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I’d still love for you to make a video on the past tense! Like Fue/Era/Estuvo/Estaba for example. I’ve watched a lot of videos on it but I think the way you do explain things would really help me to finally get this particular topic down!
I remember being at the doctor's surgery a few months back and I wanted to tell the receptionist *he told me to come here today* and it completely threw me. I found out the correct way to say it afterwards, so now I know.
Most would have said "el doctor me dijo venir aqui hoy...instead of...el doctor me dijo que viniera aqui hoy" Actually "me dijo venir" would have to be ok, sound weird to the native speaker but understood, until one learned correctly. It is funny in learning a language such as Spanish, you only can speak what you know right or wrong. Then when one finally learns the correct way, one feels weird because it has been said wrong all this time. We all have been there! Good stuff!
I know how to use and when to use the subjunctive just from hearing it and reading it, as far as 'hypothetically, after cuando',etc., but I never thought of it in terms of distinguishing the order from from the statement form for decir que. Probably I have heard it, but this will really help me focus on not making that mistake. Many others I will make, but not that one!!!! when I am speaking.Muchas gracias Paul.
Nice to see you are breaking decir que down into a binary option rather than teaching it as part of a larger structure such as reported speech, thus removing the complexity. So few language teachers realize the importance of this teaching approach. Nicely done sir.
Just using your sentence "I told Juan that I normally get up late." le dije a Juan que normalmente me levanto trade. le dije a Juan que suelo levantarme tarde. le he dicho a Juan que normalmente me levanto tarde. le he dicho a Juan que suelo levantarme tarde. Good stuff!
Without you and stumbling across your channel a couple months ago,I would have never been able to identify what was holding me back from advancing. You explain the subjunctive amazingly. I’ve seen the whole playlist. I also send your playlists to other Spanish learners. Keep it up!
María 1.me dijo que2. fuera a la tienda. 1.Past trigger+ 2.imp subj. 3.Present trigger - 4. present subj . María 3.me dice que 4.vaya a la tienda Great videos. 💪
WOW that is a crazy coincidence that I was just making my subjunctive with verbs of will page this morning in my notebook and posted on reddit about decir because I didn’t know when to use it with the subjunctive, and then I get on here and see you literally uploaded this video as I was making the page! With that said, would it be possible to make a video about ‘hacer que’ + subj. and ‘dejar que’ + subj. ?
I like how these lessons often cover many topics at the same time. It’s effective bc that’s how the brain works; by connecting little pieces of info together and forming patterns.
El subjuntivo es un Modo como el modo indicativo. Este modo tiene 6 tiempos: presente, antepresente, pasado, antepasado y futuro, antefuturo. Este modo subjuntivo se enseña en el quinto y sexto año de Primaria. Y este modo sirve para indicar de forma más precisa y puntual del momento y tiempo que se está viviendo o mostrando.
I love your channel and I would like to recommend something that you perhaps might find useful. You be the judge. When translating from Spanish to English or vice versa, your videos or Google translate or any bilingual speaker will give you the correct answer and given hundreds of examples, a person will develop a feeling for what sounds correct based on his knowledge. However, one aspect has been left somewhat ignored - the incorrect answers. Why? Because I thought I translated correctly and I had a chain of reasons for my translation and I want to know what my translation actually means or at least what it sounds like to the target audience. In short what does my mistake look like? For example (I use this with chat GPT) an answer might be like this - the sentence was " I told Juan that I normally get up late" but your translation means something close to " I told Juan that I normally GOT up late. I ask chat GPT to give me a sentence to translate, then critique my translation, then tell me what my botched translation sounds like in the target language and then finally give me the correct translation. I would argue that adding the incorrect translation explanation to the curriculum would help people understand where their reasoning went wrong and what their mistakes sound like. It is especially important for nuances such as if I was a kid vs if I were a kid or I have written my paper vs I wrote my paper. And lastly, it is important what SEEMINGLY INCORRECT usage is actually acceptable and why. For example. I work tomorrow vs I will work tomorrow. Thank you for your time and all your ideas and diligence.
slow learner here, especially when just listening or going too fast. relistened a few times. something about an old dog and new tricks? over 25 years here in cozumel and i still get stumped on this one. thanks.. gracias.
