Present Perfect Compound of Conjugations II and III, todo and Articles with Country Names

La correspondencia de Juan

Ahora, Juan espera con impaciencia la contestación de su amigo de Moscú.

Vocablos

Notes & Explanations

The meaning of words and expressions

The meaning of the word todo

Todo all, everything, everyone is a relative pronoun-noun. Moreover, todo can function as an adjective that usually goes before a noun and agrees with it in gender and number. It translates as every in the singular form without an article, all the, the whole in the singular with an article, and all the in the plural form with an article.

Note: In older texts, you may encounter the expression todo día meaning ‘every day’, however, in modern Spanish this variant is obsolete. Today, todos los días or cada día are used to express ‘every day’.

Article omission (continuation)

The names of countries and cities are usually used without articles, as in English.

Exceptions

Note: In modern Spanish, the rule for using articles with countries (such as Estados Unidos, Canadá, Perú, etc.) has softened. Today, articles before them are optional, and in the press, you can more often find them without an article (just Estados Unidos). However, before cities where the article is a historical part of the name (for example, La Habana), it is mandatory and written with a capital letter.

The gender of the nouns denoting the names of countries and cities is defined by the endings: -a — for the feminine gender: Polonia, Francia, Varsovia; other vowels and consonants — for the masculine gender: París, Londres, Madrid, Moscú.

Remember the expressions:

Grammar points

1. Pretérito Perfecto Compuesto, conjugations II and III

Pretérito Perfecto Compuesto for verbs of conjugation II and III is formed in the same way as for conjugation I, except for the ending of the participle. For conjugation II and III, the infinitive verbs get the ending -ido, for example:

conocer — conocido
decidir — decidido

Some verbs get irregular forms, for example:

escribir — escrito

Pretérito Perfecto Compuesto for conjugations I, II and III

More information about Present Perfect in Spanish was given in the previous lesson.

2. The conjugation of the irregular verb saber

Imperative mood

Exercises

I. Form Present Perfect Compound from the following verbs:

II. Form the necessary tense forms from the verbs hablar, beber, salir:

III. Translate into English:

Todo el día Juan no ha pensado más que en una cosa: ¿a quién escribir una carta y a quién una tarjeta? Ha llegado Juana y le ha aconsejado escribir cartas a los muchachos y tarjetas a las muchachas. — La idea es buena — dice Juan — pero ¿por qué me aconsejas así? — Porque no me gusta cuando escribes mucho a las muchachas. — ¿Quieres ir conmigo a la oficina de Correos? — pregunta Juan. — Vamos a comprar sellos. — Yo he comprado hoy muchos sellos, puedo darte algunos a ti. — Bueno, entonces vamos a pegar los sellos y vamos a echar todas estas cartas en el buzón. — Bueno — dice Juana — voy a casa para decir a mamá que voy contigo y tú escribe tu correspondencia. A las tres Juana regresa y pregunta: ¿Has terminado? — No he podido terminar, he comprado papel y he escrito todas las cartas, pero el bolígrafo no escribe bien y no puedo escribir las tarjetas.

IV. Translate into Spanish:

Juan has returned from Moscow. At home there were many letters and cards for him. Juan started to read at once and was reading until four o’clock. At four o’clock Juana arrived and advised him to answer at once. When Juan was writing, Juana was reading a book. When Juan finished, Juana asked: Is that all? — Yes, these are all the letters and postcards, this is all the correspondence, read it, Juana! Juana read them, then affixed the stamps on them, and they put all the correspondence in the mailbox. Everyone answered and Juan received many beautiful cards from London, Paris and many other cities.

V. Fill in the gaps with an appropriate form of todo:

los amigos de Juan viven en Madrid. Juan contesta a carta recibida de Moscú. Juana escribía durante el día. He viajado la noche.