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Lesson Transcript

Mexican Restaurant, Part 3: Smoking or Non-Smoking?
In the last lesson, we learned how to make a reservation in a restaurant. Now that you know how to get a table, you have another big issue to tackle. If you want to enjoy your meal, the smoking issue is very important. If you are a smoker in a non-smoking establishment or a non-smoker in a smoking establishment, this could ruin your meal.
In this lesson, we'll cover how to ask for a smoking or non-smoking table.
First we will imagine that you are a smoker. Before entering a restaurant, you need to ask, “Excuse me, is smoking allowed here?”:
Disculpe, ¿Está permitido fumar aquí?
Let’s break it down:
(slow) Dis-cul-pe, ¿Es-tá per-mi-ti-do fu-mar a-quí?
Once more:
Disculpe, ¿Está permitido fumar aquí?
Disculpe, as we have learned before, means “Excuse me.”
(slow) Dis-cul-pe.
Disculpe.
We follow this with Está permitido which is translated as “is permitted”.
(slow) Es-tá per-mi-ti-do.
Está permitido.
And next is fumar, which means “to smoke”.
(slow) Fu-mar.
Fumar.
The last word, aquí, means “here”.
(slow) A-quí.
Aquí.
Here’s the whole sentence:
Disculpe, ¿Está permitido fumar aquí?
The answer to this question is simple: Sí, está permitido meaning “Yes, smoking is allowed” or No, no está permitido meaning “No, smoking is not allowed”).
Let’s break those down:
(slow) Sí, está permitido.
(slow) No, no está permitido.
Now let’s imagine you smoke. When you come to Mexico you should ask: ”Do you have a table for smokers?” ¿Tiene mesa para fumadores?
Let’s break it down:
(slow) ¿Ti-e-ne me-sa pa-ra fu-ma-do-res?
Once more at natural speed:
¿Tiene mesa para fumadores?
Tiene is a form of the verb “to have”
(slow) Ti-e-ne.
Tiene.
Mesa means "table"
(slow) Me-sa.
Mesa.
Para means “for.”
(slow) Pa-ra.
Para.
And the word fumadores is translated as “smokers”.
The whole question is:
¿Tiene mesa para fumadores?
Now let’s go over the possible answers to this question. If it’s a positive answer, you might hear
Sí, tenemos.
(slow) Sí, tenemos.
And if the answer is negative No, no tenemos.
(slow) No, no tenemos.
In these expressions,
Sí means “yes”
No means “no” and
Tenemos is a conjugated form of the verb meaning “to have”.
(slow) Te-ne-mos.
Tenemos.
Let’s hear the expressions again:
Sí, tenemos.
(slow) Sí, te-ne-mos.
No, no tenemos.
(slow) No, no te-ne-mos.
When the answer is negative, you may also hear "perdón" which means “we are sorry” attached to “No tenemos”. The phrase will sound like this: Perdón, no tenemos.
Let’s break it down:
(slow) Per-dón, no te-ne-mos.
Once more at natural speed:
Perdón, no tenemos.
To close out today's lessons, we’d like you to practice what you have just learned. I’ll provide you with the English equivalent of the phrase and you’re responsible for shouting it out loud. You’ll have a few seconds before I give you the answer, so !buena suerte! which means “Good luck!” in Spanish.
“Excuse me, is smoking allowed here?”
(3 sec) Disculpe, ¿Está permitido fumar aquí?
(slow) Dis-cul-pe, ¿Es-tá per-mi-ti-do fu-mar a-quí?
Disculpe, ¿Está permitido fumar aquí?
“Yes, smoking is allowed.”
(3 sec) Sí, está permitido.
(slow) Sí, es-tá per-mi-ti-do.
Sí, está permitido.
“No, smoking is not allowed.”
(3 sec) No, no está permitido.
(slow) No, no es-tá per-mi-ti-do.
No, no está permitido.
“Do you have a table for smokers?”
(3 sec) ¿Tiene mesa para fumadores?
(slow) ¿Ti-e-ne me-sa pa-ra fu-ma-do-res?
¿Tiene mesa para fumadores?
“Yes, we have.”
(3 sec) Sí, tenemos.
(slow) Sí, te-ne-mos.
Sí, tenemos.
“No, we don’t have.”
(3 sec) No, no tenemos.
(slow) No, no te-ne-mos.
No, no tenemos.
Alright! That's going to do it for this lesson. Hasta luego.

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