation patterns — Deliberate statements

When the normal tempo of conversational Spanish is slowed down — as, for instance, when one is talking to a large group of people — a number of changes occur, both in the form of the sounds in sequence and in the manner in which they are arranged. The intonation of slower speech is characterized by separation of important syntactical units in the utterance. This separation is signalled by the appearance of single bar junctures, often described by speakers of the language as a “sort of pause.”

Normal	Deliberate
/1211↓/	/122|121↓/

21.24 Review drill — Theme class in Past II tense forms

English	Spanish
He used to talk and eat a lot.	Hablaba y comía mucho.
They studied and ate there.	Estudiaban y comían ahí.
He worked and ate very little.	Trabajaba y comía muy poco.
We worked and lived there.	Trabajábamos y vivíamos ahí.
We worked and ate too much.	Trabajábamos y comíamos demasiado.
We talked and wrote a lot.	Hablábamos y escribíamos mucho.
They talked and wrote very well.	Hablaban y escribían muy bien.
We went down and up very little.	Bajábamos y subíamos muy poco.
He went down and up a lot.	Bajaba y subía mucho.
They studied and went out also.	Estudiaban y salían también.
We studied but didn’t learn.	Estudiábamos pero no aprendíamos.

Note: The full drills and practice exercises are designed for oral work with the audio recordings. Open the Student Text PDF for the complete drill sets.

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21.4 Reading — Plan de Estudiar

The reading selection continues the story of the Robinsons and the Fuentes. Virginia introduces her husband Fred, who speaks Spanish correctly but with difficulty and a heavy accent. Don Ricardo is somewhat frustrated — he had spent the entire previous day studying English and memorizing verb conjugations, only to find himself speaking Spanish again. Fred proposes a practical plan: the two men will meet two or three times a week to practice, Fred working on his Spanish and Ricardo on his English. Fred insists on one condition — they practice by repeating complete phrases, as he learned in Washington, rather than conjugating verbs, “because conjugating verbs, we don’t even get to first base.” This baseball expression delights Ricardo, and the two agree to a plan of mutual language exchange.