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Tired? No way! In our latest installment of Muñeca Brava, we hear:
Ahora tengo los ojos como el dos de oro. No voy a poder pegar un ojo.
Now I'm wide awake. I won't be able to sleep a wink.
Captions 29-30, Muñeca Brava - 18 - La Apuesta
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Word for word, "el dos de oro" is "the two of gold [coins]." But we didn't subtitle our new video clip with this literal translation, because it makes little sense without an explanation. So here's our explanation: In a Spanish deck of cards ("una baraja española"), the four suits include "Oros," which are depicted with gold coins. The "2" card has two round coins, which rather resemble two wide open eyes. So the image sent us to the English expression, "wide awake."
If you're wide awake while reading this, you might note that Spanish uses a definite article before "eyes" that you wouldn't hear in English. In phrases like this one, describing a part of the body, the definite article is often used when a condition is not permanent (Mili's eyes are not always wide and round like two gold coins), but dropped when the condition is permanent.
Tienes los ojos cansados. [Not permanent.]
"You have tired eyes." (Your eyes look tired.)
Tiene ojos azules. [Permanent]
"He has blue eyes."
Here's another thing you will notice when listening to native Spanish speakers: They usually do not use possessive pronouns to describe parts of the body. In cases where in English we find a possessive pronoun (e.g. my, your, his, her), a definite article is used in the Spanish equivalent.
Abre los ojos.
"Open your eyes."
Me corté el dedo.
"I cut my finger."
Le duele la pierna.
"His leg hurts."
Looking back at the dialogue from Muñeca Brava (above), note that there's another colloquial expression that deserves a closer look: pegar [un] ojo. In your dictionaries, you might find the verb pegar translated as "to stick," "to lean against" or "to hit." But no pegar ojo is best translated as "not sleeping a wink" -- i.e., not shutting those peepers at all.
Whether speaking or singing, members of ChocQuibTown are not afraid of linguistic gymnastics. The proudly Colombian crew plays with slang, made-up words, and foreign ones (as the English "Town" in their name attests). For example, listen in on these lyrics of Somos Pacíficos.
Allá rastrillan, hablan jerguiado, te preguntan si no has janguiado
There they rub, speak slang, they ask you if you haven't hung out
Caption 16, ChocQuibTown - Somos Pacifico
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"Rastrillar" means "to rake," as in using a rake (un rastrillo) to clear the yard of fall leaves. But here the verb expresses just how close the bodies can get on the dancing floor. Rubbing, raking, bumping and grinding... you get the picture. Moving along, "jerguiado" comes from the noun "jerga," which is found in any basic dictionary as "slang" or "jargon." But ChocQuibTown playfully throws in the past participle of their made-up verb "jerguiar" ("to slang"). So, we could have translated "hablan jerguiado" as "they speak slanged." How slangy is that? Finally, "janguiado" is a classic example of fun with Spanglish. With "j" in Spanish pronounced like "h" in English, the verb "janguiar" is a "latinization" of the English expression "to hang out."
In your dictionary, "mayor" may first pop up as the comparative and superlative form of "grande" meaning "bigger; biggest; older; oldest," but it carries other meanings, too. For example, "al por mayor" means "wholesale." Listen to our featured song "Aparencias" ("Appearances"), where Héctor Montaner croons:
Si el amor me lo vendieran al mayor
If love were sold to me wholesale
pagaría lo que fuera por comprarlo
I would pay anything to buy it
Captions 5-6, Hector Montaner - Apariencias
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Note that Montaner takes a little bit of poetic license by skipping "por": In your dictionaries, "vender al por mayor" is the full, correct way to say "sell wholesale."
Elsewhere in our videos, Francisco in Salamanca describes his campus as:
La Universidad Pontificia y la Universidad de la Experiencia, donde vamos los mayores.
The Pontifical University and the University of Experience, where we the elders attend.
Captions 7-8, Francisco Pérez - La Universidad
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At his school, mayores are defined as anyone 55 or older, but mayores can also simply mean "adults." You'll have to listen for the context to discern if mayores refers to ancianos, viejos y/o abuelos -- that is to say, the elderly -- or simply someone who's an adult, or of legal age.
If in doubt about the meaning of mayores (as a description or a comparison), heed this expression:
¡Más respeto con los mayores!
Be more respectful to your elders (and betters)!
