Activities for Nuestra Canción

Published by Lyrical Language on

Practice some of the vocabulary from this song and its preterite and imperfect tense verbs using these flashcards, games and exercises.

Did you miss the analysis for this song? Find it here!

Activities

Vocabulary Excercises

We have chosen 15 words and phrases out of this song to form our vocabulary list, which can be found below. You can use the following activities to learn and practice this vocabulary.

Vocabulary Flashcards – Learn the vocabulary from this song with our sets of Spanish to English and English to Spanish flashcards, then test yourself with our interactive flashcards.

Vocabulary Games – Practice the vocabulary for this song using our memory and matching games and our word search puzzle.

Vocabulary Exercises – Fill in the missing vocabulary with drag and drop and fill in the blanks exercises.

Grammar Exercises

This song provided a large number of preterite tense verbs to practice. However, it also provided a good number of verbs in the imperfect tense, which has not appeared in the activities of a song yet. So I decided to go ahead and include them both. Information on these verbs as well as their full conjugations can be found below.

You can use the following activities to learn and practice these verbs:

Preterite Flashcards – Practice the preterite tense verbs in this song with our sets of Spanish to English and English to Spanish flashcards, then test yourself with our interactive flashcards.

Preterite Games – Practice the preterite tense verbs in this song using our memory and matching games.

Preterite Exercises – Practice the preterite tense verbs in this song using our drag and drop, fill in, and highlighting exercises.

Imperfect Flashcards – Practice the imperfect tense verbs in this song with our sets of Spanish to English and English to Spanish flashcards, then test yourself with our interactive flashcards.

Imperfect Games – Practice the imperfect tense verbs in this song using our memory and matching games.

Imperfect Exercises – Practice the imperfect tense verbs in this song using our drag and drop, fill in, and highlighting exercises.

Resources

Vocabulary List

TermMeaningP of SContext
a ciegasblindlya ciegas
acariciarto caress, strokereg verbacarició
canciónsongfem nouncanción
despedirseto say goodbyestm chg verbdespedirnos
destinodestiny, fate; destinationmasc noundestino
dibujarto draw, sketchreg verbdibujaste
enamorarto win s.o.’s heart, win s.o.’s love, make s.o. fall in lovereg verbenamorarme
fantasíaimagination, fantasyfem nounfantasía
ilusióndream, hope, wishful thinking; excitement, eagerness; illusionfem nounilusión
oponerseto be against, disagree with; object; be the opposite ofirreg verbopusieran
por sorpresaby surprisepor sorpresa
recordarto remember, recall; remindstm chg verbrecordaba
soluciónsolution, answerfem nounsolución
traerto bring, wearirreg verbtraigo
virarto turn, veer, swervereg verbvirar

Preterite Tense

The Spanish preterite tense (el pretérito) is one of the two simple past tenses in Spanish. It is used for actions that have been completed at some point in the past.

  • Regular verbs add the endings from the chart below to the normal stem, found by simply removing the -ar, -er, or -ir from the infinitive.
  • Several verbs, such as ‘ser’, ‘hacer’, ‘decir’, and ‘querer’ (seen in this song) have irregular conjugations.
  • Some verbs undergo spelling changes in the preterite tense. We only see one of these in this song. It applies to the first person singular (yo) form and is made in order to retain the correct sound before the ‘é’ ending. This change has been highlighted in blue in the charts below. The change we see is:
    • For verbs ending in -gar, the ‘g’ changes to ‘gu’.
Subject-AR Verbs-ER and -IR Verbs
1st person singular – yo
2nd person singular – tú-aste-iste
3rd person singular – él, ella, Ud-ió
1st person plural – nosotros-amos-imos
2nd person plural – vosotros-asteis-isteis
3rd person plural – ellos, ellas, Uds-aron-ieron


Imperfect Tense

The Spanish imperfect tense (el imperfecto) is the other simple past tense in Spanish. It is used for ongoing or recurrent actions in the past, descriptions, states of being, for providing background information about the past and for actions that continued for an unspecified period of time.

  • Regular verbs add the endings from the chart below to the normal stem, found by simply removing the -ar, -er, or -ir from the infinitive.
  • There are only three irregular verb in the imperfect: ‘ir’, ‘ser’ and ‘ver’. Only ‘ser’ is seen in this song.
Subject-AR Verbs-ER and -IR Verbs
1st person singular – yo-aba-ía
2nd person singular – tú-abas-ías
3rd person singular – él, ella, Ud-aba-ía
1st person plural – nosotros-ábamos-íamos
2nd person plural – vosotros-abais-íais
3rd person plural – ellos, ellas, Uds-aban-ían


Imperfect vs Preterite

It is not uncommon to see the preterite and the imperfect tenses appear together. This is seen when discussing something that was happening when something else occurred. The past action in progress that was interrupted will be in the imperfect, while the interrupting action will be in the preterite. We see an example in this song, with reías in the imperfect and acarició in the preterite:

Mientras reías, el sol acarició mi corazón,
While you were laughing, the sun caressed my heart

Conjugations

Following are the full conjugations of the verbs that appear in the preterite and imperfect tenses in this song.

