Learn about Spanish possessive adjectives
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Natalia: Buenos días, me llamo Natalia. |
| Carlos: What’s going on? My name is Carlos. |
| Natalia: “In need of advice.” |
| Carlos: What are we looking at today, Naty? |
| Natalia: In this lesson, you will learn about the possessive adjectives. |
| Carlos: So then those would be adjectives that describe possession. |
| Natalia: Today’s conversation at the workplace where Luis just had a fight with the boss and he’s been thrown out. |
| Carlos: Well… |
| Natalia: Well, he is having a conversation with his co-worker, Julián. |
| Carlos: So then we know the conversation is... |
| Natalia: Pretty informal. |
| Carlos: But messed up, man. |
| Natalia: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| LUIS: ¡Ay, Julián, qué deprimente! |
| JULIAN: ¿Qué pasó? |
| LUIS: Hoy es mi último día, me acabo de pelear con el jefe. |
| JULIAN: ¿Le echaron? |
| LUIS: Sí, ahora no sé qué hacer... |
| JULIAN: Tiene que comprar el periódico y empezar a buscar. |
| And now, slowly. |
| Una vez más, esta vez lentamente. |
| LUIS: ¡Ay, Julián, qué deprimente! |
| JULIAN: ¿Qué pasó? |
| LUIS: Hoy es mi último día, me acabo de pelear con el jefe. |
| JULIAN: ¿Le echaron? |
| LUIS: Sí, ahora no sé qué hacer... |
| JULIAN: Tiene que comprar el periódico y empezar a buscar. |
| And now, with the translation. |
| Ahora, incluimos la traducción. |
| LUIS: ¡Ay, Julián, qué deprimente! |
| LUIS: Oh, Julian, how depressing! |
| JULIAN: ¿Qué pasó? |
| JULIAN: What happened? |
| LUIS: Hoy es mi último día, me acabo de pelear con el jefe. |
| LUIS: Today's my last day and I just got into an argument with the boss. |
| JULIAN: ¿Le echaron? |
| JULIAN: Did they throw you out? |
| LUIS: Sí, ahora no sé qué hacer... |
| LUIS: Yeah, now I don't know what to do... |
| JULIAN: Tiene que comprar el periódico y empezar a buscar. |
| JULIAN: You've got to buy a newspaper and start looking. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Natalia: Carlos, have you ever been fired from a job? |
| Carlos: Yes, I have. |
| Natalia: You have! |
| Carlos: I actually have. Yeah, if you find it hard to believe, but yes, I have. |
| Natalia: I’ve never ever gotten fired from a job. Only that one time you got really mad at me but yeah I am not going to talk about it, for my job sake. |
| Carlos: Yeah. |
| Natalia: Please leave a comment on the forum if you don’t want me to leave. Okay, so anyways, vocabulary phrases, Carlos. |
| Carlos: Can I talk about someone who is fired? |
| Natalia: No. |
| Carlos: Okay, fine. |
| Natalia: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Natalia: We have an adverb, “deprimente”. |
| Carlos: “Depressing.” |
| Natalia: “De-pri-men-te”, “deprimente”. “El funeral fue muy triste y deprimente”. |
| Carlos: “The funeral was very sad and depressing.” And then we have a verb... |
| Natalia: “Pelear”. |
| Carlos: “To fight.” |
| Natalia: “Pe-le-ar”, “pelear”. Por ejemplo: “Los perros en la calle pelean mucho”. |
| Carlos: “The dogs in the street fight a lot.” And the verbal phrase... |
| Natalia: “Acabar de”. |
| Carlos: “To have just.” |
| Natalia: “A-ca-bar de”, “acabar de”. Por ejemplo: “Ella acaba de comprar nuevos anteojos”. |
| Carlos: “She has just bought new glasses.” And now a masculine and feminine noun. |
| Natalia: “Jefe, jefa”. |
| Carlos: “Chief”, “boss.” |
| Natalia: “Je-fe, je-fa”, “jefe, jefa”. Por ejemplo: “Es necesario que te comuniques con tu jefa”. |
| Carlos: “It’s necessary that you talk with your boss.” And another verb... |
| Natalia: “Echar”. |
| Carlos: “To fire.” |
| Natalia: “E-char”, “echar”. Por ejemplo: “La compañía echó a 200 empleados porque no tenía dinero para pagarles”. |
| Carlos: “The Company fired 200 employees because they did not have money to pay them.” And last but not least, a masculine noun. |