I would like a video about adjectives sometimes going before a noun instead of their usual place after it. This may be a more advanced topic, but it's been bugging me for quite a while. I know sometimes the word order changes the meaning. For example, a big person is una persona grande and a great person is una gran persona. And a friend who is old is un(a) amigo/a viejo/a, but a (good) old friend is un(a) viejo/a amigo/a. But other times when I see or hear the adjective put in front of the noun, it seems to be only for emphasis of the adjective. And I know Spanish word order is more flexible than that of English.
Hey Paul I like your videos because they are interesting and useful and supereffective for me - I learn two foreign languages at the same time English and Spanish :)
What if you said, "Juan told me that I should wash my car." would it be Juan me dijo que debiera lavar el coche. would/could/should give me a hard time sometimes
You can express suggestions with the imperfect subjunctive but it is more common with the conditional. debería. In fact, I recommend using that tense in general when giving advice to people.
It is a factor but it wont automatically trigger the subjunctive: Juan me dijo que María llegaría a las tres. Juan told me Maria would arrive at 3. (subject change but no subjunctive)
Interesting that the past subjective is used "fuera", in the first example. I would have guessed "vaya". If the sentence was, Maria told me to go to the store tomorrow, would it still be "fuera"?
Excellent video and explanation. Ahora, ¿sería posible hablar de tu taza de café? 😜 (I worked with a Navy veteran once; she said she made the mistake of cleaning out all the coffee cups on a new ship when she started. The rest of the crew wasn't pleased 😳.)
I'll attempt to answer this: "queria" (imperfect tense...there's an accent mark over the letter i) should be used here, not quiso. The preterite tense indicates a completed action in the past. In this example, the action is ongoing - so "queria" is used. The Spanish word "negar" is better applied here, as opposed to "querer". Google Translate gives this construction: El no queria hacerlo. (He/she didn't want to do it.) El se nego a hacerlo. (He/she refused to do it.) (no accents on my keyboard)
"Maria dijo que quería que yo lavara el coche" "Maria dijo que quiso que yo lavara el coche" What's the difference? I think I struggle to see when to use imperfect tense
See if it helps to think of it like this: "María said that she wanted me to wash the car." Was the "wanting" part over at that point in the past? Or was it ongoing at that moment? She might still be wanting that to occur -- or at least she was at that moment. That's why the imperfect is used. This will be the case most of the time. An exception will be if you want to say that someone refused to do something using QUERER. That would be in the preterit: María me dijo que Juan no quiso lavar el carro. Maria told me that Juan refused to wash the car. II don't know if you are a member of The Qroo Crew or not, but there is a detailed video about the imperfect and preterit under Spanish Deep Dive. www.skool.com/qroo
Thanks for the video Paul! I was wondering why the subjunctive tenses in this video are in the imperfect subjunctive? Shouldn't they be in the subjunctive present tense?
If you speak it in the present then it is the present subjunctive. Example: él me dice que sea su amigo (he tells me to be his friend)...present subj. él me dijo que fuera su amigo (he told me to be his friend)...imperfect subj. él me dice que soy su amigo (he says I am his friend)...present Good stuff!
last that I forgot: él me dijo que era su amigo (he told me I was his friend). él me dice que fui su amigo (he tells me I was his friend). Tricky, Tricky, for learners. But once you reach this level in live communicating, you are super proud. Good stuff!!!
@@kcorpora1 Thanks for the input! I've been in a total immersion now for about 7 months in México and even though I've been following Paul for quite a while, it's still a bit tricky to introduce the subjunctive in sentences. It doesn't come naturally.
@@MrTheMAuu I understand completely...Spanish is already Hard, Easy, Tricky, Difficult, etc...Then here comes the subjunctives thrown at you to speak correct or good spanish...Keep on learning and practicing!
No puedo tirar mi R. ¿Alguien puede tener la amabilidad de decirme cómo debo pronunciar una R al principio de una palabra y una RR en el medio? Gracias
I'm having to change my learning method completely. That's a good thing. Onward with the subjunctive! It really is the key to authentic Spanish. Thank you, Paul.
