Past Participle / El participio

To form the past participle (participio) of most verbs, change the infinitive ending:
from -ar to -ado: terminar  terminado	from -er, -ir to -ido: comer  comido ; vivir  vivido
-er and -ir verbs whose stems end in a strong vowel (a ,e ,o) add -ído: caer : caído • creer : creído • leer : leído • oír : oído • reír : reído • traer : traído BUT: construir : construido (because the stem ends in a weak vowel, u).
The following irregular forms exist:
abrir : abierto cubrir : cubierto decir : dicho ; predecir : predicho escribir : escrito ; describir: descrito hacer : hecho morir : muerto	poner : puesto ; suponer : supuesto resolver : resuelto romper : roto satisfacer : satisfecho ver : visto volver : vuelto ; devolver : devuelto
together with verbs derived from them: absolver: absuelto, componer: compuesto, descubrir: descubierto, inscribir: inscrito.
- The participle has no feminine or plural in tenses with haber: Las niñas han salido. (§53) - When used as an adjective, though, it needs to agree in number and gender with the noun:La música escrita, el libro escrito, los documentos escritos.

 The past participle (such as English known, defeated, written, lost, etc.) is used:

• with haber to form compound perfect tenses (see §53).

• with ser to form the passive voice (see §41).

• as an adjective: Voy a ver unos programas hechos en España.
Las circunstancias descritas en la película son fascinantes.

• with estar (also as an adjective) to describe a condition or state:

La ventana está rota. Todavía no estamos preparados. Las tiendas están cerradas por la noche. Para 1492, España ya estaba unificada.

The window is broken. We're not ready yet. Stores are closed during the night. By 1492, Spain was already unified.

Más ejercicios y la página original aquí.

El gerundio y el infinitivo

A. THE GERUNDIO is used for actions in progress (present participle in English):

A1. with the appropriate form of estar (or hay) to form the progressive tenses:

Lisa está estudiando.
Estamos aprendiendo.
No hay nadie hablando.Lisa is studying.
We are learning.
There’s no one talking.

  Note that in Spanish this construction cannot be used to express the future, as it frequently is in English (I am leaving next week). The simple present can be used in this sense: “Salgo la próxima semana”.

A2. with the verbs seguir and continuar to mean "go on doing something":

Continuó diciendo.
Siguió cantando.He went on saying.
She continued to sing.

   Note that, unlike English, Spanish does not offer the option of using an infinitive after seguir or continuar:
He went on to say → Siguió diciendo.

A3. to express "by doing" or "while doing" something (no preposition in Spanish):

Vas a mejorar estudiando mucho.
Me duermo leyendo esto.You are going to improve by studying a lot.
I fall asleep (while) reading this.

 Spanish does not use the gerundio as an adjective.Clauses or different expressions have to be used:

the answering machine
a never-ending process
passengers carrying a big case...
an intriguing beginning
a disappointing endingla máquina contestadora (el contestador)
un proceso que nunca termina (interminable)
los pasajeros que llevan una maleta grande...
un comienzo intrigante
un final decepcionante

 B. THE INFINITIVE is the verb form that Spanish uses as a noun:

B1. as the subject of a sentence or the object of a verb*:

Ver es creer.
No me gusta estudiar.
Decidir casi siempre es difícil.Seeing is believing.
I don't like studying.
Deciding is difficult most of the time.

B2. immediately after any preposition:

Voy a salir después de comer.
Es su manera de hablar.
Habla sin usar las manos.I am going to leave after eating.
It's his/her way of speaking.
He speaks without using his hands.

 Note that, unlike English, Spanish does not use thegerundio after prepositions or as the subject of a sentence. The infinitive must be used in such cases:
the problem of leaving → el problema de salirliving is good → vivir es bueno

*  Many verbs require no preposition before the infinitive: Quiero dormir.
Some, however, require different prepositions: Sueño con viajar. Ayudan a mejorar. Tratamos de entender. (See Appendix D).

Más ejercicios aquí.

