The book, Spanish Among Amigos - Phrasebook, by Nuria Agulló is subtitled “Conversations for the Socially Adventurous”. I noticed it in the list of new books at my local library and decided to check it out.

From the Back Cover

Shake it up in Spanish with a little help from your friends

Looking to break the ice in Barcelona? Flirt in Fajardo? If you want to connect with Spanish speakers, then get in on the conversation with your instant amigas, Pepa and Pili, and experience the real-world rhythm of everyday Spanish. Join the party and learn hundreds of expressions with their formal, informal, and “downtown” variations including tips on how and when to use them.

So, if you want to mingle in Madrid, then you’ll want to know how to say…
¿Eres de Madrid? Are you from Madrid?
¿Estudias o trabajas? Are you studying or working?
¿Te importa si me siento aquí? Do you mind if I sit here?
¿Estás libre esta tarde? Are you free this afternoon?

This is not a regular textbook, rather it is designed to add some spice to your vocabulary. Adding spice means you have the basics down. This book would be good for someone who feels they are fairly fluent but need to escape from the stilted language of most Spanish textbooks. You learn not only ready-to-go phrases, but also will get some grammar pointers, learn about Spanish culture, and tips on blunders to avoid when using idioms and slang.

At this point my Spanish is not good enough to benefit from this book and it may also be ‘too young’ for me. Even in English, a 40+ year-old guy should not try to sound like he is 19.

I had to do an update. I finally got my SuperMemo worked down to zero cards for review! Whoot! Here is where things stand right now:

SuperMemo:

Progress: Finally have it worked down to zero cards. I peaked and 155 will show up tomorrow for review. That is definitely manageable.

Practical Grammar:

• Done: Chapter 10, Vocabulary is in SuperMemo
• ToDo: Enter vocabulary exercises into SuperMemo and begin working on grammar lessons

Platiquemos:

Audio Work

• Listening to CDs of the Lessons in the car while I drive.

Text Work

• Progress: Still just have lessons up through 6 in SuperMemo
• ToDo: Unit 7 still needs to be put into SuperMemo next.

Madrigal Magic Key:

• Progress: Still just up to lesson 6 into SuperMemo
• ToDo: Enter 2 more lessons into SuperMemo

My evaluation:

• Glad (as you can tell) to get SuperMemo caught up. Need to work on advancing in Platiquemos and Madrigal.

Practical Spanish Grammar pg 159

Finally a verb tense I can memorize! If only all the tenses were this easy!

Notes:

• Most stems are not irregular
• -ar verbs add -aba…
• -er and -ir verbs add -ía…
• Only ir, ser, and ver are irregular in the imperfect
• There are no stem changing verbs in the imperfect
• The accent in the ending -ía in all conjugations breaks up the dipthong
• An accent is used in the 1st person plural to keep the accent off the ‘amos’ ending
• -er and -ir verbs are identical in the first- and third-person singular forms. A pronoun or subject noun is used before the verb if context doesn’t indicate who is performing the action.

According to About.com Spanish Language the imperfect indicative is used:

• To tell of past habitual or repeated actions — Iba a la tienda. (I used to go to the store.) Leíamos los libros. (We would read the books.) Lavaban los manos. (They would wash their hands.) Escribía muchas cartas. (I wrote many letters.)
• To describe a condition, mental state, or state of being from the past — Había una casa aquí. (There used to be a house here.) Era estúpido. (He was stupid.) No te conocía. (I didn’t know you.) Quería estar feliz. (He wanted to be happy.) Tenía frío. (He was cold.)
• To describe an action that occurred over an unspecified time — Lavaban los manos. (They were washing their hands.) Cuando José tocaba el piano, María comía. (While José was playing the piano, María was eating.)
• To indicate time or age in the past — Era la una de la tarde. (It was 1 p.m.) Tenía 43 años. (She was 43 years old.)
• Background — The imperfect indicative is frequently used to provide the background for an event that is described using the preterite. Era [imperfect] la una de la tarde cuando comió [preterite]. (It was 1 p.m. when she ate.) Yo escribía [imperfect] cuando llegaste [preterite]. (I was writing when you arrived.)

Practical Spanish Grammar pg 155

I divided this grammar lesson into two parts because I need to study them separately. The first part is PSG 9 - Grammar IIa - Indirect Object Pronoun Verbs like Gustar. As I was putting this post together I realized how the two are related.

When talking about an action that is or was not planned, especially if it was unwanted or was unpleasant, the reflexive pronoun se is used (similar to how we use Se habla español) followed by an indirect object pronoun, 3rd person verb, and then the sentence subject. This construction is for things that “just happen”, such as forgetting, falling, dropping, and breaking.

So instead of saying, “I dropped her teapot!”, even in English we may say “The teapot slipped out of my hands!” According to Dr. Lemon’s Grammar Notes:

The difference in the second sentences is an emphasis on the lack of intent or responsibility. We are stressing that this was a totally unexpected event that did not involve any deliberate action on our part. In Spanish we use Se with certain verbs reflexively to convey this idea. We conjugate them in the third person singular or plural - much like Gustar type verbs - since we aren’t actually doing the action: Rather, it is something happening to us.

This construction indicates that the action was unintentional and, since the ‘actor’ is only referenced by an indirect object pronoun, this construction gives the sense that the ‘actor’ is not to blame - he or she had nothing to do with the accident.

Se le cayó la pluma. would mean: He dropped the pen (The pen got dropped by him).
Without the indirect object pronoun,
Se cayó la pluma. would mean: The pen fell.

I also note that from all the examples in PSG and online it appears that the peterite tense is used most all the time for this construction.