From the lyrics of Belinda's "Bella Traición" ("Beautiful Betrayal"), you might detect bitterness:
Lo siento si agoté la ilusión
I'm sorry if I ran out of hope
Caption 12, Belinda - Bella Traición
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The verb agotar means "to exhaust; to use up; to run out of." It's helpful to remember that the noun gota means "drop" as in "a drop of water," (una gota de agua). The verb agotar stems from squeezing out every drop of something.
Now, you might ask why we didn't translate ilusión as its seemingly simply English cognate "illusion." After all, we might translate ilusión óptica as "optical illusion" and falsas ilusiones as "false illusions." But the Spanish ilusión has meanings you don't find in its English sound-alike. Check out these examples:
No te hagas ilusiones.
Don't get your hopes up.
Su ilusión desde pequeña era ser actriz en Broadway.
Her dream since she was little was to be an actress on Broadway.
Cuando pierdes la ilusión...
When you lose heart...
All of these examples employ "ilusión" as a synonym closer to "esperanza; sueño" or "hope; dream" in English. That's what we thought Belinda's lyrics were aiming to convey. Listen in to the song's refrain:
Porque sin ti no hay presente ni futuro, sálvame
Because without you there's no present nor future, save me
de esta bella traición que mató mi ilusión
from this beautiful betrayal that killed my hope
Captions 9-10, Belinda - Bella Traición
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Now, before we move on we must note that ilusión has a third meaning: "excitement; thrill," as in these expressions:
Eh... con esa ilusión que a mí particularmente me hacía ver, eh...
Um... with that excitement that it particularly made me see, um...
Caption 9, Estudiantes de baile flamenco - Araceli
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¡Qué ilusión!
How exciting!
Me hace mucha ilusión.
I'm really looking forward to it; I'm thrilled.
Y la fruta es pura, natural. No manejamos ni un químico, nada.
And the fruit is pure, natural. We don't use even a single chemical, nothing.
Caption 3, Yabla en Yucatán - Naranjas Play Caption
Esta ahí, no manejamos ni un químico.
It's there, we don't use a single chemical.
Caption 8, Yabla en Yucatán - Naranjas
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Wait a second... Manejar is supposed to mean “to drive!” If you’re used to Latin American Spanish, you’re right and you’re in your right to be confused. Spaniards go for conducir whenever cars are involved. In fact their word for car is coche, when Latin-Americans use carro, auto or automóvil. (For more differences between Spanish from Spain and Spanish from Latin America, click aquí.)
En nuestra fábrica sólo manejamos productos de la más alta calidad.
In our factory we only use products of the highest quality.
Hay cosas que las maneja solamente Dios. -¿Sí?
There are things that only God handles. -Yes?
Caption 2, Muñeca Brava - 33 El partido - Part 1
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Jairo maneja muy bien el martillo.
Jairo handles the hammer really well.
La preparación, el manejo mismo, cada nacionalidad.
The preparation, the very handling, each nationality.
Caption 89, Comunidad Tsáchila - Ayahuasca y plantas curativas
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El gobernador manejó la situación con mucha discreción.
The governor handled the situation with a lot of discretion.
When the object of the verb is a person, manejar morphs to "manipulate" or even "behave," like so:
Mi novia me maneja como ella quiera.
My girlfriend manipulates me any way she wants.
My son behaved really well at the parade.
Manejar shares the same Italian roots (maneggiare) with the English verb "to manage," and can take this meaning as well, as shown in these examples:
Tu papá maneja las operaciones de crédito del banco.
Your dad manages the bank's credit operations.
Caption 1, Los Años Maravillosos - Capítulo 3
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Humberto maneja las exportaciones de algodón.
Humberto manages the cotton exportations.
All this talk about commands brought us back to Shaila Dúrcal's wistful song, Vuélvete la luna. ("Become the Moon"). Yup: here's another song title that's an order, if a somewhat abstract one. Some of you may know that Volver (the title of a 2006 Almodóvar film) means "to return." But did you know that "volverse" is one of many ways to say "to become"? For example:
Acaricia mi alma, vuélvete la luna
Caress my soul, become the moon
Caption 14, Shaila Dúrcal - Vuélvete la Luna
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¿Mi hija se volvió loca, Papá?
Did my daughter go [become] crazy, Dad?
Caption 28, Yago - 6 Mentiras - Part 14
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Se volvió loco.
He went [became] crazy.
A few other ways to say "to become" are hacerse, convertirse, and ponerse. Here are examples of how these "becoming" verbs work:
Hazte doctor.
Become a doctor.
