Grupo Básico Español – lección veintiseis
Grupo
Básico Español – lección veintiseis
Buenos días a todos.
Bienvenidos a la lección veintiséis de la clase de español.
Don’t forget! This is the last class for April, we are back on May
7 and have 10 classes before the summer break.
From September, I may run a Basic Spanish class and a Basic Plus
class, it depends upon numbers. Next term, I’ll make a list of those interested
and whether you can do mornings or afternoons. We’ll see whether we have enough
people going forward.
PhD student Poppy Young and her work. Forms and visit in May to do
some interviews.
OK, now we start Chapter
10, which is all about travel, buying tickets and checking times – really
useful stuff if you’re travelling around Spain or the Spanish-speaking world.
Before we catch the bus,
however, I want to teach you a Spanish phrase that can mean lots of different
things and I guarantee you will never forget it!
Español en cinco minutos
La frase es: eso sí que es
Why won’t you
forget it? Just think of what you put on your feet …
no zapatos … S-O-C-K-S
So, eso sí que es
can mean many things and it’s one of those phrases that you can’t translate
directly
1. It can
be used for emphasis:
¡Ella
corrió los cien metros en menos de diez segundos! - vaya, eso sí que es asombroso. She
ran the 100 meters in less than 10 seconds! - Wow, that really is amazing.
Luis
insultó a sus compañeros de clase - eso sí que es feo.
Luis
insulted his classmates - that's really bad.
Julio
puede que no sea muy simpático, pero siempre nos apoyó. - Eso sí que es cierto. Julio may not be very
nice, but he always supported us. - That's certainly true.
2. It can
be used to express amazement
¡Eso sí que es un pastel! That's what I call a cake!
¡Caramba,
eso sí que es un coche! Jeez, that's some car!
So remember, when you
want to emphasise something or express amazement, think of your SOCKS.
Let’s start with a quick
quiz. Do you know the Spanish word for the following?
There are a lot of cognates
…
2. The
car
3. The
plane
4. The
bus
5. The
taxi
6. The
metro
7. The
ferry
8. The
train station
9. The
airport
10. The
bus station
1.
The train – el tren
2.
The car – el coche
(el carro in LA)
3.
The plane – el avión
4.
The bus – el autobus (el bus in LA)
5.
The taxi – el taxi
6.
The metro – el metro
7.
The ferry – el ferry
8.
The train station –
la estación de tren
9.
The airport - el aeropuerto
10. The bus station - la estación de autobuses
Let’s look at some useful
verbs to use when travelling:
Querer – to want
Yo quiero
Tú quieres
Él, ella, usted quiere
Nos queremos
Vos queréis
Ellos, ellas, ustedes quieren
Other useful travelling
verbs:
Ir – to go
Poder – to be
able
Venir – to come
Coger – to
catch (it also means to grab or seize)
Volar – to fly
Llegar – to
arrive, to get to
Tomar – to
take
Viajar – to
journey
Those in red are irregular
verbs or have a stem change when conjugated, so we have to learn the irregularities,
those in green are regular -ar verbs.
Ir (to go)
Yo voy
Tú vas
Él, ella, usted va
Nos vamos
Vos vais
Ellos, ellas, ustedes van
Because the conjugations
are so different, it’s easy to forget the infinitive is ir, and it’s used a lot in that form:
Can I go to Madrid by
train from here? - ¿Puedo ir a Madrid en tren desde
aquí?
It’s also used (as in
English) to create the future tense:
We are going to go to Madrid
tomorrow – Vamos a ir a Madrid mañana.
We will eat here tonight
– Vamos a comer aquí esta noche.
I will do it later - Voy a hacerlo más tarde
Poder (to be able to)
Yo puedo
Tú puedes
Él, ella, usted puede
Nos podemos
Vos podéis
Ellos, ellas, ustedes pueden
Can we fly to Quito from
London? ¿Podemos volar a Quito desde
Londres?
