Learn about using the preposition “en”
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Lizy: ¡Hola! Muy buenos días, me llamo Lizy. ¿Cómo están? |
| Alan: Hi everybody, my name is Alan. Romance II. Ramon, the detailist with Julia. Lizy now and back again coming to you on demand from spanishpod101.com |
| Lizy: You are listening to the newbie series, la vigésimo octava lección. |
| Alan: That’s the 28th lesson. ¡Qué gusto estar aquí contigo! |
| Lizy: ¡De igual manera, compadre! |
| Alan: So in today’s lesson, we are going to keep moving on with the topic of “Love.” |
| Lizy: El amor... |
| Alan: El amor y el romance. Love and romance. Just to make sure we are on the same page Lizy, could you remind us where we left off last time? |
| Lizy: Claro que sí, Alan, Last time, poor Ramón was denied by Eliana who declared her devotion to Ernesto. |
| Alan: What will become of “desamor” triangle, huh! |
| Lizy: And then we looked at the conversation from that lesson, learnt some of its vocabulary and focused on the preposition “a”. |
| Alan: That’s right. Well that was intense. Now today’s conversation features Ramón and Julia. |
| Lizy: Wait, Ramón!? |
| Alan: El mismo. |
| Lizy: The same Ramón as last lesson!? |
| Alan: Eso es. |
| Lizy: I don’t want to hear him complaining anymore. “¿Por qué? ¿Por qué? ¿Por qué?” |
| Alan: No way, Lizy, give him a break. Things have turned around for Ramón. |
| Lizy: ¿En serio? |
| Alan: He has had a change of heart. |
| Lizy: Vamos a ver... |
| Alan: Okay, on to the conversation. We meet up with Ramón after his follow up with Eliana. They’ve gone separate ways. Ramón for his part is now with a new love in his life, Julia. |
| DIALOGUE |
| RAMÓN: Cariño, tengo alguito para tí. |
| JULIA: ¿Un regalo? |
| RAMÓN: A ver si te gusta... |
| JULIA: ¡Qué lindas argollas! Gracias, mi amor. ¡Qué tal detallista! |
| RAMÓN: No, mi vida... |
| JULIA: Te recompenso en besos. |
| RAMÓN: Sweety, I've got a little something for you. |
| JULIA: A gift? |
| RAMÓN: Let's see if you like it... |
| JULIA: What beautiful earrings! Thanks, baby! How considerate! |
| RAMÓN: Don't thank me, honey... |
| JULIA: I'll pay you back in kisses. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Lizy: How cute, looks like Ramón really has turned things around. |
| Alan: I couldn’t agree with you more and he doesn’t seem to have that same needy demeanor that he had last lesson. |
| Lizy: He seems genuinely happy with his girlfriend. Parecen bien felices. |
| Alan: Claro. And we know that from the use of “cariño”. To call someone “cariño” is to call them “my love” but we can also “dar cariño”, “to give love” or “mostrar cariño” which is “to show love.” |
| Lizy: Right and the person who is very affectionate is “una persona cariñosa”. |
| Alan: That’s right, Lizy, and it seems to me that pet names are little more common here in Latin America. Would you agree with that? |
| Lizy: Yes. Como “cariñito”, “osito”, “bebito”, “amorcito”. |
| Alan: You’ve got a lot of them, don’t you but I certainly agree with you. |
| Lizy: Tu esposa es peruana, ¿no Alan? |
| Alan: Yep, my beautiful wife is Peruvian. |
| Lizy: ¿De qué parte? Whereabouts? |
| Alan: She is here, she is from Lima. |
| Lizy: Ah Alan, tell us what are some things that have come up in your marriage that you can directly attribute to you and surely been from different cultures. |
| Alan: Uff that’s a pretty long list asking for there Lizy, but look and I am speaking in general terms. I think one of the big – not issues but one of the big things I noticed is the involvement of my wife’s family in our life and I don’t say that in a negative way at all but families here – extended family here is certainly much closer than it was for me anyway back in Canada and again, I am generalizing here but I think that’s a general truth that holds. |
| Lizy: Bad. Do you have any difference with your mother-in-law? |
| Alan: I’ve got classic mother-in-law. I have some friends who do but no fortunately, I am very happy with my mother-in-law. She is great. |
| Lizy: Oh that’s very lucky. |
| Alan: Now that we’ve gone through the conversation, let’s break down some of this vocabulary, okay. |
| Lizy: Sounds like a good idea. |
| Alan: So let’s begin with... |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Lizy: “Cariño”. |
| Alan: “Affection.” |
| Lizy: “Ca-ri-ño”, “cariño”. |
| Alan: Now we have... |
| Lizy: “Regalo”. |
| Alan: “Gift.” |
| Lizy: “Re-ga-lo”, “regalo”. |
| Alan: Next we will look at... |
| Lizy: “Argolla”. |
| Alan: “Earring.” |
| Lizy: “Ar-go-lla”, “argolla”. |
| Alan: Next we will look at... |
