Learn how to use indefinite pronouns
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 |
| Dylan: Hola, hola a todos, ¿cómo están?. Habla Dylan. |
| Carlos: What’s going on Pod101 world? My name is Carlos – Spanish indefinite pronouns. Do you have some time? In this lesson you will learn about indefinite pronouns. |
| Dylan: Definitely indefinite. |
| Carlos: Hahaha. I thought I would say something like that, Dylan. |
| Dylan: Well, I beat you to it. |
| Carlos: You know, Andrea is giving some good advice to Pablo. |
| Dylan: And what’s that? |
| Carlos: He needs to rest. |
| Dylan: Well, that’s nice. I guess they’re talking informally, yeah? |
| Carlos: Yep. Ok, let’s get into today’s conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| PABLO: Me dieron cuatro días de vacaciones. |
| ANDREA: Ya le hacía falta un descanso. |
| PABLO: Debería sacar unos días libres también. |
| ANDREA: Creo que tengo unos acumulados. |
| PABLO: ¡Vamos! Pida permiso y nos vamos a la playa. |
| ANDREA: ¡Vale! |
| PABLO: They gave me four vacation days. |
| ANDREA: You've needed a break for a while now. |
| PABLO: You ought to take some free days too. |
| ANDREA: I think I have some saved up. |
| PABLO: Let's go! Get permission and we'll go to the beach. |
| ANDREA: You got it! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Dylan: The beach, I want to go… |
| Carlos: You’re going tomorrow, aren’t you? |
| Dylan: No, Thursday. |
| Carlos: I want to go too but my friend’s coming for… Who comes to Costa Rica for like two days or? |
| Dylan: Nobody, people who don’t know where they’re going. |
| Carlos: Well, no, he’s like, “Yeah, I'm coming on Wednesday night.” I'm like, “When are you leaving?” He’s like, “My flight’s at 8 am in Saturday.” I'm like, “Does that make any sense?” It’s rainy season, I can't even, I want to go to the [inaudible 00:01:17] so that makes no sense to drive somewhere so far. |
| Dylan: Yeah, it makes no sense. |
| Carlos: Ok, let’s have a closer look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| Dylan: “Hacer falta”. |
| Carlos: “To be lacking something”, “in need of something”, “to miss something.” |
| Dylan: “Ha-cer fal-ta”, “hacer falta”. “Descansar”. |
| Carlos: “To rest.” |
| Dylan: “Des-can-sar”, “descansar”. “Acumulado”. |
| Carlos: “Accumulated.” |
| Dylan: “A-cu-mu-la-do”, “acumulado”. “Sacar”. |
| Carlos: “To take out”, “to pull out”, “to get out.” |
| Dylan: “Sa-car”, “sacar”. “Pedir”. |
| Carlos: “To ask for.” |
| Dylan: “Pe-dir”, “pedir”. “¡Vale!” |
| Carlos: “Ok!” |
| Dylan: “Va-le”, “¡vale!” |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Carlos: Ok, Let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Dylan: The first phrase we'll look at is “hacer falta”. |
| Carlos: “Hacer falta”, I just learned what that means. |
| Dylan: What does it mean? |
| Carlos: It means “to be lacking in something”. You have “faltar” in there. “Faltar”, “to lack”. |
| Dylan: Well, you aren’t lacking in the meaning. |
| Carlos: Very clever, Dylan. |
| Dylan: I thought so. Now, you’re going to think the translation is interesting. |
| Carlos: Why? |
| Dylan: Listen to what Andrea says to Pablo. “Ya te hacía falta un descanso”. |
| Carlos: Ok, I noticed the tense but… |
| Dylan: “Well you’ve needed a break for a while.” |
| Carlos: See, I was trying to figure out the literal translation. |
| Dylan: You could say that Pablo was lacking rest or missing rest. |
| Carlos: You know, I see the difference but that’s not how I learned what “hacer falta” means. |
| Dylan: No? How did you learn what “hacer falta” means? |
| Carlos: Well, I learned what “hacer falta” means as being kind of the same as “extrañar”, “to miss”. |
| Dylan: Yes, you could use “hacer falta” to refer to a human being. |
| Carlos: Like “me hace falta mi mamá”, “I miss my mom”. |
| Dylan: Oh, how sweet. Exactly. You lack your mom, you’re without your mommy… |
| Carlos: As Pablo is in lack of rest. |
| Dylan: But we aren’t lacking a related word. We already linked “hacer falta” to “extrañar”, “to miss”. |
| Carlos: I think we have that down. Let’s move on. |
| Dylan: A verb, “descansar”, “to rest”. |
| Carlos: Pablo isn’t the only one lacking rest in his life. |
| Dylan: You don’t have to tell me twice. |
| Carlos: You know, we already heard the example and explained it. |
| Dylan: “Ya te hacía falta un descanso”. |
| Carlos: “You’ve needed a break for a while now.” I’ve heard “descansar” used in a different way. |
| Dylan: Oh yeah? |
| Carlos: Well, Andrea could have easily said to Pablo “debes descansar más”, “You should rest more”. |
| Dylan: Well, that would be the same and you could easily replace that sentence with the other one. But whoever told you that, Carlos, wasn’t lying. You really should rest more. |
| Carlos: What can I say? SpanishPod101.com has a hold of my life but it’s hard to escape from. |
| Dylan: Well, we have an easy related word. A noun related to the verb “descansar”. |
| Carlos: “Descansó”. |
| Dylan: “A rest”, exactly. |
| Carlos: We are always painfully aware of that which we lack in life, Dylan. |
| Dylan: So true. And you know, after you take a break and you get your rest, you can be the adjective “descansado”. |
| Carlos: “Rested”? |
| Dylan: Yes. |
| Carlos: That would be wonderful. |
| Dylan: Ok. “Acumulado”. |
| Carlos: Hmm, I'm getting an inkling. |
| Dylan: Come on, it’s close. |
| Carlos: “Accumulate”? |
| Dylan: Exactly. Slowly but surely you gain more and more of something, and in this case it is Andrea who is gaining time. |
| Carlos: Right, when she says “creo que tengo unos acumulados”. |
| Dylan: “I think I have some saved up.” |
| Carlos: Or “accumulated”. |
| Dylan: Do you have any vacation time saved up? |
| Carlos: You are a very, very funny woman, Dylan. Funny, funny, funny. |
| Dylan: Carlos, are you a pack rat? |
| Carlos: At times. I wouldn’t make a habit of it. |
| Dylan: I know we are at my house. We used to live in this old house and you know I like to read. |
| Carlos: Right. And you know that “los libros están acumulados en las cajas viejas”, “The books are accumulating in the old boxes”, they always do. |
| Dylan: Carlos, do you know the verb form of “acumulado”? |
| Carlos: I’ll take a crack. “Acumular”? |
| Dylan: “To accumulate”, ¡exactamente! |
| Carlos: Let’s move on to our next one cause I'm getting really excited that I'm getting this stuff. |
| Dylan: Ok, well, we’ll take it out of the background. |
| Carlos: The verb “sacar”? |
| Dylan: Was my hint a little too blatant? |
| Carlos: You could say that, Dylan, you could say that. |
| Dylan: Yes, “sacar”, “to take out”, “to pull out”, “get out”. |
| Carlos: Now my first association, “taking out the trash” comes to mind. |
| Dylan: Sí, “saca la basura” is a very common use, but it is used differently in our conversation. |
| Carlos: “Deberías sacar unos días libres también”. |
| Dylan: “You ought to take some free days too.” |
| Carlos: Shouldn’t we all… |
| Dylan: That’s the nature of the beast. |
| Carlos: Now, I'm happy we’re studying this verb. |
| Dylan: More than usual? Why? |
| Carlos: Because now I won't be confused with the verb “tomar”. |
| Dylan: Well, “tomar” is “to take” or “to drink”. |
| Carlos: Right. And “sacar” is “to take out”. Now I get the difference. |
| Dylan: Well, you asked for it, you got it. |
| Carlos: That’s another hint, isn’t it? |
| Dylan: Yeah. |
| Carlos: “Pedir” is our next word, isn’t it? |
| Dylan: You are getting so quick. |
| Carlos: “Pedir”, “to ask for”. Well, come on, Dylan, you make it pretty obvious. |
| Dylan: But do you notice “pedir” in the conversation? |
| Carlos: It took me a little time but yeah, I see the command. Pablo tells Andrea “pide permiso y nos vamos a la playa”. |
| Dylan: “Get permission and we’ll go to the beach.” That sounds nice. |
| Carlos: Yeah, especially now with all the clouds. |
| Dylan: Rainy season is here, Carlos. |
| Carlos: My second one and I'm not very happy about that. |
| Dylan: Hah, can you think of a sample sentence with “pedir”? |
| Carlos: Ah, one that I have to say too often. “No me pidas más dinero, ¡ya no tengo!” |
| Dylan: “Don’t ask me for more money! I don’t have any!” That’s not only you, Carlos. |
| Carlos: Just felt it would be a fitting example. |
| Dylan: So we know “pedir” is a verb. Do you know what “pedido” is? |
| Carlos: A noun? |
| Dylan: Exactly. But if “pedir” means “to ask for”… |
| Carlos: Then “pedido” is “an order” or “a request”. |
| Dylan: I can’t get that by you. |
| Carlos: Sometimes I catch them, sometimes I don’t. |
| Dylan: Ok, Carlos, last but certainly not least is a word that you are very familiar with. |
| Carlos: Ok, there are quite a few, but which? |
| Dylan: “¡Vale!” |
| Carlos: “¡Vale!” Yeah, yeah. I'm familiar with “¡vale!”, a little more familiar than I’d like. |
| Dylan: It’s an interjection that means… |
| Carlos: Ok. |
| Dylan: Or in our conversation, “you go it!” |
| Carlos: Same thing, you know context and all that. |
| Dylan: Well, I know if someone asked me to go to the beach, my answer if I could would be “¡vale!”. |
| Carlos: Ok, you know mine too, but this will give you away as someone that speaks European Spanish, almost like using “vosotros”. |
| Dylan: Right, we don’t really use “¡vale!” in Latin America. |
| Carlos: But if you find yourself in Spain, I guarantee you won't get out of the airport before you hear “¡vale!”. |
| Dylan: In Latin America we would simply say “bueno” or “está bien”, but “¡vale!” that would just get said and said. |
| Carlos: I think I might start saying it. |
| Dylan: You go right ahead. Start now. “¿Quieres comer afuera?” |
| Carlos: “¡Vale!” |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Dylan: Carlos, what do you know about nouns? |
| Carlos: Nouns. A noun is a person, place or thing. |
| Dylan: And pronouns? |
| Carlos: A pronoun replaces a noun while at once referring to it and agreeing with it. Got more? Come on, ask me. |
| Dylan: Indefinite pronouns. |
| Carlos: Indefinite pronouns lack definite terms. |
| Dylan: And what do they express. |
| Carlos: Well, they express the notions of quantity, identity and other kinds of vague or undetermined manner. |
| Dylan: And? |
| Carlos: Hold on, I'm thinking. Right. They take the place of a non-concrete person or thing, or one who’s determination is not in the interest of the speaker, correct? |
| Dylan: Right. Since indefinite pronouns take the place of a noun, they work like nouns. |
| Carlos: Even though they can also work as adjectives. Dylan, if we are going through indefinite pronouns, I know there are quite a few. |
| Dylan: You’re right, Carlos, and each one tends to have a number of different forms. So let’s just go over the most common. |
| Carlos: Phew, I thought we were going to go over all of them. |
| Dylan: No, no, no, no. Let’s go through the most common with the masculine version, feminine version and neutral version. |
| Carlos: Sounds good. |
| Dylan: “One.” |
| Carlos: Masculine singular “uno”, feminine singular “una”, neutral singular “uno”. |
| Dylan: “Some”, “someone”, “something.” |
| Carlos: Masculine singular “alguno”, feminine singular “alguna”, neutral singular “algo”. |
| Dylan: “None”, “no one”, “not”, “any”, “nothing.” |
| Carlos: Masculine singular “ninguno”, feminine singular “ninguna”, neutral singular “nada”. |
| Dylan: “Few.” |
| Carlos: Masculine singular “poco”, feminine singular “poca”, neutral singular “poco”. |
| Dylan: “Many.” |
| Carlos: Masculine singular “mucho”, feminine singular “mucha”, neutral singular “mucho”. |
| Dylan: “Too many.” |
| Carlos: Masculine singular “demasiado”, feminine singular “demasiada”, neutral singular “demasiado”. |
| Dylan: “All”, “everyone.” |
| Carlos: Masculine singular “todo”, feminine singular “toda”, neutral singular “todo”. |
| Dylan: “Another.” |
| Carlos: Masculine singular “otro”, feminine singular “otra”, neutral singular “otro”. |
| Dylan: “The same one.” |
| Carlos: Masculine singular “mismo”, feminine singular “misma”, neutral singular “mismo”. |
| Dylan: “So much”, “so many.” |
| Carlos: Masculine singular “tan, tanto”, feminine singular “tanta”, neutral singular “tanto”. |
| Dylan: That takes care of the singular forms of the most common. |
| Carlos: Yeah, and now that you’ve mentioned it, these are very, very, very important. |
| Dylan: That they are. |
| Carlos: Ok, so let’s look at the same examples, only with the masculine and feminine plural versions. |
| Dylan: Same order? |
| Carlos: Exactly the same. |
| Dylan: “Some.” |
| Carlos: “Unos, unas”. |
| Dylan: “Some.” |
| Carlos: “Algunos, algunas”. |
| Dylan: “No one”, “none.” |
| Carlos: “Ningunos, ningunas”. |
| Dylan: “Few.” |
| Carlos: “Pocos, pocas”. |
| Dylan: “Many.” |
| Carlos: “Muchos, muchas”. |
| Dylan: “Too many.” |
| Carlos: “Demasiados, demasiadas”. |
| Dylan: “All”, “everyone.” |
| Carlos: “Todos, todas”. |
| Dylan: “Others.” |
| Carlos: “Otros, otras”. |
| Dylan: “The same ones.” |
| Carlos: “Mismos, mismas”. |
| Dylan: “So much, so many.” |
| Carlos: “Tantos, tantas”. |
| Dylan: Still with us, audience? The examples are coming, but to get these definitions out in this way is very important. |
| Carlos: There are more commons, right? |
| Dylan: Yes, those with two forms, singular and plural. |
| Carlos: Which are? |
| Dylan: “Close”, “whichever.” |
| Carlos: Ah, right. “Cualquiera, cualesquiera”. |
| Dylan: “Whoever.” |
| Carlos: “Quienquiera, quienesquiera”. |
| Dylan: And then, finally, those with the singular form. “Someone.” |
| Carlos: “Alguien”. |
| Dylan: “No one.” |
| Carlos: “Nadie”. |
| Dylan: “The rest.” |
| Carlos: “Demás”. |
| Dylan: That’s the list. |
| Carlos: That’s it? |
| Dylan: That’s it. But we should get some example sentences. |
| Carlos: Ok. |
| Dylan: So if you want to ask someone what they want, you could say… |
| Carlos: “¿Te sirvo algo?” |
| Dylan: “Can I serve you something?” |
| Carlos: Or I could say “¿buscas a alguien en particular?” |
| Dylan: “Are you looking for someone in particular?” You remember when you were having a hard time? |
| Carlos: Yes, I do. |
| Dylan: What did I say? |
| Carlos: Right. “Algunos dicen que el problema se va a resolver solito”. |
| Dylan: “Some say the problem will resolve itself.” And was that good advice? |
| Carlos: Yes, it was. But I remember you were only one with positive advice. |
| Dylan: That’s because “todos dicen lo mismo”. |
| Carlos: “Everyone says the same thing.” |
| Dylan: I like to be different. |
| Carlos: Remember, guys, that indefinite pronouns are very similar to indefinite adjectives/ |
| Dylan: Do you remember what the main difference is? |
| Carlos: The main difference, aside from formation, is that adjectives modify the noun in an indefinite way. |
| Dylan: Right. And the pronouns replace the noun and express the same sense of vagueness. |
| Carlos: For example? |
| Dylan: For example we could say “algunas personas dicen”, in which case we use the indefinite adjective, “algunas”. |
| Carlos: Oh, I see. It modifies “personas”, or we could say “algunos dicen” in which we’re using the masculine plural form, which acts as the neuter. |
Outro |
| Carlos: Ok, guys, that just about does it for today. |
| Dylan: ¡Chao! |
| Carlos: Nos vemos! |
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