Can I get to Gijon by
bus? ¿Puedo llegar a Gijón en
autobús?
Can you help me please? ¿Puede ayudarme por favor?
Tomar (to take) – also used
a lot in the infinitive
Yo tomo
Tú tomas
Él, ella, usted toma
Nos tomamos
Vos tomáis
Ellos, ellas, ustedes toman
… and also used a lot in
the imperative.
You (informal) take is: toma and the negative is no
tomes
You (formal) take is: tome and the negative is no
tome
Can we take this bus to
get to Malaga? ¿Podemos
tomar este autobús para llegar a Málaga?
Which train should we
take for Madrid? ¿Qué tren
tomamos para Madrid?
Do not take the blue
train, that arrives much later. No tome el
tren azul, que llega mucho más tarde.
There are three buses to Malaga,
take the one that stops at Fuengirola. Hay tres autobuses a Málaga, tome el que se detiene en Fuengirola.
Coger (to catch)
Yo cojo
Tú coges
Él, ella, usted coge
Nos cogemos
Vos cogéis
Ellos, ellas, ustedes cogen
Estoy cogiendo el tren de las seis en punto. I am catching the train at six on the
dot.
¿Dónde cogeremos el tren de Bilbao? Where will
we catch the train for Bilbao?
¿Qué autobús cojo para Málaga? Which
bus do I catch for Malaga? Tomo also works well
in this situation.
Venir (to come)
Yo vengo
Tú vienes
Él, ella, usted viene
Nos venimos
Vos venís
Ellos, ellas, ustedes vienen
What time will you come? ¿A qué hora vas a venir?
I am going to come next
week. Voy a venir la próxima semana.
Would you like to come
with me? ¿Te gustaría venir conmigo?
Viajar (to journey, to travel)
Yo viajo
Tú viajas
Él, ella, usted viaja
Nos viajamos
Vos viajáis
Ellos, ellas, ustedes viajan
A journey is: un viaje
The gerund is: viajando
Did you have a good
journey? ¿Tuviste un buen viaje? (informal preterite)
Did you have a good
journey? ¿Ha tenido un buen viaje? (perfect
tense)
We have a long journey
tomorrow. Tenemos un viaje largo mañana.
I am travelling to Quito
via Mexico. Viajo a Quito via Mexico
Volar (to fly)
Yo vuelo
Tú vuelas
Él, ella, usted vuela
Nos volamos
Vos voláis
Ellos, ellas, ustedes vuelan
The gerund form is volando,
so: Estoy volando mañana (present continuous
tense)
The noun (a flight) is vuelo, so: Nuestro vuelo sale a las once de la mañana.
We fly from Gatwick this
time. Volamos desde Gatwick esta vez.
Llegar (to arrive)
Yo llego
Tú llegas
Él, ella, usted llega
Nos llegamos
Vos llegáis
Ellos, ellas, ustedes llegan
I arrive at Madrid at
9am. Llego a Madrid a las nueve de
la mañana.
We will arrive at 3pm. Vamos a llegar a las tres de la tarde.
We will arrive at 3pm. Llegaremos a las tres de la tarde.
What time do you arrive
tomorrow? ¿A qué hora llegas mañana? (informal)
The bus I
take to work is always full. El autobus que tomo para llegar al trabajo siempre está
lleno.
The only way
to get to the island is by boat. La única manera de llegar a la isla
es por bote.
Conducir and Manejar (to
drive)
Yo conduzco
Tú conduces
Él, ella, usted conduce
Nos conducimos
Vos conducís
Ellos, ellas, ustedes conducen
Gerund (or present participle): conduciendo
- Disfruté conduciendo aquí.
I drive to work: Conduzco al trabajo
I am going to drive to
Spain this summer: Voy a conducir a españa este verano
We drive a Ford Galaxy
because it has seven seats. Conducimos
un Ford Galaxy porque tiene siete asientos.