| Natalia: “Periódico”. |
| Carlos: “The newspaper periodical.” |
| Natalia: “Pe-rió-di-co”, “periódico”. Por ejemplo: “Si necesitas buscar trabajo, compra el periódico y busca en la sección de clasificados”. |
| Carlos: “If you are looking for a job, buy the newspaper and look in the classified section.” Okay guys, let’s take a look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Natalia: The first word we will look at is “deprimente”. |
| Carlos: “Deprimente”. “Depressing”, “how sad.” |
| Natalia: Well, I will be so sad too if I were fired. |
| Carlos: No, you wouldn’t, Naty. I remember the really sick severance package that you said you would have gotten if you had been fired and sort of quit your last job. |
| Natalia: True but well in this situation, it will be kind of depressing you see. |
| Carlos: Which is why in the conversation we heard “¡Ay, Julián, qué deprimente!” |
| Natalia: This adjective explains his situation quite clearly. |
| Carlos: Well, with today’s job market, I would think a lot of people are going around in similar situation. |
| Natalia: ¡Ay! “Definitivamente, el mercado de trabajo es muy deprimente”. |
| Carlos: “The job market definitely is depressing.” You know, so I will take this opportunity to say thank you spanishpod101.com |
| Natalia: And visit blah, blah, blah to my website. Okay, so we know this adjective “deprimente” means “depressing.” Carlos, I am sure you can come up with a related word. |
| Carlos: Okay, “triste”, “sad”, or the other side of things, “contento”, “happy.” |
| Natalia: I wasn’t expecting too but okay. |
| Carlos: What can I say, Naty. I like to surprise you sometime. |
| Natalia: So well, good but you have to be careful because they rung surprise and we will be... |
| Carlos: Let me guess, fighting. |
| Natalia: Umm the verb “pelear”. |
| Carlos: Now is this like a fist fight? |
| Natalia: That will be interesting to see but it can be. Well, look at the conversation. “Hoy es mi último día, me acabo de pelear con el jefe”. |
| Carlos: “Today is my last day and I have just had a fight with the boss.” And Naty mentioned this because my like leg is the size of her. |
| Natalia: Yeah. |
| Carlos: Yeah. I don’t think that he will be able to just be there still if it had been a fist fight with the boss. I mean they would completely. |
| Natalia: Probably not, but I hope whatever it was, it was over with. |
| Carlos: Oh definitely and if you are going to fight, “pelear por algo”, “fight for something.” |
| Natalia: He could have used another word to describe his situation though. |
| Carlos: And what’s that? |
| Natalia: “Discutir”. |
| Carlos: Which means? |
| Natalia: “To argue.” |
| Carlos: You know that probably would have been a more specific way to describe a situation but saying that you had a argument is really to a different degree than saying that you had a fight. |
| Natalia: Right, but I would think an argument will mean that things aren’t really that serious. I mean they are but they might be solved. |
| Carlos: Yeah, definitely probably solved that argument. What’s next? |
| Natalia: The verbal phrase “acabar de”. |
| Carlos: Ah, cool. This is a useful one, “to have just.” Like I have just done something. |
| Natalia: Like the fight, “Hoy es mi último día, me acabo de pelear con el jefe”. |
| Carlos: “Today is my last day and I just had a fight with the boss” or another example for our students could be “Acabo de terminar mi tarea”. |
| Natalia: “I just finished my homework.” Good and unexpectedly you just provided us with the related word I was going to suggest. |
| Carlos: And that is... |
| Natalia: “Terminar”, “to finish.” You could use “acabar de” with “terminar” for a lot of examples like the one you just gave us. |
| Carlos: “Acabo de terminar mi tarea”. |
