Learn how to use the modal verbs that mean "to want" and "to be able"
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Fernando: You Can Help Me With This Spanish Assignment, Can’t You? JP, how are you and second question is, can you? |
| JP: I can. |
| Fernando: Wonderful. |
| JP: Thanks, Fernando. Why don’t you tell us what we’re gonna talk about today? |
| Fernando: In this lesson, you will learn about modal verbs: querer and poder. The conversation takes place at the office. The conversation is between Patricia and Jorge and the speakers will be using the familiar register. |
| JP: Let’s listen to Jorge and Patricia. |
| DIALOGUES |
| Jorge: Oye, quiero hablar contigo. |
| Patricia: Estoy muy ocupada ahora. |
| Jorge: ¿Podemos hablar después? |
| Patricia: Después, sí. |
| English Host: Let’s hear it again, dramatic speed. |
| Jorge: Oye, quiero hablar contigo. |
| Patricia: Estoy muy ocupada ahora. |
| Jorge: ¿Podemos hablar después? |
| Patricia: Después, sí. |
| English Host: One more time with the translation. |
| Jorge: Oye, quiero hablar contigo. |
| JP: Listen, I wanna talk to you. |
| Patricia: Estoy muy ocupada ahora. |
| JP: I'm very busy right now. |
| Jorge: ¿Podemos hablar después? |
| JP: Can we talk later? |
| Patricia: Después, sí. |
| JP: Yes, later. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| JP: Oh, looks like Jorge got the big brush off from Patricia. |
| Fernando: Apparently. |
| JP: She is not ready to talk to him. |
| Fernando: Jorge needs to talk, Oye, quiero hablar contigo. |
| JP: “Hey, I want to talk to you.” Let’s break this down. Now, the first word in this line is the word for “hey” or “listen.” |
| Fernando: Oye. |
| JP: Oye, literally this is “listen,” functions like an American hey, like an attention getter, “Hey, I wanna talk to you.” How do you say “I want”? |
| Fernando: quiero |
| JP: Quiero. The Taco Bell dog always says quiero. He said, “Quiero Taco Bell.” |
| Fernando: That’s a really good example, yes. |
| JP: Well, Jorge says “I want to talk.” |
| Fernando: Quiero hablar contigo. |
| JP: Quiero hablar contigo. Now the verb that follows quiero is hablar and you’ll notice that it’s in infinitive form hablar “to speak.” And the last word, contigo, means “with you.” So let’s put it all together - “Hey, I wanna talk to you.” |
| Fernando: Oye, quiero hablar contigo. |
| JP: And Patricia... |
| Fernando: Estoy muy ocupada ahora. |
| JP: Estoy muy ocupada ahora. This means, “I’m very busy now.” Fernando, how do we say “I am busy”? |
| Fernando: Estoy ocupada. |
| JP: Estoy ocupada. That word ocupada means “busy.” |
| Fernando: It means busy. |
| JP: It means busy and Patricia has got it in the feminine because she’s talking about herself. Ocupada is the feminine form. If it was a dude like me, if I’m saying I’m busy I would probably say: ocupado. |
| Fernando: Ocupado. That’s rarely the case, folks. |
| JP: That I’m busy? |
| Fernando: Yeah. |
| JP: So, to say I’m busy, she says estoy ocupada. You know what, she’s more than just busy. She says I’m very busy. |
| Fernando: Muy ocupada. |
| JP: Muy ocupada. That “muy”, means very. It could also mean “too,” I’m too busy right now as well. The word for “now”? |
| Fernando: Ahora |
| JP: Ahora. Okay. Ahora, means now. Let’s put it together. I’m very busy right now. |
| Fernando: Estoy muy ocupada ahora. |
| JP: Jorge says, “Can we talk later?” |
| Fernando: ¿Podemos hablar después? |
| JP: ¿Podemos hablar después? Now, I heard our word for to speak again. |
| Fernando: hablar |
| JP: Hablar means “to speak.” If you wanna ask, “Can we speak?” |
| Fernando: podemos |
| JP: Podemos, podemos hablar. Podemos is the verb poder, which we’ll talk about later today in the grammar section. The word for “afterward”? |
| Fernando: después |
| JP: Después. So he says, “Can we talk later?” ¿Podemos hablar después? |
| Fernando: ¿Podemos hablar después? “Can we talk later?” Patricia placating Jorge answers, “Yes, later.” |
| JP: Okay, how does she say that? |
| Fernando: Después, sí. |
| JP: Después, sí. Después is that same word that we heard before, “later,” and “sí”, of course, means yes. Después, sí. Fernando, let’s go to the vocabulary words. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Fernando: hablar [natural native speed] |
| JP: to speak, to talk |
| Fernando: hablar [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Fernando: hablar [natural native speed] |
| Fernando: ocupado [natural native speed] |
| JP: busy, occupied |
| Fernando: ocupado [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Fernando: ocupado [natural native speed] |
| Fernando: después [natural native speed] |
| JP: after, later |
| Fernando: después [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Fernando: después [natural native speed] |
| Fernando: querer [natural native speed] |
| JP: to want, to love |
| Fernando: querer [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Fernando: querer [natural native speed] |
| Fernando: poder [natural native speed] |
| JP: to be able, can |
| Fernando: poder [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Fernando: poder [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| JP: Now that we’ve heard these words in isolation, let’s talk about them in a little bit more detail. |