| Lizy: “Detallista”. |
| Alan: “Perfectionist.” |
| Lizy: “De-ta-llis-ta”, “detallista”. |
| Alan: Then we have... |
| Lizy: “Beso”. |
| Alan: “Kiss.” |
| Lizy: “Be-so”, “beso”. |
| Alan: And finally... |
| Lizy: “Dulce”. |
| Alan: “Sweet” or “sweetheart.” |
| Lizy: “Dul-ce”, “dulce”. |
| Alan: You can just feel the love. |
| Lizy: ¡Ya son enamorados! |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Alan: Right. Ramón and Julia are now in “enamorados”. This means they have taken the first step in their relationship. |
| Lizy: How do you translate “enamorados”? |
| Alan: Hmm that’s a tough one, Lizy. If we say “lovers”, it sounds kind of scandalous and there is none of that here. Umm, let’s say we could just say they are committed to each other to the point that Ramón would call Julia his girlfriend and she would call him her boyfriend. |
| Lizy: It’s interesting how sometimes words in Spanish – even simple words don’t have direct translations to English. |
| Alan: That’s for sure, Lizy, but all right now, let’s get back to the word “cariño” just for a second. |
| Lizy: Sure. |
| Alan: Now, what was the context in the conversation? |
| Lizy: “Cariño, tengo alguito para ti.” |
| Alan: “Sweetie, I’ve got a little something for you.” Now as we’ve said the word “cariño” is pretty common. |
| Lizy: Right and we also said that “cariñoso” or “cariñosa” is the adjective form and it means something like “affectionate.” |
| Alan: And it’s a good idea to think about this translation as “honey” since “honey” like “cariño” can be used to address females as well as males. It’s a blanket term. |
| Lizy: As we saw in the conversation, “cariño” can also be used interchangeably with a phrase, “mi amor”. |
| Alan: Right and “mi amor” means “my love.” Another really common way to refer to someone you care about. Okay, now Lizy, what does Ramón give Julia? |
| Lizy: Un regalo. |
| Alan: “Un regalo”. So this means “a gift”, a masculine noun. |
| Lizy: “El regalo”. |
| Alan: And in the plural... |
| Lizy: “Los regalos”. |
| Alan: “Los regalos”. And while we are looking at this now, let’s point out that this is one of the words that has a verbal form too. We have “regalar”. |
| Lizy: “Regalar”. |
| Alan: And this is an interesting verb. It means something like to give a gift. For example, Lizy, how would you translate this? “Ramón gives a gift to Julia”, using the noun “regalo”. |
| Lizy: “Ramón da un regalo a Julia”. |
| Alan: That’s right, “Ramón da un regalo a Julia”. And now with the verb “regalar” we can say “Ramón le regala argollas”. “Ramón gives her earrings as a gift.” |
| Lizy: Good connection. |
| Alan: Yeah. I have always found that a good way to increase my vocabulary is to learn new forms of words that I am already familiar with. For example, the word “beso”, the one that came up in today’s lesson. Lizy, what’s “beso”? |
| Lizy: “Un beso” is “a kiss.” |
| Alan: Right and “a little kiss” or “a peck” is “un besito”. That’s the diminutive form and can we make a verb out of this noun “beso” like we did with “regalo” and “regalar”? |
| Lizy: Claro, sería “besar”. |
| Alan: That’s right “besar”, “to kiss.” So we can say “ella le da un beso”. “She gives him a kiss” or “ella le besa”, “she kisses him.” Again we see the noun form and the verb form. |
| Lizy: Alan, do you know that song “Bésame”? |
| Alan: Huh I sure do, Lizy. Why don’t you refresh my memory though? |
| Lizy: “Bésame, bésame mucho. Como si fuera esta noche la última vez. Bésame, bésame mucho que tengo miedo a quererte y perderte después”. |
| Alan: Oh my God, Lizy! Beautiful, wow! You’ve surprised us all. Awesome, hey and just to give you guys a quick translation of that, it’s something like “Kiss me, kiss me a lot as if this night were the last. Kiss me, kiss me a lot because I am afraid of loving you only to lose you afterwards.” Jeez Lizy! You’ve certainly cut that Latin sensibility. |
| Lizy: Hmm yes, I am a hopeless romantic, I know. |
| Alan: Now Lizy, how was this word used in the conversation? |
| Lizy: “Te recompenso en besos”. |
| Alan: “I will pay you back in kisses.” What a great phrase! So the verb “recompensar” is “to recompense” or “to compensate” but it would probably be better to say “to pay back” and then we see “en besos”. |
| Lizy: “Te recompenso en besos”. |
| Alan: So the verb “recompenso” is conjugated to the present tense but here it has a future value. “I will pay back in kisses.” |
| Lizy: ¡Qué tal detallista! |
| Alan: Right and that’s exactly what Julia says when Ramón gives her earrings, “¡Qué tal detallista!” and we translated this as “how considerate!” but you know, this could be misleading. |
