VOCABULARIO: LAS TAREAS Y LOS QUEHACERES
En la escuela (At school)
- La lectura (reading ¡OJO! Es un cognado falso)
- La escritura (writing)
- El discurso (lecture, speech)
- La tarea (homework, task, chore)
- Escribir un ensayo (to write a paper/essay)
- Entregar una composición (to hand in a composition)
- Colaborar en una presentación (to collaborate on a presentation)
- Devolver (o>ue) libros a la biblioteca (to return books to the library)
- Escoger su concentración académica (to choose your academic major)
En la casa (At home)
- Lavar los platos (to wash the dishes)
- Secar los platos (to dry the dishes)
- Lavar la ropa (to wash clothes, to do laundry)
- Doblar la ropa (to fold the laundry/clothes)
- Pasar la aspiradora (to vacuum)
- Barrer el piso (to sweep the floor)
- Sacudir el polvo (to dust)
- Sacar la basura (to take out the garbage)
- Cortar el césped (to cut the grass/to mow the lawn)
- Recoger los juguetes (to put away/tidy up the toys)
- Regar (e>ie) las plantas (to water the plants)
En la comunidad (In the community)
- Depositar un cheque en el banco (to deposit a check in the bank)
- Sacar dinero del cajero automático (to withdraw money from the ATM)
- Mandar una carta por correo (to mail a letter)
- Dejar los trajes en la tintorería (to drop off the suits at the dry cleaners)
- Separar el reciclaje de la basura (to separate the recycling from the garbage)
- Llevar la basura al vertedero (to take the garbage to the dump)
- Pagar los impuestos (to pay taxes)
- Votar en las elecciones (to vote in elections)
El pretérito
The preterit tense is one of the two simple past tenses in Spanish, and is used to talk about concrete, completed actions in the past. In this conjugation, –ar verbs have one set of endings, and –er and -ir verbs share a second set of endings.
Conjugation of regular -ar, -er, and -ir verbs in the preterit tense:
| -ar | -er / -ir | ||||
| singular | plural | singular | plural | ||
| 1a persona | -é | -amos | -í | -imos | |
| 2a persona | -aste | -asteis | -iste | -isteis | |
| 3a persona | -ó | -aron | -ió | -ieron | |
La “a” personal / Los pronombres del objeto directo en la tercera persona
♦ Remember a direct object is the person or thing that directly receives the action of the verb.
La “a” personal (the personal “a”)
When the direct object of a verb in Spanish is a person or a pet, we need to add the preposition “a” in front of that direct object. This personal “a” does not get translated into English, but it needs to be there in Spanish.
- Mamá dejó a los niños en la escuela. (“a” personal because the children are the direct objects of the verb, they are who Mom dropped off.)
- Mamá dejó la masa del pan en el mostrador para subir. (No “a” personal because even though the bread dough is the direct object of the verb–it is what Mom left on the counter to rise–it’s a thing, not a person.)
- Tía Sara lleva a su gato Fifi al veterinario. (“a” personal because the cat is the direct object of the verb, Fifi is who is being taken to the vet, and is being considered a part of the family.)
- Juanito mira los peces por horas. (No “a” personal because even though the fish are the direct objects of the verb–they are what Juanito is watching for hours–they are not considered members of the family.)
Third-person direct object pronouns in Spanish
Sometimes it becomes tiresome to repeat a name or a noun constantly in a sentence, so we use a pronoun like “she” or “they” instead.
Just as in English, it would be incorrect to say “I washed they”, in Spanish the direct object pronouns are not the same as the subject pronouns.
- It / her = la
- It / him = lo
- Them (masc.) = los
- Them (fem.) = las
