This Valentine’s Day, send free Spanish love ecards that are animated, musical, and—best of all—say “I love you” in any of 9 languages! It’s our way to celebrate the holiday…
Also, learn how to say “I love you” in Spanish and 15 other languages by watching the new I love you video starring a very musical Transparent Language employee! Hint: forward this video to your sweetheart for extra romance points!
Happy Valentine’s Day!
I have always used songs in my lessons because I think they’re a fun way to learn. When I teach the subjunctive I always use a song by a Spanish duo, el Dúo Dinámico. They come from a very poor Spanish family (Basque and Aragonese) and are famous all over Spain and South America. One of their songs appears in Pedro Almodóvar’s movie ¡Átame! (Tie me up! Tie me down!). In “Resistiré” there are a lot of verbs used in the subjunctive and let’s try something here: you watch the video and supply the correct form used in the song. As a clue, the verbs are used in time expressions starting with “cuando”. Shall we go for it? Here are the verbs.
perder - dormir -cerrar -dejar -sentir-costar -rebelar -poner -soplar -romper -ser -apuñalar -reconocer - amenazar -salir -pasar
Post your answers and prontito les doy la respuesta.
Mujeres Alteradas is the title of a weekly comic strip where we get to know about women’s world and everything about it, focusing on men (husbands, boyfriends or lovers) and children. Married, single and widow women, teenagers, in their 20s, 30s or 40s, ugly, pretty, fat, thin, with or without boyfriend, successful in their jobs or out of work … they’re all in Maitena’s comic strips. Topics like plastic surgery, sexual satisfaction, going out on a date and more abound in these strips.
Mujeres Alteradas has been published weekly since 1993 in Para Ti, a traditional Argentinean women’s magazine and later it has also been published in La Stampa (Italia), El Mercurio (Chile), El País (Uruguay), El Nacional (Venezuela) and, since 1999 in the Sunday supplement of El País (España). Quino, a very famous Argentinean cartoonist says, “The best definition that comes to my mind about Maitena is that she doesn’t think before speaking. No reflective characters or useless bull. Maitena is spontaneous and fun and she doesn’t intend to be a “mirror that reflects reality”. On the contrary: she takes reality and the mirror and throws them out of the window.”
Here are some links for you to check out the strips of Mujeres Alteradas and other works by Maitena . Have fun and tell us what you think!
http://www.clubcultura.com/clubhumor/maitena/dibujos26.htm
http://www.clubcultura.com/clubhumor/maitena/dibujos27.htm
http://www.clubcultura.com/clubhumor/maitena/dibujos28.htm
http://www.clubcultura.com/clubhumor/maitena/dibujos29.htm
http://www.clubcultura.com/clubhumor/maitena/dibujos30.htm
http://www.clubcultura.com/clubhumor/maitena/dibujos31.htm
Nos vemos prontito!
Spanish has several verb tenses to express the past; two of them are Pretérito Perfecto Compuesto (present perfect simple) and Pretérito Perfecto Simple (simple past). This is how to distinguish them:
Pretérito Perfecto Compuesto is normally accompanied by expressions that refer to the present time. The reason for this is that this tense describes a perfect (finished) action that was completed within the same time frame the speaker is talking from. This is a subjective measure, and can change depending on the speaker’s perspective, according to how relevant the past action is in today’s world.
Hoy (today)
Esta mañana (this morning)
Esta semana (this week)
Este mes (this month)
Este verano (this summer) he estado en Buenos Aires.
Nunca (never)
Ya (already, yet)
Todavía no (not yet)
Pretérito Perfecto Simple can be accompanied by past time expressions that are not related to the present. It is a finished action that was completed in a time frame that is different to the one the speaker is talking from (again, subjectively). Therefore, the action is not relevant today.
Ayer (yesterday)
Hace cinco años (five years ago)
El mes pasado (Last month)
La semana pasada (last week) estuve en Buenos Aires.
El 4 de enero de 1989 (January 4th, 1989)
Hace mucho tiempo (a long time ago)
Cuando era pequeño (when I was a child)
If you have any questions about this, don’t hesitate to post a comment.
See you next time!
