Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Dylan: Hola, hola a todos, habla Dylan, ¿cómo están?
Carlos: What’s going on, pod101world? My name is Carlos. “Putting the squeeze on your Spanish.” In this lesson, you’ll learn about contractions.
Dylan: This conversation takes place in a home.
Carlos: The conversation is between Daniel and Andrés.
Dylan: The speakers are friends and are speaking informally.
Carlos: Let’s listen to the conversation.
DIALOGUE
DANIEL: Andrés, por primera vez en mi vida, me asusté, y no pude hablar con ella.
ANDRÉS: ¡¡¡Daniel!!!!, ¿¿¿¿estás enfermo????, me estás diciendo que..., ¿tienes miedo de hablar con una mujer?
DANIEL: Mmm, la verdad,¡¡¡ sí!!!! Aunque me da pena aceptarlo.
ANDRÉS: Que al hombre más mujeriego del mundo, ¡le da miedo hablar con una mujer!, ¡no puede ser real!
DANIEL: ¡Ves como esta vez es diferente!
Daniel: Andrés, for the first time in my life I got scared and couldn't talk to her.
Andrés: Daniel! Are you sick? You're telling me that...you're scared to speak to a woman?
Daniel: Mmm, the truth, yes! Although I'm embarrassed to accept it.
Andrés: That the world's biggest womanizer is afraid to speak to a woman! It can't be real!
Daniel: See how this time it's different!
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Carlos: Man Dylan, looks like Daniel had the reputation of a womanizer but was shook by a woman.
Dylan: Wow! It’s like a movie.
Carlos: Happens at times. You know romantic comedy. We like to think that, but I think that personally it may not happen in such a way.
Dylan: You know, guys act like they are so brave but when it comes down to it, they are just timid scared little puppies.
Carlos: I remember the first time I spoke on the phone with a girl when I was like ten, I was so nervous.
Dylan: Oh Carlos...
Carlos: I was like what’s wrong with me? But that’s neither here nor there guys. Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson.
VOCAB LIST
Dylan: “Primera vez”.
Carlos: “First time.”
Dylan: “Pri-me-ra vez”, “primera vez”.
Dylan: “Asustar”.
Carlos: “To frighten”, “to scare.”
Dylan: “A-sus-tar”, “asustar”.
Dylan: “Enfermo”.
Carlos: “Sick.”
Dylan: “En-fer-mo”, “enfermo”.
Dylan: “Miedo”.
Carlos: “Fear.”
Dylan: “Mie-do”, “miedo”.
Dylan: “Aunque”.
Carlos: “Although”, “even though.”
Dylan: “Aun-que”, “aunque”.
Dylan: “Mujeriego”.
Carlos: “Womanizer.”
Dylan: “Mu-je-rie-go”, “mujeriego”.
VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE
Carlos: Okay guys, let’s have a closer look at the usage of some the words and phrases for this lesson.
Dylan: The first word we’ll look at is “primera vez”.
Carlos: Dylan, there is a first time for everything.
Dylan: Isn’t that the truth.
Carlos: You know I think there is a first time we’ve ever doubled the expressions that describe the number of time.
Dylan: Well like we said, this adjective noun combination is one that should definitely be gone over.
Carlos: Yes and it seems that Daniel is going through something when he says “Andrés, por primera vez en mi vida, me asusté, y no pude hablar con ella”.
Dylan: “Andrés for the first time in my life, I got scared and couldn’t talk to her.” Huh! That’s big talk from someone.
Carlos: As I said, I’ve been scared so many times to talk to women. It happens to the best of us.
Dylan: Some more often than not.
Carlos: Aparentemente...
Dylan: Aparentemente...
Carlos: Aparentemente, por Daniel es su primera vez entonces.
Dylan: So then he was intimidated. That usually means that he likes the girl.
Carlos: True but if he wasn’t scared, that would be another indication all together.
Dylan: I remember when I was scared like before.
Carlos: Really?
Dylan: “Aún recuerdo la primera vez que lo besé”.
Carlos: The first time you kissed him, huh?
Dylan: Yes, it was special.
Carlos: Should be. You are together after almost fourteen years.
Dylan: Remember what I do not remember?
Carlos: What’s that?
Dylan: “La segunda vez, tercera vez, cuarta vez…”
Carlos: “The second time, third time or fourth time”? I’m pretty sure those were all done on the same day.
Dylan: Huh! Probably.
Carlos: Well, let’s move on to our next word.
Dylan: A very stressful verb.
Carlos: And what’s that?
Dylan: “Asustarse”.
Carlos: “To be scared.”
Dylan: Now we already heard the example but let’s try it once again. Just for good measure.
Carlos: Sure. “Andrés, por primera vez en mi vida, me asusté, y no pude hablar con ella”.
Dylan: “Andrés, for the first time in my life I got scared and couldn’t talk to her.”
Carlos: You know, this would be a great opportunity to discuss reflective verbs.
Dylan: It would be but now is really not the time.
Carlos: No, you are right. That would be the grammar section.

