Learn about using direct object pronouns
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Lizzie: Buen días, soy Lizzie. |
| Allan: Soy Allan. Phone card - Frustration - 2. |
| Lizzie: Muy bienvenidos. |
| Allan: Hi everyone from Lima, the capital city of Peru, one of the coolest countries on Earth. |
| Lizzie: Nuestra hermosisima lima. Esperamos que pronto la visiten. |
| Allan: So, today we’re picking up from where we left off last time. Andres is trying to make a phone call using a phone card. Last time after a little trouble he was able to follow the instructions, but there wasn’t enough credit on his card to make the call. |
| Lizzie: Don’t you just hate that? |
| Allan: ¡Me raya eso! So in today’s conversation, he’s bought another card, this time with more credit and he’s going to make a second attempt. |
| Lizzie: Cuantas veces me ha pasado. |
| Allan: I know. This is such a comic situation. And I have to say that for foreigners this happens all the time since phone cards are really useful way to make calls in Latin America. |
| Lizzie: And what’s up for grammar today? |
| Allan: Well hey, I was thinking that we could take a look at how to use direct object pronouns when they refer to people. |
| Lizzie: Que buen tema. |
| Allan: Definitely. Once you get this down de hecho vas a soltar la lengua. |
| Lizzie: Pero claro. |
| Allan: Alright, guys. For those of you who are new to SpanishPod101.com, we’re about to listen to a short conversation. First, in Spanish, at normal speed, then nice and slowly. And after that we’ll even include an English translation. Now, try to imagine yourself in a situation. In this case you’re actually listening to Andres and the voice on the phone card recording. |
| Lizzie: Let this conversation take you into the Spanish speaking world. |
| Allan: Cool. So without further ado, let’s get into today’s conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| GRABACIÓN: ¡Bienvenido a su tarjeta 'Habla Más'... Por favor, ingrese su clave secreta. |
| ANDRÉS: Listo: 4... 3.. 3.. 5... 2... 5... 8... |
| GRABACIÓN: El saldo de su tarjeta son diez soles. Por favor, marque el número al que usted desea llamar. |
| ANDRÉS: 243-0754 |
| GRABACIÓN: Su tarjeta le permitirá hacer una llamada de 36 minutos con 15 segundos. |
| ANDRÉS: ¡Por fin! |
| GRABACIÓN: Welcome to your 'Habla Más' card... Please enter your PIN. |
| ANDRÉS: Got it: 4... 3.. 3.. 5... 2... 5... 8... |
| GRABACIÓN: The balance on this card is ten soles. Please dial the number that you wish to call. |
| ANDRÉS: 243-0754 |
| GRABACIÓN: Your card will allow you to make a call for 36 minutes and 15 seconds. |
| ANDRÉS: Finally! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Lizzie: ¡Que frustrante! |
| Allan: I know! God it’s amazing how something as simple as using a phone card can become such a challenge when you’re trying to do it in Spanish |
| Lizzie: I know what you mean, it was the same for me in English. |
| Allan: Ok, moving on let’s break down some of these words in order to really hear how they sound. |
| Lizzie: You got it! |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Allan: So, let’s begin with… |
| Lizzie: tarjeta |
| Allan: Card. |
| Lizzie: tarjeta, tarjeta |
| Allan: Next, we’ll hear… |
| Lizzie: desear |
| Allan: To desire, to wish, to care for. |
| Lizzie: desear, desear |
| Allan: Now, we’ll hear… |
| Lizzie: permitir |
| Allan: To permit, to allow. |
| Lizzie: permitir, permitir |
| Allan: Next, we’ll listen to… |
| Lizzie: segundo |
| Allan: Second. |
| Lizzie: segundo, segundo |
| Allan: Now, let’s listen to… |
| Lizzie: minuto |
| Allan: Minute. |
| Lizzie: minuto, minuto |
| Allan: And finally… |
| Lizzie: por fin |
| Allan: Finally. |
| Lizzie: por fin, por fin |
| Allan: That’s great, Lizzie. Now, before we move on, let’s talk for just a second about the word segundo. |
| Lizzie: Muy bien a ver. |
| Allan: Bueno como sustantivo se refiere a una unidad de tiempo. ¿Cierto? |
| Lizzie: Cierto. De esta manera se traduce como “second”. |
