Love-Spanish.com: Tell Me, Who Was Calling Him?

Introduction

This post is about the practical use of verbs in general and more particularly the imperfect tense, indicative mood of regular verbs ending in -ar.

SCENARIO

Imagine you are talking to a relative, a friend or a colleague. You are talking about a third person (male). You are describing what had happened to that person whilst he was being called on the phone. At some point, the other person says to you something like: "tell me, who was calling him?".

In Spanish, the other person could choose to be less formal and say to you:

Dime, ¿quién le llamaba?

On the other hand, he/ she could choose to be more formal and say to you:

Dígame, ¿quién le llamaba?

OUR TIP

The question is an invitation for you to say who was calling the person in question. When stating who did something, you may need to consider different levels of formality in your reply. That will be specifically the case when your answer includes a reference to the person you are talking to. The examples below include cases in which a more or less formal type of answer is required.

Here are some examples of how you could reply:

Le llamaba* yo (I was calling him);
Le llamabas* tú, ¿no? (you -familiar were calling him, weren't you?);
Le llamaba* usted, ¿no? (you -formal were calling him, weren't you?);
Le llamaba* Pedro, ¿no? (Pedro was calling him, wasn't he?);
Le llamaba* María, ¿no? (María was calling him, wasn't she?);
Le llamábamos* nosotros, ¿no? (we were calling him, weren't we?);
Le llamabais* vosotros, ¿no? (you -familiar/ plural were calling him, weren't you?);
Le llamaban* ustedes, ¿no? (you -formal/ plural were calling him, weren't you?);
Le llamaban* sus padres, ¿no? (his parents were calling him, weren't they?);

Now you should practise replying to someone who says to you:

Dime, ¿quién le llamaba?

*Please see grammar topic below, Verbs

Verbs

A verb is a 'doing' word which conveys:

What action takes place in a sentence
Who does that action
When that action occurs.

In addition, the verb may also convey the mood or feelings of the speaker toward the action which takes place. The verb may, for example, indicate whether the speaker is stating a fact, expressing a wish or indeed giving an order.

Verb Conjugation

Please see notes on conjugation* at the end of this post.

Indicative Mood-Imperfect Tense

1. Regular Verbs Ending in -ar

Subject		TRABAJAR (TO WORK)
I	Yo	TRABAJABA
You	Tú	TRABAJABAS
You	Usted^*	TRABAJABA
He	Él
She	Ella
We	Nosotros	TRABAJÁBAMOS
You	Vosotros**	TRABAJABAIS
You	Ustedes***	TRABAJABAN
They	Ellos
They	Ellas

*NB More courteous/ polite form of 'you'

**NB 'You' plural

*** NB More courteous/ polite form of 'you' plural

2. Regular Verbs Ending in -er

Subject		COMER (TO EAT)
I	Yo	COMÍA
You	Tú	COMÍAS
You	Usted^*	COMÍA
He	Él
She	Ella
We	Nosotros	COMÍAMOS
You	Vosotros**	COMÍAIS
You	Ustedes***	COMÍAN
They	Ellos
They	Ellas

*NB More courteous/ polite form of 'you'

**NB 'You' plural

*** NB More courteous/ polite form of 'you' plural

3. Regular Verbs Ending in -ir

Subject		VIVIR (TO LIVE)
I	Yo	VIVÍA
You	Tú	VIVÍAS
You	Usted^*	VIVÍA
He	Él
She	Ella
We	Nosotros	VIVÍAMOS
You	Vosotros**	VIVÍAIS
You	Ustedes***	VIVÍAN
They	Ellos
They	Ellas

*NB More courteous/ polite form of 'you'

**NB 'You' plural

*** NB More courteous/ polite form of 'you' plural

* Verb Conjugation Notes

It is worth remembering once more that in its basic form (infinitive), a Spanish verb is just a general 'doing' word. In that form, a verb simply indicates an action and nothing else. If we want a verb to be more specific about the action in a sentence, we need to conjugate it. It is only when conjugated that the verb indicates:

Who does the action
When the action takes place
The mood/ attitude of the speaker towards the action

The conjugation tables above refer to using conjugation establish who does the action. What follows below are some notes on establishing when the action takes place and the mood/ attitude of the speaker towards the action.

Subjunctive Mood

The use of subjunctive mood is disappearing English. Nowadays is often viewed as an old and unfashionable form of the language.

In contrast, the use of subjunctive mood is very much alive and in everyday use in Spanish. This widespread use of subjunctive mood tends to be the bane of many a learner of Spanish from the English speaking world.

The concept of subjunctive mood is perhaps best illustrated by contrasting its use against the use of indicative mood with examples in English. The following are a couple of examples which should serve that purpose:

Indicative mood (“Peter eats an apple”).- Indicative mood is commonly used to make statements of facts or positive beliefs such as this one. As can be seen in the sample sentence (in quotes above), the speaker makes a clear and unambiguous statement of a fact (Peter eats an apple).
Subjunctive mood (“Peter would eat an apple if he were hungry”).- In contrast with indicative mood, subjunctive mood is commonly used to make statements indicating hypothetical or non-fact actions. As can be seen in the sample sentence (in quotes), in this case the speaker sees the action of eating an apple as something hypothetical, something which may or may not happen (Peter would eat an apple... if he were hungry).

Verb Tenses

Verb tenses relate to setting the time period (when) during which the action of the verb takes place. Basic times (periods) for Spanish verb actions are:

The past (before now)
The present (now)
The future (after now)

Each Spanish verb tense corresponds to one of those basic time periods. In other words choosing a verb tense places the action of the verb in one of those basic periods and determines when the action takes place.

Now you should practise the use of the imperfect-indicative mood of regular verbs with some examples of your own.

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