Spanish B2.1 Listening Practice: Event Past For -ar
Listen to a B2 Spanish dialogue about event past for -ar, with audio, transcript, and grammar notes for language learning.
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Level
B2.1
Audio
Segmented audio
Transcript
23 segments
A short Spanish listening chapter with transcript.
Unit 7: add preterite -e and -o for -ar to what you already control, then say one short answer that reuses earlier Spanish instead of starting from a memorized phrase.
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1. Carmen · Teacher
Welcome to ChickyTutor! I'm Carmen, your host. Today we are looking at how to talk about completed past events using regular -ar verbs in Spanish, specifically focusing on the first-person ending -é and the third-person ending -ó.
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2. Diego · Student
Hi Carmen! So forms like 'hablé' for 'I spoke' and 'habló' for 'he or she spoke'?
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3. Carmen · Teacher
Exactly, Diego! Let me introduce Álvaro and Lucía, who will show us these forms in action during a work conversation.
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4. Álvaro · Native Speaker 1
Hablé con ella ayer para revisar el plan del proyecto.
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5. Lucía · Native Speaker 2
¡Qué bien! Ella también habló con la directora sobre ese asunto.
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6. Álvaro · Native Speaker 1
Sí, y después trabajé unas horas más para organizar la presentación.
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7. Lucía · Native Speaker 2
Se nota, porque la reunión empezó súper bien y todo quedó claro.
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8. Álvaro · Native Speaker 1
Al final hablé con el cliente y aprobó la propuesta sin problemas.
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9. Carmen · Teacher
Let's break down that dialogue! Álvaro started with: 'Hablé con ella ayer para revisar el plan del proyecto', which means 'I spoke with her yesterday to review the project plan.' Here, 'hablé' uses the preterite ending -é to indicate a single completed past action done by 'yo'.
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10. Diego · Student
Why is the accent mark on 'hablé' so important when speaking and writing?
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11. Carmen · Teacher
The written accent mark tells us to place vocal stress on the final syllable: hab-LÉ. In spoken Spanish, that stress distinguishes the past tense 'hablé' from other verb forms.
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12. Carmen · Teacher
Next, Lucía said: '¡Qué bien! Ella también habló con la directora sobre ese asunto.' This means 'How great! She also spoke with the director about that matter.' Notice 'habló', ending in -ó for 'she' or 'he'.
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13. Diego · Student
How do I avoid confusing present tense 'hablo' with past tense 'habló'?
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14. Carmen · Teacher
Present tense 'hablo' stresses the first syllable—HAB-lo—meaning 'I speak'. Past tense 'habló' stresses the final syllable—hab-LÓ—meaning 'he, she, or you formal spoke'.
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15. Carmen · Teacher
Then Álvaro said: 'Sí, y después trabajé unas horas más para organizar la presentación', meaning 'Yes, and afterwards I worked a few more hours to organize the presentation.' The verb 'trabajar' becomes 'trabajé' in the 'yo' preterite.
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16. Diego · Student
Do all regular -ar verbs follow this same -é pattern for 'yo' in the preterite?
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17. Carmen · Teacher
Yes! Regular -ar verbs always take -é for 'yo': trabajé, estudié, llamé, and visité.
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18. Carmen · Teacher
Lucía followed up with: 'Se nota, porque la reunión empezó súper bien y todo quedó claro', which translates to 'It shows, because the meeting started really well and everything was clear.' Both 'empezó' and 'quedó' use the -ó ending for third-person completed events.
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19. Diego · Student
Why does 'empezar' change its spelling in some preterite forms?
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20. Carmen · Teacher
In Spanish orthography, 'z' changes to 'c' before 'e', so 'yo empecé' is spelled with a 'c', but 'ella empezó' keeps the 'z' because it precedes 'o'.
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21. Carmen · Teacher
Finally, Álvaro concluded: 'Al final hablé con el cliente y aprobó la propuesta sin problemas', meaning 'In the end I spoke with the client and he approved the proposal without problems.'
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22. Diego · Student
Is 'al final' the standard way to say 'in the end' in daily Spanish?
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23. Carmen · Teacher
Yes, 'al final' is extremely natural and widely used to summarize how a situation turned out. That's all for today's episode—remember to emphasize those final accented vowels when describing past events!
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