Lesson focus

Dylan: Can you think of the last time you used the verb “asustarse” in everyday conversation?
Carlos: Actually, I didn’t use it. I went to go make copies of my keys and my cleaning lady was in the house and she was ringing the bell when I came home and she jumped a little and said “Ay Carlos, ¡me asustó!”
Dylan: “Carlos, you scared me!”
Carlos: See examples like these are how I learn direct and indirect object pronouns.
Dylan: Once again man, let’s not get off the topic.
Carlos: Right, how about we look at the adjectives that are related to the verb “asustarse”.
Dylan: Bueno.
Carlos: “Asustado, asustada”.
Dylan: Scared a friend, anyway you describe it, it’s not a state of being that anyone likes to be on.
Carlos: I don’t know, Dylan. Thinking about when I go on roller coasters and such, I like to be scared sometimes.
Dylan: But you go skydiving too?
Carlos: I been twice.
Dylan: You are sick, Carlos.
Carlos: I take that you don’t mean sick in the positive sense.
Dylan: No, I don’t, but I was just looking for a good lead into our next word.
Carlos: Okay, good. I thought you were insulting me.
Dylan: We have the adjective “enfermo, enferma”.
Carlos: “Sick.”
Dylan: And since Daniel is an apparent ladies man we have Andrés exclaiming, I can’t imagine quite expressively “¿¿¿¿estás enfermo????”
Carlos: “Are you sick?” So we are talking about sick in the figurative sense.
Dylan: Yes, but you know that this is also the verb that we use to describe actual sickness.
Carlos: I know.
Dylan: This is also a good way to the difference between “ser” and “estar”.
Carlos: Wait, hold up, Dylan. You just lectured me about saving good stuff for grammar.
Dylan: Shhh. This won’t take but a second. “Mi abuelita está muy enferma”.
Carlos: “My granny is very sick.”
Dylan: And why did I say “está” and not “es”?
Carlos: Well, that would be because being sick is a temporary condition and thus we use “estar”.
Dylan: Good. One more explanation. Moving on.
Carlos: Okay, we have the noun “la enfermedad”, which is...
Dylan: “A sickness”, and a perfect related word because Daniel is sick with “fear.”
Carlos: Or “miedo”.
Dylan: Which happens to be our next word.
Carlos: “Miedo”, a noun that means...
Dylan: “Fear.”
Carlos: “Tiene miedo de hablar con una mujer”.
Dylan: “You are scared to speak to a woman.”
Carlos: Now that isn’t the literal translation.
Dylan: No, it’s not.
Carlos: And when what we have here is another example of the verb “tener” being used to describe a state of being,
Dylan: Here we have “tener miedo”, “to have fear.”
Carlos: But we translate it as, “you are scared.”
Dylan: Another good example of this is “tener hambre”.
Carlos: “To have hunger.”
Dylan: Which we translate as...
Carlos: “Hungry.”
Dylan: Once again on the very slippery slope of translation.
Carlos: But this rule applies to many states of being.
Dylan: So when you try to figure it out audience, think of “tener miedo”.
Carlos: Or “tener hambre”.
Dylan: Like I could say, “Mi hermano menor tiene miedo a las arañas”.
Carlos: “My little brother is scared of spiders.” You know we make the loose translation because really that is the way it sounds in English.
Dylan: Have you ever heard the adjective “miedoso, miedosa”?
Carlos: No, actually I haven’t.
Dylan: “Fearful.”
Carlos: Okay, good. Learn something new every day.
Dylan: Now here is a word I know you have trouble with.
Carlos: And what’s that? I have a big list of them.
Dylan: “Aunque”.
Carlos: “Aunque”. Do you know that is a conjunction, I know that but they can be confusing.
Dylan: “Aunque”. “Even though”, “although.”
Carlos: Oh, right. “Aunque” is one of the words that kept popping up in my everyday conversations and I couldn’t figure out what it meant.
Dylan: That’s what we are here for. Let’s look at the usage. Daniel is trying to explain himself when he says, “Aunque me da pena aceptarlo”.
Carlos: “Although I’m embarrassed to accept it.”
Dylan: Come on. Try to think of an example yourself.
Carlos: “Aunque no me gusta salir entre semana, a veces salgo los miércoles”.
Dylan: “Although I don’t like to go out during the week, sometimes I go out on Wednesdays.” It’s a good one, a lie, but a good one.
Carlos: Thanks, I know I’m lying through my teeth.
Dylan: Can you think of any related words?
Carlos: Actually I can. Another conjunction that I kept hearing and wasn’t sure what it meant but once I put my mind to learning it all came together nicely.