Las redes sociales generan impactos sorprendentes, y hoy por hoy se ha convertido en la mano derecha de millones de usuarios.
Social media generate a surprising impact, and at present it has become millions of users' right hand.
Captions 11-12, Tu Voz Estéreo - Laura - Part 13
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La librería se ha convertido en un Starbucks.
The book store has become a Starbucks.
Se puso colorado.
He turned red in the face.
A veces la vida se pone difícil.
Sometimes life gets hard.
If you want to read more ways to say "become" in Spanish: Haz clic aquí (Click here).
Desempeñar is an interesting verb brought to us courtesy of our Nicaraguan friends Leonido and Doña Coco. It basically means "to do" but goes a little further than that.
¿Qué trabajo desempeña aquí?
What work do you carry out here?
-Eh... trabajo de cocinera.
-Eh... I work as a cook.
Captions 1-2, Doña Coco - La Vida De Una Cocinera
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Desempeñar implies a time progression, a job or role that is being done or carried out. "Desempeñarse como secretaria" would be "To hold a secretary position," and "Miguel desempeña un papel importante en el proyecto" is "Miguel plays an important part in the project."
Further, the word desempeñar points to obligations and responsibilities related to the role or job being accomplished. After all, desempeño is translated as "performance" and when you’re doing something con empeño (with diligence / with earnestness), it means that you’re putting great care and heart into it.
But beware! These words are used in another sense as well: Empeñar is "to pawn" which makes desempeñar the action of going to the pawnshop and getting back all your jewelry (to redeem it).
As a sidenote Yabla Spanish subscribers should go back and check out caption 4 of the song El Apostador by the band Control Machete:
Casa voy a empeñar
House I'm going to pawn
Amarro mi vida a una moneda que gira en el aire
I tie my life to a coin that spins in the air
Captions 4-5, Control Machete - El Apostador
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Meanwhile, over in new music, we're featuring Shaila Dúrcal's wistful song, Vuélvete la luna. This opening line is setting up conditions to contrast what comes later in the song:
Aunque estas lágrimas me digan lo contrario...
Although these tears may tell me otherwise...
Caption 1, Shaila Dúrcal - Vuélvete la luna
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Aunque, a combination of the words aun and que, is a common conjuction meaning "although" or "even though." (Do you remember we discussed that "aun" means "even"?) After a couple lines that begin this way, she switches to another contrast:
A pesar de todo lo que estoy pasando a diario...
Despite everything I'm going through on a daily basis...
Caption 5, Shaila Dúrcal - Vuélvete la luna
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The phrase a pesar de means "despite" or "in spite of." Does that surprise you? Perhaps you're thrown because pesar can mean "to weigh." Well, note that pesar is not only a verb but also a noun that means "regret." But we can't get too mired in the word-by-word translation here because a pesar de is an idiomatic phrase that defies a literal, word-by-word translation. Kind of like "in spite of," come to think of it.
"Habemus" toma, a pesar de nuestro tour.
"Habemus" [We have] the shot, in spite of our tour.
Caption 46, Alan x el mundo - Mi playa favorita de México! - Part 2
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A pesar de ser tan trabajador, no logró el ascenso que quería.
In spite of being such a hardworking man, he couldn't get the promotion he wanted.
Entonces sí lo pasaban. -A pesar de ya estar familiarizado con la represión.
Then they did show it. -Despite being familiarized already with the repression.
Caption 86, Arturo Vega - Entrevista - Part 1
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No fue a la reunión a pesar de que le habían dicho que era muy importante.
He didn´t attend the meeting despite being told it was very important.
A pesar de todo, todavía te quiero.
In spite of all, I still love you.
Let's take another look at the quote from our video:
Bueno es una... se puede variar con todo lo que... lo que se le antoje.
Well it's a... you can vary it with everything that... that you wish.
Captions 29-30, Desayuno Puerto Escondido - Frijoles Refritos
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In the same sentence, the second of the two verb constructions is se le antoje. Why se le...? Well, it turns out, antojarse [or, more accurately, antojársele] is a particular verb that only appears in the third person. Antojársele means "to fancy," "to strike one's fancy," "to feel like," "to want" or "to have in mind." This particular construction conveys the sense that the person with the wish isn't completely in control of the situation. Let's dig into a few examples to help clarify: From Collins Spanish Dictionary, we glean:
Se me antoja una cervecita
I could go for a nice beer
No se me antoja ir
I don't feel like going
To conjugate this particular verb, note that only the object changes; the verb itself is always in the impersonal, third person. So it's:
| Se me antoja = I feel like | Se nos antoja = we feel like |
| Se te antoja = you feel like | Se les antoja = you all feel like |
| Se le antoja = he/she/one feels like | Se les antoja = they feel like |
[Remember in past newsletters, we've looked at other verbs that take direct objects. Specifically, we've coverered "gustar" (e.g., "me gusta"; see newsletter #20), "encantar" (see newsletter #48), and "emocionar" (see newsletter #69). Here, we're looking at what happens when you slap a se in front. In fact, one can (se puede) make a lot of generalizations in Spanish using se, like this one.]
