Learn how to create the possessive form of Spanish adjectives
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Fernando: Tell me how much you like my car, in Spanish. JP, do you own a car? |
| JP: I don’t, Fernando, but if I did, I would like you to tell me how much you liked it. |
| Fernando: I’ll try and do that. |
| JP: Okay. Fernando, tell us what we’re gonna talk about. |
| Fernando: In this lesson, you will learn about possessive adjectives. This conversation takes place at school. The conversation is between Andrea and Jorge and the speakers will be using the familiar register. |
| JP: Let’s listen to this dialogue. |
| DIALOGUES |
| Jorge: Elena está enojada conmigo. |
| Andrea: ¿Qué pasó? |
| Jorge: Me comí su sandwich. |
| Andrea: ¡Con razón! |
| English Host: Let’s hear it again, dramatic speed. |
| Jorge: Elena está enojada conmigo. |
| Andrea: ¿Qué pasó? |
| Jorge: Me comí su sandwich. |
| Andrea: ¡Con razón! |
| English Host: One more time with the translation. |
| Jorge: Elena está enojada conmigo. |
| JP: Elena is mad at me. |
| Andrea: ¿Qué pasó? |
| JP: What happened? |
| Jorge: Me comí su sandwich. |
| JP: I ate her sandwich. |
| Andrea: ¡Con razón! |
| JP: No wonder. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| JP: All right, Fernando, we’re back and this dialogue cracks me up. |
| Fernando: It’s a little prepubescent, I would say. |
| JP: Yeah, but actually kind of hits close to home for me. |
| Fernando: What? Okay. |
| JP: Yeah, sometimes I get in trouble because I eat people’s sandwich. Anyway, Jorje complains that Elena is mad at him. |
| Fernando: Elena está enojada conmigo. |
| JP: Elena está enojada conmigo. So of course, the first word in the sentence is Elena. |
| Fernando: Elena. |
| JP: Elena is mad. |
| Fernando: ...está enojada. |
| JP: Está enojada, now that’s two words. Está is the word for “is” in this case, and the word for “mad”? |
| Fernando: enojada |
| JP: Enojada. Jorge says that she’s mad at me. |
| Fernando: conmigo |
| JP: Conmigo. Okay, this is one word and it means “with me.” Elena is angry with me. Elena está enojada conmigo. |
| Fernando: Andrea asked, ¿Qué pasó? |
| JP: “What happened?” This word ¿Qué? means, “what?” and, pasó, literally means “happened.” ¿Qué pasó? |
| Fernando: ¿Qué pasó? of the verb pasar. |
| JP: This is actually a very common question and we’ll talk about it a little more in the vocabulary section. For now, Jorge is gonna tell Andrea exactly what happened. |
| Fernando: He must be very hungry. Me comí su sandwich. |
| JP: Oh, no. Me comí su sandwich. Let’s start at the end of the sentence. What’s the word for “sandwich”? |
| Fernando: Sandwich. |
| JP: Sandwich. How do you pronounce it in Spanish? |
| Fernando: sandwich |
| JP: Sandwich, okay. To say, “it’s her sandwich”? |
| Fernando: Su sandwich. |
| JP: Su sandwich. That “su” means “her,” su sandwich. Now, Jorge actually says, “I ate it.” |
| Fernando: Me comí. |
| JP: Now, this is the verb “comer” and it’s in the past tense: comí and he’s doing a little thing with the pronoun here, me comí su sandwich. I ate up her sandwich, I took it. It wasn’t his to eat, but he kind of took it. So Andreas says, no wonder she’s mad at you. |
| Fernando: No wonder, ¡Con razón! |
| JP: ¡Con razón!, con razón, is an expression that means, “No wonder.” |
| Fernando: Like, duh. |
| JP: All right. Let’s take a look at the vocabulary. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Fernando: enojado [natural native speed] |
| JP: angry |
| Fernando: enojado [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Fernando: enojado [natural native speed] |
| Fernando: ¿Qué pasó? [natural native speed] |
| JP: What happened? |
| Fernando: ¿Qué pasó? [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Fernando: ¿Qué pasó? [natural native speed] |
| Fernando: con razón [natural native speed] |
| JP: no wonder |
| Fernando: con razón [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Fernando: con razón [natural native speed] |
| Fernando: el sandwich [natural native speed] |
| JP: sandwich |
| Fernando: el sandwich [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Fernando: el sandwich [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| JP: All right, we’re back. Let’s take a closer look at some of these words. |
| Fernando: Let’s start with enojado. |
| JP: We said that it means angry and we use it with: estar, right? Estar enojado. If it’s a woman like Elena, está enojada, she’s angry. That’s the feminine form, enojada. |
| Fernando: If Jorge is upset. |
| JP: We’ll say enojado. |
| Fernando: Está enojado. |
| JP: Está enojado. This adjective is actually related to the verb enojar which means “to get angry.” |
| Fernando: ¿Qué pasó? |
