wadecherry.com
Monday September 15th, 2008
Insane Verb Conjugations
cr_independence.gif
It's independence day in Costa Rica (I love the google logos), and in the central plaza of San Joaquin a parade was held this morning. It was fun watching everyone display red, white, and blue on this day of patriotism. I saw Ingrid, Jose Mario, Luis, Oscar, Stephen, and Iliana, all of whom I met in my dance class, or through people I met in my dance class. I've finally made some good friends and am definitely going to miss this place when I leave. =(

After Gustav in LA and Hanna on the east coast, Ike hit TX this weekend. It's shaping up to be another busy hurricane season similar to 2005. It's actually been quite an eventful year so far. Hurricanes, the olympics, the presidential elections. My life has also been churned up with Motorola, the car accident, and Costa Rica. Also, my friends and family are having life-changing events: Byron and Shea are getting married next month, Nitin and Carolina in December; Stephen and Jackie got married this summer, along with Charbel and Katia. Elliott Arant was born, along with Holly's son, Rowan. Allison is now pregnant and Dan is making a great recovery from cancer. Andy is also in recovery after a freak accident which broke both his legs. Many of my friends from Motorola are working for different companies or living in a new city, or both. Thus, it's been an eventful year, and there's 4 months more to go. =)

Just for fun, and something I didn't realize prior to learning Spanish, is the amount of verb conjugations that exist in other languages. Just for example, let's take the infinitive of the verb "comer" which means "to eat". Instead of "I eat, you eat, etc." each verb is conjugated depending on the pronoun. Spanish differentiates "you" singular and "you" plural, along with formal and informal versions of each. Therefore,

yo comoI eat
tu comesyou (informal) eat
usted comeyou (formal) eat
el comehe/it eats
ella comeshe eats
nosotros comemoswe eat
ustedes comenyou (plural, formal) eat
vosotros comeisyou (plural, informal) eat
ellos comenthey (masculine) eat
ellas comenthey (feminine) eat

To simplify things, I have omitted the "you" plural infomal (vosotros) forms of verb conjugation and have combined usted, el, ella along with ustedes, ellos, and ellas since these have the same conjugation. Now to account for all the different verb tenses:

pronounpresentpreteritimperfectpresent progressive
yo/Icomoeatcomíatecomíawas eatingestoy comiendoam eating
tu/youcomeseatcomisteatecomíaswere eatingestás comiendoare eating
el/hecomeeatscomióatecomiáwas eatingestá comiendois eating
nosotros/wecomemoseatcomimosatecomíamoswere eatingestamos comiendoare eating
ellos/theycomeneatcomieronatecomíanwere eatingestán comiendoare eating

pronounperfectpluperfect
yo/Ihe comidohave eatenhabía comidohad eaten
tu/youhas comidohave eatenhabías comidohad eaten
el/heha comidohas eatenhabía comidohad eaten
nosotros/wehemos comidohave eatenhabíamos comidohad eaten
ellos/theyhan comidohave eatenhabían comidohad eaten

pronounfutureconditionalimperative
yo/Icomeréwill eatcomeríawould eatn/an/a
tu/youcomeráswill eatcomeríaswould eat¡come!eat!
el/hecomeráwill eatcomeríawould eat¡coma!eat!
nosotros/wecomeremoswill eatcomeríamoswould eatn/an/a
ellos/theycomeránwill eatcomeríanwould eat¡coman!eat!

pronounpres subjimp subjperfect subjpluperfect subj
yo/Icomacomierahaya comidohubiera comido
tu/youcomascomierashayas comidohubieras comido
el/hecomacomierahaya comidohubiera comido
nosotros/wecomamoscomiéramoshayamos comidohubiéramos comido
ellos/theycomancomieranhayan comidohubieran comido

This verb is a regular conjugation; there are hundreds of irregular verbs that conjugate according to different rules. It's crazy. However, the advantage of having conjugations for each pronoun, is that the pronoun can be omitted. Also, I left out the English translation for the subjunctive conjugations because the subjunctive case requires more explanation as it does not have a one-to-one translation to English, thus, it can be a topic for another day. For that matter, the preterit and imperfect don't have a one-to-one translation either, but the above translation is, more or less, acceptable. Overall, my lack of learning a foreign language (German) in highschool has been remedied. I still have much to improve on my Spanish, my reading comprehension is much better than my listening comprehension, so now I just need more time. I've had hours long conversations in Spanish and can hold up o.k. It all depends on the person I'm talking to, how well they pronounce words, and how patient they are with my Spanish. It's been fun! I now need to somehow maintain my Spanish when I return to the U.S. =)
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Monday September 15th, 2008

Codo says:

Dios mio!
Yo no comprenderé espanol, nunca.

Tuesday September 16th, 2008

Wade says:

Click for pictures of Hurricane Ike

Tuesday September 16th, 2008

Wade says:

Click for details of Andy´s Accident including power point slides, presented, as always, in entertaining fashion courtesy of Mr. Miehl himself.