| Natalia: La próxima palabra es “jefe” o “jefa”. |
| Carlos: “Boss.” And you know, this one is one of those confusing nouns for me. I mean when I was learning Spanish, I just didn’t think if “jefa” sounded right. |
| Natalia: What’s wrong with the female boss? Why doesn’t that sound right? |
| Carlos: You know that’s not what I meant. |
| Natalia: Hmm well, I can have a little fun with the feminist inside me. I am bringing it up. Now well Carlos, Carlos. |
| Carlos: Yes. |
| Natalia: What about the sample sentence, we are done? |
| Carlos: Man you know, we are getting a lot out of this one example sentence. |
| Natalia: “Me acabo de pelear con el jefe”, “I just had a fight with my boss.” It’s a vocabulary rich sentence. |
| Carlos: I guess so. |
| Natalia: Here is another, “Mi jefe es una buena persona”. |
| Carlos: “My boss is a good person.” That always makes one’s job easier. |
| Natalia: Well, yes – well, I am not even going to go there, Carlos. Now a related word is a cognate. |
| Carlos: And what’s that? |
| Natalia: It’s another word for boss or someone that overlooks your work in English. |
| Carlos: “Supervisor.” |
| Natalia: And that you know the word in Spanish for “supervisor”? |
| Carlos: No what is it? |
| Natalia: “Supervisor”. |
| Carlos: “Supervisor.” |
| Natalia: “Supervisor”, “supervisor” and unlike “jefe” or “jefa” this doesn’t change. It’s both masculine and feminine noun. |
| Carlos: I will keep that in mind. |
| Natalia: So when you don’t know what to say, you say “supervisor” and you can always want to stay in the good side of your supervisor. |
| Carlos: And why is that? |
| Natalia: Because you don’t want “to get fired”, “echar”. |
| Carlos: Ah you know what, that’s a scarier verb. I never want to get fired although it has happened. |
| Natalia: Okay, okay you want to tell us. Tell me, tell me why did you get fired? |
| Carlos: Well, you know, I used to work at this restaurant down the street from my house and I really didn’t care. I don’t know why is that I had another job. I mean I just like he called me one day and he is like, “yeah, you are fired” and I was like, “all right man, cool peace” and I still you know, I didn’t care and I was still cool with him after that. |
| Natalia: What was the reason? |
| Carlos: I don’t know, but I didn’t ask. I just – you know, I’d still go have drinks with him after work. |
| Natalia: Okay, you are a different kind of individual, Carlos. Did I ever tell you that? |
| Carlos: Naty, you have. |
| Natalia: But well remember what was said in the conversation? |
| Carlos: What’s that? |
| Natalia: “¿Te echaron?”, “Did they throw you out?” or “Did they fire you?” |
| Carlos: Hey, either way, you are out of a job. |
| Natalia: You know what I heard in news the other day? |
| Carlos: What’s that? |
| Natalia: “La compañía va a despedir a 200 empleados”. “The company is going to fire 200 employees.” |
| Carlos: Which company? |
| Natalia: With the environment that is in the states right now, pick one. |
| Carlos: You know what that is, the unfortunate truth. |
| Natalia: Did you know Dominos Pizza is closed in Costa Rica? They are coming out, no more Dominos Pizza here. |
| Carlos: Shame, ¡qué lástima! |
| Natalia: Well, not a shame but he might… |
| Carlos: It is garbage by the way. |
| Natalia: Carlos... |
| Carlos: It is. |
| Natalia: Where did that come from? We are talking about firing and not pizza. |
| Carlos: You bought a Dominos Pizza. |
| Natalia: Well, I am telling you they fired a bunch of people because they are closing all of Dominos stores here. |
| Carlos: Man! |
| Natalia: Well, “despedir”, right? |
| Carlos: What it was that? |
| Natalia: “Despedir”, which also means “to fire.” |
| Carlos: Okay, so then it’s a synonym. |
| Natalia: Yeah, but one that you will never want to be on the other side of. |