| JP: This is a common question. If you wanna know what happened in Spanish, say ¿Qué pasó? |
| Fernando: ¿Qué pasó? |
| JP: What happened? |
| Fernando: Or you can also use it to say, hey, ¿Qué pasó? |
| JP: “Hey! What happened?” It’s like it’s a greeting. |
| Fernando: Yeah. ¿Qué pasó? “What’s up?” |
| JP: All right. What’s the next word. |
| Fernando: El sandwich |
| JP: El sandwich. Now, it’s not exactly sandwich, so when you’re speaking Spanish, you don’t have to switch into sandwich, Me comí su “sandwich.” |
| Fernando: sandwich |
| JP: Sandwich, right? There’s kind of a little “N-G” in there. Sandwich. |
| Fernando: You can also say: emparedado. |
| JP: Emparedado, is another word for sandwich. Also, torta, is a sandwich that’s on a roll. |
| Fernando: Mm-hmm. |
| JP: Right. Because, sandwich, when you think of sandwich, it’s usually on like a sliced bread. |
| Fernando: Like loaf bread, yeah. |
| JP: From a loaf, exactly. There’s other kinds of sandwiches like bocadillo. That’s if you use a baguette. |
| Fernando: The last word, ¡con razón! |
| JP: No wonder. Okay, so when you realize, when you finally realize what happened, you say this, ¡Con razón! |
| Fernando: Never to be translated to with reason. |
| JP: No, no, no, no. No wonder. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Fernando: We’re talking about possessive adjectives in this grammar point, I believe. |
| JP: That’s right, because Jorge says, “I ate her sandwich.” |
| Fernando: Terrible, terrible, Jorge. |
| JP: Me comí su sandwich. |
| Fernando: Me comí su sandwich. |
| JP: Exactly. That su is the possessive adjective. In this sentence, it means her, as in her sandwich. I ate the sandwich that belongs to her. So let’s talk just a little bit about these possessive adjectives. Now, it might help to know a formula. So, if you can fill in the blank with a pronoun, it’s gonna be a possessive adjective and the blank is I ate blank sandwich, all right? So, let’s try some pronouns. I ate my sandwich. That “my” is a possessive adjective in English. I ate your sandwich. That “your” is a possessive adjective. His sandwich, her sandwich, our sandwich, their sandwich, shoot we can even talk about sandwiches in English. There’s so many things we can do. |
| Fernando: With sandwiches, we can do a lot of stuff with sandwiches. |
| JP: Exactly. Hey, let’s talk about possessive adjectives in Spanish though. |
| Fernando: All right, let’s do that. |
| JP: Okay. So, “Her sandwich”? |
| Fernando: Su sandwich. |
| JP: Su sandwich. How about, “My sandwich”? |
| Fernando: Mi sandwich. |
| JP: Mi sandwich. How about, “Your sandwich”? |
| Fernando: Tu sandwich. |
| JP: Tu sandwich. So, mi sandwich, tu sandwich, su sandwich. If it’s our sandwich? |
| Fernando: Nuestro sandwich. |
| JP: Nuestro sandwich. How about your sandwich, “Your sandwich.” |
| Fernando: Su sandwich. |
| JP: It’s the same as a singular. |
| Fernando: Mm-hmm. |
| JP: Okay. Now, we’re gonna talk about that in a second. And “Their sandwich”? |
| Fernando: Su sandwich. |
| JP: Su sandwich, also. Okay, piece of cake. |
| Fernando: It’s actually sandwich, JP. |
| JP: Oh, not a cake. All right. Mi sandwich, tu sandwich, su sandwich, nuestro sandwich. In Spain you could say vuestro sandwich and su sandwich. |
| Fernando: Sí, todo eso. |
| JP: All of those things. Now, that’s if we’re talking about one sandwich. The tricky thing about possessive adjectives in Spanish is that they behave like other adjectives. That is, they reflect the person and number of the object they’re modifying. And since the sandwich is masculine singular, we’re using the masculine singular. What if we talk about plural sandwiches? My sandwiches, Fernando. |
| Fernando: Mis sandwiches. |
| JP: Mis sandwiches. There’s only one of me, but there’s plural sandwiches and we’re gonna say mis sandwiches. “Your sandwiches”? |
| Fernando: Tus sandwiches. |
| JP: Tus sandwiches. “His sandwiches” or “her sandwiches”? |
| Fernando: Sus sandwiches. |
| JP: Sus… so, the moral of the story is that these possessive adjectives have plural forms. They also have feminine forms. So if I say, “our house.” |
| Fernando: Nuestra casa. |
| JP: Nuestra casa. That’s different from our sandwich. |
| Fernando: Nuestro sandwich. |
| JP: Nuestro sandwich, that nuestrO ended with an “O.” Nuestra casa, that nuestrA ended with an “A.” |
| Fernando: Now, if you were a gazillionaire, you’d have more than one house. |
| JP: Oh, feminine plural. |
| Fernando: How do you say that? “Our houses.” |
| JP: Nuestras casas. |
| Fernando: Go. |
| JP: Okay, feminine plural. |
Outro |
|---|
| JP: For now though, it’s time to go, so hasta luego. |
| Fernando: Adiós. |
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