| Allan: Right. But when it’s used as an adjective? Pues su significado ya es diferente. |
| Lizzie: Claro, como adjetivo se refiere a lo que sigue inmediatamente en orden al primero. |
| Allan: And in this sense it’s like saying “second” as opposed to “first”. So, it can either mean “second” as unit of time or “second” as that which comes after what’s first. |
| Lizzie: excelente |
| Allan: ¡Prosigamos! |
| Lizzie: Con que? |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Allan: Con el uso de los vocablos. Let’s contextualize some of these words, so that we can see what they mean on they’re used. |
| Lizzie: Muy bien. |
| Allan: Empecemos con el sustantivo femenino. Tarjeta. |
| Lizzie: Tarjeta. |
| Allan: Así es, tarjeta. So, Lizzie, if I have una tarjeta telefonica then I have a… |
| Lizzie: …phone card. |
| Allan: And if I have una tarjeta de crédito then in this case I have a… |
| Lizzie: …credit card. |
| Allan: Exactly. una tarjeta de débito will then be… |
| Lizzie: …a debit card. |
| Allan: Right again. Now, in my computer that thing that lets me listen to audio… |
| Lizzie: It’s una tarjeta de sonido. |
| Allan: …a sound card. And the one that lets you watch video? |
| Lizzie: una tarjeta de video |
| Allan: So many ways to use this word. So, tarjeta is a feminine noun and means “card”. And as you can see, this is a pretty general word. It can be used in many different contexts. |
| Lizzie: And the plural form would be… |
| Allan: Oh, that would just be tarjetas with an “s” at the end. |
| Lizzie: You got it. |
| Allan: Alright. Next we’ll have a verb. A really great verb, one that will come in handy when you get tired of using the verbs querer and gustar over and over again. |
| Lizzie: You must be talking about desear. |
| Allan: Así es señorita pitonisa. So, in today’s conversation we heard the voice on the phone card recording saying [ marque el número al que usted desea llamar. |
| Lizzie: And how was this translated? |
| Allan: Dial the number that you wish to call. So, the verb desear is a little more like “to wish” as opposed to querer, which means “to want” and gustar which is “to be pleasing”. |
| Lizzie: This one is used all the time. |
| Allan: How do you use it, Lizzie? |
| Lizzie: Bueno cuando quiero expresar cortesía al ofrecerte algo te puedo decir: ¿Desearías una bebida? |
| Allan: Claro. Que tal una chela. |
| Lizzie: ¡Qué! ¿A esta hora? Estamos trabajando, Allan. |
| Allan: So, your question would literally be translated “Would you desire a beverage?” Man, that sounds pretty formal. |
| Lizzie: But it’s really not. |
| Allan: No, I mean when we think about the figure of sense here it’s really like asking “Would you care for a beverage?” |
| Lizzie: What about a noun that is derived from this verb? |
| Allan: Hey, good point. También tenemos el sustantivo masculino: el deseo |
| Lizzie: ¿Y este sustantivo, Allan que significa? |
| Allan: Well, this is a wish. |
| Lizzie: Muy bien. |
| Allan: Let’s move on. |
| Lizzie: How about the verb permitir? |
| Allan: Sounds good. |
| Lizzie: It’s a cognate, isn’t it? |
| Allan: Si es. So, let’s listen closely to this word permitir. |
| Lizzie: Permitir. |
| Allan: Now, Lizzie, let’s remove the last two letters. What do we get? |
| Lizzie: Permit. |
| Allan: And notice how this is spelled the exact same way as the English verb “to permit”. It’s a cognate and when we translate this to English we can of course say “to permit”, but we can also say “to allow” or “to let”. |
| Lizzie: So, for example: ¡No te permito comer más, estas gordo! |
| Allan: Fat crap! I prefer sheeply, so that means “I won’t let you eat any more”. You’re fat. |
| Lizzie: Fat is in the eyes of the beholder. |
| Allan: That’s right. All right. One more. This time we have a phrase and this phrase is used to describe the action of a verb. So, it’s an adverb phrase then? |
| Allan: That it is. |
| Lizzie: ¿Cuál es? |
| Allan: Es por fin. |
| Lizzie: Por fin. |
| Allan: So, it’s appropriate that this is the last one on the list. Por fin acabamos el vocabulario. |