| Fernando: So let’s start with: hablar. |
| JP: Hablar, to speak or to talk. A lot of times in SpanishPod101, we talk about “hablar” to speak a language. Hablar español, hablar inglés. In this case, Jorge wants to speak with Patricia. |
| Fernando: Wants to have a conversation. |
| JP: That’s right. So you can use that verb, hablar, with this action of having a conversation as well. |
| Fernando: And it’s much more serious when you ask to speak to someone, in this case, podemos hablar “Can we talk?” |
| JP: More serious than what? |
| Fernando: More serious than, “Hey, let’s chat. Let’s chit-chat.” |
| JP: Okay. So in Spanish there’s a word for “chat,” too. |
| Fernando: It could be cotorrear. |
| JP: But in this dialogue, it’s not a chat. It’s the discussion. |
| Fernando: Far from it, yes. |
| JP: Okay, so hablar. |
| Fernando: hablar |
| JP: Okay. What’s next? |
| Fernando: ocupado |
| JP: Ocupado, meaning busy. Patricia used ocupada. |
| Fernando: Estoy muy ocupada ahora. |
| JP: She used the feminine form, ocupada. In the dictionary, it’s gonna be in the masculine form, ocupado. And you’ll notice that Patricia used it with estar. She said, “Estoy muy ocupada”. |
| Fernando: Right. |
| JP: So to be busy. |
| Fernando: después |
| JP: Después “afterward” or “later.” We translate it as later in the dialogue. Después “afterward,” this is an adverb. You can make it into a preposition if you say después de because después de is “after something.” So “after eating.” |
| Fernando: Después de comer. |
| JP: Or “after studying.” |
| Fernando: Después de estudiar. |
| JP: Después de… |
| Fernando: You don’t say, hey, querer. |
| JP: Querer “to want” or “to love.” We talked about that Taco Bell Chihuahua that said “Quiero Taco Bell.” Remember that? |
| Fernando: Yeah, it’s a stereotype, JP. |
| JP: I know. It’s also an example of grammar. |
| Fernando: True. |
| JP: So, what he’s saying is, kind of ambiguous, he could be saying, “I want Taco Bell.” He could also be saying, “I love Taco Bell.” |
| Fernando: Right. |
| JP: In this lesson, we’re gonna look at querer as a modal verb, so you’re gonna hear Yo quiero plus an action, and it’s gonna be, “I want to do (something),” querer. We’ll talk about that more in the grammar section. What’s next? |
| Fernando: Poder, another modal verb we’ll be talking about. |
| JP: Another modal verb. Poder, means literally “to be able,” but sometimes we translate it as “can” and that’s also followed by an infinitive. Let’s talk about poder and querer in the next section, the grammar section. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Fernando: Take it away, JP. |
| JP: I’m thinking about it and I’ve already said what has got to be said, right? |
| Fernando: I think so, yeah. |
| JP: Querer and poder are modal verbs. They’re followed by infinitives. That’s the action word in the dictionary form. So let’s just give some examples. Fernando, give me an action. What’s your favorite action? |
| Fernando: Sleeping. |
| JP: “To sleep” is the verb dormir. If I wanna say, “I want to sleep.” |
| Fernando: Quiero dormir. |
| JP: Quiero dormir. What you did was conjugate the verb “querer” which means to want in the first person singular, quiero, and then you stuck on the action verb in this dictionary form. |
| Fernando: But I can’t. |
| JP: You can’t? What do you mean you can’t sleep? |
| Fernando: No puedo dormir. |
| JP: No puedo dormir. We’ll talk about your insomnia in a second here, but first I have to talk about the grammar. |
| Fernando: Sure. |
| JP: The verb poder here is in the first person singular, puedo. It’s followed immediately by the action word dormir. No puedo dormir “I cannot sleep.” |
| Fernando: I can’t sleep because we’re working right now. |
| JP: Oh, okay. |
| Fernando: But I really can fall asleep right now. |
| JP: You can? |
| Fernando: Puedo dormirme ahorita. |
| JP: “I could fall asleep right now.” |
| Fernando: Yes. |
| JP: That’s the verb, poder, again with dormirse “to fall asleep.” Give us another action, Fernando. |
| Fernando: Let’s see, cocinar. |
| JP: “To cook.” That’s a great example. Let’s talk about our officemate, Rob, back in the office right now. Rob told us earlier today that he wants to cook. |
| Fernando: Quiere cocinar. |
| JP: Quiere cocinar, before “cocinar,” you heard Fernando say quiere. This is the verb querer in the third person singular, quiere. Quiere cocinar. He wants to cook. Can he cook? |
| Fernando: Puede cocinar… no estoy muy seguro. |
| JP: Okay. So, no puede cocinar, that’s the verb poder in the third person singular, puede, followed, as always, immediately with the infinitive, cocinar. When you wanna use these modal verbs in the present tense, you conjugate them in the present tense, the action word is always gonna be in the infinitive. You don’t have to conjugate it. It’s done. Puede cocinar, puede dormir, puede comer, puede bailar… all of these things, the action is gonna be in the infinitive. |
Outro |
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| JP: But for now, it’s time for us to go, so hasta luego. |
| Fernando: Adiós. |
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