PHRASES
| La energía eléctrica es necesaria para la vida en el mundo moderno. | Electric energy is necessary for life in the modern world. |
| Las grandes innovaciones tecnológicas no habrían existido jamás. | The great technological innovations would’ve never existed. |
| El mundo continuaría incomunicado sin teléfonos, telégrafos ni satélites. | The world would still be lacking communication without telephones, telegraphs, and satellites. |
| Las ciudades serían centros de aburrimiento, aisladas entre sí. | Cities would be centers of boredom, isolated from one another. |
| Es difícil sobrevivir sin los adelantos científicos de los cuales disfrutamos hoy en día. | It’s difficult to survive without the scientific advances that we enjoy today. |
| La gente de la época medieval vivía vidas muy aburridas. | People from Medieval times lived boring lives. |
| Somos afortunados de vivir en la modernidad. | We are fortunate to live in modern times. |
| El siglo XX es el mejor de toda la historia. | The twentieth century is the best in all of history. |
| Cuando hay fallas eléctricas, aunque sea por unas horas, la vida es realmente terrible. | When there are electrical failures, even if it’s just a few hours, life is really terrible. |
| Yo preferiría vivir sin cualquier cosa, menos sin los avances tecnológicos. | I would prefer anything to living without technological advances. |
VOCABULARY
acostumbrarse to: get used to
ahorita (adv): right now
aislarse: to be isolated, to isolate oneself
apacible: (adj) pleasant
avance: (m) technological advance
balde: (m) bucket, pail
barra de hielo: (f) ice bar
camión: (m) commercial truck
caverna: (f) cave
contentarse: to be contented, to be happy about something
diario: (m) daily newspaper
electricidad: (f) electricity
época: (f) epoch
hielera: (f) portable cooler
lámpara de parafina: (f) oil lamp
monótono: (adj) monotonous
precario: (adj) precarious
provincia: (f) province, the countryside, the interior
retroceder: to back up, to retrace one’s steps
vela: (f) candle
GRAMMAR
Imperfect subjunctive and Conditional tenses
Talking about hypothetical situations, or situations that are contrary to fact, requires some rather complicated grammar. In Spanish, if you are speaking about hypothetical situations for the present time you might want to use the following pattern:
| Si + imperfect subjunctive + conditional |
| or |
| Conditional + si + imperfect subjunctive |
| Si yo fuera el presidente ayudaría a los niños de la calle. | If I were the president I would help the children who live on the street. | |
| Yo viajaría por todo el mundo si fuera muy rico. | I would travel around the world if I were really rich. |
Another common construction which uses the imperfect subjunctive is the phrase como si (as if) to express a situation that is contrary to fact.
| Hablas como si fueras el presidente de la compañía. | You speak as if you were the president of the company./td> | |
| Actúas como si estuvieras culpable. | You act as if you were guilty. |
The imperfect subjunctive is formed by taking the third person plural of the preterite minus -on.
| hablaron | hablar- | |
| comieron | comier- | |
| vivieron | vivier- |
To this stem you add the following endings: -a, -as, -a, -amos, -ais, -an.
| hablar- | hablara, hablaras, hablara, habláramos, hablarais, hablaran | |
| comier- | comiera, comieras, comiera, comiéramos, comierais, comieran | |
| vivier- | viviera, vivieras, viviera, viviéramos, vivierais, vivieran |
The conditional tense is formed by adding –ía: -ías, -ía, -íamos, -íais, or –ían to the end of the infinitive form of the verb.
| hablar | hablaría, hablarías, hablaría, hablaríamos, hablaríais, hablarían | |
| comer | comería, comerías, comerías, comeríamos, comeríais, comerían | |
| vivir | vivir�a, vivir�as, vivir�a, vivir�amos, vivir�ais, vivir�an |
Verbs that have irregular forms in the future are also irregular in the conditional. They use the same stem in the conditional as they did in the future tense.
| decir: | dir- | |
| hacer: | har- | |
| poder: | podr- | |
| poner: | pondr- | |
| querer: | querr- | |
| saber: | sabr- | |
| tener: | tendr- | |
| venir: | vendr- |
