Learn how to name and talk about things using Mexican Spanish
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| INTRODUCTION |
| Alisha: Hi everybody, this is Alisha. |
| Fernando: Hola a todos, soy Fernando. Hi, everybody, this is Fernando. |
| Alisha: Welcome back to SpanishPod101.com. Naming Things in Mexican Spanish |
| Fernando: In this lesson you will learn how to name things and talk casually about them using Mexican Spanish. In other words, how to use articles and nouns, and call things by their name. |
| Alisha: This conversation takes place at a park. |
| Fernando: And it’s between Ashley and her local friend Maria. |
| Alisha: The speakers are friends, so they will be speaking casual Spanish. |
| Alisha: Lets listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| María: ¡Mira Ashley, qué bonito! |
| Ashley: ¿Qué es? |
| María: ¡Es un pájaro azul! |
| Ashley: ¡Ay, qué lindo! |
| María: Y mira allá... |
| Ashley: ¡El arcoíris! |
| Alisha: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| María: ¡Mira Ashley, qué bonito! |
| Ashley: ¿Qué es? |
| María: ¡Es un pájaro azul! |
| Ashley: ¡Ay, qué lindo! |
| María: Y mira allá... |
| Ashley: ¡El arcoíris! |
| Alisha: Now let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| María: ¡Mira Ashley, qué bonito! |
| Alisha: Look, Ashley, how beautiful! |
| Ashley: ¿Qué es? |
| Alisha: What is it? |
| María: ¡Es un pájaro azul! |
| Alisha: It’s a blue bird! |
| Ashley: ¡Ay, qué lindo! |
| Alisha: Oh, how cute! |
| María: Y mira allá... |
| Alisha: And look over there... |
| Ashley: ¡El arcoíris! |
| Alisha: The rainbow! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Alisha: So it sounds like they’re having fun in the park! |
| Fernando: True, finding all sorts of things to talk about. |
| Alisha: So, later on we’re going to talk about how to use “a” and “the” in Spanish… but I think there’s something else we should cover before that here. |
| Fernando: What’s that? |
| Alisha: The fact that all nouns in Spanish have gender! |
| Fernando: Oh, right. English doesn’t have this, does it? |
| Alisha: Nope, which is why this can be a confusing concept at first. But basically, every noun is assigned a gender... |
| Fernando: ...Masculine or feminine. |
| Alisha: Right. The reason this is important is because it will affect other words that are used together with that noun For example, the articles that we will learn in this lesson, as well as adjectives, and so on. |
| Fernando: That’s right, those words have to match the noun in gender. |
| Alisha: So how do you recommend we study the gender of words in Spanish? |
| Fernando: Well, I think when you study vocabulary, it’s best to remember the gender along with the word. |
| Alisha: Got it. So remember it as a set, right? |
| Fernando: Exactly. |
| Alisha: Okay, and with that, let’s move to the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Alisha: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| The first word we shall see is: |
| Fernando: mirar [natural native speed] |
| Alisha: look |
| Fernando: mirar [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Fernando: mirar [natural native speed] |
| Next is: |
| Fernando: qué [natural native speed] |
| Alisha: how |
| Fernando: qué [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Fernando: qué [natural native speed] |
| The next word is: |
| Fernando: bonito, bonita [natural native speed] |
| Alisha: beautiful, pretty |
| Fernando: bonito, bonita [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Fernando: bonito, bonita [natural native speed] |
| The next word is: |
| Fernando: ser [natural native speed] |
| Alisha: to be (permanent characteristics) |
| Fernando: ser [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Fernando: ser [natural native speed] |
| The next word is: |
| Fernando: un, una [natural native speed] |
| Alisha: a / an |
| Fernando: un [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Fernando: un [natural native speed] |
| The next word is: |
| Fernando: pájaro [natural native speed] |
| Alisha: bird |
| Fernando: pájaro [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Fernando: pájaro [natural native speed] |
| Next is: |
| Fernando: ay [natural native speed] |
| Alisha: oh! |
| Fernando: ay [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Fernando: ay [natural native speed] |
| The next word is: |
| Fernando: lindo, linda [natural native speed] |
| Alisha: pretty, nice, lovely |
| Fernando: lindo, linda [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Fernando: lindo, linda [natural native speed] |
| Next is: |
| Fernando: allá [natural native speed] |
| Alisha: there, over there |
| Fernando: allá [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Fernando: allá [natural native speed] |
| Next is: |
| Fernando: el, la [natural native speed] |
| Alisha: the |
| Fernando: el [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Fernando: el [natural native speed] |
| The next word is: |
| Fernando: arcoíris [natural native speed] |
| Alisha: rainbow |