Decir que can be a tricky one for learners. When you reach that in conversation, you are on a great level of communication in spanish. I used to practice this model with decir que present then decir que imperfect, then substitute the vetbs to get comfortable: mi padre me dice que coma después de hacer de ejercicio. (my father tells me to eat after...). mi padre me dijo que comiera después de hacer de ejercicio. (my father told me to eat after...). Tricky, Tricky!!! Good stuff
Want to thank me? Buy me a coffee :)
buymeacoffee.com/qroo
Join the Qroo Spanish Crew (Get Exclusive Content)
www.skool.com/qroo
Langua (Best AI for Learning Spanish)
tinyurl.com/54fxuc4m
Use code QROO (all caps) to get 20% off Langua annual plans
There are 3 guarantees in life:
1. Death
2. Taxes
3. Qroo Paul saying that the subjunctive is the keystone to mastering Spanish
Haha!
I’d still love for you to make a video on the past tense! Like Fue/Era/Estuvo/Estaba for example. I’ve watched a lot of videos on it but I think the way you do explain things would really help me to finally get this particular topic down!
I remember being at the doctor's surgery a few months back and I wanted to tell the receptionist *he told me to come here today* and it completely threw me. I found out the correct way to say it afterwards, so now I know.
Most would have said "el doctor me dijo venir aqui hoy...instead of...el doctor me dijo que viniera aqui hoy"
Actually "me dijo venir" would have to be ok, sound weird to the native speaker but understood, until one learned correctly.
It is funny in learning a language such as Spanish, you only can speak what you know right or wrong. Then when one finally learns the correct way, one feels weird because it has been said wrong all this time.
We all have been there!
Good stuff!
Reading the book you recommended religiously over and over Paul.. especially the chapter over subjunctive.. has helped me a lot
I'm glad you are enjoying it. That book is amazing!
What book? I wanna buy it
@@QrooSpanishwhat book is this?
I'll get it too, what book?
book?
I know how to use and when to use the subjunctive just from hearing it and reading it, as far as 'hypothetically, after cuando',etc., but I never thought of it in terms of distinguishing the order from from the statement form for decir que. Probably I have heard it, but this will really help me focus on not making that mistake. Many others I will make, but not that one!!!! when I am speaking.Muchas gracias Paul.
Nice to see you are breaking decir que down into a binary option rather than teaching it as part of a larger structure such as reported speech, thus removing the complexity. So few language teachers realize the importance of this teaching approach. Nicely done sir.
Just using your sentence
"I told Juan that I normally get up late."
le dije a Juan que normalmente me levanto trade.
le dije a Juan que suelo levantarme tarde.
le he dicho a Juan que normalmente me levanto tarde.
le he dicho a Juan que suelo levantarme tarde.
Good stuff!
You are so very good at clearing up confusion. Much appreciated!!
Glad it was helpful!
Ud. es un maestro magnifico.
Without you and stumbling across your channel a couple months ago,I would have never been able to identify what was holding me back from advancing. You explain the subjunctive amazingly. I’ve seen the whole playlist. I also send your playlists to other Spanish learners. Keep it up!
Thanks. I appreciate you telling others about it too.
Thank you very much for clarifying that. I was confused on that. Big surprise, spanish is very logical on why it triggers subjunctive.
Thanks Paul. I always check the main channel when not hanging on the Skool site and it was fun to find this.
María 1.me dijo que2. fuera a la tienda. 1.Past trigger+ 2.imp subj. 3.Present trigger - 4. present subj .
María 3.me dice que 4.vaya a la tienda Great videos. 💪
I envy people who can simply watch this video once and say they "learned the material"
Very helpful! Your explanation was very clear and easy to follow.
Great lesson! Would love to see more on the imperfect subjunctive. I just moved to Guatemala with my wife who is Guatemalteca.
I've never been to Guatemala. How do you like it so far?
¡Estupendo! Quiero que sigas haciendo vídeos
¡Que explicación tan perfecta!
excellent y concise-keep them coming!!!
I'm glad you enjoyed it!
can you please do a video on Olvidar, Olvidarse and Olvidarse de?
WOW that is a crazy coincidence that I was just making my subjunctive with verbs of will page this morning in my notebook and posted on reddit about decir because I didn’t know when to use it with the subjunctive, and then I get on here and see you literally uploaded this video as I was making the page! With that said, would it be possible to make a video about ‘hacer que’ + subj. and ‘dejar que’ + subj. ?
Those are great topics. I will add them to my list.
