Learn how to say how much something costs
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Jessi: Hi, everyone! I’m Jessi. |
| Karen: And I’m Karen. Spending Money While Speaking Spanish. ¿Cómo estás Jessi? |
| Jessi: Muy bien, gracias. ¿Y tú Karen? |
| Karen: Muy bien. |
| Jessi: So, Karen, what are we going to go over in this lesson? |
| Karen: In this lesson, we’ll go over how to talk about prices in Spanish. |
| Jessi: Where does this conversation take place and who is it between? |
| Karen: The conversation takes place at a bar and it’s between Paco and a security staff. |
| Jessi: So, the conversation is between two strangers? |
| Karen: Yes, that’s right. So, they’ll be speaking formally. Let’s listen to the dialogue. |
| DIALOGUES |
| En la zona de bares. |
| Paco: ¿Hay algún cover? |
| Seguridad: Sí. Son $100 pesos. |
| Paco: Aquí tiene. |
| Seguridad: Gracias. |
| English Host: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| En la zona de bares. |
| Paco: ¿Hay algún cover? |
| Seguridad: Sí. Son $100 pesos. |
| Paco: Aquí tiene. |
| Seguridad: Gracias. |
| English Host: And now, with the translation. |
| En la zona de bares. |
| At a bar. |
| Paco: ¿Hay algún cover? |
| Jessi: Is there any cover charge? |
| Seguridad: Sí. Son $100 pesos. |
| Jessi: Yes. It's one hundred pesos. |
| Paco: Aquí tiene. |
| Jessi: Here you go. |
| Seguridad: Gracias. |
| Jessi: Thanks. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Jessi: So, Karen, they’re talking about cover? |
| Karen: Yes, that’s right. They talked about cover in the dialogue, a cover charge. |
| Jessi: One thing I find interesting is that they used the word “cover” from English. |
| Karen: That’s right. One thing that has changed throughout the years is the way people use more English nowadays. |
| Jessi: Interesting, I mean, I think, we all know that Spanish has a lot of cognates. |
| Karen: Ah, like computadora? |
| Jessi: Exactly, but words like cover aren’t even really cognates? They’re just taken directly from English. |
| Karen: True. So, they may be easy for English speakers, but at the same time, the pronunciation is usually different, so you have to be careful. |
| Jessi: Right. The vowels are completely different in this one. Please say it, again, for us? |
| Karen: “Cover” |
| Jessi: Versus cover. So, just something to be keep in mind. Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Jessi: The first word is… |
| Karen: haber [natural native speed] |
| Jessi: there is, there are, to have |
| Karen: haber [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Karen: haber [natural native speed] |
| Jessi: Next, we have… |
| Karen: ser [natural native speed] |
| Jessi: to be |
| Karen: ser [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Karen: ser [natural native speed] |
| Jessi: And last, we have… |
| Karen: Aquí tiene. [natural native speed] |
| Jessi: Here you go. |
| Karen: Aquí tiene. [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Karen: Aquí tiene. [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Jessi: Let’s take a closer look at the words and phrases used in this lesson. The first word is? |
| Karen: haber |
| Jessi: “There is” or “there are.” |
| Karen: The form of it we saw in the conversation was “hay.” |
| Jessi: Hay is haber in the third person singular. |
| Karen: That’s right. Usually, nouns come after “hay” like - Hay un hospital. |
| Jessi: “There’s a hospital.” |
| Karen: If you just raise your intonation, you can make it a question - ¿Hay un hospital? |
| Jessi: “Is there a hospital?” And with “hay,” you can ask for what you’re looking for. |
| Karen: It’s a very useful word. |
| Jessi: Next, we have? |
| Karen: ser |
| Jessi: “To be.” The form of it we saw in the conversation was “son” in the third person plural. |
| Karen: One thing, it would be good to know is that the verb “ser” is used to say many different things. In the dialogue, it’s used to tell the price of something, but just keep in mind that there’s not always going to be the same with this verb. Later on, we will see the other uses of this verb. |
| Jessi: Right. For now, let’s just stick with the meaning in the dialogue and say it means “it is” or “it costs.” Last, we have? |
| Karen: Aquí tiene. |
| Jessi: “Here it is” or “here you are.” |
| Karen: We have aquí which means “here” and “tiene” literally means “you have” in formal speech. But aquí tiene, together, means “here it is” or “here you are.” |
| Jessi: Aquí tiene, would be used if you were speaking formally to someone. |
| Karen: Right. If you’re speaking informally, like to a friend, you could change tiene to tienes and say - Aquí tienes. Pretty easy to use. So listeners, try using it the next time you hand something to someone. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Jessi: In this lesson, we’ll look at how to talk about prices in Spanish. This will be useful for you when going shopping. |
| Karen: It’s something important to learn, I mean, who doesn’t shop when traveling, right? |
| Jessi: Yes. This one is a must-know. |
| Karen: Okay, so, let’s start. |
| Jessi: One of the many ways to talk about price is by using the form of the verb “ser.” In Spanish-speaking countries, son is very often used to tell the price of something. We can say - Son, plus, the price. How was it used in the dialogue? |
| Karen: In the dialogue, Paco asked about the cover charge and the security guard responded with - Son cien pesos. |
| Jessi: Which is? |
| Karen: “It is 100 pesos.” |
| Jessi: So, son here means “it is.” |
| Karen: Yes. When talking about prices, that’s what it means. |
| Jessi: And again, son here is the third person plural of the verb ser. Let’s give them some more examples using “son.” |
| Karen: Sure. For example - Son cuarenta dolares por los dos. |
| Jessi: And that means, “It is 40 for both.” |
| Karen: Yes. What about - Son ciento-veinte dólares, por los impuestos. |
| Jessi: “It is 120 for the taxes.” |
| Karen: That’s right. |
| Jessi: Also, something important to note, “son” is only used if the amount is more than one, that is more than one dollar, one peso, one unit of currency. |
| Karen: That’s correct, good point. |
| Jessi: If the price is just one dollar or one peso, what will we use, Karen? |
| Karen: “Es,” this is a third person singular of ser. |
| Jessi: Let’s hear an example. |
| Karen: Es un dolar. |
| Jessi: It’s one dollar. Great! Now that we have that cleared up, what’s another common way to give the price of something in Spanish? |
| Karen: Well, there’s a verb that Spanish people use to tell the price of something, “costar.” |
| Jessi: Which means “to cost.” |
| Karen: Right and we use it in the third person singular, “cuesta.” |
| Jessi: So, it’s like saying, “It costs (amount).” Let’s give some examples. |
| Karen: Sure. La cartera cuesta cien dólares. |
| Jessi: And it’s translated as, “The purse costs $100.” |
| Karen: One more example would be - El juguete cuesta docientos dólares. |
| Jessi: And that means, “The toy costs $200.” That’s one expensive toy. |
| Karen: Muy caro, very expensive. |
| Jessi: Okay. Well, now we know how to talk about prices using… |
| Karen: “Ser” and “costar.” |
Outro |
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| Jessi: Make sure to let us know if you have any questions and that’s gonna wrap it up for this lesson. |
| Karen: Alright. See you next time. Hasta luego. |
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