Lesson 14: Sé, el, ella, yo, tengo que and Poner

By the end of this lesson you'll know more about the verb Saber (to know) as well as he, she and I, how to say 'have to' and more about 'go' verbs

In this lesson we'll look at:

• 'Saber' - "to know" - in a little more depth
• 'el','ella','yo' - "he", "she" and "I" ... and where to use them
• 'Tengo que' - "I have to"
• 'Pongo' - "I put" and more about those 'go verbs!

So sit back, stap in and here we go ...

Saber

'Saber' in the I form is irregular - its just 'sé'. But this is difficult to hear and as saying "I know" can be important in a conversation you find many Spanish people say 'lo sé - "I know it".

Spanish	English
Sé	I know
No sé	I don't know
Lo sé	I know it

But the rest of the versions of 'saber' are regular. Now as we know it is a 'er' verb we don't need to learn these forms parrot fashion. We will be better (even if it is slower at first) to think them out from the rules for 'er' verbs.

Try do do this before you scroll any further. You'll remember verbs far faster if you think them out rather than try to memorize them. For example:

Spanish	English
Sabe	he/she/it/you (formal) knows

OK! Time to try a long sentence "I don't know what he wants"

• I don't know - 'No sé'
• what - 'Qué'
• he wants - 'quiere'

Spanish	English
No sé que quiere	I don't know what he wants

Él - "he"

Spanish	English
Él	He

We haven't learned the words for he, she, it, we, they and I up until now because they aren't used that often. We know who we are talking about because of the form of the verb and the context.

But we won't always have context and/or sometimes we want to emphasise who or what we are talking about.

Where you put 'él' is pretty flexible.

Spanish	English
No sé que él quiere	I don't know what he wants
No sé que quiere él	I don't know what he wants

Ella - "she"

We already have the word for "her" - 'la'

Spanish	English
Quiero verla	I want to see her

"She" is 'ella'. 'll' in Spanish is pronounced like 'y' in English.

Spanish	English
Ella	She
Ella ve	She sees
Ella tiene	She has

In any one sentence we might use I/he/she to emphasis a point. For example "I don't want to invite him but she does". Let's break that down:

• I don't want - 'No quiero'
• to invite him - 'invitarlo'
• but - 'pero'
• she does - 'ella sí'

In the last part of that sentence "she does" is 'ella sí which literally means "she yes" - 'Sí' is "yes"

You might have noticed that the Spanish for "if" ('si') is very similar to the Spanish for "yes" ('sí'). Squint your eyes and you'll see the difference in the written word is an accent on the 'i' for "Yes" but there is no way to hear the difference when it is spoken until your at native speaker level!

Spanish	English
No quiero invitarlo per ella sí	I don't want to invite him but she does

Yo - I

Now if we really want to be emphatic and make the point that "I" don't want to invite him but its "she" that does. Expressing that its not "my" fault. Here we would use the word for "I" - 'Yo'

Spanish	English
Yo no quiero invitarlo per ella sí	I don't want to invite him but she does

Salgo - I leave / I go out

Spanish	English
Salgo	I'm leaving / going out

This is irregular but belongs to the 'go' group of verbs we talked about at the end of the last lesson. It comes from the verb 'salir' so if we know that we know how to make all the other forms of the verb.

Spanish	English
Sale	he/she/it/you (formal) leave(s)
Salen	they/you guys leave
Sales	you (informal) leave

And we can try using it in longer sentences

Spanish	English
Salgo a comer	I'm going out to eat

Note again the 'a' in the sentence. 'Comer' already means "to eat" so we shouldn't need it but as 'saler' is a verb of movement (and we don't need to learn this, we just need to think about the action of the verb) we need the extra 'a'.

Tengo que - I have to

As a quick recap

Spanish	English
Tengo	I have
Lo tengo	I have it
Los tengo	I have them

Adding on 'que' to 'tengo' gives us "I have to".

Spanish	English
Tengo que comer	I have to eat
Tengo que hacerlo	I have to do it
Lo tengo que hacer	I have to do it
Tengo que verla	I have to see her
La tengo que ver	I have to see her

Tengo is a 'go' verb which means the I form is irregular. The to form is an 'er' verb and the he/she/it form is 'tiene' so we can now work out other forms.

Spanish	English
Tienen	They / you guys have
Tienes	You (informal) have

We can carry out this mental exercise for any verb when we see or here the he/she/it form. So 'viene' is "he/she/it/you (formal) come(s)" and that means we can work out from the rules we saw earlier that:

Spanish	English
Vienes	You (informal) come
Cuándo vienes?	When are you coming
Cuándo vienes a comer?	When are you coming to eat

Discovering words via 'Tengo'

In an earlier lesson we looked at how the 'to form' of 'tengo' ('tener') pops up in all sorts of other words.

Spanish	English
Contener	To contain
Obtener	To obtain
Sostener	To sustain
Mantener	To maintain
Entretener	To entertain

And one of the patterns here is that all the English versions end in 'tain' while all the Spanish versions end in 'tener'.

So if 'tener' becomes 'tengo' in the I form ....

Spanish	English
Obtengo	I obtain

Poner - to put

This is another 'go' verb so:

Spanish	English
Pongo	I put

Now 'poner' is an interesting one because whenever you see an English verb that ends 'pose' you can replace it with 'poner' to get the Spanish verb.

Spanish	English
Componer	To compose
Suponer	To suppose
Supongo	I suppose
Supongo que sí	I suppose so
Imponer	To impose
Exponer	Expose
Oponer	To oppose
Lo Opongo	I oppose it

Coming back to Debo (I must)

We've seen 'tengo que' (I have to) and 'debo' (I must). The difference is the same as in English. "Must" has more urgency than "have to".

Spanish	English
Tengo que comer ahora	I have to eat now
Debo comer	I must eat

Just drop in that difference here because it doesn't seem to belong anywhere else

Some quick reminders

Just reading a listening some of the sentences we've made so far every now and then just helps reinforce them, the verbs and the structures in your mind ... so here are a few:

There are sentences here that you won't have heard before but because we know how to put them together it will feel like you do!

Spanish	English
Voy a intentar comer más tarde	I'm going to try to eat later
Voy a comer	I'm going to eat
Puedo comer	I can to eat
Tengo que comer	I have to eat
Quiero comer	I want to eat

Lesson 15: Pasar, 'Softening verbs', Pensar, Intender and Perder