Learn about using pronouns to avoid redundancy
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| INTRODUCTION |
| Natalia: Buenos días, soy Natalia. |
| Carlos: What’s going on? My name is Carlos. “But I always buy from you!” |
| Natalia: Carlos, ¿cómo está todo?, ¿cómo va tu vida?, ¿cómo estás? |
| Carlos: Everything is great in my life, Naty. How about yourself? |
| Natalia: I’m doing good. |
| Carlos: What’s up pod101 world? |
| Natalia: Carlos. |
| Carlos: Yes? |
| Natalia: How often a week do you go for food shopping? |
| Carlos: You know, I try to do it European style, you know I go to the supermarket every couple of days. This way I don’t waste any food. |
| Natalia: You go to the “feria”? |
| Carlos: When I can, you know when I tell you it’s such a difference, I mean I can go with my change for the week and come back with more produce than I can carry. |
| Natalia: Yes well, they will try to upsell you for more than what you need. |
| Carlos: Oh completely, it took me a bit of time to get used to the whole thing. You know I didn’t have a good idea of how much produce I can go through in a week and once this guy gave me two kilos of mangos for like a thousand colon. |
| Natalia: Which would be like two dollars. |
| Carlos: Yes. Almost five pounds of mangoes and now, I don’t like to waste food. |
| Natalia: Eat all the mangoes then! |
| Carlos: Well, just keep in mind I haven’t eaten mangoes since. |
| Natalia: [Laughs] Waste not, what not. |
| Carlos: Well listen, there is a lot of mango where we come from, okay? |
| Natalia: Well, you are missing out on mangoes. |
| Carlos: Okay, I know, I know. I just need to detox from it okay. But I did learn how to cut them, and that took me a lot of time. |
| Natalia: Man, you grab a knife and cut a mango, what’s the big learning knowledge there? |
| Carlos: Oh okay, yes, fine Naty, there’s just this giant hard core in front of it, like you go around… |
| Natalia: Okay, great to know of your new knowledge, Carlos. We’ll today look at the indirect object pronouns that might take a little time too. |
| Carlos: I probably won’t want to use those for a long time after this lesson either. |
| Natalia: We shall see. |
| DIALOGUE |
| JUAN: ¿A cuánto está el kilo de tomate? |
| VERDURERA: Está a mil quinientos colones. |
| JUAN: ¿¡Tanto!? Oiga, casera, no puede ser. ¿¡Pero si a usted siempre le compro...!? |
| VERDURERA: Bueno, amiguito, para usted le cobro mil nada más. |
| JUAN: Ahora sí. Me parece mejor. Me da dos kilos de tomate. |
| VERDURERA: Dos kilos. Son dos mil colones. Un toquecito… |
| JUAN: How much is a kilo of tomatoes? |
| VERDURERA: It's one thousand five hundred Colones. |
| JUAN: That much!? Hey now, ma'am, that's impossible. But if I always buy from you...!? |
| VERDURERA: Well, my friend, for you I'll only charge one thousand. |
| JUAN: Now that's what I'm talking about. Sounds better. Give me two kilos of tomatoes. |
| VERDURERA: Two kilos. That's two thousand Colones. Just a sec... |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Natalia: Carlos. |
| Carlos: Yes? |
| Natalia: It doesn’t work like that with the “verdulero” from my house. |
| Carlos: Why not? |
| Natalia: Because he charges you what he charges you and if not he throws you out and things at you. |
| Carlos: Yes, no actually that’s right. They don’t really bargain here in Costa Rica do they? |
| Natalia: No! |
| Carlos: Like the price is the price and that’s it. |
| Natalia: You forgot their character in the business. It’s like you pay it or leave it. |
| Carlos: Wow that’s interesting, everywhere else you can like bargain and now it’s like I’m giving you this. |
| Natalia: Here you can’t bargain for food, for clothing, for nothing. |
| Carlos: But taxis. |
| Natalia: Never not even taxis. Taxis are the worst. |
| Carlos: Taxis have sent me to hell a couple of times. But you know what, now that we’ve gone through the conversation, what do you say we run through some of the vocabulary? |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Natalia: Why why, why? |
| Carlos: Okay, she’s not getting over it. Okay, let’s go, Natalia let’s go over some of the vocabulary. |
| Natalia: That sounds like a better topic. |
| Carlos: Okay, first up we have a masculine noun shortened. |
| Natalia: “Kilo”. |
| Carlos: “Kilogram.” |
| Natalia: “Ki-lo”, “kilo”. |
| Carlos: Next up we have a masculine noun. |
| Natalia: “Tomate”. |
| Carlos: “Tomato.” |
| Natalia: “To-ma-te”, “tomate”. |
| Carlos: Then up we have an adjective. |
| Natalia: “Tanto, tanta”. |
