Thursday, April 9, 2020

SUBJUNCTIVE 2 - VERBS OF INFLUENCE AND DESIRE

Leaving cert

Before you watch this video, make sure you have seen the first Subjunctive video that introduces the topic. 

In this blog we will look at using the Subjunctive with certain verbs of influence and desire....

Verbs mentioned in the video include....

Querer
Pedir
Esperar
Recomendar

The pattern is....

Verb of influence   +         que          +        subjunctive

Quiero que me ayudes. 
Espero que estés bien. 
Te recomiendo que vayas al hospital. 

Others include...
Desear
Decir
Exigir
Preferir

Watch the video and practice the subjunctive with verbs of influence and desire. 

Do the Quizlet for more practice. 





Click on the link to find more info on irregular and radical changing verbs in the subjunctive


Answers to the translations in the video....

He wants her to leave - Él quiere que ella salga. 

She recommends that they drink green tea. - Ella recomienda que beban te verde. 

I ask you to prepare dinner. - Te pido que prepares la cena. 




Wednesday, April 8, 2020

SER and ESTAR

Junior cert/ Leaving cert revision

In English we have one verb - To Be - where in Spanish they have 2 - Ser and Estar.

So what's the difference?

Ser: soy, eres, es, somos, sois, son

Descriptions
Time and date
Family relationships
Nationality
Profession


Estar; estoy, estás, está, estamos, estáis, están

Emotions
Location
Temporary states

Watch the video below and then do the Quizlet for practice....

More practice exercises here. 

Quizlet here on how to translate "is". 





Tuesday, April 7, 2020

PODCAST: EL VIRUS EN TURKMENISTAN


Today, we are finally going to talk a little about el coronavirus – the coronavirus. In English speaking countries we seem to be moving more towards using Covid-19, but in Spanish it is still referred to as el coronavirus.
This news story is about a little known country in Asia called Turkmenistan, which borders Afghanistan and Iran, and its reaction to the virus.

Before you listen to part one, let’s look at some vocabulary….
Plantar cara – to face up to something/ to fight or deal with
Detener – to arrest – detiene….
Negar – to deny – niega
Una fuente – a source
Part 1.
Question: How has Turkmenistan approached the coronavirus epidemic?


Part 2.
Vocab;
Turcomano – Turkmen – language in Turkmenistan
Turkmenbashi – the capital city
Contagiados – infected
Contagiar – to infect/ contagiarse – to get infected
Diagnosticar – to diagnose
Infección viral respiratoria – respiratory infection
Folletos – leaflets
Pandemia – the pandemic
Question: How is the virus supposedly being covered up in the hospitals in the capital?




Parts 1 and 2
Questions…
1.    Give more information about the website Chronicles of Turkmenistan.
2.    Give more information about the presumed cases of the virus that came in from Azerbayjan.
3.    Give one example of how the Health Ministry is trying to deny the existence of the virus in Turkmenistan.

 Transcript
Turkmenistán ha plantado cara al coronavirus...ignorándolo. Las autoridades han decidido prohibir hablar de ello y se resisten a admitir que dentro de sus fronteras haya ningún caso.
"La Policía detiene a la gente solo por mencionarlo", denuncia Alfonso Armada, de Reporteros Sin Fronteras.
"Turkmenistán se ha convertido en uno de casi treinta países del mundo (...), cuyas autoridades niegan los casos confirmados de coronavirus", advierte el sitio web Chronicles of Turkmenistan, una de las pocas fuentes independientes y cuya página está bloqueada en el país.
Sin embargo, periodistas que trabajan para Radio Azatlyk, el servicio en turcomano de Radio Free Europe, aseguran que hay varios casos, así como diez pasajeros presuntamente contagiados que llegaron al puerto de Turkmenbashi, a bordo de un ferry de Azerbaijan
Un corresponsal de Chronicles of Turkmenistan informó además del ingreso de "muchos" pacientes con infecciones respiratorias en el hospital en la capital, pero que a todos se les diagnostica oficialmente una infección viral respiratoria aguda.
La referencia al coronavirus ha desaparecido de los folletos dedicados a la prevención de enfermedades que distribuye el Ministerio de Sanidad, y, según Radio Azatlyk, citado por este portal, los policías pueden detener a residentes solamente por conversar sobre la pandemia del virus.

