Live Session 2

Review for Midterm Exam--NFC SPN 1121

In this session we will:

• 1.Discuss how to avoid common student errors with key Midterm Exam sections.
• I will share best-practice strategies for these sections.   
   
• 2. Pay special attention to the "saber" vs "conocer" section.
• It is a production section involving a fairly new concept.

Avoiding common student errors:

1. In Sections 1 and 6--the vocabulary sections:

Base your studying for these 2 sections on each Lesson's master vocabulary page in the textbook:

• For Lección 5--page 172
• For Lección 6--page 208

 

Pay special attention to phrases. Study them carefully and learn them thoroughly--I use them a lot when I am creating vocabulary questions.

• Lección 5 vocabulary is particularly rich in phrases. 
• Really make them a priority when you study.

Pay special attention to words with accented vowels or the "ñ".

• For example, if you are given the prompt "Voy a ir a la ______ de autobuses", you would choose "estación" as your answer, with its accent. (As opposed to a possible false choice of unaccented "estacion".)
   

Pay special attention to opposites. As anyone who took Spanish 1 with me knows, I use these a lot in vocabulary sections.

• Lección 6 vocabulary features adjectival opposites.
• Please study them.
• Sample question: "Lo opuesto de rico es _______".
• Of course, you'd select "pobre".

(Note that the adjectives on the Lección 5 vocabulary page will be covered in a grammar section.)

Avoiding common student errors:

2. In Section 2: focus on responses where the form of the adjective agrees with the noun or pronoun it's modifying.
 

• If you can do this, you can always eliminate several possible responses, which makes selecting the right one even easier.
   
• Example: No me gusta esta habitación porque ___________
• Answer options:
• está desordenado--nope, wrong noun-adj agreement
• está desordenada--possible! 
• estás sucio--nope, wrong noun-adj agreement
• estás triste--possible! 

Avoiding common student errors:

3. In Section 3: make sure to select a response w/ a gerund (not any other verb form) as the second answer element. The 2nd answer element must end in "-ndo"for it to be a valid option.

Pro tips for selecting the correct answer:

• Make sure the first answer element is a form of "estar", not a form of "ser".
   
• Do not pick an option that features a conjugated verb or an infinitive as the 2nd answer element.
   
• This can't be overstated: if you find yourself selecting a response whose 2nd answer element that ends in letters other than "-NDO", please stop. You're doing it wrong.

Avoiding common student errors:

4. In Section 4: when an answer needs a form of "estar" rather than "ser", make sure to include accent marks on conjugations of "estar" that require them.

• It's "estás" (not "estas")
• It's "está" (not "esta")
• It's "están" (not "estan")

 

"Estoy" and "estamos" don't carry accent marks. And we don't ever use "estáis" (the vosotros form) in this course.

 

Avoiding common student errors:

5. In Section 5: look only at the underlined direct object noun/noun phrase in the prompt sentence when you try to decide what direct-object pronoun to pick as your answer.

 

• Do not try to make the direct object pronoun "agree" with the conjugated verb that immediately follows it in the sentence. That's not how DOPs work at all.
   
• Similarly, do not select your direct object pronoun based on the subject noun or pronoun that precedes it. This is also not how DOPs work.

 

Let's review this via the L5 Practice Test.

6. In Section 7: please do not waste your time mentally translating each sentence to English. This is not going to help you.

Instead:

• 1. Look at the predicate (what follows the blank) first--this is what tells you whether to use "saber" or "conocer".
• 2. Look at the subject (what precedes the blank) next--this is what tells you how to conjugate the verb you choose.
• Also, make sure you conjugate whatever verb you decide to use  in the present tense. Remember that both present-tense yo-forms of these verbs are irregular: they are "sé" and "conozco".

Avoiding common student errors:

7. In Section 8: make sure you look only at the "a"-phrase when you try to decide what indirect-object pronoun to give as your answer.

• Do not try to make the indirect object pronoun "agree" with the conjugated verb that immediately follows it in the sentence. IOPs do not work that way.
   
• Similar error: do not select your indirect object pronoun based on the subject noun or pronoun that precedes it.
   
• Truly, each sentence's a-phrase is the only thing that determines your choice of indirect object pronoun.
   
• Let's practice this via the 2nd part of the Repaso exercise in Estructura 6.2, which was not assigned.

Avoiding common student errors:

8. In Section 9: make sure every answer you select is in the preterite tense.
 

• Do not select present-tense conjugated forms, adjectives or gerunds as answers (they will appear as false choices).
   
• Do not select conjugated forms that are misspelled or missing required accent marks (they will appear as false choices).
   
• Let's take a deeper dive into correct preterite forms.

Preterite forms to be careful with:

The preterite yo-forms (only) of -zar, -car and -gar verbs have spelling changes:

• yo almorCé (not "almorzé")
• yo toQUé (not "tocé")
• yo paGUé (not "pagé)

All the other forms are normal (let's practice our pronunciation by reading them aloud):

• AlmorZar: almorZaste, almorZó, almorZamos, almorZaron.
• ToCar: toCaste, toCó, toCamos, toCaron.
• PaGar: paGaste, paGó, paGamos, paGaron.

Any -IR or -ER verb whose stem ends in a vowel will:

• have "y"s instead of "i"s in its 3rd-person forms;
• carry accent marks on the "i" in the ending for tú and nosotros forms (usually this is not the case in the preterite)

Example: oír (stem ends in "o"--a vowel)--we'll again practice pronunciation by saying these forms aloud:

• yo oí (normal)
   
• tú oíste (tú forms usually don't carry accents in the preterite)
   
• él/ella/usted oyó (there's the y in 3rd-person singular)
   
• nosotros/nosotras oímos (nosotros forms usually don't carry accents in the preterite)
   
• ellos/ellas/ustedes oyeron (there's the y in 3rd-person plural)

 

Review of conjugation paradigm for preterite tense of  -AR verbs:

If the subject is...

• "yo"--->[stem] + "é"
   
• "tú"---->[stem] + "aste"
   
• "él", "ella", "usted" or any singular noun--->[stem] + "ó"
   
• "nosotros", "nosotras" or anyone plus "y yo"--->[stem] + "amos"
   
• "ellos", "ellas", "ustedes", any other plural noun or any series of singular nouns joined by a "y" (meaning "and")-->[stem] + "aron"

Review of conjugation paradigm for preterite tense of  -ER and -IR verbs:

If the subject is...

• "yo"--->[stem] + "í"
   
• "tú"---->[stem] + "iste"
   
• "él", "ella", "usted" or any singular noun--->[stem] + "ió"
   
• "nosotros", "nosotras" or anyone plus "y yo"--->[stem] + "imos"
   
• "ellos", "ellas", "ustedes", any other plural noun or any series of singular nouns joined by a "y" (meaning "and")--->[stem] + "ieron"
• Remember, for ER/IR verbs, no correct preterite form can have an "A" in its ending! (And for AR verbs, no correct preterite form will have an ending that starts with "i"!)

• Note that in Lección 6, we're only looking at -IR verbs that do not stem change in the present tense.
• As we'll soon see, -IR verbs that do stem change in the present tense do something special in the preterite. Don't worry about it right now.