La historia de Europa en 3 minutos

Continuando con la clase de historia de España, aquí tenéis un video muy ilustrativo de las transformaciones en las fronteras en Europa, que puede ayudar mucho a entender la historia de lo que llegará a ser España en el siglo XX y XXI.

Investigación Cultural

-Cultural research points are given individually, reflecting effort and student level. Points awarded can change depending on student.

-Each student has to achieve 7 cultural research points each half term, without deadlines.

-Students can choose an activity from the proposed pool, or agree a new one with the teacher.
-There will be a prize for the top achiever and the most interesting project every half term.

1 Point tasks:

Watch a chapter of a series in Spanish and write a brief review.

Watch a film related to a Spanish speaking country´s culture or history, write a brief review.

Read an article about a relevant topic in a Spanish newspaper and write a brief summary.

3 points tasks:

Watch a film in Spanish and write a review.

Read a book about a Spanish speaking country´s culture or history, write a brief review.

Go to a restaurant and write a review.
Go to a Spanish art or history exhibition and write a review.

5 points tasks:

Read several articles about a relevant topic in different Spanish newspapers. Write a journalistic article about the topic in Spanish.

Cook a dish, take photos and write a post for the blog with the receipt. Bring a taster to the teacher.

Read a short story in Spanish. Write a review.

Leave your proposals in the comments!

La Excepción

http://grooveshark.com/laexcepcion

I noticed that "La Excepción" was one, if not the most, succesfull song the other day. Here you have a playlist from this Hip Hop band.

Karaoke en español

Imperfect and Preterite Contrasted

A. The preterite is a "perfect" tense because it reports events viewed as completed within a finite time frame. An "imperfect" tense conveys duration, progression, incompleteness:

IMPERFECT (duration)	PERFECT (PRETERITE: completion)
Los indígenas no aceptaban a los europeos. The natives would not accept Europeans (for some time).	Algunos nunca los aceptaron. Some (definitely) never did.
El sábado nevaba y hacía frío. It was snowing on Saturday, and it was cold. (for some time)	El sábado nevó todo el día. It snowed all day on Saturday. (time frame)
El año pasado asistía mucho a conciertos. Last year I used to attend concerts a lot (often).	El año pasado asistí a muchos conciertos. Last year I attended many concerts.

B. For narration, each tense has a distinct function:

IMPERFECT (duration)	PRETERITE (completion)
gives background information, describes what was happening	reports completed actions, tells what happened
It was raining... Llovía (o estaba lloviendo)...	when I woke up, cuando me desperté.
describes a state or condition	reports a change in condition
He was fine before the winter, ... Estaba bien antes del invierno, ...	but in January he got sick because of the cold. pero en enero se enfermó por el frío.

C. As was mentioned in §28, a few verbs have slightly different meanings in the preterite. All of them, however, follow the general idea of duration for the imperfect and of completeness for the preterite:

	Imperfect	Preterite
poder	could, had the ability to	managed to (or failed to if negative)
querer	wanted, had the intention to	tried to (or refused if negative)
conocer	previously knew for some time	met, got to know for the first time
saber	had knowledge for some time	learned, found out at a specific point

See §22 to review the difference between conocer and saber

Los conocía antes de viajar. I knew them before traveling.	Los conocí al viajar. I met them while traveling
¿Qué sabía Bush del ataque? What did Bush know of the attack?	¿Cuándo supo Bush del ataque? When did Bush find out about the attack?
No sabía que eras chilena. I did not know you were Chilean.	Ayer supe que eras de Chile. Yesterday I learned you were from Chile.
De niño podía jugar todo el día. As a child, I could play all day.	También pude hacer muchos amigos. I also had the opportunity to make many friends.
Como no podíamos salir, ... Since we couldn’t go out, ...	no pudimos ver los fuegos artificiales. we were unable to see the fireworks.
Queríamos ir de compras, ... We wanted to go shopping, ...	pero mi madre no quiso darnos dinero. but my mother refused to give us some money.

The original website of this content + some exercises here.