Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Alan: “The ATM ate my debit card.” I am joined in the studio by...
Lizy: Hello everyone, Lizy here.
Alan: We have a scary and annoying situation today.
Lizy: What’s that?
Alan: Martín lost his ATM card.
Lizy: Uyuyuy.
Alan: Yep, that’s a fear I have whenever I put my card in.
Lizy: That or the machine tears up the card.
Alan: Well, has that ever happened to you?
Lizy: Not to me but I do know someone.
Alan: I think we all do and it’s horrible.
Lizy: In this lesson, you will learn what to say if you are in a Spanish speaking country and an ATM won’t give you your card back. The conversation takes place in a bank.
Alan: Martín is talking to the bank manager after the ATM ate his card. Now since we are in a professional realm here, these two are going to be speaking formally with each other.
Lizy: The speakers are doing business. So we will see that they speak to each other formally as it’s the custom.
Alan: Let’s listen to the conversation.
DIALOGUE
MARTÍN: Disculpe, señor, pero el cajero no me devuelve mi tarjeta.
GERENTE: ¿Hace cuánto tiempo que está, usted, en el Perú?
MARTÍN: Hace un par de días.
GERENTE: ¿Y su banco sabe que usted ha viajado al Perú?
MARTÍN: ¡Pucha! Me olvidé de avisarle.
GERENTE: Lo siento, pero no puedo hacer nada.
MARTÍN: Excuse me, Sir, but the ATM won't give me my card back.
MANAGER: How long, Sir, have you been in Peru?
MARTÍN: A couple of days.
MANAGER: And does your bank know that you have traveled to Peru?
MARTÍN: Shoot! I forgot to let them know!
MANAGER: I'm sorry, but I can't do anything.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Lizy: Not a good thing.
Alan: Nope. Not at all.
Lizy: Well, he should have called his bank.
Alan: Yeah, he should have. That’s always a good idea when traveling.
Lizy: I had some friends who traveled and the card began being rejected for security. They had to call the bank up to get it activated again.
Alan: That’s not a disaster but it’s definitely annoying.
Lizy: Yes.
Alan: Now is a time to move on to the vocabulary section of today’s lesson guide. Here we are going to break down these words and give you some key points. So listen closely. Today’s first word is a verb.
VOCAB LIST
Lizy: “Devolver”.
Alan: “To return, to give back.”
Lizy: “De-vol-ver”, “devolver”.
Alan: As in the example...
Lizy: “¿Por qué no me has devuelto el auto?”
Alan: “Why haven’t you given me back my car?” Next up, we have a feminine noun.
Lizy: “Tarjeta”.
Alan: “Card.”
Lizy: “Tar-je-ta”, “tarjeta”.
Alan: As in...
Lizy: “Se puede comprar tarjetas telefónicas en muchos lugares”.
Alan: “Phone cards can be purchased in many places.” This time, we have a verb.
Lizy: “Olvidarse”.
Alan: “To forget.”
Lizy: “Ol-vi-dar-se”, “olvidarse”.
Alan: As we see in the example...
Lizy: “Tu tío siempre se olvida traer su traje de baño”.
Alan: “Your uncle always forgets to bring his swimsuit.” Next, another verb.
Lizy: “Avisar”.
Alan: “To inform”, “to let know”, “to warn.”
Lizy: “A-vi-sar”, “avisar”.