Dylan: And what’s that?
Carlos: “Sin embargo”, “regardless.” And since I like saying regardless in English, that has become part of my everyday speech.
Dylan: That’s how it works. Bueno, last but not least we have a word that I think we’ve gone over maybe once before.
Carlos: Which?
Dylan: The adjective “mujeriego”.
Carlos: You know I’ve heard that charm before although I think it was on another level. “Mujeriego”, “womanizer.”
Dylan: If Daniel is scared of talking to a girl, he is no womanizer. This is no romantic comedy.
Carlos: That’s true.
Dylan: Which is why Andres says...
Carlos: “Que al hombre más mujeriego del mundo”.
Dylan: “The world’s biggest womanizer”, apparently not. My man has lost that title.
Carlos: Hey Dylan, no todos hombres son mujeriegos.
Dylan: No, not all the men are womanizers, todos son perros.
Carlos: Walked right into that one. You know a related word is the object of all of our affection. The base that we would recognize “mujer”.
Dylan: “La mujer”, “the woman.”
Carlos: Okay, before we get into a deep discussion.
Dylan: Let’s talk about contractions.
Carlos: Let’s.
Dylan: What are contractions?
Carlos: Well, contractions are how we made certain words smaller.
Dylan: Right, like in English we say “can’t” instead of “cannot.”
Carlos: Or “don’t” instead of “do not.”
Dylan: Most of the time this becomes the more common way of speaking.
Carlos: You know that is true.
Dylan: But in Spanish, there are only two cases in which we do this.
Carlos: Only two? Hey, that sounds simple enough.
Dylan: It’s a little trickier than it appears at first.
Carlos: Okay, let’s go to it then.
Dylan: Only the prepositions “a” and “de” can be turned into contractions when combined with the masculine singular definite article “el”.
Carlos: How do we do that?
Dylan: We take the position and fuse it with the masculine singular definite article to form the contractions “al” and “del”.
Carlos: Okay, let’s take a look at these one by one then. Well, we have to since really they are only two.
Dylan: In Spanish we combine the preposition “a” with a definite article “el” to say where the movement is directed.
Carlos: Right, so instead of incorrectly saying “voy a el mercado” we use the contraction to say...
Dylan: “Voy al mercado”. “I’m going to the market.” Doesn’t that just sound better?
Carlos: No, you are right. It does. It’s easier to say also.
Dylan: Well, then likewise when the preposition “de” is followed by “el”, the singular masculine definite article, we must use a contraction. “El mantenimiento de el edificio” becomes...
Carlos: I got this, “el mantenimiento del edificio”, “the maintenance of the building”, it comes out easier too.
Dylan: Let’s look at formation.
Carlos: Okay. So the formation of “a” plus “el” equals...
Dylan: “Al”. “Voy a la escuela”.
Carlos: “I go to school.”
Dylan: Versus “Vamos al partido”.
Carlos: “We go to the game.” See the difference in the gender of the noun you are describing? That is the key, “de” plus “el” equals “del”.
Dylan: “Ellos son de los Estados Unidos”.
Carlos: “They are from the United States.”
Dylan: Versus “el pescado es del mar”.
Carlos: “The fish is from the sea.” Let’s look at some example sentences.
Dylan: “Caminamos al norte de la ciudad”.
Carlos: “We walk to the north of the city.”
Dylan: “Al menos no perdimos el partido”.
Carlos: “At the very least, we didn’t lose the game.”
Dylan: “¿Vas al trabajo?”
Carlos: “You are going to work?” “You are going to work?”
Dylan: “Manejo al campo”.
Carlos: “I drive to the country.”
Dylan: “Le doy una bandera al presidente”.
Carlos: “I give a flag to the president.”
Dylan: “Necesito ir al baño”.
Carlos: “I need to go to the bathroom.”
Dylan: “He venido del centro”.
Carlos: “I’ve come from downtown.”
Dylan: “Es la casa del viejo”.
Carlos: “It’s the old man’s house.”
Dylan: “Mis primos son del mismo barrio”.
Carlos: “My cousins are from the same neighborhood.”
Dylan: Note that these contractions are made only with the definite article “el” for singular masculine nouns.
Carlos: So what about when we are talking about feminine or plural nouns?
Dylan: When we are talking about feminine nouns or plural nouns the definite article “la”, “los”, or “las” are used, in this case there is no contraction.

Outro

Carlos: Note taken. Okay guys, that just about does it for today.
Dylan: Nos vemos, ¡chao!
Carlos: ¡Nos vemos!

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