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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."
Abre el baúl, mueve la candela... -Slow... Señor Maquinitero.
Open the trunk, move the candle... -Slow... Mister Mix Master.
Captions 7-8, ChocQuibTown Interview - Eso es lo que hay
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In our exclusive interview with ChocQuibTown, we meet the band, including its leader ("líder"), bass player ("bajista"), and a guy named Slow, who describes himself as Señor Maquinitero. Señor what?? After watching Slow busy at work on turntables, with equalizers and computer cords all around, it makes sense to conclude that he's calling himself something close to "Mister Mix Master," as we translated in the captions. You see, una máquina is "a machine." The diminutive maquinita is "a little machine" or "a video game." Finally, the suffix "-ero" can be added to a noun to create a new word that describes somebody who works with that noun. Here are a few examples:
Yo iba a ser jugador de Millonarios o, en su defecto, ingeniero constructor de puentes.
I was going to be a Millonarios (soccer) player or if that falls through, a bridge building engineer.
Captions 30-31, Los Años Maravillosos - Capítulo 3 - Part 6
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Aprendió todos los oficios: vaquero, mayoral, domador de potros.
He learned all the trades: cowboy, shepherd, horse-breaker.
Caption 18, Europa Abierta - Jassin Daudi - Con arte
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zapato (shoe) + -ero = zapatero (cobbler or shoe salesman)
vaca (cow) + -ero = vaquero (cowboy)
ingeniería (engineering) + -ero = ingeniero (engineer)
rap (as in rap music) + -ero = rapero (rapper, rap artist)
Knowing your suffixes helps decode words that you might not find in your dictionaries -- like maquinitero or rapero. But note that Spanish has more than one suffix for professionals or tradespeople. For example, a standard Spanish dictionary lists someone who works with machines (e.g. to fabricate parts) as un maquinista ("a machinist"). Some more:
bajo (bass) + -ista = bajista (bass player)
batería (drums) + -ista = baterista (drummer)
taxi (taxi) + -ista = taxista (taxi driver)
Eh... toco... toco tarola... Batería, baterista. -baterista de Banda Pioneros.
Um... I play... I play the snare drum... Drums, drummer. -the drummer of Banda Pioneros.
Captions 4-5, Banda Pioneros - ¡Conócelos!
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A few nouns can have either -ero or -ista added to them to form new words, like the all important fútbol (soccer). Note that the definitions are slightly different:
Futbolero = soccer supporter
Futbolista = soccer player
But don't make sweeping generalizations about -ero vs -ista from the sporty example above. For example, a professional "bookseller" is a "librero" while a "book lover" or "book worm" is "amante de los libros," "un bibliófilo" or "ratón de biblioteca." Knowing the suffixes can help you along, but some memorization is required to get the details right (as in English).
Finally, we want to clarify: You might have noticed that the suffix -ista always ends in a, regardless of the gender of the person who's being described. With words like futbolista and taxista, you must rely on the articles to get the gender across. For example:
La futbolista = the female soccer player
Un taxista = a male taxi driver
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.
Le debés quiniento' mango' a tu amiguito, quiniento' mango' a tu amig'... ¿Y querés saber otra cosa? A mí también me debés quinientos mangos...
You owe your little buddy five hundred bucks, five hundred bucks to your li'l... And you want to know something else? You owe me five hundred bucks too...
Captions 10-12, Muñeca Brava - 18 - La Apuesta
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In our latest episode of Muñeca Brava, Mili is clearly looking for revenge. So why is she mumbling about mangos and gansos? Milagros is always shouting clever and poignant argentinismos, that’s why we have to head far south to figure out what she is saying.
Milagros asks Ivo for quinientos mangos (500 mangos) and later on for quinientos pesos (500 pesos), pesos
That was easy to figure out, but then Mili says:
No te olvides de esto. Los quiero ahora. Poniendo estaba la gansa... ¡vamos!
Don't forget about this. I want them now. Pay up... come on!
Captions 28-30, Muñeca Brava - 18 - La Apuesta
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Un ganso is a male goose (also known in English as a "gander"). As we learned previously, ser ganso means "being a fool." Gansa, however, is a female goose (known in English as a "goose"), and one of the meanings of poner is "to lay" (as in "laying an egg"), so poniendo estaba la gansa literally means "laying was the goose."
However, another meaning of poner is to "to contribute" or "shell out" or "pay up." Here are some examples:
¿Van a poner para el regalo de María?