I like how these lessons often cover many topics at the same time. It’s effective bc that’s how the brain works; by connecting little pieces of info together and forming patterns.
I'm glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for watching.
El subjuntivo es un Modo como el modo indicativo. Este modo tiene 6 tiempos: presente, antepresente, pasado, antepasado y futuro, antefuturo. Este modo subjuntivo se enseña en el quinto y sexto año de Primaria. Y este modo sirve para indicar de forma más precisa y puntual del momento y tiempo que se está viviendo o mostrando.
I love your channel and I would like to recommend something that you perhaps might find useful. You be the judge. When translating from Spanish to English or vice versa, your videos or Google translate or any bilingual speaker will give you the correct answer and given hundreds of examples, a person will develop a feeling for what sounds correct based on his knowledge. However, one aspect has been left somewhat ignored - the incorrect answers. Why? Because I thought I translated correctly and I had a chain of reasons for my translation and I want to know what my translation actually means or at least what it sounds like to the target audience. In short what does my mistake look like? For example (I use this with chat GPT) an answer might be like this - the sentence was " I told Juan that I normally get up late" but your translation means something close to " I told Juan that I normally GOT up late. I ask chat GPT to give me a sentence to translate, then critique my translation, then tell me what my botched translation sounds like in the target language and then finally give me the correct translation. I would argue that adding the incorrect translation explanation to the curriculum would help people understand where their reasoning went wrong and what their mistakes sound like. It is especially important for nuances such as if I was a kid vs if I were a kid or I have written my paper vs I wrote my paper. And lastly, it is important what SEEMINGLY INCORRECT usage is actually acceptable and why. For example. I work tomorrow vs I will work tomorrow. Thank you for your time and all your ideas and diligence.
slow learner here, especially when just listening or going too fast. relistened a few times. something about an old dog and new tricks? over 25 years here in cozumel and i still get stumped on this one. thanks.. gracias.
Some viewers say that they slow down my speech on TH-cam. You can do that by clicking on the icon that looks like a gear.
Gracias Paul!
Absolutamente perfecto, muchas gracias 🙂
Con mucho gusto. :)
Me equivoqué con la forma del pretérito imperfecto de subjuntivo cada vez, así que me daba cuenta de que necesito volver a estudiarlo. Gracias!
I would like a video about adjectives sometimes going before a noun instead of their usual place after it. This may be a more advanced topic, but it's been bugging me for quite a while.
I know sometimes the word order changes the meaning. For example, a big person is una persona grande and a great person is una gran persona. And a friend who is old is un(a) amigo/a viejo/a, but a (good) old friend is un(a) viejo/a amigo/a.
But other times when I see or hear the adjective put in front of the noun, it seems to be only for emphasis of the adjective. And I know Spanish word order is more flexible than that of English.
Hey Paul I like your videos because they are interesting and useful and supereffective for me - I learn two foreign languages at the same time English and Spanish :)
That's great to hear!
Damn that last one was tricky 🤣. Thanks for this video 🙏🏾
Thanks for watching. :)
One of your best posts ever, thanks❤
Wow, thank you!
What if you said, "Juan told me that I should wash my car." would it be
Juan me dijo que debiera lavar el coche.
would/could/should give me a hard time sometimes
You can express suggestions with the imperfect subjunctive but it is more common with the conditional. debería.
In fact, I recommend using that tense in general when giving advice to people.
Thanks!
Thank you very much!
Hi Paul, Can I always think of a subject change as a way to trigger subjunctive?
It is a factor but it wont automatically trigger the subjunctive:
Juan me dijo que María llegaría a las tres. Juan told me Maria would arrive at 3. (subject change but no subjunctive)
Interesting that the past subjective is used "fuera", in the first example. I would have guessed "vaya". If the sentence was, Maria told me to go to the store tomorrow, would it still be "fuera"?
It would still be "fuera" whether to go tomorrow, today, or yesterday.
@@kcorpora1Thanks.
Excellent video and explanation.
Ahora, ¿sería posible hablar de tu taza de café? 😜
(I worked with a Navy veteran once; she said she made the mistake of cleaning out all the coffee cups on a new ship when she started. The rest of the crew wasn't pleased 😳.)
Haha, I knew someone would comment about that. I dumped a packet of hot chocolate in my coffee this morning.
