14 Marzo 2005 (lunes)

---

Tarea

No hay tara para miércoles, pero ¡estudia!

WebCT Exercises: April 13 (Wednesday)

---

Examenes

Our next test is on Wednesday, April 13.
We have a quiz on this Friday, March 18.
Our next written composition is on Friday, March 25.

---

Notas

I hope that you enjoyed Spring Break. It was WAY too short, wasn't it?

Today, we received our written composition re-writes back. The past couple of classes have been pretty straight-forward. We've studied the vocabulary related to health and body parts on page 331 of ¡Arriba!, and today, we started covering the nosotros form of imperative verbs.

The imperative tense is a command. For example, if you say Let's go to the store, you are issuing a command and the word go is in the imperative tense.

In Spanish, the nosotros form and an imperative verb is in general the same as the nosotros form of the subjunctive tense of that verb. For example, to say Let's eat the hamburgers, you would say Comamos las hamburguesas. Now for some weird rules.

First, if there is a direct object pronoun in an affirmative imperative statement, it should be tagged onto the end of the verb. For example, to say Let's eat them (the hamburgers), you would say Comamoslas. This is NOT true for negative imperative statements. For example, to say Let's not eat them (the hamburgers), you would say No las comamos. Crap.

Second, if the verb is reflexive and an affirmative imperative statement, the final -s on the verb should be dropped and the nos should be tagged onto the end of the verb. For example, to say Let's listen to ourselves, you would say Escuchémonos. Notice the accent mark that gets added; this is because that syllable should remain stressed. Again, this is NOT true for negative imperative statements. For example, to say Let's not listen to ourselves, you would say No nos escuchemos. Crap.

Just as a matter of interest, that accent really is kind of important. Why? Because without it, Escuchemonos (not a real word without the accent) is pronounced Escuche monos, which is in fact an imperative verb, but in usted form instead of the nosotros form, and it translates to ordering someone to Listen to monkeys. Probably not quite what you intended to say!

Last, but not least, the nosotros imperative form of the verb ir is a little different. In the affirmative, the command is left in the indicative tense instead of changed to subjunctive. For example, Let's go home becomes Vamos a la casa. However, the negative nosotros imperative form DOES become subjunctive. Let's not go home becomes No vayamos a la casa. Crap, crap, crap.

I wish there were an easy way to remember all this, but all I know to suggest is read and re-read page 335 in ¡Arriba! and work on the exercises. Whatever you do, do it quickly--we have a quiz this Friday covering this stuff and the vocabulary. We don't have any homework for Wednesday, so hopefully it will give you chance to study in the way you find most effective.

That's about it, buena suerta y hasta miércoles.

---

Friday's homework assignment was not collected in class.