
About this episode
What's the difference between Tomar and Llevar in Spanish? Let's learn these two verbs that both mean "take" but are used in different ways. We'll get a variety of practice using these new verbs in a variety of Spanish sentences.
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LearnCraft Spanish — 156: How to say "take" in Spanish. Machine-transcribed; use the interactive transcript above to jump the player to any line.
Do meisto. Join us on a rigorous step-by-step journey to fluency. I'm Timothy, and this is LearnCraft Spanish. Today, we're going to learn two Spanish verbs that both mean take. The first verb, Tomar, refers specifically to the action of taking something. Imagine using your hand to pick something up off a table. That action is Tomar. But in English, sometimes we talk about taking something in a different sense. For example, I'm going to take my things to his house. When we say take here, we're not talking about grabbing something and taking possession of it. Instead, it means something more like bringing, as in bringing something from one place to another place. This other verb is Yvár, spelled L-L-E-V-A-R, Yvár.
So here's that sentence in Spanish. And actually, Yvár can refer pretty broadly to many different types of actions related to bringing or bearing something. In fact, even wearing clothes can involve the verb Yvár. For example, he had to wear other clothes at the party. Previously, we learned that we can use Ponerse to describe the action of putting on clothes. But Yvár refers more to the ongoing action of wearing them. So for example, I'm going to put on these clothes and wear them all day.
So here the verb Yvár is used to refer to the idea of wearing these clothes all day, kind of like taking them around wherever you go. And then, Tomár also has an additional meaning. It can sometimes refer to drinking something. So for example, how do you like to take your coffee? So even in English, we sometimes refer to drinking using the verb for taking. In Spanish, Tomár can be used this way. So in summary, Tomár involves the action of taking something into your possession or sometimes into your body. And Yvár involves the ongoing bearing or bringing of something. Both of these verbs can mean take, but in different senses. And each of them has some additional uses to drink for Tomár and to wear for Yvár.
Let's get some practice choosing between these verbs. For now, we'll just quiz with the infinitives Yvár and Tomár. Are you going to take what is on the table? Can you take all these things to the party tonight? Can you take all these things to the party tonight? Do you want to drink a coffee with me tomorrow afternoon?
In this one, the speaker is feminine. You have to take this to that place or I'm going to go crazy. We're going to take the 20 things that are there. She wants to wear those clothes because the party is very important.
Now let's start practicing conjugating these verbs. Both verbs are conjugated exactly like a blár, so I'm going to go ahead and just throw a variety of different forms at you. To make this a little easier, let's start by only practicing sentences that use Tomár. Try to predict the Spanish. They're going to do it when I take what is mine. You can do it because you know the order of the things.
It drinks coffee every morning, but I can't drink anything. He took those things too because he saw I was taking them. He wants him to drink a lot of water during these days.
Now let's do the same thing with Yvár. Again there are going to be a variety of forms and uses of Yvár here, but it's conjugated exactly like a blár, so you should be able to predict the Spanish. I won't take anything tomorrow. Take all this to your house. He already took the other things. I'm not taking anything, but the rest of the people are going to take it.
You always take those 20 things to school. Do you need them? It's clear that he's taking that far away because those people are about to arrive. For more practice with any of this, feel free to dig deeper at lcspodcast.com slash 156.
Or if you're ready, let's go on to today's final quiz. This quiz will be a bit shorter than usual, but it'll be tricky because we're going to shuffle up a bunch of uses of both Tomar and Yvár. He drinks coffee while I'm looking for them. This week's average is 18 or 19.
Can you look for it while I take the kids there? Anything is in order. You don't have to go crazy. 17 is half of the length you need.
Take this. I don't need it anymore because he comes back at half past two. He took the 19 kids to school. These things are yet to come.
I'll take those 16 things to another place. I want him to drink whatever he wants to drink. We had a drop that week and now there are only 16 people.
We're going to come back soon. Can you take these 18 books to your house? Take that over there. We're not drinking it.
You always wear the same clothes she's wearing. They want me to drink what he drank. They're going to arrive in 17 minutes.
For more practice with all of this go to lcspodcast.com slash 156. This show is brought to you by LearnCraftSpanish.com. This is a quiz that was performed by the Seattle Marimba Cortet and I'm Timothy encouraging you to do the hard work of learning Spanish. Requiring a second language is one of the most fulfilling things you can do. So start your fluency journey today at lcspodcast.com.
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