Learn about talking about possession
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Lizzie: Buenos días, me llamo Lizzie Stolear. |
| Allan: How’s it going? I am Allan La Rue. Whose shirt is this? |
| Lizzie: Hola allan. ¿Cómo has estado? |
| Allan: Muy bien, muy bien Lizzie. Emocionado por que estoy viajando este fin de semana a Trujillo. |
| Lizzie: Oh que lindo. |
| Allan: That means “I am going to Trujillo”, which is a city in the northern part of Peru, this week, with my family. They’ve got great beaches, great food, it’s going to be a lot of fun. |
| Lizzie: Lindo, lindo. Además los caballos de paso. Qué bueno es estar aquí para otra lección. |
| Allan: Yes, it is great to be back for another lesson of SpanishPod101.com. Now, Lizzie, do you recall what we’d looked at last time? |
| Lizzie: los adjetivos posesivos |
| Allan: Exactly, possessive adjectives. So that was like saying, “It’s my car” or “That’s your house”. |
| Lizzie: Es mi auto, esa es tu casa |
| Allan: Today, we’re going to build on this and look at how we can say “that car is mine” or “that house is yours.” |
| Lizzie: Oh, sounds interesting, |
| Allan: Interesting and useful. So Lizzie, let’s have a little context for today’s conversation. |
| Lizzie: Well, today we’re going to hear Louis and Gisela again. |
| Allan: Great. |
| Lizzie: This time, they’re having a little laundry dispute as they continue to clean up the house. |
| Allan: And I think that’s one we can all relate to. |
| Lizzie: Definitely. |
| Allan: Now, before we jump in here, don’t forget to check out the regional Spanish series. |
| Lizzie: That’s right, those lessons bring the Spanish speaking world to you. |
| Allan: Alright, shall we get into today’s conversation? |
| DIALOGUE |
| GISELA: ¿De quién es esta camisa? |
| LUIS: Esta camisa es mía. |
| GISELA: ¿Y los pantalones son tuyos también? |
| LUIS: No. Los pantalones son de mi hermano. |
| GISELA: No te creo. |
| LUIS: De verdad. Los pantalones son suyos. |
| GISELA: Whose shirt is this? |
| LUIS: This shirt is mine. |
| GISELA: And are the pants yours too? |
| LUIS: No. The pants are my brother's. |
| GISELA: I don't believe you. |
| LUIS: Really. The pants are his. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Lizzie: Possession is such an interesting idea. Que idea interesante la de posesión. |
| Allan: ¿Por qué lo dices? Why do you say that? |
| Lizzie: Because it expresses belonging. |
| Allan: Ah, right. For example los pantalones son de mi hermano “they are of him” in the sense that “they are his”. |
| Lizzie: A eso voy. That’s what I mean. |
| Allan: So when we say De quién es it’s like saying “Whose is it”? |
| Lizzie: Osea |
| Allan: Osea no expresamos solamente la posesión, possession, sino también pertenencia, belonging. Well Lizzie, what do you say we move on and take a closer look at some of the vocabulary that came up today? |
| Lizzie: Me parece muy bien. Where should we start? |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Allan: Let’s start with... |
| Lizzie: camisa |
| Allan: Shirt. |
| Lizzie: camisa, camisa |
| Allan: Then we have… |
| Lizzie: pantalón |
| Allan: Pants. |
| Lizzie: pantalón, pantalón |
| Allan: Now we’ll hear... |
| Lizzie: mío, mía |
| Allan: Mine. |
| Lizzie: mío, mía. mío, mía |
| Allan: Now we’ll hear... |
| Lizzie: tuyo, tuya |
| Allan: Yours. |
| Lizzie: tuyo, tuya. tuyo, tuya |
| Allan: Now let’s hear… |
| Lizzie: suyo, suya |
| Allan: His, hers, theirs. |
| Lizzie: suyo, suya. suyo, suya |
| Allan: And finally…. |
| Lizzie: no te creo |
| Allan: I don’t believe you. |
| Lizzie: no te creo |
| Allan: Now, Lizzie, this word camisa can be a little tricky. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Lizzie: ¿Por qué? Why? I mean, it just means “shirt”. |
| Allan: Well, the thing is there are different kinds of shirt, right? |
| Lizzie: Claro. |
| Allan: For example, a camisa generally refers to a buttoned down collared shirt, doesn’t it? |
| Lizzie: It does. |
| Allan: And how would you say T-shirt In Spanish? |
| Lizzie: Well, here in Peru, we say polo, but in other places they use the word camiseta. |