| Lizzie: Por fin podemos seguir a la gramática. |
| Allan: So, when we say por fin we mean “finally”. |
| Lizzie: Claro es sinonimo con finalmente. |
| Allan: And a lot of times we use this as an interjection, just like we heard in the today’s conversation. |
| Lizzie: Claro cuando estoy esperando en el banco y se demora y se demora y se demora... |
| Allan: Es como decir a uno mismo, por fin me van a atender. |
| Lizzie: Ya que hemos estudiado el uso de los vocablos de esta lección ¿por qué no nos enfocamos en la gramática? |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Allan: La gramática. Hey, great idea. Today’s topic: direct object pronouns. |
| Lizzie: Objetos directos pronominales. |
| Allan: That’s right. Now, if we think way back, to Beginner lesson number 3 we’ll recall that we touched on this briefly. |
| Lizzie: Right. We studied them when they refer to things. |
| Allan: So, twenty lessons later we’ve built a strong enough foundation, so that we can really delve into this very useful topic. |
| Lizzie: ¿Por dónde quisieras empezar? |
| Allan: Let’s begin with an example. |
| Lizzie: Muy bien. |
| Allan: In today’s conversation, Andres has bought a new phone card that has enough credit for him to make his call. After he enters the pin, the voice on the recording says su tarjeta te permitirá hacer una llamada de 36 minutos con 15 segundos. “Your card will allow you to talk for thirty six minutes in fifteen seconds. |
| Lizzie: Es un buen ejemplo. |
| Allan: And Lizzie, what’s the phrase in which you find this direct object pronoun? |
| Lizzie: It’s su tarjeta te permitirá hacer una llamada. |
| Allan: Well said. Your card will allow you to make a call. And what’s the direct object pronoun here? |
| Lizzie: It’s le. |
| Allan: Spelled L-E. And what does this refer to? |
| Lizzie: It refers to usted. |
| Allan: Right. The formal “you”. Now, these are really easy and once you learn them you’ll wonder how you ever got by in Spanish without them. So, now we know the personal subject pronouns. |
| Lizzie: Claro estos son yo, tú, él, ella, usted, nosotros, vosotros, ellos, ellas y ustedes. |
| Allan: Right. And we call these “subject pronouns” since they refer to the person who carried out the action. |
| Lizzie: Claro. |
| Allan: Now, with direct object pronouns we’re referring to the person who directly receives the action of the verb. |
| Lizzie: So, if I say Esta tarjeta me permitirá, what does this mean? |
| Allan: It means “This card will allow me”. |
| Lizzie: And what about Esta tarjeta le permitirá ? |
| Allan: Now it’s: This card will allow you. Then, when we want to refer to ella “she” or el “he” or even usted the formal “you”, we’ll just use le. And say Esta tarjeta le permitirá , just like we saw in today’s conversation. |
| Lizzie: And what about for nosotros? |
| Allan: That would be nos permitirá “it will allow us”. |
| Lizzie: And for vosotros ? |
| Allan: vos permitirá“It will allow you all”. And again for ellas, ellos,ustedes we use les. |
| Lizzie: Por supuesto, diríamos, esta tarjeta les permitirá. |
| Allan: The great thing about learning pronouns is that you eliminate a lot of those awkward redundancies. Just think about how would sound in your native language if you didn’t use pronouns. Robot like, I tell you. |
| Lizzie: So, Allan, how would you suggest that our listeners study these direct object pronouns so that to really remember them? |
| Allan: Guys, use pictures. Find a book of photos or a magazine, point at the different pictures and practice these phrases aloud. Now, that way, you’re thinking it, you’re hearing it, you’re seeing it and you’re saying it. |
| Lizzie: Resumiendo, todo está en practicar. |
Outro |
| Allan: Muy bien Lizzie, se acabó la fiesta. |
| Lizzie: Ay, que penita. Que pena. |
| Allan: But don’t worry, there’s plenty more to come. |
| Lizzie: No doubt. |
| Allan: Gracias Lizzie. |
| Lizzie: Muy bien cuidense mucho. Hasta pronto. |
| Allan: Chao! |
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