| Fernando: arcoíris [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Fernando: arcoíris [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| Alisha: Let's have a closer look at the usuage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Fernando: Ok, when María says “look over there Ashley” she said “Mira Ashley”. This means to look intently at something. |
| Alisha: So she’s drawing her attention to something specific, right? In this case, it was a bird. |
| Fernando: Exactly. Another way of saying look is “ve” but it has a more passive connotation. |
| Alisha: Our next phrase is “¿Qué es?” What is it? |
| Fernando: “Qué” is a question word that means “what”, and “es” means “is”. |
| Alisha: So literally, it’s asking “What is?” There is no “it” here, but it’s a natural question in Spanish. |
| Fernando: That’s right. ¿Qué es? “What is it?” |
| Alisha: And last we have the expression… |
| Fernando: ¡Qué lindo! |
| Alisha: which means “How cute”, or “how beautiful”. But Fernando, didn’t we just say that “que” means “what”? |
| Fernando: Oh, good point. In a question, “que” means “what”. But when followed by an Adjective, as an exclamation, it takes the meaning of “how”. |
| Alisha: Can we give some more examples? |
| Fernando: Sure. For example, “bonito” also means “beautiful”. So if we say, “¡Qué bonito!”, it means…. |
| Alisha: How beautiful! |
| Fernando: Right. Here’s another one. “Interesante” means “interesting”. So if if we say “¡Qué interesante!”, it means…. |
| Alisha: How interesting! |
| Fernando: That’s right. So the meaning of “qué” changes depending on how its used in the sentence. |
| Alisha: Great, that’s good to know! Now let’s move onto the grammar section. |
Lesson focus |
| Alisha: In this lesson, you’ll learn about definite and indefinite articles in Spanish. |
| Fernando: First, you might be wondering… what are articles? |
| Alisha: Good question. We have articles in English too. They are the words like “a” and “the” that are used before nouns. The good thing is that Spanish has equivalents for both of these. |
| Fernando: That’s right. |
| Alisha: So let’s talk about what kinds of articles we have in Spanish. |
| Fernando: We have two kinds- definite articles, and indefinite articles. |
| Alisha: Let’s start with the definite articles. This is equivalent to the word “the” in English. |
| Fernando: In Spanish, it’s important to know that nouns have genders. |
| Alisha: Right. This is found in many languages, but not English. As we said in Banter, In Spanish, every noun is either masculine or feminine. And the definite articles for masculine and feminine nouns are different. |
| Fernando: Yes, they are “el” for masculine nouns, and “la” for feminine nouns. |
| Alisha: So for example, we had the phrase “the rainbow”. What was this in Spanish? |
| Fernando: ¡El arcoíris! El is the article, and arcoíris is “rainbow” |
| Alisha: What’s an example of an feminine noun? |
| Fernando: We didn’t have one in the dialogue, but, for example… la mesa. this means “The table”. |
| Alisha: Great. Now let’s look at the indefinite articles. These are equivalent to “a” or “an” in English. |
| Fernando: In Spanish, they are “un” for masculine nouns, and “una” for feminine nouns. |
| Alisha: In this conversation, María calls out to Ashley... |
| Fernando: “es un pájaro azul” |
| Alisha: “It’s a blue bird.” So you can see the article right before the word for “bird.” |
| Fernando: “Un pájaro” |
| Alisha: What’s an example of the feminine indefinite article? |
| Fernando: For example… una cama. |
| Alisha: A bed. “Bed” is a feminine noun in Spanish, so it gets… |
| Fernando: una. Una cama. |
| Alisha: Great, have you got that listeners? Fernando, can you repeat all of the articles for us again? |
| Fernando: Sure. The definite articles are el and la, and indefinite articles are un and una. |
| Alisha: There’s one more thing we should mention here. |
| Fernando: Oh, do you mean the plural forms? |
| Alisha: Exactly! The ones we just gave were for singular nouns. If the noun is plural, then we have to change them slightly. Let’s give some examples. |
| Fernando: For example, el pájaro would be “the bird”. But the birds, plural, would be – los pájaros. So EL becomes LOS. |
| Alisha: What about a feminine noun? |
| Fernando: Remember that la mesa is “the table”, and “the tableS” would be “las mesas”. |
| Alisha: Great, now let’s go to the indefinite articles again. |
| Fernando: We’ll use the same words again. For example, un pájaro would be “a bird”. But “some birds”, plural, would be – unos pájaros. So UN becomes UNOS. |
| Alisha: What about a feminine noun? |
| Fernando: Okay. Una mesa is “a table”, and “some tableS” would be “UNAS mesas”. |
| Alisha: Great! Can we hear them all together now? |
| Fernando: Sure. Here are the definite articles – el/la/los/las. And the indefinite articles – un/una/unos/unas. |
Outro |
| Alisha: Excellent! Listeners, be sure to check the lesson notes for more examples of these. |
| Fernando: Yes, it might take awhile to get these all straight, so please be sure to practice. |
| Alisha: Ok! That’s going to do it for this lesson. See you guys next time! |
| Fernando: Hasta pronto. |
Comments
Hide