Lesson 53

Could, Wanted, Had, There Was

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

The imperfect of key verbs — incredibly common in daily speech:

Spanish	English
podía	could (was able to)
tenía	had
quería	wanted
sabía	knew
debía	had to

Había = there was / there were (imperfect of hay). Also: había + past participle = had (done): Ya había comido = I had already eaten. Ya había cenado = I had already dined.

Buscar = to look for / to search. Ayer = yesterday.

Sentences practiced

Spanish	English
Podía.	I could.
Podíamos.	We could.
No podía hacerlo.	I couldn't do it.
No podía hacerlo porque no tenía el tiempo.	I couldn't do it because I didn't have the time.
No podía hacerlo ayer.	I couldn't do it yesterday.
Había comido.	I had eaten.
Ya había comido.	I had already eaten.
Quería cenar conmigo.	He wanted to dine with me.
Pero ya había cenado.	But I had already dined.
Él quería cenar conmigo pero yo ya había cenado.	He wanted to dine with me but I had already dined.
Buscar.	To search.
Buscaba.	He was searching.
Lo buscaba.	He was looking for it.
Porque yo lo había perdido.	Because I had lost it.
Me habría perdido.	I would have gotten lost.