"Are you going to chip in/contribute for María´s present?"
No te preocupes, si no podés poner $50, poné menos.
"Don´t worry, if you can´t put in $50, put in less."
Mi tío se puso con $1000 para el viaje de egresados.
"My uncle shelled out $1000 for my graduation trip."
Si te casás, tu papá va a tener que ponerse.
"If you get married, your father will have to shell out/cough up [the money]."
Poniendo estaba la gansa plays on these two possible meanings of poner ("to lay" and "to pay"). Some sources report that the complete phrase is poniendo estaba la gansa, que era gorda y estaba mansa ("laying eggs was the goose, who was fat and was tame") and that it comes from an old children's game. In actuality, we can't find an Argentine who's ever played the game (and some doubt that such a game ever existed). All agree that this expression is considered rather vulgar and low-class, which is no less than what we would expect from Milagros.
No voy a pagar porque a alguien se le ocurra decir 'poniendo estaba la gansa'.
"I'm not going to pay just because someone says 'poniendo estaba la gansa'."
-Sergio Dalla Lasta
We also have a new segment from the Argentine telenovela, Verano Eterno posted for your edification. Amid the rapid banter, we heard:
Yo hoy me voy a dormir a mi casa, tranquilito, pero vos mañana salís conmigo. -Ni loca.
Today I'm going to go home to sleep, laying low, but tomorrow you go out with me. -No way.
Captions 67-69, Verano Eterno - Fiesta Grande - Part 13
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"Ni loco" or "Ni loca" (for a female speaker) is basically a short-hand way to say "Not even if I were crazy," "No way" or "Not on your life."
Here are a few more short but colorful "ni" expressions that mean essentially the same thing:
Ni en broma diga una cosa así.
Not even jokingly should you say such a thing.
Caption 91, Muñeca Brava - 41 La Fiesta - Part 6
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Ni en pedo vuelvo a esa casa ¿sabe?
Not even drunk will I go back to that house, you know?
Caption 30, Muñeca Brava - 7 El poema - Part 8
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Ni en broma
Not even as a joke / No way
Ni en pedo
Not even drunk / No way
Finally, there are some other phrases we thought of where "ni" + "que" means something like "como si" in Spanish. "Ni que" might be translated into English as "it's as if" or (with a negative slant) "it's not like." Here are three examples:
Ni que fuera el diablo en persona.
It's not like he is the devil incarnate.
Caption 35, El Ausente - Acto 3 - Part 3
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¿Por qué me gritas? ¡Ni que fuera sordo!
Why do you yell at me? It's as if (you think) I'm deaf!
Ni que fuera adivino, para saber lo que piensas.
It's not like I'm a fortune teller who knows what you're thinking about.
Michael Stuart sings about a few things he either did not or cannot do. Listen in:
No te había ni conocido
I hadn't even met you
Caption 8, Michael Stuart - Me Siento Vivo
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No me puedo ni imaginar
I can't even imagine
Caption 19, Michael Stuart - Me Siento Vivo
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In both cases, we translated ni as "even," which may confuse some students who think first of ni as "nor," "or" or "neither" first and foremost. (For example: No tengo tiempo ni dinero para viajar, or, No tengo ni tiempo ni dinero para viajar translates as "I don't have the time nor the money to travel").
But the ni we hear in Michael Stuart's song is a ni as in ni siquiera that means "not even."
In the case of Michael Stuart's lyrics, we translate ni as "even" instead of "not even" because English doesn't do no double negative the way Spanish does. (Sorry! A lame attempt to illustrate our grammatical point.) If it did, we'd translate caption 19 from our song as "I can't not even imagine."
When there is only one (single) negative, the substitution of ni for no in a sentence not only changes the meaning from "not" to something more along the lines of "not even," but it tends to make the statement a bit more emphatic as well.
To a native speaker, the second statement has an implied meaning along the lines of "It's not like I drive more carefully now, I don't even drive at all!" or "I don't even think about driving!"
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).
Pues, no tan bien que se diga, pero más o menos me defiende un poco.
Well, not so good exactly but it more or less helps me a bit.
Caption 9, Doña Coco - La Vida De Una Cocinera
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Doña Coco is not earning enough money que se diga, which literally translates to something like "it might be said." However, que se diga (commonly expressed as que digamos) is in fact a colloquial expression which has approximately the same meaning as precisamente ("precisely" or "exactly"), and is often used to mitigate negative statements, as we see here.
No me siento muy bien que se diga.
