What’s in store for you today: “Ir” and “Dar” and talking about routines

Listen to Track 4.3.1

Juan: Hola, María. ¿Qué haces? (Hello, María. What are you doing?)

María: Voy a la casa de un amigo. (I am going to a friend’s house.)

Juan: ¿Por qué? (Why?)

María: Le doy clases particulares de español. (I give him private Spanish classes.)

Juan: ¡Qué bien! (That’s good!)

María: ¡Sí! Y tú, ¿adónde vas? (Yes! And you, where are you going?)

Juan: Voy a la biblioteca. Necesito estudiar. (I am going to the library. I need to study.)

María: ¡Buena suerte! (Good luck!)

Juan: Gracias. (Thank you.)

In today’s unit, we’re going to look at two little verbs – ir (to go) and dar (to give). Don’t let their size fool you, though. They may be small but they are both very big when it comes to how useful and common they are!

They are both irregular verbs, so get ready to write them down! You’re going to want to remember these ones, because you’ll be using them a lot.

Dar – to give

Listen to Track 4.3.2

Here is how dar will conjugate:

So, that one isn’t too bad, right? The only thing really strange about the conjugation is in the 1st person singular: doy.

Conjugating dar isn’t too overly complicated. The next verb we’re going to look at, though, is a little more interesting.

Ir- to go

Listen to Track 4.3.3

Here is how you will conjugate ir:

Well, that was strange, wasn’t it? Not only does ir not have a “v” in it, but it looks as if it’s conjugating with “a”s instead of “e”s or “i”s like we would expect.

This is probably one of the strangest – yet one of the most commonly used – verbs in any language. So make sure you take some time to study these conjugations!

Vocabulary

Today, we’re going to start learning how to talk about things we do every day! In order to do that, we need to learn some new vocabulary, though!

Vocabulary: Days of the Week

Listen to Track 4.2.5

• El domingo – Sunday
• El lunes – Monday
• El martes – Tuesday
• El miércoles – Wednesday
• El jueves – Thursday
• El viernes – Friday
• El sábado – Saturday

*Note: Days of the week are not capitalized in Spanish.

Vocabulary: Hobbies

Listen to Track 4.2.6

Now that we know how to say the days of the week, let’s talk about things that we do during the week!

• Jugar (u:ue)* al… (To play… [a sport])
  • Baloncesto (Basketball)
  • Béisbol (Baseball)
  • Golf (Golf)
  • Fútbol (Soccer)
  • Fútbol americano (Football [American football])
  • Tenis (Tennis)
• Tocar… (To play… [an instrument])
  • El piano (The piano)
  • La guitarra (The guitar)
  • El violín (The violin)
  • La flauta (The flute)
  • La trompeta (The trumpet)
• Hacer… (To do…)
  • Ejercicio (Exercise [To work out])
  • La jardinería (Gardening)
  • La lucha (Wrestling)
  • El ciclismo (Cycling)
• Ir de… (To go…)
  • Caza (Hunting)
  • Pesca (Fishing)

*You can see that “jugar” is a stem-changing verb by the letters in the parentheses. These vowels let you know what the change is. It will function just like all the other stem-changing “boot-shoe” verbs we’ve seen: Yo juego, Tú juegas, Él juega, Nosotros jugamos, Vosotros jugáis, Ellos juegan.

Something to note:

Listen to Track 4.3.8

When we’re talking about something we do “every Monday” or “every Saturday” we use the plural definite article “los.”

• Los lunes trabajo.
• Los sábados juego al golf.

If it’s something we’re only go to do “on Monday” or “on Saturday” we will use the singular definite article.

• El lunes voy al médico.
• El sábado toco el piano en concierto.

Additional Vocabulary

Listen to Track 4.3.10

Here are some other hobbies you might want to know:

• Los pasatiempos (Hobbies)
• Tocar… (To play… [a musical instrument])
  • La guitarra eléctrica (The electric guitar)
  • El bajo eléctrico (The bass guitar)
  • La batería (The drumkit)
  • El saxofón (The saxophone)
  • El teclado (The keyboard)
  • El clarinete (The clarinet)
• Coleccionar (To collect)
  • Sellos (Stamps)
  • Postales (Postcards)
• Bailar (To dance)
  • Salsa (Salsa)
  • Merengue (Merengue)
  • Vals (Waltz)
  • Tango (Tango)
• Jugar (To play… [a sport/game])
  • A los videojuegos (Video games)
  • A las cartas (Cards)
• Patinar sobre hielo (To ice skate)
• Patinar sobre línea (To rollerblade)
• Patinar sobre ruedas (To roller skate)
• Montar a caballo (To go horseback riding)
• Sacar fotos (To take pictures)