Lesson 49

Era, Iba, Veía, and Names

Language Transfer Complete Spanish is by Mihalis Eleftheriou. Listen to the original audio first; use these notes for revision.

Llamar = to call (double l = /y/ sound). Me llamo = my name is ("I call myself"). ¿Cómo te llamas? = What's your name? ¿Cómo se llamaba? = What was his/her name? (imperfect).

The -tain verbs from tener: obtener (obtain), mantener (maintain — mano = hand), sostener (sustain).

Cuatro = 4 (think "quarter"). Ayer = yesterday.

There are only three irregular imperfects in all of Spanish:

Verb	I/he/she	They	You (inf)	We
ser	era	eran	eras	éramos
ir	iba	iban	ibas	íbamos
ver	veía	veían	veías	veíamos

Memory hook: An "era" in English IS a line in the past — and era is the line-in-the-past form of ser.

Iba a + infinitive = I was going to: Iba a llamarte = I was going to call you. Iba a hacerlo = I was going to do it.

Sentences practiced

Spanish	English
Me llamo.	My name is.
¿Cómo te llamas?	What's your name?
¿Cómo se llama?	What's his/her name?
¿Cómo se llamaba?	What was his/her name?
¿Cómo se llamaban?	What were their names?
Obtener.	To obtain.
Mantener.	To maintain.
Sostener.	To sustain.
Tenía.	I had.
Tenía una casa grande.	I used to have a big house.
Teníamos una casa grande.	We used to have a big house.
Tenía cuatro.	I used to have four.
Tenía cuatro, pero ahora no me queda ninguno.	I used to have four, but now I have none left.
Tenía que verte.	I had to see you.
Tenía que verte ayer.	I had to see you yesterday.
¿Tenías que hacerlo ayer?	Did you have to do it yesterday?
¿No tenías que hacerlo ayer?	Didn't you?
Veíamos.	We were seeing.
Veían.	They were seeing.
Veías.	You were seeing.
Era estudiante.	I was a student.
¿Eras estudiante?	Were you a student?
Éramos estudiantes.	We were students.
¿Qué eran?	What were they?
Íbamos.	We were going.
Iban.	They were going.
Ibas.	You were going.
¿Por qué ibas?	Why were you going?
Iba a llamarte.	I was going to call you.
Iba a hacerlo.	I was going to do it.
Íbamos a hacerlo.	We were going to do it.
Íbamos a hacerlos.	We were going to make them.