@@QrooSpanish me encanta el café moca.
Hi, Paul! Would the preterite of querer be acceptable for "refuse" ? Like "Él no lo quiso hacer" He didn't want/refused to do it"
I'll attempt to answer this:
"queria" (imperfect tense...there's an accent mark over the letter i) should be used here, not quiso. The preterite tense indicates a completed action in the past. In this example, the action is ongoing - so "queria" is used.
The Spanish word "negar" is better applied here, as opposed to "querer".
Google Translate gives this construction:
El no queria hacerlo. (He/she didn't want to do it.)
El se nego a hacerlo. (He/she refused to do it.)
(no accents on my keyboard)
If you want a tricky one for practice:
Tony told me to tell Juanita to come home for dinner at 7.
"Maria dijo que quería que yo lavara el coche"
"Maria dijo que quiso que yo lavara el coche"
What's the difference? I think I struggle to see when to use imperfect tense
See if it helps to think of it like this: "María said that she wanted me to wash the car." Was the "wanting" part over at that point in the past? Or was it ongoing at that moment? She might still be wanting that to occur -- or at least she was at that moment. That's why the imperfect is used. This will be the case most of the time. An exception will be if you want to say that someone refused to do something using QUERER. That would be in the preterit: María me dijo que Juan no quiso lavar el carro. Maria told me that Juan refused to wash the car.
II don't know if you are a member of The Qroo Crew or not, but there is a detailed video about the imperfect and preterit under Spanish Deep Dive. www.skool.com/qroo
Why isn't it "Juan me dije que lavara el carro." if everything has to be in past tense? Isn't digo present tense? Thanks
Dijo is past tense. Dije is "I said."
Thank you, I see now that I’m getting my g’s and j’s mixed up.
Porqué no se use el subjonctif présente con las frases?
Thanks for the video Paul! I was wondering why the subjunctive tenses in this video are in the imperfect subjunctive? Shouldn't they be in the subjunctive present tense?
It is just tense agreement. I am saying what someone already said to do. That is normally followed by the imperfect subjunctive.
If you speak it in the present then it is the present subjunctive.
Example:
él me dice que sea su amigo (he tells me to be his friend)...present subj.
él me dijo que fuera su amigo (he told me to be his friend)...imperfect subj.
él me dice que soy su amigo (he says I am his friend)...present
Good stuff!
last that I forgot:
él me dijo que era su amigo (he told me I was his friend).
él me dice que fui su amigo (he tells me I was his friend).
Tricky, Tricky, for learners. But once you reach this level in live communicating, you are super proud.
Good stuff!!!
@@kcorpora1 Thanks for the input! I've been in a total immersion now for about 7 months in México and even though I've been following Paul for quite a while, it's still a bit tricky to introduce the subjunctive in sentences. It doesn't come naturally.
@@MrTheMAuu I understand completely...Spanish is already Hard, Easy, Tricky, Difficult, etc...Then here comes the subjunctives thrown at you to speak correct or good spanish...Keep on learning and practicing!
In the last sentence, why do we use quería as the conjugation. I know it’s not subjunctive but what is it and why
It is in the imperfect. It indicates an ongoing situation in the past. At that moment in time, she was wanting that. It is unclear if she still does.
No puedo tirar mi R. ¿Alguien puede tener la amabilidad de decirme cómo debo pronunciar una R al principio de una palabra y una RR en el medio? Gracias
Great video
Thanks!
Desertarse? We all make mistakes.
I hate typos. :)
Oooo gosh. I had to watch this twice.
Is that good or bad?
Good.
I'm having to change my learning method completely. That's a good thing. Onward with the subjunctive! It really is the key to authentic Spanish. Thank you, Paul.
But a great video!
Thanks. I'm glad you enjoyed it.
Pauul 😃
Thanks for watching! You were quick today. :)
@@QrooSpanish De nada 🤗 ands 💨😎
Decir que can be a tricky one for learners. When you reach that in conversation, you are on a great level of communication in spanish.
I used to practice this model with decir que present then decir que imperfect, then substitute the vetbs to get comfortable:
mi padre me dice que coma después de hacer de ejercicio. (my father tells me to eat after...).
mi padre me dijo que comiera después de hacer de ejercicio. (my father told me to eat after...).
Tricky, Tricky!!!
Good stuff