| Carlos: No, that’s never one. |
| Natalia: Carlos, where do you get most of your news? |
| Carlos: Me, like the internet or TV. |
| Natalia: Okay, you aren’t helping me. Let me think, where do you find your apartment? |
| Carlos: On a website. |
| Natalia: On a website for what? |
| Carlos: A website for a newspaper down here in Costa Rica. |
| Natalia: So “periódico”... |
| Carlos: Yes, “periódico”. |
| Natalia: Thank you, finally. Well, that’s our last word. |
| Carlos: Ah okay, sorry. So you have to warn me next time. I don’t really get hints but before you ask, it’s a masculine noun. |
| Natalia: Right and like you find your apartment, Julián tells Luis “Tenés que comprar el periódico y empezar a buscar”. |
| Carlos: “You’ve got to buy a newspaper and start looking.” That’s a good advice. |
| Natalia: Definitely, although everyone is saying, because of the internet, “los días de los periódicos se terminaron”. |
| Carlos: If today the newspapers aren’t finished, you know what they are definitely numbered. |
| Natalia: But you know what’s still popular? |
| Carlos: What’s that? |
| Natalia: “Revistas”, “the magazines.” |
| Carlos: You know when I love reading magazines? |
| Natalia: When Cosmo has it really good. |
| Carlos: Really good what, Naty? |
| Natalia: I lost the word. I am sorry. When Cosmo has a really good article. |
| Carlos: Yes, I love Cosmo. I love reading about men or about women. Like what they say about men like “how to please your boyfriend.” It’s pretty easy to please us, it’s not hard. |
| Natalia: Okay, you should start one then. |
| Carlos: Cosmo magazine is dull but you know what, I love reading magazines. |
| Natalia: Where on an earth do you read your magazines, Carlos? |
| Carlos: At the airport. I don’t know. To learn about the airport and I actually want to like go to the newsstand and buy like cheap time. |
| Natalia: Could you have nothing else to go? |
| Carlos: Man I got a iPod, I got my computer you know blah, blah, blah. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Natalia: Okay, okay. Well, today’s grammar point it’s all mine. |
| Carlos: All yours? |
| Natalia: All mine. |
| Carlos: You are being very possessive. |
| Natalia: I am always possessive. No, I should be, we are studying possessive adjectives. |
| Carlos: Very, very, very witty, Naty. |
| Natalia: I know, it was so hard to come up with it. I know – you know, how to define the possessive adjectives for English, right? |
| Carlos: Claro que sí, Naty. Possessive adjectives are a way of indicating who owns or is in possession of something like my dinner or your coat. |
| Natalia: Okay. Now they are the same in Spanish. |
| Carlos: Are they? |
| Natalia: Yeah, the possessive adjectives in Spanish must match the nouns and modify in both number and gender. |
| Carlos: Ah how could I forget! |
| Natalia: I got no idea but you see in Spanish, possessive adjectives have two forms, a short form and a long form. |
| Carlos: And what’s the difference? |
| Natalia: The short form is used before nouns and the long form is used after. |
| Carlos: And which are we dealing with today? |
| Natalia: Well, let’s take the short form. We will deal with the long form in another lesson. |
| Carlos: Sounds good to me. |
| Natalia: Well, there is something else to remember. |
| Carlos: What’s that? |
| Natalia: Not all possessive pronouns have both singular and plural masculine and feminine forms. |
| Carlos: And so then how do we know whom the ownership refers to? |
| Natalia: We use extra words to clarify but we will also check that out later. |
| Carlos: Okay, cool. So what do we have in our plate? |
| Natalia: Well, first one, “my.” Now remember once again the possessive adjectives must match the noun. |
| Carlos: So how do you say “my”? |
| Natalia: “Mi”, singular. “Él es mi hermano”. |