Preterite

hacer: to do, make
SingularPlural
1st Person(yo) hice(nosotros) hicimos
2nd Person(tú) hiciste(vosotros) hicisteis
3rd Personél/ella/usted hizoellos/ellas/ustedes hicieron

ser: to be
SingularPlural
1st Person(yo) fui(nosotros) fuimos
2nd Person(tú) fuiste(vosotros) fuisteis
3rd Personél/ella/usted fueellos/ellas/ustedes fueron

decir: to say, tell
SingularPlural
1st Person(yo) dije(nosotros) dijimos
2nd Person(tú) dijiste(vosotros) dijisteis
3rd Personél/ella/usted dijoellos/ellas/ustedes dijeron

querer: to want, wish; like, love
SingularPlural
1st Person(yo) quise(nosotros) quisimos
2nd Person(tú) quisiste(vosotros) quisisteis
3rd Personél/ella/usted quisoellos/ellas/ustedes quisieron

llegar: to arrive, reach
SingularPlural
1st Person(yo) llegué(nosotros) llegamos
2nd Person(tú) llegaste(vosotros) llegasteis
éis3rd Personél/ella/usted llegóellos/ellas/ustedes llegaron

descubrir: to discover, find; find out, realize
SingularPlural
1st Person(yo) descubrí(nosotros) descubrimos
2nd Person(tú) descubriste(vosotros) descubristeis
3rd Personél/ella/usted descubrellos/ellas/ustedes descubrieron

prometer: to promise, pledge, assure
SingularPlural
1st Person(yo) prometí(nosotros) prometimos
2nd Person(tú) prometiste(vosotros) prometisteis
3rd Personél/ella/usted prometellos/ellas/ustedes prometieron

acariciar: to caress, stroke
SingularPlural
1st Person(yo) acaricié(nosotros) acariciamos
2nd Person(tú) acariciaste(vosotros) acariciasteis
3rd Personél/ella/usted acaricióellos/ellas/ustedes acariciaron

llevarse: make off with, take, steal; get along, hit it off; be in style/fashion
SingularPlural
1st Person(yo) me llevé(nosotros) llevamos
2nd Person(tú) te llevaste(vosotros) llevasteis
3rd Personél/ella/usted se llevóellos/ellas/ustedes llevaron

crecer: to grow
SingularPlural
1st Person(yo) crecí(nosotros) crecimos
2nd Person(tú) creciste(vosotros) crecisteis
3rd Personél/ella/usted crecellos/ellas/ustedes crecieron

entregarse: to turn oneself in, surrender; devote oneself to, dedicate oneself to; have sex with
SingularPlural
1st Person(yo) entregué(nosotros) entregamos
2nd Person(tú) entregaste(vosotros) entregasteis
3rd Personél/ella/usted entregóellos/ellas/ustedes entregaron

inventarse: to invent; make up
SingularPlural
1st Person(yo) me inventaba(nosotros) nos inventábamos
2nd Person(tú) te inventabas(vosotros) vos inventabais
3rd Personél/ella/usted se inventabaellos/ellas/ustedes se inventaban

enseñar: to teach
SingularPlural
1st Person(yo) enseñé(nosotros) enseñamos
2nd Person(tú) enseñaste(vosotros) enseñasteis
3rd Personél/ella/usted enseñóellos/ellas/ustedes enseñaron

Imperfect

ser: to be
SingularPlural
1st Person(yo) era(nosotros) éramos
2nd Person(tú) eras(vosotros) erais
3rd Personél/ella/usted eraellos/ellas/ustedes eran

pedir: to ask for, request; demand; order
SingularPlural
1st Person(yo) pedía(nosotros) pedíamos
2nd Person(tú) pedías(vosotros) pedíais
3rd Personél/ella/usted pedíaellos/ellas/ustedes pedían

querer: to want, wish; like, love
SingularPlural
1st Person(yo) quería(nosotros) queríamos
2nd Person(tú) querías(vosotros) queríais
3rd Personél/ella/usted queríaellos/ellas/ustedes querían

reír: to laugh
SingularPlural
1st Person(yo) reía(nosotros) reíamos
2nd Person(tú) reías(vosotros) reíais
3rd Personél/ella/usted reíaellos/ellas/ustedes reían

lograr: to manage, reach
SingularPlural
1st Person(yo) lograba(nosotros) lográbamos
2nd Person(tú) lograbas(vosotros) lograbais
3rd Personél/ella/usted lograbaellos/ellas/ustedes lograban

recordar: to remember, recall; remind
SingularPlural
1st Person(yo) recordaba(nosotros) recordábamos
2nd Person(tú) recordabas(vosotros) recordabais
3rd Personél/ella/usted recordabaellos/ellas/ustedes recordaban

tomar: to take; to drink
SingularPlural
1st Person(yo) tomaba(nosotros) tomábamos
2nd Person(tú) tomabas(vosotros) tomabais
3rd Personél/ella/usted tomabaellos/ellas/ustedes tomaban