Note that there are other verbs in Spanish with the "-sele" construction that express unplanned, even out-of-control, occurrences. Some of the most common examples you might hear:
acabársele a alguien = to run out of
caérsele a alguien = to drop
ocurrírsele a alguien = to dawn on, to get the idea of
olvidársele a alguien = to forget
perdérsele a alguien = to lose
quedársele a alguien = to leave something behind
rompérse le a alguien = to break
For example, Se me perdió la llave might be translated into English as "I lost the key" but a more literal-minded, word-for-word translation is more like "The key was lost on me." It's a great way to reduce culpability, no?
As a final note: Related to the verb antojar is the oft-heard noun antojo, which means "whim." Pregnant women famously have antojos which we'd translated as "cravings" for, say, pickles and ice cream.
When native English speakers hear "tres tiempos" for the first time, they might think it means "three times." But Spanish uses a different word to describe "time," as in, "an occurrence." That word is "vez."
It just so happens that Orishas' music video featured "vez" three times ("tres veces"). Let's listen:
Una vez más yo te demuestro que no es facilito
Once again I show you that it's not as easy
Como el puré que preparaba tu vecino Lino. "Yo"
Like the mashed potatoes that your neighbor Lino used to make. "Yo"
Captions 38-39, Orishas - ¿Qué Pasá?
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OK. OK. So our translation doesn't rhyme like the rap it's aiming to explain... But you get the idea. Here's one more, without rhyme:
Una vez más tu vecino aquí me va a escuchar
One more time your neighbor will listen to me here
Caption 42, Orishas - ¿Qué Pasá?
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And then:
Pido una vez más su comprensión y aceptación
I ask once more for your comprehension and acceptance
Caption 66, Orishas - ¿Qué Pasá?
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As you might have figured out by now, "once, twice, three times..." is most faithfully translated as una vez, dos veces, tres veces... and so on. So, maybe you should read this email three times to make sure you have the "times" -- i.e., vez and tiempo straight.
It's time to learn a little bit more about tiempo -- which is one way to express time in Spanish.
So, tiempo means "time" -- as in "a system used to place one event in relation to another (such as past vs. present, yesterday vs. today)" -- it also means, less abstractly, "period" -- as in "a span of time" (which could be minutes, hours, days, weeks...). For example, soccer fans getting online updates should note that a match consists of primer tiempo, entretiempo and segundo tiempo, often abbreviated as 1T, ET and 2T, respectively. Meanwhile, in English, we might speak of first period (or, more common in soccer, first half), half time and then the second half.
OK. Now let's spend a little time with the latest videos on Yabla Spanish. In one, we hear restaurant manager José Luis Calixto Escobar of Mexico speak of tiempos in the following sentence:
La comida sale económicamente porque contiene lo que son tres tiempos.
The food is cheap because it has what are three courses.
Caption 38, Fonda Mi Lupita - Encargado
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Outside of México, it may be more common to hear talk of una comida con tres platos (literally: "a meal with three plates") to describe "a three-course meal." Una comida en [o, de] tres tiempos describes the same idea. To illustrate, José goes on to describe a soup course, then a rice or pasta and then a meat plate. Yum. This menú -- another word used to describe a meal of many parts -- even comes with water. Completamente (That's José's oft-repeated verbal tic. Think: "totally" in English.)
Incidentally, flip comida de tres tiempos around, and you have los tres tiempos de comida -- that is, breakfast, lunch and dinner, or the three meals/mealtimes of the day. Note that comida not only means "food," but that it also can describe the time spent eating food -- i.e., a meal.
Moving right along, with Natalia's proud papa, we come across this line:
Lo que más me emociona... es lo que te dije anteriormente.
What moves me the most... it's what I told you previously.
