"I arrived today"

[barefootjon]

Pimsleur is confusing me on this phrase using llegar. In previous lessons we learned to add -ado for past tense. So I assumed this would be:

He llegado hoy

But the lesson is saying

llege hoy

Is there some way you can combine "He" and "ado" to make "llege"?

And also they are translating "you arrived" as

"llegaste" instead of "has llegado".

I'm guessing there's a difference between "I arrived" and "I have arrived" as well as "you arrived" and "you have arrived"?

Pimsleur is focusing on being able to have a conversation versus giving grammar lessons it seems. I'm starting with a tutor in a couple weeks so I'm hoping that will help me make some sense of this.

Jon

[Rusty]

There is indeed a difference between 'I arrived' and 'I have arrived.'
The former is in the preterit tense, whereas the latter is in the present perfect tense.
Both are conjugated differently.

You can find verb conjugation charts in many places. I don't want to scare you, but knowing what conjugation to use is extremely important.

He llegado = I have arrived

The 'have' part is an auxiliary verb. Using a conjugated form of haber (which is the infinitive form of the auxiliary verb 'have'), plus the past participle of the main verb, like lleg+ado, forms the present perfect tense.
You've apparently seen two of the present-tense conjugations (he and has). You use 'he' in first-person conjugations (when you, the speaker, are the subject of the sentence), and 'has' is used when you are addressing another person on a familiar basis (when your dear friend, let's say, is the subject of the sentence (second-person familiar address)).

To form the preterit tense, the endings of the infinitive llegar become -é (for first person (yo)) and -aste (for a familiar second person (tú)).

Here are links to two different conjugation charts.

The first is found here on tomísimo, and is entered by typing llegar in the 'search' bar found at the top of the page, left-most corner. In the drop-down menu, change 'Dictionary' to 'Conjugations.' Then click on the magnifying glass. This page will appear.

The other link is found here. The thing that's nice about this last website is that you don't need to know the infinitive form of the verb. You can type in llegué and it will show you all the conjugations for the infinitive llegar.

Notice that llegué is the proper way to spell the first-person preterit form of the verb 'llegar.' The first-person ending is -é, as I indicated above, but to retain the hard 'g' sound in 'llegar,' the letter 'u' must be added before the vowel 'e' (and before the vowel 'i').

I hope this helps.
Verb conjugation is pretty hard for learners.



Scary stuff: If you count all possible conjugations of 'llegar,' you'll see that the number is 113 in the latter site I linked. That site is more robust.
Less scary: On this side of the world, the vosotros form isn't used for second-person plural.
Returning to scary: In this hemisphere, some countries substitute a vos form for the second-person singular familiar tú, or they might use both, depending on their feelings.)

[barefootjon]

OMG! That is definitely scary and kinda depressing haha. I bookmarked both of those websites for future use.

Thank you for that well thought out reply. That's some great stuff right there.

[Rusty]

Don't get too scared, or depressed. There are patterns.
Once you've mastered them, the patterns are used over and over. The patterns differ for -AR, -ER, and -IR verbs, but not significantly. This includes stem-changing verbs, irregular first-person verbs, and necessary spelling changes that retain original consonant sounds.

Only the irregular verbs have to be memorized.

There are great explanations on the web about verb patterns, but you only need to get them under your belt when you're tackling verbs specifically. Barron's 501 Spanish Verbs is a very good book to get when you're ready.

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

I agree with Rusty.

Yet, if you don't want to memorize five hundred verbs, you may try Larousse's Conjugación Lengua Española. You can find it on Amazon.

It's a manual that gives you 70 model verbs and a reference to those that are conjugated similarly, so you only have to see the root of the verb and learn the right ending. Using it regularly will give you a "feel" for the correct conjugations in the future.

[ROBINDESBOIS]

Originally Posted by barefootjon

Pimsleur is confusing me on this phrase using llegar. In previous lessons we learned to add -ado for past tense. So I assumed this would be:

He llegado hoy

But the lesson is saying

llege hoy

Is there some way you can combine "He" and "ado" to make "llege"?

And also they are translating "you arrived" as

"llegaste" instead of "has llegado".

I'm guessing there's a difference between "I arrived" and "I have arrived" as well as "you arrived" and "you have arrived"?

Pimsleur is focusing on being able to have a conversation versus giving grammar lessons it seems. I'm starting with a tutor in a couple weeks so I'm hoping that will help me make some sense of this.

Jon

In Most of Spain we tend to use hemos llegado, in Asturias , Galicia,León and latin America they say llegué.