Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Natalia: Buenos días, me llamo Natalia.
Carlos: What’s going on? My name is Carlos.
Natalia: If you like, call back tomorrow.
Carlos: What’s going on, Pod101 world? My name is Carlos and I am joined here by Natalia.
Natalia: ¿Cómo están?
Carlos: How’s everyone doing? You know, Nati, sometimes secretaries at a doctor’s office aren’t polite.
Natalia: Yeah, but Carolina is very polite with Alejandro.
Carlos: Well, it must be stressful though, like every call is important, you know, to that person.
Natalia: Yeah, that’s why it’s important to keep things formal and calm.
Carlos: Makes sense. I always find with situations like that that it’s always your best bet.
Natalia: I agree.
Carlos: What grammar point do you have for us today?
Natalia: Well, I have the very important preposition “de”.
Carlos: Ok, let’s get into today’s conversation.
DIALOGUE
1. KARINA: Buenos Días, ¿en qué le puedo ayudar?
2. ALEJANDRO: Buenas, quería contactar al doctor para ver los resultados de unos exámenes.
3. KARINA : Disculpe, pero el doctor no se encuentra en este momento.
4. ALEJANDRO : No hay problema, ¿cuando puedo contactarlo?
5. KARINA: Si gusta, puede llamarlo mañana.
6. ALEJANDRO: Perfecto, muchas gracias.
Carlos: And now slower. Una vez más, esta vez lentamente.
1. KARINA: Buenos Días, ¿en qué le puedo ayudar?
2. ALEJANDRO: Buenas, quería contactar al doctor para ver los resultados de unos exámenes.
3. KARINA : Disculpe, pero el doctor no se encuentra en este momento.
4. ALEJANDRO : No hay problema, ¿cuando puedo contactarlo?
5. KARINA: Si gusta, puede llamarlo mañana.
6. ALEJANDRO: Perfecto, muchas gracias.
Carlos: And now with the translation. Ahora incluiremos la traducción.
1. KARINA: Buenos Días, ¿en qué le puedo ayudar?
1. KARINA: Good morning, how may I help you?
2. ALEJANDRO: Buenas, quería contactar al doctor para ver los resultados de unos exámenes.
2. ALEJANDRO: Morning, I wanted to contact the doctor to see the results from some tests.
3. KARINA : Disculpe, pero el doctor no se encuentra en este momento.
3. KARINA: Excuse me, but the doctor is not here at this time.
4. ALEJANDRO : No hay problema, ¿cuando puedo contactarlo?
4. ALEJANDRO: No problem, when can I contact him?
5. KARINA: Si gusta, puede llamarlo mañana.
5. KARINA: If you'd like, you can call him tomorrow.
6. ALEJANDRO: Perfecto, muchas gracias.
6. ALEJANDRO: Perfect, thank you very much.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Carlos: You know, Nati, I swear I don’t like doctor’s offices because everybody seems so stressed out all the time.
Natalia: I know, I know, I know. But, you know, it’s important though. You shouldn’t avoid doctor’s.
Carlos: Well, I don’t avoid doctor’s, it’s the whole idea, like you feel like you’re bothering them and you have to fill out all those forms, and right now I don’t have health insurance and if I get sick down here what do I do?
Natalia: You go and open up the doors and be like “Aaah!” and they take you in emergencies even if you don’t have insurance.
Carlos: That’s good.
Natalia: Just so you know.
Carlos: Excellent. So if I do get hurt ever…
Natalia: Go straight to emergencies.
Carlos: I’ll go straight to the emergency room. Alright, well now that I got the direction from Nati, let’s take a look at the vocabulary for today’s lesson. First up we have a verb.
VOCAB LIST
Natalia: “Ayudar”.
Carlos: “To help.”
Natalia: “A-yu-dar”, “ayudar”.
Carlos: Como por ejemplo...
Natalia: “El contexto de la palabra nos ayuda a entenderla”.
Carlos: “The context of a word helps us to understand it.” ¿Y otro verbo?
Natalia: “Contactar”.
Carlos: “To contact”, “get in touch.”
Natalia: “Con-tac-tar”, “contactar”. An example, ”¿a qué número te puedo contactar?”.
Carlos: “At what number can I contact you?” ¿Y un sustantivo masculino?
Natalia: “Resultado”.
Carlos: “Result.”
Natalia: “Re-sul-ta-do”, “resultado”. Por ejemplo, “esos resultados desafortunadamente no nos dicen mucho”.
Carlos: “The results unfortunately don’t tell us much.” ¿Y un verbo?
Natalia: “Encontrar”.
Carlos: “To find”, “to meet with.”
Natalia: “En-con-trar”, “encontrar”. Por ejemplo, “encuentran la playa”.
Carlos: “They find the beach.” And now…
Natalia: “Si”.
Carlos: “If.”
Natalia: “Si”, “si”. Por ejemplo, “Si lloviera esta noche, retiraríame de aquí a mil años o mejor a cien no más”.
Carlos: “If it were to rain tonight, I would withdraw from here 1,000 years, or maybe just 100.” And last but not least, a masculine noun.
Natalia: “Examen”.
Carlos: “Examination”, “exam.”
Natalia: “E-xa-men”, “examen”. Por ejemplo, “¿cuántos exámenes no has aprobado?”
Carlos: “How many exams haven’t you passed?”
Natalia: Carlos.
Carlos: Yes, Nati.
Natalia: You should try reading that one. “Si lloviera esta noche, retiraríame de aquí a mil años o mejor a cien no más”. That’s an interesting…
Carlos: That’s a Cesar …
Natalia: Sentence.
Carlos: Vallejo.
Natalia: ¿Cómo? I like it!
Carlos: “Si lloviera esta noche, retiraríame de aquí a mil años o mejor a cien no más”.
Natalia: Entonces, “Si lloviera esta noche, retiraríame de aquí a mil años o mejor a cien no más”.
Carlos: I'm trying, I'm trying. Alright, Nati, thank you for that. Let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson.
VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE
Natalia: The first word we’ll look at is “ayudar”.
Carlos: “Ayudar”, “to help”. You know what, another practical verb to learn.
Natalia: Why is that?
Carlos: Well, if you’re in trouble, you could scream “¡Ayúdame!”, “Help me!”.
Natalia: Well, that’s one important one to learn if you look at it that way, or the more calm if you need directions, como “¿usted puede ayudarme?”.
Carlos: If you want to be respectful, yes. And then I still think this is funny.
Natalia: What?