| Carlos: “He is my brother.” So then if it’s plural |
| Natalia: “Mis”. “Ellos son mis hermanos”. “They are my brothers.” |
| Carlos: Well, since we are talking about family, let’s say we are related and Dylan was our sister. |
| Natalia: We would use “nuestro”, “nuestra”. “Dylan es nuestra hermana”. “Dylan is our sister.” |
| Carlos: Okay, so “nuestro”, “nuestra”, is “our” and if we are talking about let’s say Dylan and Adriana. |
| Natalia: You say “Ellas son nuestras hermanas”. “They are our sisters.” |
| Carlos: And if we were talking about brothers? |
| Natalia: Well, then we have to change the ending. |
| Carlos: So “Ellos son nuestros hermanos”. |
| Natalia: “They are our brothers.” |
| Carlos: So we have “mi”, “my”, “nuestro”, “nuestra”, “our”, and then... |
| Natalia: “Tu”, “Your.” “Ella es tu hermana”. “She is your sister.” |
| Carlos: And plural... |
| Natalia: “Tus”. Change the sentence |
| Carlos: “Ellas son tus hermanas”. “They are your sisters.” Now would I be right to assume that “tu” and “tus” is familiar and informal? |
| Natalia: Exactly, but there is another way that we should point out that we can say “your” but its rarely used in Latin America. So you may not have come across it in Costa Rica. |
| Carlos: And that is... |
| Natalia: “Vuestro”, “vuestra”. So apply that to our examples. |
| Carlos: “Ella es vuestra hermana”. “She is your sister.” |
| Natalia: And plural... |
| Carlos: “Ellas son vuestras hermanas”. “They are your sisters.” |
| Natalia: Now there is one more way to say “your” but this time it’s a possessive adjective that means so much more than that. Once you learn how to recognize this, you will be able to differentiate it. |
| Carlos: And that is... |
| Natalia: “Su” y “sus”. |
| Carlos: Okay. We’ve already established that “su” means “your.” |
| Natalia: Yes and that we use “vos” to “tu” when we want to be formal. |
| Carlos: So then what else does it mean? |
| Natalia: “Su” can also mean “his”, “her” and “its.” |
| Carlos: So “ella es su hermana”, “she is ‘his’, ‘her’, ‘your’, ‘its’ sister.” |
| Natalia: And plural... |
| Carlos: “Ellas son sus hermanas”. “They are ‘their’, ‘all’, ‘your’, ‘their’ sisters.” |
| Natalia: Good. So you got the patterns. |
| Carlos: I think so. Leave us a comment audience and let us know if you have any questions. Natalia will be happy to answer. |
| Natalia: Thank you for volunteering me for that. Sure, hey… |
| Carlos: No problem. Okay, but now that we’ve gone through all these different possessive adjectives, let’s look at some of those sample sentence that you were so famous with that have nothing to do with family. |
| Natalia: Okay, “Nuestra reunión será muy divertida”. |
| Carlos: “Our get together will be a lot of fun.” |
| Natalia: “Ese chico tiene problemas, sus notas son bajas”. |
| Carlos: “That boy has problems. His grades are low.” |
| Natalia: “Es tu idea”. |
| Carlos: “It’s your idea.” |
| Natalia: “Su consejo es inteligente. Gracias, señora”. |
| Carlos: “Your advice is intelligent. Thank you ma’am.” |
| Natalia: Before we get deep into all those sample sentences, there is something we should point out. |
| Carlos: And what’s that? |
| Natalia: Don’t confuse the second person singular adjective “tu”, “your”, with the personal pronoun “tú”, “you.” |
| Carlos: You know I had wondered about that. |
| Natalia: Notice that the accent here, this not only tell us where to emphasize the pronunciation of the word but also it tells us that the word is a possessive adjective and not a personal pronoun. That is it tells us its function. |
Outro |
| Carlos: And once again guys, accents can really change things up. Don’t think that they are insignificant. Well, you know what, that just about does it for today. |
| Natalia: ¡Nos vemos! |
| Carlos: ¡Chao! |
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