I don't exactly feel good.
El pollo no está muy rico que digamos.
The chicken isn't exactly very tasty.
Note that if we add "ni" we get the expression "ni que se diga," which is the Spanish equivalent to "Let's not even go there."
Los alumnos de cuarto grado son ruidosos. Los de quinto, ni que se diga!
The fourth grade students are noisy. As for the fifth graders, let's not even go there!
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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¡No llores! ("Don't cry!") is a useful command to know -- especially if you're the parent of a small child or a serial heartbreaker. It's also the title of a featured song by singer Gloria Estefan.
Did you know that negative, informal commands are formed differently than affirmative ones? You see, once you add a no, informal commands require the tú form of the present subjunctive to be grammatically correct. That means an -ar verb like llorar ("to cry") takes the second-person subjunctive ending -es to become no llores as a negative command.
To help you learn this grammar rule through repetition, just listen to the opening of this song:
No llores, no llores, no llores, no llores...
Don't cry, don't cry, don't cry, don't cry...
Caption 1, Gloria Estefan - No Llores
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Got that? If the singer wanted tears to fall, she might have ordered, "llora, llora, llora, llora..." ("cry, cry, cry, cry...").
Now let's look at a line of the song with a little more vocal variety:
No te preocupes, deja el llanto y escucha mi canto que dice así...
Don't worry, leave your crying and listen to my singing that goes like this...
Caption 29, Gloria Estefan - No Llores
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In this one line, we have three -ar verbs -- preocupar(se), dejar and escuchar -- in command forms. Did you notice that no te preocupes ("don't worry") takes the -es ending while the two positive commands -- deja ("stop") and escucha ("listen") -- simply end with "-a"? In the affirmative, informal commands tend to look like the third-person indicative, with some exceptions, for example:
Decir as a command is "di" -- as heard in caption 15 of this same song -- and hacer is "haz" -- as heard in caption 6. You can review informal command forms here, and/or here.
Note that the verb "dejar" can mean "to leave, to quit, to cease, to stop." So, "¡Déjame en paz!" means "Leave me alone!" (or, more literally, "Leave me in peace!"). "Dejar de" + an infinitive means "to stop [doing something]." Here's part of the song that illustrates:
No llores... -Deja de llorar, deja de llorar, deja de llorar
Don't cry... -Stop crying, stop crying, stop crying
Caption 10, Gloria Estefan - No Llores
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And again:
Deja de sufrir y suelta los temores
Stop suffering and let go of the fears
Caption 12, Gloria Estefan - No Llores
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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.
In Mexico City, our Amigos D.F. return to tell us something about arquitectura (architecture) in el D.F. (in Mexico City, that is). Indicating a nearby building, we hear:
O sea, abajo es una zona comercial, todo lo que vendría a ser la planta baja... y arriba, allá, son este... departamentos residenciales.
I mean, below it's a commercial area, everything that would be the ground level... and above, there, are umm... residential apartments.
Captions 29-31, Amigos D.F. - Arquitectura
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Despite the rambling nature of this unscripted dialogue, it's easy enough to understand that there are commercial businesses on the ground floor of this building and residential apartments above. If the building has an elevator, pressing the p.b. (planta baja) button will take you to street level.
Push "1" in the same elevator and you'll end up on what's referred to as the "second floor" in New York or Miami. You see, in Spain and in Latin America, "el primer piso" is "the first floor *above* the ground level."
¿Dónde está ubicado el restaurante? -En el primer piso.
Where is the restaurant located? -On the first floor.
Captions 71-72, Cleer y Lida - Recepción de hotel
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So, let's take this language lesson up a step. Say you want to visit your Mexican friend in his apartment up on "2." That's el segundo piso ("the second floor"). You see, you rarely hear la segunda planta or la primera planta outside of architectural drawings. In everyday speech, you'll usually hear pisos instead of plantas describe floors 1 through, well, the sky's the limit.
¿Ves ese edificio que esta ahí al frente? En el segundo piso, de ahí subís y ahí es tu salón.
Do you see that building that's over there in front? On the second floor, you go up there and there's your classroom.
Captions 48-49, La Sucursal del Cielo - Capítulo 1
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A final note on arquitectura: Departamento is the word of choice for Latin American apartments. Meanwhile, over in Spain, you'll typically hear apartamento.
Dieciocho motivos pa' dejarte
Catorce consejos pa' olvidar
Quinientas razones para odiarte
Saco la cuenta, y a sumar...
