Learn about asking permission
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 |
| In today’s lesson, we’ll introduce a question related to “Can you take our/my picture?” which in Spanish is ¿Nos/Me puedes sacar una foto? |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| ¿Me puedes sacar una foto? |
| Let’s break it down by syllable: ¿Me pue-des sa-car u-na fo-to? |
| There are cases when you may want to take a picture of someone or with someone, but before doing so, you’d like to ask for permission. |
| In Spanish, “May I take your picture?” is ¿Te puedo sacar una foto? |
| ¿Te puedo sacar una foto? |
| Let’s break it down by syllable: ¿Te pue-do sa-car u-na fo-to? |
| And now, let’s hear it once again, ¿Te pue-do sa-car u-na fo-to? |
| The first word, te, means “to you.” |
| te |
| Then, puedo means “I can” or “I may.” |
| Let’s break it down by syllable: pue-do. |
| And once again, puedo. |
| So, to recap here, we have “te puedo.” |
| Literally, this means “to you, can I.” |
| Let’s take a look at the next word, sacar, which means “to take.” |
| Let’s break it down by syllable: sa-car. |
| And hear it once again, sacar. |
| Then we una, which is the feminine for “a.” |
| una |
| una |
| And finally, we have foto, which is a short form for fotografía, which means “picture.” |
| foto |
| Once again, foto. |
| So, all together, we have ¿Te pue-do sa-car u-na fo-to? |
| Literally, this means “To you, can I take a picture?” that should be translated as “May I take your picture?” |
| There may also be times when you want to take a picture with someone. At those case, you could ask by saying, ¿Me puedo sacar una foto contigo? |
| ¿Me puedo sacar una foto contigo? |
| Let’s break it down by syllable: ¿Me pue-do sa-car u-na fo-to con-ti-go? |
| And now, let’s hear it once again, ¿Me puedo sacar una foto contigo? |
| The first word, me, means “me.” |
| me |
| This is followed by puedo, which means “I can” or “I may.” |
| puedo |
| And once again, puedo. |
| Then we have sacar, which means “to take.” |
| Let’s break it down by syllable: sa-car. |
| And once again, sacar. |
| The next word, una, is the feminine for “a.” |
| una |
| una |
| Then, foto, as you know, is a short form for fotografía, which means “picture.” |
| foto |
| foto |
| Finally, we have contigo, which means “with you.” |
| Let’s hear it again, contigo. |
| Let’s break it down by syllable: con-ti-go. |
| And one more time, contigo. |
| So, all together, we have ¿Me puedo sacar una foto contigo? |
| Literally, this means “May I take a picture with you?” |
| Please, be aware that most people in Spain don’t like to have their pictures taken and not even to be asked for permission. You could try it with some people. Supposed it’s night and you’re in a club or on a beach, having fun with more than one people. This may be a good occasion or with mimes, who usually stand on streets trying to get some coins. In this case, with mimes, I’ll recommend to always ask for permission, so it’s very probable that they’ll ask for some money if they are photographed. |
| We have probably noticed that all verbs and pronouns are referred to the form tú, which, as opposed to the respectful form usted is used in informal situations. |
| Let’s compare all these words. |
| Informal form tú - ¿Me puedes sacar una foto? |
| Compare it with the respectful form usted - ¿Me puede sacar una foto? |
| Compare the informal form tú in - ¿Te puedo sacar una foto? |
| With the respectful form usted - ¿Le puedo sacar una foto? |
| And finally, compare the form tú in - ¿Me puedo sacar una foto contigo? |
| With the respectful form usted in - ¿Me puedo sacar una foto con usted? |
Outro |
|---|
| Okay, to close out today’s lesson, we'd like for you to practice what you've just learned. I'll provide you with the English equivalent of the phrase and you are responsible for saying it aloud. You’ll have a few seconds before I give you the answer, so buena suerte, that means “good luck” in Spanish. |
| Okay, here we go! |
| “Can you take my picture?” - ¿Me puedes sacar una foto? |
| ¿Me puedes sacar una foto? |
| ¿Me puedes sacar una foto? |
| “May I take your picture?” - ¿Te puedo sacar una foto? |
| ¿Te puedo sacar una foto? |
| ¿Te puedo sacar una foto? |
| “May I take a picture with you?” - ¿Me puedo sacar una foto contigo? |
| ¿Me puedo sacar una foto contigo? |
| ¿Me puedo sacar una foto contigo? |
Comments
Hide