Learn about asking someone to take your picture
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| INTRODUCTION |
| In today’s lesson, we’ll introduce a phrase that is certain to come in handy for capturing your memories on film. Spain is full of beautiful scenery and there are times when you want to be in the picture or have everyone in your party in the picture. Therefore, there are times when the question “Can you take our picture?” will be invaluable. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| In Spanish, “Can you take my picture?” is ¿Me puede sacar una foto? |
| ¿Me puede sacar una foto? |
| Let’s break it down by syllable: ¿Me pue-de sa-car u-na fo-to? |
| Now, let’s hear it again, ¿Me puede sacar una foto? |
| The first word, me, means “me / to me.” |
| me |
| This is followed by puede, which in Spanish is the polite form usted “can you.” |
| puede |
| puede |
| And one more time, puede. |
| So, to recap here, we have “me puede.” |
| Literally, this means “to me, can you.” |
| Let’s take a look at the next word, sacar, which literally means “to take out” and it’s the common verb used for taking a picture, sacar. It’s the infinitive form. |
| Let’s break it down by syllable and hear it again, sa-car. |
| And sacar. |
| Then we have “una” which is “a” for feminine singular, since foto is feminine. |
| Foto means “picture.” |
| Once again, foto. |
| Foto is the short form for fotografía, and it’s very commonly used. |
| So, altogether, we have ¿Me puede sacar una foto? |
| Literally, this means “To me, can you take a picture?” and should be translated as “Can you take my picture?” |
| In English, before someone takes a picture, the person taking the picture may say, “One, two, three, cheese!” In Spanish, before a picture taken, the person taking the picture may say almost anything, but a common and funny word is, Patata! |
| Patata. |
| Let’s break it down by syllable: Pa-ta-ta |
| And now, let’s hear it once again, Patata. |
| This means “potato.” Funny, isn’t it? |
| So, if you’re taking the picture, you’ll say this, and if you’re having your picture taken, you’ll hear this too. |
| When you want to show respect, you use the respectful form, usted. |
| When you are in an informal situation, use the form tú. |
| In this case, for converting the formal form usted puede into the informal form tú, you only have to change puedes to puede, so the phrase will become - ¿Me puedes sacar una foto? |
| ¿Me puedes sacar una foto? |
| If you want to ask for a picture not for yourself but your party, plural, you should only change nos which means “to” or “for us” to me resulting in ¿Nos puede sacar una foto? which means “Can you take our picture?” |
| ¿Nos puede sacar una foto? |
Outro |
|---|
| Okay, to close out today’s lesson, we'd like for you to practice what you've just learned. I'll provide you with the English equivalent of the phrase and you are responsible for saying it aloud. You’ll have a few seconds before I give you the answer, so buena suerte, that means “good luck” in Spanish. |
| Okay, here we go! |
| “Can you take my picture?” - ¿Me puedes sacar una foto? |
| ¿Me puedes sacar una foto? |
| ¿Me puedes sacar una foto? |
| (Polite) “Can you take my picture?” - ¿Me puede sacar una foto? |
| ¿Me puede sacar una foto? |
| ¿Me puede sacar una foto? |
| (Polite) “Can you take our picture?” - ¿Nos puede sacar una foto? |
| ¿Nos puede sacar una foto? |
| ¿Nos puede sacar una foto? |
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