Monday 30 April 2007

The past tense - number 1

Last week - with a different teacher - I was taught one of the past tenses. The past participle I think. As with any Spanish tense there are also multiple irregular verbs thrown in. Each set of irregulars has a rule applied to them. This one has 11 rules ranging from, change the O to an E, if it ends in ´gar´ switch it to ´gue´ and my favourite, the 5th group: verbos muy irregular, where there aren´t any rules.

When we get to the rules it´s like someone putting the brakes on. You´re travelling along at a steady speed taking on board all conjugations when suddenly the logic no longer applies and the learning curve grinds to a halt. Still, I guess it´s just a case of remembering them. Whenever I pull a face at the strange rules I am told that English is far more difĂ­cil.

I have found that it´s opened the door though to more fulfilling conversation. Given that the interesting things that happen to people are in the past tense it´s nice to be able to talk about them. As long as it does´t involve an irregular verb.

No comments: