Learn how to use the formal register
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Fernando: Buying bus tickets. In this lesson, you will learn about the formal register. This conversation takes place at the bus terminal, and the conversation is between Jimmy and the cashier. They will be speaking in the formal register. |
| JP: Ok, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| VENDEDOR DE BOLETOS: El que sigue. |
| JIMMY: Voy a Playa del Carmen. ¿A qué hora sale el siguiente autobús? |
| VENDEDOR DE BOLETOS: A las cuatro de la tarde. |
| JIMMY: Bueno, un boleto, por favor. |
| VENDEDOR DE BOLETOS: 65 pesos. ¿Su forma de pago? |
| JIMMY: Con tarjeta. |
| VENDEDOR DE BOLETOS: Firme aquí, por favor. |
| JIMMY: ¿Me da el recibo, por favor? |
| VENDEDOR DE BOLETOS: Aquí tiene su recibo y boleto, señor. |
| JIMMY: Gracias. |
| VENDEDOR: De nada y que le vaya bien. El que sigue. |
| JP: One more time, with the translation. |
| VENDEDOR DE BOLETOS El que sigue. |
| JP: Next, please. |
| JIMMY Voy a Playa del Carmen. ¿A qué hora sale el siguiente |
| autobús? |
| JP: I'm going to Playa del Carmen. What time does the |
| next bus leave? |
| VENDEDOR DE BOLETOS A las cuatro de la tarde. |
| JP: At four P.M. |
| JIMMY Bueno, un boleto, por favor. |
| JP: Great, one ticket please. |
| VENDEDOR DE BOLETOS 65 pesos. ¿Su forma de pago? |
| JP: sixty-five pesos. Method of payment? |
| JIMMY Con tarjeta. |
| JP: Credit card. |
| VENDEDOR DE BOLETOS Firme aquí, por favor. |
| JP: Sign here, please. |
| JIMMY ¿Me da el recibo, por favor? |
| JP: May I have the receipt, please? |
| VENDEDOR DE BOLETOS Aquí tiene su recibo y boleto, señor. |
| JP: Your receipt and your ticket, sir. |
| JIMMY Gracias. |
| JP: Thanks. |
| VENDEDOR De nada y que le vaya bien. El que sigue. |
| JP: No problem, have a good one. Next? |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Fernando: So Jimmy's at the bus station today buying a ticket for Playa del Carmen. Did you catch what time the next bus was? |
| JP: Er.. refresh my memory. |
| Fernando: A las cuatro de la tarde. |
| JP: Ok, so at four in the afternoon. No I did catch the price, he said the ticket was sesenta y cinco pesos. |
| Fernando: Not bad, right? From Cancún to Playa del Carmen is about 50 kilometers, for 65 pesos, sesenta y cinco pesos. |
| JP: That's about 5 dollars US. |
| Fernando: The rest is pretty easy; there's a credit card transaction, please sign here, thank you, have a good day... |
| JP: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Fernando: el boleto [natural native speed] |
| JP: the ticket |
| Fernando: el boleto [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Fernando: el boleto [natural native speed] |
| JP: Next. |
| Fernando: el recibo [natural native speed] |
| JP: the receipt |
| Fernando: el recibo [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Fernando: el recibo [natural native speed] |
| JP: Next. |
| Fernando: siguiente [natural native speed] |
| JP: next |
| Fernando: siguiente [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Fernando: siguiente [natural native speed] |
| JP: Next. |
| Fernando: firmar [natural native speed] |
| JP: to sign |
| Fernando: firmar [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Fernando: firmar [natural native speed] |
| JP: The last one. |
| Fernando: El que sigue. [natural native speed] |
| JP: Next person. |
| Fernando: El que sigue. [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Fernando: El que sigue. [natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| JP: Ok, let's have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases more closely. |
| Fernando: Let's look at el boleto. |
| JP: This is the Mexican word for bus ticket. el boleto. you know in other places they you different words for bus ticket. I think in Spain it's el billete, in central America it's el pasaje... |
| Fernando: And in Mexico it's el boleto. Ready for the next word? el recibo. |
| JP: El recibo. The recipt. El recibo. Ok, what's cool about this word, Fernando. |
| Fernando: Nothing. It's just like the English word receipt. |
| JP: So... |
| Fernando: It's just important to ask for el recibo if you're on business and you want to get reimbursed. |
| JP: Right! El recibo. What's next? |
| Fernando: el siguiente... this is the adjective for next. El siguiente. |
| JP: El siguiente. How did we use it in the dialog? |
| Fernando: Jimmy asked ¿A qué hora sale el siguiente autobús? |
| JP: Ok, so this would be something like "at what time does the next bus leave... el siguiente autobús. siguiente. |
| Fernando: Siguiente. Ok, our last item is a complete sentence. |
| JP: Let's hear it. |
| Fernando: el que sigue. |
| JP: El que sigue. This is when people are waiting in line, and the guy at the window calls Next please, next in line. El que sigue. |
| Fernando: El que sigue. Correct. Literally, this is "the one who follows." So basically, "whoever's next." |
| JP: Ok, thanks for coming to day, Fernando, que te vaya bien. ¡El que sigue! |
| Fernando: Hey.... |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| JP: Ok, Fernando, today I want to talk about the formal register. In Spanish, when you're in a formal situation with strangers, and you want to show respect, you should use the formal register. This means that when you address people, instead of using the familiar pronoun tú, you're going to use the formal pronoun usted. Now, this is going to be very important in terms of grammar, because when you're using the formal register, you're going to be using third person forms, instead of second person forms, because all the usted forms look just like 3rd person. So let's hear some examples. Remember when the ticket guy asks Jimmy his method of payment? |
| Fernando: He says "¿Su forma de pago?" |
| JP: Right, su forma de pago. that "su" is the formal, he's speaking formally. |
| Fernando: If it was familiar, it would be "tu forma de pago." |
| JP: Exactly. He uses the possessive adjective "su" to show formality. Now the next instance of formal language is when the ticket vendor says "Firme aquí, por favor." |
| Fernando: Firme aquí, por favor. Por favor is the word for please, which is always a sign of politeness. |
| JP: Yes, and he also says "firme aquí." Sign here. Do you hear in "firme aqui" that firme ends in an /e/? That's the formal form; the usted form. |
| Fernando: Right, familiar register would be "firma aqui," firma. |
| JP: So it's just the vowel on the verb that shows formality. It happens again in the next line, when Jimmy asks for the receipt. |
| Fernando: He says "me da el recibo por favor." "Me da" is the formal register. Familiar register would be "me das." |
| JP: Ok, so what we're showing you here, folks is that in Spanish you code formality into the words of your sentences. At this point it's something we just want you to hear; if you want to see these sentences on paper please check out the PDF of this lesson in the lesson notes, we also threw together a chart of the different verbs and adjectives you use to make your speech formal. |
| Fernando: It seems like a lot of different little things, but it boils down to just addressing the person as "usted" and treating him or her like a 3rd person... grammatically speaking, of course. |
| JP: Exactly. Now just to wrap up the dialog real quick there's another line where the ticket vendor says "su recibo y su boleto..." that the formal register of the possessive adjective. |
| Fernando: And finally... Que le vaya bien. Have a good one, have a good day. |
| JP: Notice that the indirect object pronoun "le" is in the third person; that's the formal register. Que le vaya bien. |
| Fernando: ¡Que le vaya bien! |
Outro |
| Fernando: Well, I think that’s about it for today. |
| JP: So, for now, I guess it's time to go. ¡Hasta luego! |
| Fernando: ¡Adiós! |
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