Learn how to use cardinal numbers and how to talk about prices
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Anna: Hola soy Anna. |
| Eric: Eric here! Using Spanish Cardinal Numbers. |
| Anna: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to ask prices and use cardinal numbers. |
| Eric: This conversation takes place at a video store in the morning. |
| Anna: And it’s between Daniel and the shop assistant. |
| Eric: The speakers aren’t friends, and the situation is formal, so they'll be speaking formally. |
| Anna: Let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Daniel: ¿Cuánto cuesta este libro? |
| Vendedor: 15 euros. |
| Daniel: ¿Y la libreta? |
| Vendedor: 5 euros. |
| Daniel: Vale, compro los dos. |
| Eric: Now let's listen to the same conversation at a slow speed. |
| Daniel: ¿Cuánto cuesta este libro? |
| Vendedor: 15 euros. |
| Daniel: ¿Y la libreta? |
| Vendedor: 5 euros. |
| Daniel: Vale, compro los dos. |
| Eric: Let's now listen to the conversation with English translation. |
| Daniel: ¿Cuánto cuesta este libro? |
| Daniel: How much is this book? |
| Vendedor: Quince euros. |
| Shop assistant: Fifteen euros. |
| Daniel: ¿Y la libreta? |
| Daniel: And the notebook? |
| Vendedor: Cinco euros. |
| Shop assistant: Five euros. |
| Daniel: Vale, compro los dos. |
| Daniel: Okay, I'll buy both. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Eric: It’s well known that most countries in Europe use the euro as their main currency. But, before the euro, Spain had its own currency. |
| Anna: The Spanish currency was called the peseta. The peseta was the official currency of Spain between 1869 and 2002. In 1959, when Spain became part of the Bretton-Woods system, the peseta was valued at the rate of sixty pesetas to one US dollar. |
| Eric: But then, in 1967, it followed the devaluation of the British pound and held an exchange rate of 168 pesetas to one pound. |
| Anna: Right, and this established a new rate of seventy pesetas to one US dollar. Finally, when the peseta was replaced by the euro in 2002, the exchange rate was one euro to 166.386 pesetas. |
| Eric: Alright, now let's move on to the vocabulary. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Eric: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Anna: cuánto |
| Eric: how much, how many |
| Anna: cuánto [slowly] |
| Anna: cuánto |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Anna: costar |
| Eric: to cost |
| Anna: costar |
| Anna: costar |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Anna: este |
| Eric: this |
| Anna: este [slowly] |
| Anna: este |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Anna: libro |
| Eric: book |
| Anna: libro [slowly] |
| Anna: libro |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Anna: quince |
| Eric: fifteen |
| Anna: quince [slowly] |
| Anna: quince |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Anna: libreta |
| Eric: notebook |
| Anna: libreta [slowly] |
| Anna: libreta |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Anna: vale |
| Eric: ok |
| Anna: vale [slowly] |
| Anna: vale |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Anna: comprar |
| Eric: to buy |
| Anna: comprar [slowly] |
| Anna: comprar |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Anna: cinco |
| Eric: five |
| Anna: cinco [slowly] |
| Anna: cinco |
| Eric: And last.. |
| Anna: dos |
| Eric: two |
| Anna: dos [slowly] |
| Anna: dos |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Anna: The first word we'll look at is ¿Cuánto? which means "how much?" In Spanish, we use the word cuánto in a variety of situations. |
| Eric: That's right. The word... |
| Anna: ¿Cuánto? |
| Eric: ...is used for uncountable nouns, and if we add an -s at the end, it becomes... |
| Anna: ...cuántos... |
| Eric: ...which translates as "how many." |
| Anna: Exactly. Cuántos is used with countable nouns. For example, you could say, ¿Cuánto dinero cuesta?, which means, "How much money does it cost?" Or you could say, ¿Cuántos dólares son 5 euros? which means, "How many dollars are five euros?" |
| Eric: The next word we'll look at is... |
| Anna: Valer. When asking prices, we use valer as "to cost" or "to be worth." Now, valer and costar are very similar in this situation—but only in this situation. Valer can have other meanings that are not related to costar. |
| Eric: Could you give us some examples? |
| Anna: Sure! The phrases ¿Cuánto cuesta? and ¿Cuánto vale? both mean, "How much does it cost?" but ¿Cuánto vale? could also mean, "How much is it worth?” While ¿Cuánto cuesta? can't mean that. |
| Eric: Okay, what's our next word? |
| Anna: The next word we'll look at is vale. Vale comes from the verb valer, but vale can be used as a kind of informal idiom that means "okay." |
| Eric: Could you give us an example? |
| Anna: Sure. You could say, Vale, lo entendí, which means "Okay, I got it." |
| Eric: And what's our last word? |
| Anna: The last word we'll look at is comprar. Comprar is a regular Spanish verb ending in -ar. |
| Eric: We usually translate it as "to buy" or "to purchase." |
| Anna: That's right. For example, Yo compro las patatas allí means, "I buy the potatoes there." |
| Eric: Okay, now let's take a look at the grammar point. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Eric: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to buy things using cardinal numbers. |
| Anna: In the dialogue we heard the phrase, ¿Cuánto cuesta este libro? |
| Eric: Which translates as, "How much is this book?" |
| Anna: So, in this lesson, we'll focus on how to buy things. |
| Eric: In this situation, we use "How much does it cost?," which in Spanish is... |
| Anna: ¿Cuánto cuesta? or ¿cuánto vale? |
| Eric: We're not using any nouns or pronouns, so, unless we're pointing at something, the people we're talking to probably won't know what the "it" is. |
| Anna: That's right. If we want to use the sentence like this, we should point to the object we're talking about and say ¿Cuánto vale? |
| Eric: If we want to ask how much a specific item costs, we use cardinal numbers like "one," "two," and "three." We use those numbers just before the object we're talking about. |
| Anna: So, for example, to say, "How much does one pencil cost?" we use our root phrase ¿cuánto vale? and then add the cardinal number un, which means "one." And then the object we're talking about, which is lápiz. |
| Eric: Altogether, what would that be? |
| Anna: ¿Cuánto vale un lápiz? Another example would be, ¿Cuánto cuesta una camiseta?, which means, "How much does a T-shirt cost?" |
| Eric: In the lesson notes, we have all of the cardinal number from one through one thousand. That would take forever to cover in this lesson, so we'll just look at some phrases. |
| Anna: Right. For example, we could say tres libros, which means "three books," or cinco euros which means "five euros." |
| Eric: One important thing to note is that, in Spanish, the number one can be either masculine or feminine. That means it changes according to the noun to which it's attached. |
| Anna: That's right. For example, un lápiz means "one pencil," but una camiseta means "one T-shirt." |
| HOMEWORK |
| Eric: Okay. Now let’s give the answer from the previous lesson’s homework. |
| Anna: The answer to the tarea is Sentence #1. It should be El doctor es UN especialista famoso. |
| Eric: And this week’s homework is... |
| Anna: Identify the incorrect sentence: |
| ¿Cuántos euros cuesta esa camisa? |
| ¿Cuánto dinero vale eso? |
| ¿Cuánto dólares vale ese reloj? |
Outro |
| Eric: Well, that just about does it for this lesson. Thanks for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time. |
| Anna: ¡Hasta luego! |
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