Alan: As in the example...
Lizy: “Había avisado a mi amigo que no podía acompañarle”.
Alan: “I had to let my friend know that I wouldn’t be able to join him.” Second to last word is a masculine noun.
Lizy: “Cajero”.
Alan: “ATM.”
Lizy: “Ca-je-ro”, “cajero”.
Alan: As in the example...
Lizy: “¿Dónde queda el cajero más cercano al hotel?”
Alan: “Where is the nearest ATM to the hotel?” Finally, we have a word that can be an indefinite pronoun, an adverb and a noun.
Lizy: “Nada”.
Alan: “Nothing”, “not at all”, “nothingness”, “not”, “anything.”
Lizy: “Na-da”, “nada”.
Alan: Like for example...
Lizy: “¿Por qué no haces nada?”
Alan: “Why don’t you do anything?” Now guys, one of these words here is interesting because it has letter “J”. “Cajero” which is the “ATM” but listen, “cajero”, it sounds like an “H”, right, Liz? “Cajero”.
Lizy: Yes, yes, yes yes, “cajero”, “cajero”.
VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE
Alan: Let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson.
Lizy: Yeah, it’s time to look at how to use our vocab.
Alan: So ready when you are. The first word “devolver”.
Lizy: “Devolver”.
Alan: This verb means “to return” as in “to give back.”
Lizy: Notice that we see the verb “volver”. This means that it’s going to follow the same conjugation patterns as the verb “volver”.
Alan: Perfect. Killing two birds with one stone. Now remember that both of these verbs have an “o” to “ue” stem change in the present tense of the indicative mood.
Lizy: Right. That’s why Martín says “pero el cajero no me devuelve mi tarjeta”.
Alan: Those stem changing verbs come with practice. Soon you will be able to recognize them.
Lizy: Next word.
Alan: “Tarjeta”.
Lizy: This feminine noun means “card.”
Alan: Right, like “tarjeta de débito”, “debit card” or “tarjeta de crédito”, “credit card.”
Lizy: Por ejemplo. “Voy a usar mi tarjeta de crédito porque no tengo efectivo”.
Alan: “I am going to use my credit card because I don’t have cash.”
Lizy: That’s a dangerous habit.
Alan: That it is. With the credit card, sooner or later, you are going to run up a bill.
Lizy: Unless you are responsible.
Alan: It’s hard when all you have to do is swipe.
Lizy: Yep.
Alan: Next up, “avisar”.
Lizy: “Avisar”.
Alan: This first conjugation verb means “to let know.”
Lizy: As in “te avisé ayer”.
Alan: “I let you know yesterday.” Let’s also mention that the noun “aviso” means an “announcement.”
Lizy: I think that was worth mentioning.
Alan: Next up “cajero”.
Lizy: “Cajero”.
Alan: First, it refers to an ATM, a machine where you can withdraw money with the card. Second it refers to the person in charge of a cash register at a bank or at a store.
Lizy: For example, we could ask “¿dónde queda el cajero más cercano?”
Alan: “Where is the nearest ATM?” or “El cajero tiene que fijar bien en cada transacción”.
Lizy: “The cashier has to pay close attention to every transaction.”
Alan: All right, now make sure you stick around guys for the grammar point. What are we studying today?