Carlos: You know, I was lost the other day and I had to ask directions but I knew I had to go through the whole, “buenas señor, ¿cómo está?”. He answered “bien, por dicha. ¿Y usted?” And then I proceeded to tell him that I was lost. Where I'm from, all you say is, “excuse me, is this the road to…?”
Natalia: Don’t laugh at the fact that Ticos are polite.
Carlos: No, never. Well, how can we define “ayudar” in Spanish?
Natalia: Well, “prestar cooperación”.
Carlos: I could see how “to lend cooperation” could be a definition cause you’re lending help.
Natalia: Well, when Carina asks Alejandro, “buenos días. ¿En qué le puedo ayudar?”
Carlos: “Good morning. How may I help you?” Nati, didn’t you used to answer phones in an office.
Natalia: Oh, don’t even remind me…
Carlos: How many times a day did you do that?
Natalia: Not really… I was just like, hello… That was when I used to work in Human Resources so usually the people that call me was people I knew, so I was like “buenos días, ¿en qué lo puedo ayudar…?”, bla bla bla, a tons of times a day.
Carlos: Ok, I won’t bring it up again. Obviously it upsets you.
Natalia: Have to block that part of my life.
Carlos: Ok, but how about one more sample sentence.
Natalia: Well, last week as you know, Carlos, we had a huge earthquake here and we had many victims.
Carlos: Yeah, it was a bad… a little North of San Jose. We were on the phone, remember?
Natalia: “Bueno, yo ayudo a las víctimas del terremoto con dinero”. “Well, I helped the victims of the earthquake with money.”
Carlos: You know, me too. There are a lot of special accounts at the bank now just for that. It’s a big deal here.
Natalia: Moving on, next word we have another verb, “contactar”.
Carlos: “Contactar”. “To contact”, “to get in touch.”
Natalia: “Contactar” can be defined as “establecer contacto o comunicación con alguien”. You could figure this one out also when Alejandro wants to speak to the doctor, he tells Carina: “Buenas. Quería contactar al doctor para ver los resultados de unos exámenes”.
Carlos: “Morning. I wanted to contact the doctor to see the results from some tests.” Those are always stressful phone calls, Nati.
Natalia: Yeah, those are the ones where they tell you, “Please wait”, and then the music comes out. Ugh… Well, you know, Carlos, you can use this in a more everyday way.
Carlos: How?
Natalia: Like, for example, “el estudiante necesita contactar a su profesor”.
Carlos: “The student needs to contact their professor.” Well, audience, if you need to contact us, you can reach us by leaving a comment.
Natalia: Hint. Ok, next a masculine noun, “resultado”.
Carlos: “Resultado”. “Result.” That’s pretty straight forward.
Natalia: “Re-sul-ta-do”.
Carlos: “Resultado”, and in our conversation?
Natalia: “Buenas, quería contactar al doctor para ver los resultados de unos exámenes”.
Carlos: “Morning. I wanted to contact the doctor to see the results for some tests.”
Natalia: Carlos, you give me a sample sentence.
Carlos: Keeping things fresh I see, Nati. Ok, well here is a sentence that can be taken either way.
Natalia: What?
Carlos: “El resultado del examen fue positivo”. “The results of the tests were positive.”
Natalia: Oh yeah, well all that depends on the context. Let’s go to our next word. Another verb, “encontrar”.
Carlos: “Encontrar”. “To find”, “to meet with.”
Natalia: Or “dar”. Dar con alguien o algo que se busca. And in our conversation we heard it in the “disculpe, pero el doctor no se encuentra en este momento”.
Carlos: “Excuse me, but the doctor is not here at this time.” So here it is insinuating presence.
Natalia: Más o menos.
Carlos: Well, how about another example sentence that corresponds with our definition we see here?
Natalia: “Voy a encontrar la información en internet”.
Carlos: “I'm going to find the information online.” Well, there you go. I see it now. You know, I would name a popular website that Nati got me really obsessed with but I'm not going to mention their name, I was about to but they’re rich enough.
Natalia: I think I know what you’re talking about.
Carlos: I know you do. Ok, what’s next?
Natalia: “Si”.
Carlos: “Sí”, like “yes”.
Natalia: No, no, no. “Si”, “if”, “but”.
Carlos: What’s the difference?
Natalia: Well, there is an accent on the “i” then it’s “yes”, but without an accent “si” is an interjection that means “if” or “but”.
Carlos: Ok.
Natalia: We’re getting complicated, huh? “Si: denota condición o suposición en virtud de la cual un concepto depende de otro u otros”.
Carlos: Oh, that clears everything up.
Natalia: In the conversation, Carina says, “si gusta, puede llamarlo mañana”.
Carlos: “If you’d like, you could call him tomorrow.” Ok, I could see that.
Natalia: Or another example would be “si tú quieres yo te llamo más tarde”.
Carlos: “If you want I’ll call you later.” I think I got it. What about you, audience?
Natalia: Last but not least, “examen”, a masculine noun.
Carlos: I got this one, “exam”, “examen”, “examen”, “exam.”
Natalia: Someone gets this man a cookie so I can still run away laughing.
Carlos: Ok, well it is a cognate, no?
Natalia: Yes, both of these words are very similar. “Indagación y estudio que se hace acerca de las cualidades y circunstancias de una cosa o de un hecho”. So tell us how it was used in this conversation.
Carlos: Well, we’ve already seen the example today so it’s pretty easy to recall. “Buenas, quería contactar al doctor para ver los resultados de unos exámenes”. “Morning, I wanted to contact the doctor to see the results for some tests.”
Natalia: But I'm sure you can think of another sentence.
Carlos: Give me a sec. Ok, here we go. “Los exámenes de idiomas son muy fáciles para mí”.
Natalia: “The language exams are very easy for me.” I know you’re talking about me and not you.
Carlos: What? The exams can be easy, don’t doubt me.