| Lizy: Claro. El sustantivo “detallista” significa “perfeccionista”. |
| Alan: “Perfectionist.” Right but we often use this term in relationships to refer to consideration in such a way that when we exclaim “¡Qué tal detallista!” it’s almost like saying “¡Qué considerado!”, “how considerate!” |
| Lizy: ¡Así es! |
| Alan: So Lizy, what does a guy need to do in order for you to say that he is “detallista”? |
| Lizy: Justamente, que sea muy considerado. Es decir, que se interese por mi. Que me llame varias veces al día. Que me mande un correo electrónico, una tarjetita electrónica. Que me mande también tarjetitas a mi casa. Me encanta eso, que me escriba notitas, que me escriba poemas. ¡Me gusta muchísimo! |
| Alan: Somebody is needy here. Basically guys, to give you a fast translation, he has to write her emails, maybe few poems and several telephone calls per day. Okay guys, you’ve been warned, okay. |
| Lizy: ¡Ah! Y chocolatitos... |
| Alan: Chocolates too, great. |
| Lizy: Muy bien, Alan. Let’s look at some grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Alan: Como gustes. So last time, we looked at the preposition “a”, a simple yet very, very important word to know in Spanish. |
| Lizy: And for today... |
| Alan: Today we will focus on another key preposition. This time “en”. |
| Lizy: “En”. |
| Alan: That’s right “en”, spelled “e-n”. This is a Spanish counterpart to the English word “in”, spelled “i-n.” |
| Lizy: In today’s conversation, Julia thanks Ramón and says “Te recompenso en besos”. |
| Alan: Right and literally that means “I will compensate you in kisses.” Now this is an interesting phrase because you could also say “Te recompenso con besos”. Literally, “I will compensate you with kisses.” |
| Lizy: So, how can we explain this difference? |
| Alan: Well, let me ask you this. When we say “vivo en Lima”, “I live in Lima”, are we expressing an action that’s stationary or mobile? I mean, are we going somewhere as in the example “voy a Madrid”? |
| Lizy: No. When we say “vivo en Lima” we are expressing a stationary or even static action. |
| Alan: That’s good. So here the subject is included in the spatial reality of the indirect object which is Lima, “vivo en Lima”. “I live in Lima.” |
| Lizy: I see. |
| Alan: And if we say “Llegaré en 10 minutos”, “I will arrive in 10 minutes”, can we say that the subject “I” is included in the temporal reality of the compliment “10 minutos”? |
| Lizy: Sure, it’s like saying “I will arrive within that time.” |
| Alan: Well, this is why the preposition “en” can also express participation in collective concepts just like the one we see here in today’s conversation. |
| Lizy: You mean “te recompenso en besos”? |
| Alan: Eso es. “Te recompenso en besos”. So look at the phrase “en besos”. |
| Lizy: Okay. |
| Alan: So here we have the idea of repayment by way of kisses but these kisses are acting as a collective whole as an amount. |
| Lizy: I see what you mean. Another example that shows this concept of collectivity is “una huerta abundante en manzanas”. |
| Alan: Right. Nice and clear, “an orchard abundant in apples.” Now, as we are talking about the preposition “en”, let’s mention as a side point that it’s used very often with verbs that express thought. |
| Lizy: ¿Los verbos que expresan el pensamiento? |
| Alan: Yes, like for example “pensar”. We say “pienso en ella”, “I think about her.” Sometimes when you hear native Spanish speakers speaking English, you will hear them say, “I think in her” and while it isn’t really correct in English, we can really see how it’s their Spanish structure that’s just bleeding through. |
| Lizy: Yeah. That happens to me sometimes especially with the verb “confiar”. |
| Alan: I can see why in Spanish we say “confío en ellos” and if we were to translate this word for word, we’d get “I trust in them” but really we just say “I trust them” without a preposition. |
| Lizy: What about some other uses of the preposition “en”? |
| Alan: Well, you know Lizy, we’ve actually covered a few of the most important ones and if you are new to the language, this can be a lot to take in. So let’s use this lesson as an introduction to the topic. Next time, we will continue to look at prepositions and that way we will continue building this ever so important grammar foundation. |
Outro |
| Alan: Well, this is as far as we will go today. |
| Lizy: Ha sido un gusto, Alan. |
| Alan: Para mi también, Lizy. Thanks everyone for joining us. |
| Lizy: Muy bien, amigos. ¡Hasta muy pronto! |
| Alan: Yeah everybody be well and hey, make it fun! |
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