Lesson focus

Lizy: The verb “hacer”.
Alan: “Hacer”. Very important. As we’ve seen, it’s used very often in Spanish and due to this frequency of usage, it tends to take on many different meanings.
Lizy: Which meaning do you want to look at today?
Alan: Today we see it being used to express time in the past. The third person singular form the [inaudible 00:06:45] or so called impersonal is used in this construction. Since it has to do with time, how would we ask the question “how long have you been here”?
Lizy: In order to ask “how long have you been here?”, we will use this expression “¿hace cuánto tiempo?” and then we will use the verb in the present tense “que estás en el Perú”.
Alan: “How long have you been in Peru?”
Lizy: The complete answer to this question is as follows.
Alan: The shortened form of this which is also correct is “hace tres meses que estoy en el Perú”. The meaning in English is the same.
Lizy: Notice how the verb “estar” conjugated to the present tense of the indicative mood “estoy” changes to the present perfect in English, “I have been.”
Alan: Good catch. Now let’s look a little closer at how to form these kinds of questions and answers. “La pregunta”, “the question”, “hacer” third person singular of the present indicative.
Lizy: “Hace”.
Alan: Plus the interrogative adjective...
Lizy: “Cuánto”.
Alan: Plus noun...
Lizy: “Tiempo”.
Alan: Plus conjunction...
Lizy: “Que”.
Alan: Plus present indicative of “estar”...
Lizy: “Estás”
Alan: Plus indirect object phrase...
Lizy: “En el Perú”. “¿Hace cuánto tiempo que estás en el Perú?”
Alan: “How long have you been in Peru?” and for “la respuesta afirmativa”, the affirmative answer, “hacer” third person singular, a present indicative...
Lizy: “Hace”.
Alan: Plus the amount of time...
Lizy: “Tres meses”.
Alan: Plus the conjunction...
Lizy: “Que”.
Alan: Plus the present indicative of “estar”...
Lizy: “Estoy”.
Alan: Plus the indirect object phrase...
Lizy: “En el Perú”. “Hace tres meses que estoy en el Perú”.
Alan: “I’ve been in Peru for 3 months” and “la respuesta negativa”, the negative answer.
Lizy: “Hacer”. Third person singular of present indicative, “hace”. Plus amount of time, “tres meses”. Plus conjunction, “que”. Plus negation, “no”. Plus present indicative of “estar”, “estoy”. Plus indirect object phrase, “en el Perú”. “Hace tres meses que no estoy en el Perú”.
Alan: “It’s been three months since I was in Peru” or “I haven’t been in Peru for 3 months.” Lizy, how about another example?
Lizy: “Hace un año que no te veo”.
Alan: “It’s been a year since last I saw you.” See it follows the same formula.
Lizy: “Hace muchísimo tiempo que no como un pescado tan rico como este.”
Alan: “It’s been so long since I’ve eaten a fish as delicious as this one.”
Lizy: Or “¿hace cuánto que vives ahí?”
Alan: “How long have you lived there?”
Lizy: “Hace un semana que no sale el sol”.
Alan: “It’s been a week since the sun has come out.”
Lizy: “Hace años que no camino por acá”.
Alan: “It’s been years since I’ve walked around here.” Thanks for all the examples, Liz.
Lizy: The tenses are not always going to be the same.
Alan: That’s right. For example, I could say “I hadn’t seen you in a long time” which would require us to use the imperfect tense for the verb “hacer”, again conjugated to the third person singular which would become
Lizy: “Hacía mucho tiempo que no te veía”.
Alan: While this form is a little more complex, to get you started, you might stick to the present tense forms of the verb.
Lizy: I think that’s a good, good idea.
Alan: This form of “hacer” in the third person singular can also be used to talk about something that just happened.
Lizy: For example, if you ask me “¿cuándo salió Marcos?”, “when did Marcos leave?”, I could say “hace poco”, “a little while ago” or even “hace un rato”, “just a bit ago.”
Alan: These concepts all come with practice.
Lizy: That’s right. Apply what you have learned in the real world.
Alan: That’s the true test and true practice.
Lizy: Time for the “tarea”.
Alan: Party time. That’s right. Before we wrap up for today, it’s time to assign today’s homework.
Lizy: In today’s grammar point, we covered expressions that use the phrase “hace” to express...
Alan: How long ago something happened. Today’s assignment is simple yet complex.
Lizy: How so?
Alan: Well, it’s only one question.
Lizy: One question, are you crazy man?
Alan: No, but…
Lizy: No.
Alan: Seriously, the question is, in an example like “hace tiempo que no camino por aquí”, why do we use the verb “camino” conjugated to the present tense of the indicative mood?
Lizy: Let’s see who really knows their verbs.
Alan: And remember you overachievers, you can always check out the answers and the comments on the answers by downloading our premium audio track titled “tarea”, “homework.”

Outro

Lizy: [*]
Alan: De igual manera, Lizy.
Lizy: ¡Chao todos!
Alan: Be good. ¡Chao!

Grammar

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Dialog - Bilingual

Tarea

Vocabulary

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