News story adapted from.....





IRREGULAR VERBS; PRESENT TENSE

Junior cert/ Leaving cert revision

Today we are going to focus on some Irregular Verbs in the Present Tense. 

These verbs are mostly irregular in the First Person....

Dar - doy
Ir - voy
Estar - estoy
Ser - soy

Salir - salgo
poner - pongo
decir - digo
oír - oigo

Do the Quizlet to practice irregular first persons...

Watch the video for more practice. 

Do another Quizlet for more advanced practice.....





More practice exercises here. 

SUBJUNCTIVE 1: WITH IMPERSONAL EXPRESSIONS

The Subjunctive can be a tricky area for students of Spanish, as it doesn't really exist in English and so is hard for English speakers to grasp. It is also used in a number of different situations, which complicates matters further. 

For this reason, we are going to start slowly. The first area we will look at is the area of Impersonal Expressions.....

These are expressions like....

Es importante que...
Es natural que...
Es difícil que...
Es normal que...
Es posible que...

To form the subjunctive we use the first person of the Present Tense. We then use the following endings....

AR verbs - e, es, e, emos, éis, en

IR/ER verbs - a, as, a, amos, áis, an

Watch the video for a more in depth look at the area. Do the Quizlet for more practice. More practice below....

Quizlet here for irregular subjunctives...




For more practice and info, check out this link. 

COMPARATIVES 2 - NO TAN RÁPIDO COMO.....

Junior cert/ Leaving cert

In this blog we will look at more advanced comparatives. 

We already learned about .....

Un león es más grande que un ratón. 

Now we add....

Un ratón no es tan grande como un león - A mouse is not as big as a lion.

We also add some irregular comparatives....

mejor - better
peor - worse
mayor que - older than
menor que - younger than

Watch the video and practice. Do the Quizlet for more practice. 
There are answers below to the activity in the video. 






Cintia es mayor que María. 
María es menor que Cintia. 
Cintia no es tan rica como María. 
María no es tan alta como Cintia. 
Maria no es tan feliz como Cintia. 

PRACTICE IMPERATIVES AND VOCAB WITH SONG - DEJA LA TRISTEZA

Imperatives are the form of the verb we use for giving orders, advice and invitations....

If you haven´t already seen it, look at the blog post and video about imperatives before doing this exercise. 


Listen to the song - Deja La Tristeza and fill in the blanks with the missing imperatives. There is some help at the bottom if you need it. 


The full file is available here with help and vocab. 


Full lyrics here





Chorus- refrán
_______________ la tristeza
y ____________ tus sueños a volar
ya no te costará
la alegría nos traerá
un mundo nuevo de ilusión
y cosas por lograr

Ya no te costará
La alegría nos traerá
___________________ a soñar y arráncate esa tristeza
que vive dentro de ti.
que se apodera de ti.


Y ____________ a hacer aquella
que una vez se alegraba y era tan bella y feliz
inmensamente feliz.
___________le ganas a tu vida
y nunca pares de luchar.
por las cosas que queremos
y que un día alcanzaremos.

Que ya no hay nada más urgente que buscar esa felicidad.
Y yo, yo te regalo una ilusión
una esperanza un alma nueva
yo haré por ti lo que tú quieras
si me aceptas corazón
Por eso déjate amar
Por eso déjate amar

Refrán
_____________ tu felicidad
___________ la tristeza
________________ del pasado
Y echa andar
____________ la tristeza y ______________ tus sueños a volar
Yo te daría algo que te inspire
Deja el pasado y solo vive
Deja la tristeza y pon tus sueños a volar
____________,
_____________ que tal vez mañana
vas a encontrar la felicidad.
(Vamos)
Deja la tristeza
Busca tu alegría
Y olvida las penas
Que se te va la vida
(Que se te va)
Deja la tristeza (déjala)
Busca tu alegría (alegría)
Y olvida las penas
Que se te va la vida
Búscala alegria
Busca la felicidad
Que se te va la vida
Que se te va la vida
Que se te va la vida
Que se te va la vida
Que se te va la vida



           deja                      pon                           atrévete (dare to)

         olvídate                 busca                         vuelve

          olvida                      sueña                       piensa



PODCAST FOR LISTENING PRACTICE

There is a new podcast designed to help Leaving Cert students with listening and with vocabulary - Listening to Spanish.