Captions 79-80, Biografía - Natalia Oreiro - Part 8
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You see, emocionarse is a reflexive verb meaning "to be moved [by]." Like the verbs gustar or encantar (which we wrote about in this space before), emocionar agrees with the object of the sentence -- i.e., whatever it is that is moving -- instead of the speaker.
To see emocionarse at work, we are featuring a touching interview with the Mexican musical group Belanova this week. Here are the examples we gleaned from their interview:
...es porque les emociona nuestro proyecto.
...it's because they are moved by our project. (Or: ...it's because our project moves them.)
Caption 28, Belanova - Entrevista - Part 3
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Que nos emociona mucho hacerlo, que es lo más importante...
That really moves us when doing it, which is the most important...
Caption 39, Belanova - Entrevista - Part 3
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...que a toda la gente que ve a Belanova se emociona.
...which moves all the people who see Belanova.
Caption 41, Belanova - Entrevista - Part 3
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In the examples above, note that emociona (the third personal singular, present form of emocionar) agrees with the project, action or sight that is considered moving. Meanwhile, the object pronouns les (for "them"), nos (for "us") and se (for "everyone" -- i.e., toda la gente) let us know who is being moved by the subject in each of the examples above.
A Ana y María les emocionan las películas de amor antiguas.
Ana and Maria are moved by old love films.
Estas historias nos emocionan mucho.
These stories really move us.
Our four new video clips deliver more than fifteen minutes of spoken Spanish -- subtitled and translated -- to your computer. To learn all you can from the rapid-fire banter, check out Yabla's "slow play" feature. (To activate, simply click SLOW on the Yabla Player). By taking the pace down a notch, you might notice some nuances that could otherwise elude you.
One subtlety we noted in the eighth installment of our chat with actress Natalia Oreiro was that she and her father use the phrase "de repente" in different ways. First, let's listen to Natalia describe seeing herself on TV in her first starring role:
Y mirando Canal Nueve... el estreno y de repente aparezco yo... tah, tah...
And watching Channel Nine... the premiere and suddenly I appear... tah, tah...
Captions 64-65, Biografía - Natalia Oreiro - Part 8
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The word "repente" on its own means "fit" or "burst." But in everyday spoken Spanish, it's often heard in the idiom "de repente" which primarily means "all of a sudden" or "suddenly." That's how Natalia uses it here, when she was surprised to see her own image on the TV screen.
But just a few lines later, we hear from Natalia's dad. He's obviously not a professional actor and he, well, hesitates on camera more than his daughter, explaining:
...pierdo la continuidad de... de... de... de repente de escucharla.
...I lose the habit of... of... of... maybe of listening to her.
Caption 77, Biografía - Natalia Oreiro - Part 8
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In the Oreiro family's native Uruguay (as well as in Venezuela), de repente can also mean "maybe," according to the Diccionario de la lengua española from the Real Academia Española. Another translation of de repente (although it doesn't fit here) is "spontaneously," i.e., without premeditation. Who would have guessed?
Cuando lo vi con esa mujer me dio un repente de furia.
When I saw him with that woman, I went into a fit of rage.
If you want to engage in small talk in Spanish, you should learn to chat about the weather "el clima" or "el tiempo". In our travel video from Mexico City (a.k.a. D.F., or Distrito Federal), some local friends share many helpful nuggets for prattling on about the temperature, rain, global warming -- three common topics of conversation pretty much anywhere in the world. For example, regarding the temperature:
Yo diría, templado... Eh... un clima ni muy caliente ni muy frío.
I'd say, mild... Uh... a climate neither too warm nor too cold.
Captions 5-6, Amigos D.F. - Clima en el DF
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And just a few captions later, on what falls from the skies:
Un poco de lluvias, este... este... chispeadas... a veces, en ocasiones granizo...
Some rain, um... drizzles... Sometimes, occasionally hail...
Captions 9-10, Amigos D.F. - Clima en el DF
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Or, if you want to discuss the melting glaciers:
Con el relajo este del calentamiento global... los... los climas se disparan un poco.
With this global warming mess... the... climates get a little out of control.
Captions 11-12, Amigos D.F. - Clima en el DF
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Later in the video clip, we're let in on a little rhyme about the weather. In English you may know "April's showers bring May's flowers." Well, in Mexico, we hear:
De hecho hay un dicho que dice: "enero loco, febrero otro poco."
In fact, there's a saying that goes, "January is crazy, February, a bit too."
Captions 28-29, Amigos D.F. - Clima en el DF
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Sniffing around for some more catchy phrases, we found this website of Refranes sobre los meses del año. (Incidentally, they cite the same phrase but pushed ahead by a month, febrero loco, marzo otro poco.)