| Carlos: “So much.” |
| Natalia: “Tan-to, tan-ta”, “tanto, tanta”. |
| Carlos: Now we have a masculine and feminine noun. |
| Natalia: “Casero, casera”. |
| Carlos: “Favorite vendor.” |
| Natalia: “Ca-se-ro, ca-se-ra”, “casero, casera”. |
| Carlos: Then up we have a verb. |
| Natalia: “Cobrar”. |
| Carlos: “To charge.” |
| Natalia: “Co-brar”, “cobrar”. |
| Carlos: Last but not least another verb. |
| Natalia: “Parecer”. |
| Carlos: “To seem.” |
| Natalia: “Pa-re-cer”, “parecer”. Carlos, you have a receipt today. |
| Carlos: I do. |
| Natalia: Go ahead. |
| Carlos: “Kilo”, “tomate”, “tanto”, “tanta”, “casero”, “casera”, “cobrar”, “paracer”. |
| Natalia: “Parecer”. Why always you are getting them all right when they “parecer”? |
| Carlos: “Parecer”. |
| Natalia: Okay, now you can say. “Al casero le parece cobrar tanto por el tomate”. “Cobra muchísimo por un kilo de tomate”. |
| Carlos: You see what she’s doing to me right here? |
| Natalia: “Parece que cobra muchísimo el casero por un tomate…” |
| Carlos: Bla bla bla bla bla |
| Natalia: It’s kind of cool you can make sentences with them. |
| Carlos: Yeah, okay. “Kilo”, “tomate”, “tanto”, “tanta”, “casero”, “casera”, “cobrar”, “parecer”. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Natalia: “Tanto”, “tomate”, “cobra”, “el casero”. |
| Carlos: Something like that. Thank you, Naty. |
| Natalia: Carlos, how are you doing with this conversion anyway? |
| Carlos: Well I know a kilo is 2.2 pounds. So I can make conversions in my head but you know the point two seems to mess me up. |
| Natalia: Why? |
| Carlos: Well, like I weigh one hundred and eighty five pounds. So I would say that I weigh about eighty kilos. |
| Natalia: Yes, that’s about ten pounds off, eighty kilos would be about one hundred and seventy five pounds. |
| Carlos: See, those decimals really throw you off. I mean they add up but…. |
| Natalia: You are still eighty kilos, Carlos. |
| Carlos: How? |
| Natalia: You look eighty kilos. |
| Carlos: But I’m not. |
| Natalia: Carlos. Just carry a little calculator in your pocket. |
| Carlos: Okay, I’ll do that. But you know, when I go to the “feria” to buy vegetables and fruits, they always try to sell me like a whole kilo, I mean I live with myself, I’m not going to eat a kilo, un kilo de tomates en una semana. |
| Natalia: Well, that’s why you have your friend Naty, man. You just send me half a kilo. You can just really have to love tomatoes if not. |
| Carlos: Well, I like tomatoes but like a large one will ask me for a couple of days at least and that’s if I eat it with every meal. |
| Natalia: Well, it’s an easy word considering that the only difference is the last vowel, “tomate”, Carlos. Now that we are talking about tomatoes it’s an easy word considering the only difference is the last vowel, “tomate”. Well, there is something important to point out. |
| Carlos: What’s that? |
| Natalia: “Tomate”, “tomato” and “tómate un té”. |
| Carlos: Well that would be a command huh? |
| Natalia: “Tómate un café”. |
| Carlos: Maybe “tomate” isn’t such an easy word. |
| Natalia: No, “tomate” is an easy word. It’s “tómate” that you have to worry about. |
| Carlos: “Tómate”. Okay, next word. |
| Natalia: Next word will be “casero, casera”. |
| Carlos: “Favorite vendor.” Why favorite? |
| Natalia: A “casero” or “casera” is a vendor that takes care of you, because you are the repeat customer. |
| Carlos: You know it’s always good to make friends with shopkeepers and such, but it gets harder and harder with all the franchise stores and restaurants, you rarely get to know the owner of a store. |
| Natalia: Well, that’s not a problem down here yet. |
| Carlos: Yeah Naty, once they open up a Starbucks down here it’s over. Do you have any “caseros” or “caseras” that come to mind? |
| Natalia: Ayy, sí. Don Nacho, ¡qué señor más bueno! He was such a good guy. He was an old man that was like by my house is a “verdulero” when I was five years old I would be over there and I would give him like a five colones coin and I would tell him, “what can I buy with this?” The poor guy would have the peas and patience to say, “you can get this candy, this cookie or this or this”. What’s next? |
| Carlos: Next up is a verb, “cobrar”. |
| Natalia: “To charge”, “to charge”. Like... “¿Cuánto cobro por ese collar?”. “How much should I charge for that necklace?” |
| Carlos: Higher than you think usually, Naty. |
| Natalia: Carlos, Carlos. My business practices aside, let’s note something. |
| Carlos: What’s that? |
| Natalia: “Cobrador” or “cobradora” is a collector. |
