Learn Spanish with Spanishpod101.com! Well, you did it, you took that first step and got through Newbie lesson 1. Now, get ready for lesson number 2! Join Alan and Lisy as they take another look at the verb ‘estar’ (to be). In our last lesson, we learned the first, second, and third person singular, conjugated in the present tense of the indicative mood. Now, let’s take a look at the corresponding plural forms. Seem like a lot? Well, that’s why we have the learning center. Don’t forget to check it out for general and lesson specific resources.
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This entry was posted on Monday, December 24th, 2007 at 6:30 pm and is filed under Newbie Lessons. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
10 Responses to “Newbie Lesson #2 - How are you all?”
December 18th, 2007 at 6:47 am
This lesson was recorded on-site in Lima, Perú.
¡Hola todos!
¿Cómo están ustedes? ¡Yo estoy muy bien! Who knows what the word “usted” comes from? (It may shed some light on why it’s used to address someone formally)…
¡Muchos saludos! ¡Chau!
Joseph
December 24th, 2007 at 9:04 pm
Hola! Hey guys, for me this lesson was a big improvement over the first! 
Seems like the chemistry will only get better.
Lizy, you really do have some voice!
December 24th, 2007 at 9:40 pm
James,
¡Hola! ¿Cómo estás?? Glad you liked the lesson! Thanks for having patience. And yeah, I second that, Lisi, ¡buenísimo trabajo! (great job!).
Saludos,
Joseph
December 25th, 2007 at 10:10 am
Is it possible to include the example sentences in the audio into the PDF? Sometimes, the speed is fast I am able to catch up what is being said.
January 31st, 2008 at 3:10 am
I agree this lesson is better than the first newbie lesson. I think that James and Lizy are getting into their groove. It takes time. Good explanation of ‘vosotros’, I wasn’t really clear when it was appropriate . Now I know, If I am in Latin America, never!
January 31st, 2008 at 6:01 am
Carlos,
Yeah, for those of us who don’t learn the second person plural from the beginning, it seem a little bit strange to start using it and to start understanding it when other people use it.
For example, “¿cómo estáis?” instead of “¿cómo están?”
Above all, the imperative takes some getting used to.
For example “¡tened cuidado!” verses “¡tengan cuidado!”.
However, if you turn it around and look at it from a Spaniard’s point of view, it must sound strange to hear Latin American Spanish in which we always address more than one person with a “formal” conjugation, even to our ears, it doesn’t come off that way.
Saludos,
Joseph
Gracias por la leccion!
December 1st, 2008 at 2:06 am
I had to look this up, but about.com has a good explation of how the word “usted” came into being:
“Usted had its origins during the colonial era, where it was common to address nobility and other people held in esteem (or people who thought they were held in esteem) as vuestra merced, meaning “your mercy.” Vuestra merced was used in much the same way as “your honor” is used in English today, with third-person verbs. (I.e., we say “your honor is” rather than “your honor are.”) It began as an extremely formal type of address, eventually becoming the standard way of addressing people in higher positions as well as persons who aren’t friends or family. ”
It goes on to explain that the common abbreviation for usted, Vd., is a holdover from the original, “vuestra merced.”
Languages are so fascinating, aren’t they?
December 2nd, 2008 at 4:18 am
I love to think about how languages transform by being spoken. I guess that’s one of the big reasons why I like the regional features of this course.
In linguistics, these kinds of things are called “lexical phenomena”, but that doesn’t really matter. In any case, there’s a cool description of these kinds of things at this URL, if you’re interested:
http://html.rincondelvago.com/fenomenos-lexicos.html
¡Suerte, chau!
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Category: Newbie Lessons |
Grammar: estar, indicative mood, plural, present tense | Function: introducing oneself | Topic: Greeting | Politeness Level: informal
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