You can find the accompanying blog here....

The podcast itself can be listened to on the blog, but each episode can also be found on Spotify.

Below is an example of a blog and podcast, this time about addiction to television. 





This week we are going to talk about television in Spanish. You can listen to the podcast below, which will feature a news story about Teleadicción. Before listening, have a look at some vocabulary. 

Part 1 Vocab

una media de – an average of….       

El televisor – the TV set

La television – the programmes on the TV

La pequeña pantalla – the small screen

Telespectadores – viewers

Acontecimiento - evento, a happening

Mostrar un apego a – to show an attachment to


Part 1 What programme or broadcast set the record for TV viewers in Spain?



Part 2 Vocab


Propenso – likely to, have a tendency to

Un síntoma

No cabe ninguna duda – there can be no doubt that….


sedentarismo - related to being sedentary


Part 2 Question: What statistic is given about teenagers?








Parts 1 and 2

1.    How much time on average do Spanish people spend watching TV?
2.    What is the second conclusion that the writer comes to?
3.    What explanation is given at the end for why the Spanish are so addicted to television? 


Transcript...


TELEADICCIÓN EN ASCENSO
Cada español pasa una media de 239 minutos (o sea, cuatro horas) cada día de su vida delante del televisor. Así lo asegura el análisis de audiencias de 2011 elaborado por la firma Barlovento Comunicación y que arroja un nuevo récord.

Cada año, los españoles muestran un mayor apego a la pequeña pantalla, especialmente ante un evento futbolístico; capaz de reunir a millones de personas siguiendo el mismo balón. El récord lo marcó en 2011 el partido jugado el 3 de mayo por el Barcelona y el Real Madrid, acontecimiento que vieron más de 14 millones de telespectadores.

Una primera conclusión que presenta el propio análisis es que los nuevos medios de comunicación -redes sociales e Internet en general- no solo no han restado audiencia a la televisión, sino que la han aumentado. Una segunda conclusión mucho menos científica es que la vida del español es muy aburrida si se analiza su horario diario de lunes a viernes: ocho horas de cama, otras ocho de trabajo y cuatro ante el televisor apenas dejan tiempo para cualquier otra actividad que no sea el transporte diario y las comidas cotidianas.

Otros análisis demuestran que los adolescentes que pasan más de tres horas diarias ante el televisor son más propensos a abandonar los estudios tras la secundaria y que pasar tanto tiempo frente a la pequeña pantalla es una adicción como otra cualquiera. Lo que no se sabe es si  la teleadicción es una causa o el síntoma de un problema anterior.

De lo que no cabe ninguna duda es de que ver la televisión es garantía de sedentarismo y, una vez hecha la primera inversión en la compra del televisor, también de menor gasto. Tal vez sea por eso que ver la tele es el pasatiempo más popular entre los españoles; dando el bajo nivel de ahorros que tienen los españoles, la teleadicción es una de las consecuencias de una sociedad con pocos recursos económicos para gastar en la diversión.




IMPERATIVES IN SPANISH; ORDERS AND INVITATIONS

Imperatives are often described as orders or commands, but they can also be invitations and advice. 

Some imperatives in English....

"Come in".
"Have fun". 
"Sleep well". 
"Stay away". 

In English it is easy; we just use the infinitive of the verb. 

In Spanish it is much more complicated. 

The form of the verb changes depending on whether we are talking to one person or many, whether it is a positive imperative or a negative and whether we are using "tú" or "usted".

Do the quizlet here to practice irregular imperatives. 

Watch the video and learn about Imperatives in Spanish for the tú form. 




Some extra exercises here.

COMPARING THINGS IN SPANISH

JUNIOR CERT/ LEAVING CERT REVISION

Today's blog and video is centred on the theme of Animals. 

From there we will look at how to compare 2 things, people or animals in Spanish. 