| Carlos: Like you mean stamps or something? |
| Natalia: No, Carlos. Someone who charges you and takes the money. |
| Carlos: Okay, I get it. |
| Natalia: Now here’s one. |
| Carlos: Parece que alguien está de mal humor. |
| Natalia: No, I am not! |
| Carlos: Hahahahaha Okay. |
| Natalia: Okay, don’t try to get some oranges because “parecer”, “to seem” or “to sound” is our final vocab word. |
| Carlos: Hey Naty, you know when an opportunity knocks. Now what is the most common way you would hear this verb used? |
| Natalia: You know what it is. |
| Carlos: Maybe our audience doesn’t. |
| Natalia: “Me parece bien”. |
| Carlos: “It sounds or seems good to me.” But you know, there is another popular saying. |
| Natalia: “A mi parecer”. |
| Carlos: Right, perfectly to say before expressing an opinion, “a mi parecer”. |
| Natalia: Great. |
| Carlos: The way I see it. |
| Natalia: Well, the way I see it, it’s time for grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Carlos: [laughs] |
| Natalia: Carlos! |
| Carlos: Okay, intones the grammar goddess, let’s do this. |
| Natalia: Okay, today, indirect object pronouns. |
| Carlos: One of my favorites. |
| Natalia: Carlos, your enthusiasm is evident. |
| Carlos: I wasn’t trying to hide it. Maybe you should explain what an indirect object pronoun is exactly. |
| Natalia: Well, an indirect object receives the action of the verb. |
| Carlos: Let me guess, indirectly. |
| Natalia: Carlos, don’t get smart. For example, “Envié la carta a Martín”. “I sent the letter to Martín.” |
| Carlos: Okay. |
| Natalia: Here “la carta”, “letter”, receives the action directly. |
| Carlos: Right, but Martín receives the action indirectly. |
| Natalia: Exactly. When we replace this indirect object with a pronoun, usually it’s to avoid redundancy. An indirect object pronoun, “le envié la carta”, “I sent the letter to him.” |
| Carlos: Now I assume there’s a pattern for this. |
| Natalia: Yes. |
| Carlos: Okay, well if there’s a pattern let’s go through with this. |
| Natalia: Okay, let’s see, the singular will be “me”. |
| Carlos: To, for me. |
| Natalia: “Te”. |
| Carlos: To, for you, informal. |
| Natalia: “Le”. |
| Carlos: To, for him. |
| Natalia: “Le”. |
| Carlos: To, for her. |
| Natalia: “Le”. |
| Carlos: To, for you, formal. |
| Natalia: Yes, that’s pretty easy to remember. |
| Carlos: Yes, “me”, “te”, “le”, “le”, “le”. |
| Natalia: Aha, now in plural. “Nos”. |
| Carlos: To, for us. |
| Natalia: “Os”. |
| Carlos: To, for you all (informal). |
| Natalia: “Les”. |
| Carlos: To, for them, masculine. |
| Natalia: “Les”. |
| Carlos: To, for them, feminine. |
| Natalia: “Les”. |
| Carlos: To, for you all, formal. |
| Natalia: So we can say, “me parece bien”. Where “me” is the… |
| Carlos: Indirect object pronoun. “That seems good to me.” |
| Natalia: Okay or “te parece bien”. |
| Carlos: “That doesn’t seem good to you?” |
| Natalia: Or “vamos a la playa, ¿te parece?” |
| Carlos: “What do you think, shall we go to the beach?” I think it’s a great idea. |
| Natalia: “Me parece importante”. |
| Carlos: “I think it’s important.” No wait, seriously I do. |
| Natalia: Carlos, alright, Mr. Know it all, you know what, it’s time for your homework again. |
| Carlos: Bring it woman! |
| Natalia: Carlos don’t be such a macho, anyway, here’s today’s assignment. We are going to give you five sentences in English. What you need to do is replace the indirect object with an indirect object pronoun and translate it to Spanish. For example, if I say “I sent an email to Ana”, you need to change it to “le envié un correo electrónico”, “I sent her an email.” Are you ready? |
| Carlos: Let’s have it. |
| Natalia: Here we go. |
| Carlos: Number one, “I gave my book to you.” Number two, “her dad is going to buy her a car.” Number three, “Carlos never writes Natalia an email.” Number four, “Natalia, never responds to Carlos.” Number five, “Mariana sent a postcard to me and my brother.” |
| Natalia: Remember people, you can always get the answers and comments on the answers by checking us in the premium audio track called “tarea”. |
Outro |
| Carlos: That about wraps it up for today, Natalia. |
| Natalia: Well Carlos, it was fun. It was better than the nasty lesson, I am never going to forget that one. |
| Carlos: You are nasty! |
| Natalia: No, I hate it. Ahora es hora de que Natalia vaya a por un café. Bye! |
| Carlos: Later. |
Easily master this lesson’s grammar points with in-depth explanations and examples. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Comments
Hide