Tour San Juan in Spanish

Quick Answer

¡Hola!Learn how to tour San Juan in Spanish! Specifically, learn how to do the following in Spanish:

• talk about Puerto Rico

• discuss a trip

• talk about a typical Puerto Rican food

Vocabulary

Let's start off with the vocab words in these lessons!

Adjectives

Spanish	English
bello	beautiful
estrecho	narrow
extraordinario	extraordinary
folclórico	folk
orgulloso	proud
precioso	beautiful
situado	located

examples
Las calles eran bastante estrechas. The streets were pretty narrow.
El café me pareció extraordinario. I thought the coffee was extraordinary.
Un día vi un festival folclórico. One day I saw a folk festival.

Nouns

Spanish	English
el acento	accent
el adoquín	cobblestone
la bahía	bay
el, la boricua	Boricua
el Capitolio	capitol
el grado Fahrenheit	degree Fahrenheit
el fuerte	fort
el gobierno	government
el mofongo	mofongo
la muralla	wall
el pariente	relative
Puerto Rico	Puerto Rico
el puertorriqueño, la puertorriqueña	Puerto Rican
San Juan	San Juan
el siglo	century

examples
El castillo está situado a la entrada de la bahía. The castle is located at the entrance to the bay.
Muchas de las calles eran de adoquines. Many of the streets were made with cobblestones.
El barrio también tenía edificios del gobierno. The neighborhood also had government buildings.

Mofongo is a typical Puerto Rican dish made of mashed fried green plantains with garlic.

Temperatures in the Spanish-Speaking World

While the vast majority of the Spanish-speaking world uses Celsius to talk about temperature, Puerto Rico uses Fahrenheit. Why? Puerto Rico is a US territory, and the United States is one of the very few countries that still use Fahrenheit.

Verb

In this skill, you learn the following verb!

Imitar

Imitar(to copy) is an -ar verb that is regular in the imperfect.

Pronoun(s)	Conjugation	Translation	Notes
yo	imitaba	I copied
tú	imitabas	you copied	informal singular you
vos	imitabas	you copied	informal singular you (in parts of Latin America)
él, ella	imitaba	he, she copied
usted	imitaba	you copied	formal singular you
nosotros, nosotras	imitábamos	we copied
vosotros, vosotras	imitabais	you copied	informal plural you (in Spain)
ellos, ellas	imitaban	they copied
ustedes	imitaban	you copied	plural you (in Latin America), formal plural you (in Spain)

Preterite vs. Imperfect

Many students have trouble knowing when to use the preterite tense or the imperfect tense, as they both refer to actions in the past.

The Preterite

Generally, the preterite is used for completed actions. These can be actions that can be viewed as single events, actions that were part of a chain of events, actions that were repeated a very specific number of times, or actions that specifically state the beginning and end of an action.

Useful Phrases that Trigger the Preterite

There are many helpful words and phrases that indicate specific time frames, therefore signaling that the preterite should be used. Here is one:

el primer día

The Imperfect

The imperfect tense is generally used for actions in the past that do not have a definite end. These can be actions that are not yet completed or refer to a time in general in the past.

It can also be used to talk about:

actions that were repeated habitually

actions that set the stage for another past tense event

time and dates

a person’s age in the past

characteristics

mental or physical states

to react to new information

Useful Phrases that Trigger the Imperfect

Here’s a helpful phrase that often signals that a verb should be used in the imperfect.

porque

Preterite and Imperfect: Working Together

This pair of tenses is often used together to talk about an ongoing action or event that was interrupted in the past. In such case, the interrupted action is given in the imperfect tense, while the interrupting action is given in the preterite. You can also look at this as a cause-consequence relationship. For example, the cause is in the imperfect tense while the consequence is in the preterite. For example:

examples
Fui porque entonces tenía familia allí. I went because I had family there then.
Fui a San Juan porque mis parientes vivían allí. I went to San Juan because my relatives lived there.

examples

Fui porque entonces tenía familia allí.

I went because I had family there then.