| Allan: Right, and this can be a little tricky since you can be looking for a T-shirt, and ask someone in the store for a camisa and they may take you to the aisle of formal clothes. It’s happened to me it can be a problem. So remember the difference between polo and camisa. polo is T-shirt, camisa is a dress shirt. |
| Lizzie: So this word, Allan, camisa, it’s a feminine noun, right? |
| Allan: Yes. |
| Lizzie: And how do we know that? |
| Allan: Oh, is an A ending, la camisa. |
| Lizzie: And this is in the singular form, right? |
| Allan: Yes. The plural form would be las camisas as in esas camisas son bonitas those shirts are nice. |
| Lizzie: Right. With the AS ending in the plural. |
| Allan: Alright. And you know, Lizzie, we should talk about the word pantalón. |
| Lizzie: Ok. |
| Allan: When we are talking about pants, as in the article of clothing, we use the plural pants, right? And not the singular “pant, it would sound strange in English to say “I put on my pant”, right? |
| Lizzie: Yeah, I see what you mean. |
| Allan: So we can say los pantalónes “the pants”, mis pantalónes “my pants”, or mi par de pantalónes “my pair of pants”. |
| Lizzie: Now, Allan, back in the conversation where we heard Esta camisa es mía., we see a really is easy word to learn and a useful one too. |
| Allan: Which ones that? |
| Lizzie: It’s mía.. |
| Allan: mía. like “mama mia”. |
| Lizzie: ¡Que chistoso! |
| Lizzie: But right, I think you are right. It’s a good one to comment on. This is our first look at what we call possessive pronoun. |
| Lizzie: Right, and what exactly is a possessive pronoun? |
| Allan: Let’s hold off just a bit before we get into that. In terms of its meaning though, we can translate it as “mine”. |
| Lizzie: A ver un ejemplo. |
| Allan: Esta camisa es mía. |
| Lizzie: This shirt is mine. |
| Allan: The sentence, of course, comes right from the conversation. |
| Lizzie: A ver otro... |
| Allan: Es todo mío. |
| Lizzie: It’s all mine. |
| Allan: And if want to talk about mío, we might as well mention tuyo. |
| Lizzie: Lógico. |
| Allan: So Lizzie, we said that estos pantalones means “these pants”, right? |
| Lizzie: Right. |
| Allan: And if I say estos pantalones son de ti it’s like saying “these pants belong to you”, isn’t it? |
| Lizzie: Por supuesto. |
| Allan: And if they belong to you, then they’re yours? |
| Lizzie: Right, so in Spanish it’s either son de ti or son tuyos. |
| Allan: Right. And again, with the pants example. |
| Lizzie: Los pantalones son tuyos. |
| Allan: Great. |
| Lizzie: Anything else, you can like to cover here. |
| Allan: Well, one quick point. |
| Lizzie: Ok. |
| Allan: That phrase no te creo - this is a great example of what we call pronominal verb, in the sense that it’s directing its action on to the pronoun. “I don’t believe you” - no te creo. |
| Lizzie: And the placement of the pronoun is so characteristic of the Spanish language. |
| B: Exactly. It comes before the verb, no te creo, so when we say no te creo, we’re saying “I don’t believe you”. |
| Lizzie: Right. From the verb creer, “to believe” - no te creo |
| Allan: And in the conversation, when Gisela says no te creo, she’s using it in the sense of disbelief. |
| Lizzie: Ok. |
| Allan: And if we add the verb poder to the sentence - poder means can or to be able - we get something like this: no te puedo creer. |
| Lizzie: Right, no te puedo creer. |
| Allan: And literally, this means “I can’t believe you”. |
| Lizzie: Right again. |
| Allan: But now, this person seems to be expressing disbelieve, but rather admiration. It’s like saying “I can’t believe what you have done”, no te puedo creer. |
| Lizzie: Allan, is this a saying that you use? |
| Allan: Yeah, for example, a friend of mine recently told me, that he’s taking a dream trip to the Amazon jungle, and I said no te puedo creer. |
| Lizzie: And what about when other people have said it to you? |
| Allan: I’d answer sí, créeme es verdad. |
| Lizzie: Alright, so now, let’s move on and talk about a little bit more about possessive pronouns. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Allan: Ok, Lizzie, so let me ask you, that blue car in the parking lot, el auto azul ¿es tu auto?, is it your car? |
| Lizzie: Si, es mi auto Yeah, it’s my car. |
| Allan: And if it’s your car, then we could say it’s yours, couldn’t we? |
| Lizzie: Claro.es mio It’s mine. |