Yo manejo
Tú manejas
Él, ella, usted maneja
Nos manejamos
Vos manejáis
Ellos, ellas, ustedes manejan
Gerund (or present
participle): manejando
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Erika Ender |
We’re going to improve our Spanish in a fun way
by watching videos and studying lyrics of well-known Spanish songs. This week’s
example is a little risqué. In fact, I think anyone who suffers from high blood
pressure or a dodgy heart should leave for 10 minutes. We’re going to listen to
Despacito by Luis Fonsi.
Despacito,
of course, means “slowly” in English. The song is performed by Puerto Rican singer Luis Fonsi with Puerto Rican rapper Daddy Yankee. They co-wrote the song with Erika Ender, a Colombian
singer/songwriter.
Commercially,
the song topped the charts of 47 countries and reached the top 10 of ten others.
It became the first song in Spanish to top the Billboard Hot 100 since "Macarena" in 1996, and the longest-reigning number one with 16 weeks. The song is also the longest-reigning number one on the Billboard
Hot Latin Songs chart with
52 weeks.
The song was popular, but the video went absolutely ballistic.
In
August 2017, the official music video for "Despacito" became
the most
viewed YouTube video of
all time after receiving its three billionth view. It became the first video on
the site to reach the milestones of three, four, five and six billion views. It
currently has 6.02 billion – two billion more than its nearest rival (Ed
Sheeran’s The Shape of You).
In Spanish, a billion is mil millones.
![]() |
Zuleyka Rivera |
We’re
going to watch the video now. It shows both artists performing the song
in La
Perla barrio of Old San Juan, Puerto Rico and the local bar La Factoría. It
also features Zuleyka Rivera, a Puerto
Rican actress, TV
host, dancer, model and beauty queen who won Miss
Universe 2006. She made
her debut as a telenovela actress in Mexico's Telemundo soap opera Dame Chocolate in 2007.
Maybe
we’ll do it twice, once so you can enjoy the video and once reading the lyrics.
VIDEO: https://youtu.be/kJQP7kiw5Fk
In
2017, Puerto Rico was hit by the devastating Hurricane Maria, with winds of up
to 175mph. Sixty-four people were killed. La Perla was one of the areas hardest
hit. The barrio made famous by Despacito was devastated.
The
US and the Trump administration were widely criticised for the lack of urgency
in delivering help to the island and for insisting that aid money had to be
paid back, something that Texas and Florida were not required to do.
Trump,
of course, famously could not pronounce Puerto Rico.
The
Spanish lyrics have introduced us to a couple of new verbs:
Gritar
(a regular -ar verb) meaning to shout, scream, shriek or cry out. A gritos
means at the top of your voice.
Pegar
(a regular -ar verb with a slight spelling change in the preterit and
subjunctive forms) means to beat, slap or hit; also to stick, glue or paste.
Pegando is the gerund and nos vamos pegando is
the present continuous tense (we are sticking together).
OK,
back to Chapter 10 of Sueños. Aquí hay tres personas que hablan
sobre el tipo de transporte que normalmente usan.
Persona
uno:
Maria: ¿Siempre va usted en
autobús?
Lucía: Siempre en autobús,
sí exactamente.
Maria: ¿Y le gusta viajar
en autobús?
Lucía:
Me encanta.
What
mode of transport does Lucía always use? Does she like it? Write a sentence
answering those questions.
Lucía siempre va en
autobús.
A Lucía le encanta el
autobús.
Persona
dos:
Carlos: Uso el metro por
las mañanas para ir a trabajar.
Luis: ¿Usas el tren?
Carlos: Uso el tren ocasionalmente.
Algunos fines de semana viajo para visitar a mi familia fuera de Madrid y algún
otro viaje de placer, normalmente, fines de semana.
How
does Carlos travel to work? When does he use the train? Write a sentence
answering those questions.
Carlos usa el metro para
viajar a trabajar.
Él viaja en tren algunos
fines de semana para visitar a su familia fuera de Madrid.
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