Captions 1-4, Ricardo Arjona - Quien
Dejar(te), olvidar, odiar(te), sumar...
Songs sung in Spanish seem to contain a lot of verbs in the infinitive. Maybe that's because infinitives are so easy to rhyme -- since all end in either -ar, -er or -ir. But we digress. Among the new content on Yabla Spanish, there's a song by Guatemalan Ricardo Arjona. In it, we heard so many infinitives that we pored over the grammar rules to make sure we struck the right note in our translations. Below we'll highlight some of what we found along the way.
First, let's look at the translation of the first four lines of Arjona's song:
Dieciocho motivos pa' dejarte
Catorce consejos pa' olvidar
Quinientas razones para odiarte
Saco la cuenta, y a sumar...
Eighteen reasons to leave you
Fourteen tips to forget
Five hundred reasons to hate you
I do the math and I add...
Captions 1-4, Ricardo Arjona - Quien
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What do all the infinitives in bold have in common? OK, they are all -ar verbs. But what else? They are all preceded by a preposition -- specifically, para ("for, in order to") in the first three lines, and then "a" ("to"), above. As a rule, only the infinitive may follow prepositions in Spanish.
We've discussed the use of prepositions para and por (both meaning "for") before infinitives in a past newsletter, if you'd like to review. (Loyal readers: Remember Chayenne's song "Por amor, por amar"?). With that concept already covered, let's move to the fourth line of our excerpt above.
"Saco la cuenta, y a sumar...?" What does a + infinitive mean? A ver ("Let's see") is the most famous example. You hear it all the time -- sometimes just to buy time in spoken Spanish. You also might hear ¡A bailar! ("Let's dance!") to get people going on the dance floor, or ¡A volar! ("Let's fly!") at a graduation ceremony. It's one of the many ways to express a command in Spanish.
The a + infinitive construction in our new song by Arjona gave us a little pause, because translating a sumar as "let's add" sounded a little funny in English... But if you realize the singer is, in a sense, urging himself to crunch the numbers, the meaning falls into place.
Later in the song, we hear this line, twice:
Saco la cuenta y a restar...
I do the math and I subtract...
Caption 28, Ricardo Arjona - Quien
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As you've probably noted, for the English captions in these lines, we ended up choosing to keep the subject -- "I" -- throughout the sentence. But students who understand that a sumar and a restar are commands issued by the singer to urge himself on will have a better understanding of what the lyrics intend to communicate.
Can you find some more lyrics by Ricardo Arjona that use the preposition + infinitive construction? Here are a couple lines we were humming:
Dejaste minas en la casa
con objetivos de matar
You left mines in the house
with the objective of killing
Captions 33-34, Ricardo Arjona - Quien
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[Want a refresher on the other uses of the infinitives?
ThoughtCo has some nice explanations of infinitives in Spanish here]
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.
From a kitchen in Puerto Escondido (Oaxaca, México), we learn in Spanish about making refried beans -- two useful lessons wrapped up in one video. Note that we're not just talking about refried beans and rice: These onion-y beans can be served with bread, tortillas, cheese, scrambled eggs, sausage, nothing, everything... the sky's the limit. In sum, we hear, as a general rule:
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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Those of you following the subtitles word for word may wonder why we chose to translate se puede as "you can." Here, "you" is really an impersonal, general subject; it could also be translated as "one can." You see, in Spanish, the construction se + a verb in the third person (singular or plural) is commonly used to deemphasize the subject. Here are a few examples:
Se habla español aquí
"Spanish is spoken here"
Se come bien en esta cuidad
" People eat well in this city"
¿Cómo se dice "Formula One" en español?
"How do you say "Formula One" in Spanish?"
As you can see in the above examples, the "se + verb" construction can be translated into English in a few ways: (1) With a passive construction; (2) using "people" or "one" as the unspecified subject; or (3) using "you" as the subject, but in an impersonal, generalized sense. The third choice -- "you" -- seemed like the most appropriate translation for our refried bean recipe.
Native English speakers, if they directly mirror the English passive voice, can come up with unnatural Spanish phrases. Instead they need to accustom themselves to the Pasiva con "se."
"Cars are repaired in two days."
Los autos son reparados en dos días. [Not natural in Spanish]
Se reparan autos en dos días. [Natural in Spanish]
"This bill is being discussed in the Congress."
Este proyecto de ley está siendo tratado en el Congreso. [Not natural]
Este proyecto de ley se está tratando en el congreso. [Natural]
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