There are many animals in the first part of the video. Watch it and learn the vocabulary. Alternatively, do the quizlet first, and then watch the video....



Following on from this, we look at how to compare things in Spanish. 

Soy más alto que mi hermano. - I am taller than my brother. 

Soy menos rico que mi hermana. - I am less rich than my sister. 

The pattern is "más ____________ que"
                       "menos _______________ que"







Some ideas about comparing Sligo and Dublin....

Dublín es más ruidoso que Sligo - Dublin is noisier than Sligo. 

Dublín es menos tranquilo que Sligo. 

Sligo es menos multicultural que Dublín. 

Dublín es más concurrido que Sligo - Dublin is busier than Sligo. 

Dublín está más lleno de gente - Dublin is more full of people. 

Sligo es menos rico que Dublín. 

Dublín está más urbanizado que Sligo. 

RADICAL CHANGING VERBS; PRESENT TENSE

Radical Changing Verbs (also called Stem Changing Verbs) are verbs, mostly in the Present Tense, where the internal vowel changes when we conjugate. 

To put it simply, we have the verb Dormir (to sleep) - this is the infinitive. 

To use it in the present tense we need to change it to 
yo duermo
tú duermes etc....

The "o" in the infinitive changes to "ue" when we use it in the present. 

We have three different kinds of these verbs, representing three different changes....
o - ue          (dormir, poder....)

e - ie           (pensar, entender...)

e - i              (pedir....)

Watch the video, do some practice and, if you want, do some extra practice from the link below.....








There are more practice exercises here. 

PRESENT TENSE; REGULAR VERBS

JUNIOR CERT/ LEAVING CERT REVISION

This blog and video is to explain the Present tense in Spanish and to show you how to conjugate the various types of verbs in Spanish. 

Watch the video, do the practice that is on the video and there is further practice below....






More practice can be found here....

Tuesday, March 17, 2020

THE ORAL EXAM - THE PRESENT TENSE - ESSENTIAL NUMBER 1

ESSENTIAL 1 - THE PRESENT TENSE

In the oral exam there are a number of themes and areas that you can get tested on, but there are three that must be asked. The first of these is the present tense.

The Present tense (El Presente de Indicativo) is not used to talk about what is happening now, but rather what happens regularly, often, never, usually. It is about habitual actions.

For this reason we use it with words like 
siempre - always, 
nunca - never, 
a veces - sometimes, 
normalmente - usually.

Two of the main ways you can be asked about the Present tense is by asking about...
(i) pasatiempos (pastimes) or 
(ii) rutina diaria (daily routine).



In the oral, the most important form of the verb is the "Yo" form, the first person, as you are typically talking about yourself. The ending for the first person is, of course, "o" - 
como
me llamo, 
trabajo, 
juego al fútbol etc...

For a breakdown of possible verbs to use for talking about pasatiempos, click here.


For a guide on how to talk about your daily routine, click here

It is important to note that there are many reflexive verbs involved in talking about a typical day, including  - 
me levanto - I get up, 
me visto - I get dressed, 
me ducho - I have a shower,
me acuesto - I go to bed.

We will have a guide to reflexive verbs coming soon. 

ROLE PLAY 1; THE BEACH (LA PLAYA)




In the Leaving Cert oral exam every student is given one of five role plays to complete. The student has to play the part of a young person in Spain, in a variety of situations, at a first aid post on a beach, on a boat, in a hotel etc. The examiner plays the part of the Spanish person talking to the student.

The best way to prepare for the role plays is to break each section down to individual expressions, and to learn the expressions. For example, in the first role play, you are on a beach in Santander, and step on a piece of broken glass. You go to the first aid hut and say to the attendant there...

"Say you are sorry to bother him/her but you have cut your foot.
Say it is bleeding a lot but you do not think it’s serious but it hurts badly."

Instead of having to learn the whole first part together, it is easier to take it expression by expression..

Sorry to bother you - siento molestarte

I have cut my foot - me he cortado el pie

It is bleeding a lot - está sangrando mucho

It hurts badly - me duele mucho

The whole of role play 1 is done like this, and can be found here. Check out the video above....