| Allan: Now, when you put it that way, the noun auto] disappears, right? |
| Lizzie: Yeah, it does. |
| Allan: And what’s the gender of the noun auto? |
| Lizzie: It’s masculine, el auto. |
| Allan: Now, instead of saying mi auto “my car”, we’re saying mio, “mine”. |
| Lizzie: Right. |
| Allan: And what kind of word is mio? |
| Lizzie: Well, this is one of the possessive pronouns. |
| Allan: And what’s the number and gender of it? |
| Lizzie: It too is singular and masculine. |
| Allan: And this is really the key point, right here, the number and gender for word like mio tells us which noun is replacing with its ending. |
| Lizzie: Exactly. So if we are at a party and I ask you, ¿Son tus amigos, o son amigos de Gabriel?, “Are they your friends or are they Gabriel’s friends?” How might you respond? |
| Allan: Oh, I could say si, son mios “They’re mine.” So, Lizzie, what are the forms of mio then? |
| Lizzie: We have mio and mia in the masculine and feminine singular, and mios and mias in the plural. |
| Allan: And what about to say “yours”. If I ask you: Is this my glass? este mi vaso?. How might you respond? |
| Lizzie: si, es el tuyo |
| Allan: And the number and gender of the word vaso , which means “glass”. |
| Lizzie: Singular and masculine. |
| Allan: And now, look at how we saw el tuyo. First, we have el the masculine singular definite article, and then tuyo without O ending, that often tells us that it’s masculine and singular. |
| Lizzie: Right, and just as we saw with mio the word tuyo has the same endings - tuyo for the masculine and tuya feminine singular tuyos and tuyas in the plural. |
| Allan: And similar to what we saw in the possessive adjectives, with possessive pronouns the same form are used for “his, hers, and your” in the formal sense. |
| Lizzie: And what are those forms? |
| Allan: We have suyo and suya in the masculine and feminine singular, and suyos and suyas in the plural. |
| Lizzie: Right, so if I ask you ¿La guitarra es de Felipe?, “Is it Felipe’s guitar?” How would you answer? |
| Allan: I could say si, es la suya. |
| Lizzie: And the number and gender. |
| Allan: la guitarra singular and feminine. |
| Lizzie: excelente |
| Allan: Now, Lizzie, do you remember what possessive adjective we used to say “our” as in “it’s our house”? |
| Lizzie: sure. It’s nuestro. |
| Allan: As in? |
| Lizzie: As in es nuestra casa. |
| Allan: And now to say “it’s ours”. |
| Lizzie: es la nuestra |
| Allan: Right, la nuestra, which is singular and feminine. la nuestra, “ours”. And, Lizzie, what about the forms of this? |
| Lizzie: They’re nuestro and nuestra in the masculine and feminine singular, and nuestros and nuestras in the plural. |
| Allan: Right, so I can say, los autos son nuestros, “the cars are ours”. |
| Lizzie: Muy bien. |
| Allan: And finally, there’s one more we should look at. When you’re talking to a group of people informally and you want to say yours, we have the word, vuestro |
| Lizzie: That’s not one you hear in Peru very much. |
| Allan: No. But this form is mainly used Spain. But i think, that people here will understand it, even though it’s not used, don’t you? |
| Lizzie: Sí, es probable. |
| Allan: And with this one we can say, es vuestra casa “it’s your house”. |
| Lizzie: Right, or son vuestros vecinos “they’re your neighbours”. |
| Allan: Yeah, you know Lizzie, I remember when I was just starting out, and for a while, it was hard for me to make the distinction es mi auto “it’s my car” and el auto es mio “the car is mine”. |
| Lizzie: So how did you learn to make it? |
| Allan: Well, just hard work. I sat down with the teacher one day and I practiced and I practiced. We did drills back and forth with the white board. Yeah, we worked at it. |
| Lizzie: Yeah, that’s one of those cases where practice makes perfect. |
| Allan: You got that right, Lizzie. |
Outro |
| Allan: Well, Lizzie, this has been really great. |
| Lizzie: Yeah, this is pretty interesting territory to cover. |
| Allan: Unfortunately, that’s all the time we have for today. |
| Lizzie: Bueno ha sido un gran placer. |
| Allan: Igualmente, Lizzie. We’ll see you soon. |
| Lizzie: Que todos estén bien. ¡Ya nos vemos, chao chao chao! |
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