Lesson focus

Natalia: Ah ok. Carlos, I propose we look at prepositions.
Carlos: Sure, did you have any in mind?
Natalia: Actually I did. The preposition “de”.
Carlos: Ah, good one.
Natalia: Do you know what “de” is used to express?
Carlos: “De” is used to express possession and membership.
Natalia: How does it do this?
Carlos: We express the possession by means of the name of the possessor preceded by the preposition “de”.
Natalia: How so?
Carlos: Well, for example, “el libro de Martín”, “Martin’s book.”
Natalia: And with membership?
Carlos: And with membership we do not refer to the relationship between the possessor and the thing possessed. Instead we refer to the attributes or objects contained in a person or thing.
Natalia: Can we say that in another way?
Carlos: Sure. We convey the qualities, nature, condition or character something or someone. For example, “es un día de sol”. “It’s a sunny day.”
Natalia: Along these lines we use the preposition “de” to express the material of which something is made.
Carlos: For example.
Natalia: “La falda de algodón”. “The cotton skirt”. Well, this issue has an extended to signify of the matter or issue or of something.
Carlos: For example?
Natalia: “El discurso trata de la economía”. “The lecture is about economics”.
Carlos: I see.
Natalia: So the prepositions are invariable, they will never undergo any form changes. Like we see in the verbs, nouns or adjectives.
Carlos: Right, but you can expect to see this preposition used as a prefix at the beginning of the word sometimes. You know, we’ll go deeper into that another time, won’t we, Nati?
Natalia: Yes, we will. Here are some sample sentences to help you on the way.
Carlos: Shoot.
Natalia: “¿Dónde dejaste el libro de Martín?”
Carlos: “Where did you leave Martin’s book?”
Natalia: “No podrás resistir la sinceridad de Miguel”.
Carlos: “You won’t be able to resist the sincerity of Miguel.”
Natalia: “Al entrar a la sala noté de inmediato el brillo del piso”.
Carlos: “Upon entering the living room, I immediately noticed the shine of the floor.”
Natalia: “Eres un estudiante de talento, te recomiendo que sigas con los estudios”.
Carlos: “You’re a student of talent, I recommend you continue with your studies.”
Natalia: ”El puente de madera se está por romper”.
Carlos: “The wooden bridge is about to break.”
Natalia: “¿Han visto mi cuaderno de cuero?”
Carlos: “Have you seen my leather notebook?”
Natalia: “Te presto mi libro de geografía”.
Carlos: “I’ll lend you my book of geography.”
Natalia: “Hablábamos de la política”.
Carlos: “We were talking about politics.” Wow, wow, wow there, Nati, no politics or religions discussed on SpanishPod101.com.
Natalia: Oh yeah, I forgot to see the terms and condition before writing this. I'm sorry.

Outro

Carlos: Well, you know, that’s it. That does it for today, Nati, I can't go any farther. Alright, ¡nos vemos!, ¡chao!
Natalia: Adios.

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Dialog - Bilingual

Vocabulary

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