So, how does La Secta's refrain go? (¿Cómo dice el estribillo de La Secta?) Here it is:
Llora mi corazón
My heart cries
Rogando tu perdón
Begging for your forgiveness
Captions 7-8, La Secta - Llora mi corazón
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In this lyric's translation, we noted that perdón means -- and sounds like -- "pardon" in English. But it also means "forgiveness." Because "begging your pardon" sounds too stilted and too close to the question "Beg your pardon?," we chose "forgiveness" here.
Aquí estoy, ya me ves, suplicándote perdón.
Here I am, as you can see, imploring your forgiveness.
Caption 67, Biografía - Enrique Iglesias
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(Incidently, "Beg your pardon?" -- as in, "What did you just say?" -- is usually ¿Cómo? in Spanish.)
Coming soon on Yabla Spanish, we'll provide consejos para la calle ("advice for the street") to teach you when to use perdón (pardon), permiso and disculpe (excuse me). Tune in then to learn the best way to clear a path and beg forgiveness when you knock someone down.
One final note on our chat with Arturo Vega. While he's talking about his realizations, he says:
Pero a mí... yo me di cuenta que no era nada más... cuestión de que yo estaba absorbiendo o que me gustaba...
But for me... I realized that it was not just... [a] question of me capturing or of me liking...
Captions 19-20, Arturo Vega - Entrevista - Part 2
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Here is an additional example from some mushroom hunters in Aracena, Spain:
Yo afición. Yo soy profesor de cocina, y... y no es sólo cuestión de cocinar alimentos, sino ver origen.
Me, [as a] hobby. I am a cooking teacher, and... and it's not only a question of cooking food, but to see the origin.
Captions 77-78, 75 minutos - Del campo a la mesa - Part 11
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Early in your Spanish careers, you probably learned that a question to your Spanish teacher was "una pregunta." Meanwhile, the related, sound-alike word, "una cuestión," is better defined as "a matter, issue or question to be debated or resolved." So, "a question" or "matter" -- as in "a question/matter of taste" -- is translated as una cuestión when it's referring to an issue at stake. Meanwhile, "a question" that takes a question mark (?) is "una pregunta."
Any other questions? ¿Hay más preguntas?
In the second installment of the documentary Tierra Envenenada -- "The Poisoned Land" -- we open with instructions given to children. The instructions are meant to teach them to look out for signs of danger. Do you know the internationally recognized icon of danger?
¿Qué figura es esa?
What figure is that?
Una calavera, una calavera, una calavera...
It's a skull, a skull, a skull...
Captions 8-9, Tierra Envenenada - Desminando - Part 2
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The spooky image of the skull, spoken by the young boy in the documentary is repeated above for effect. Aside from being an icon of danger, many of us also know the skull as a ubiquitous symbol of Mexico's Día de los Muertos, as well as rock & rollers everywhere.
If you want to be medically technical, you might use cráneo to say "skull" in Spanish, but that's more like saying "cranium" in English. Yes, it's the bone structure of the head, but it's not as symbolically evocative.
Slang lovers will note that calavera can also mean "daredevil" or "madcap" -- as in "un hombre calavera." However, that is far from the lesson this serious documentary about the danger of land mines seeks to impart.
The lyrics to Javier García's song Tranquila describe climbing up a mountain... and then climbing back down. Meanwhile, the video depicts passengers on a bus. But, guess what?: In Spanish, "to climb up or down a mountain" and "to get on or off a bus" use the same two verbs: subir y bajar.
Let's take a closer look at the lyrics:
Súbete a una montaña
Climb up a mountain
Quédate un ratito
Stay for a while
Y después te bajas
And then you get down
Captions 6-8, Javier García - Tranquila
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The lyrics here would still make linguistic sense if García sang about a bus ride:
Súbete a un autobús
Quédate un ratito
Y después te bajas
In Spanish, you also use subir and bajar to describe getting in and out of a car, climbing up or down stairs, taking an escalator up or down, getting on or off a train or subway or horse.... In other words, subir and bajar are an essential pair of verbs to know to get around town.
(As an aside: Whether or not you use the reflexive form of subir and/or bajar in this context is a matter of emphasis and formality. Note that it's less formal -- and less technically correct, according to the Real Academía Española -- to use the "te" pronouns in this song. Saying súbete... above is somewhat akin to saying, say, "get yourself..." in English. Call it creative license.)
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