Learn about talking about possession
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Lizzie: Buenos días, me llamo Lizzie Stolear. |
| Allan: How’s it going? I am Allan La Rue. Whose shirt is this? |
| Lizzie: Hola allan. ¿Cómo has estado? |
| Allan: Muy bien, muy bien Lizzie. Emocionado por que estoy viajando este fin de semana a Trujillo. |
| Lizzie: Oh que lindo. |
| Allan: That means “I am going to Trujillo”, which is a city in the northern part of Peru, this week, with my family. They’ve got great beaches, great food, it’s going to be a lot of fun. |
| Lizzie: Lindo, lindo. Además los caballos de paso. Qué bueno es estar aquí para otra lección. |
| Allan: Yes, it is great to be back for another lesson of SpanishPod101.com. Now, Lizzie, do you recall what we’d looked at last time? |
| Lizzie: los adjetivos posesivos |
| Allan: Exactly, possessive adjectives. So that was like saying, “It’s my car” or “That’s your house”. |
| Lizzie: Es mi auto, esa es tu casa |
| Allan: Today, we’re going to build on this and look at how we can say “that car is mine” or “that house is yours.” |
| Lizzie: Oh, sounds interesting, |
| Allan: Interesting and useful. So Lizzie, let’s have a little context for today’s conversation. |
| Lizzie: Well, today we’re going to hear Louis and Gisela again. |
| Allan: Great. |
| Lizzie: This time, they’re having a little laundry dispute as they continue to clean up the house. |
| Allan: And I think that’s one we can all relate to. |
| Lizzie: Definitely. |
| Allan: Now, before we jump in here, don’t forget to check out the regional Spanish series. |
| Lizzie: That’s right, those lessons bring the Spanish speaking world to you. |
| Allan: Alright, shall we get into today’s conversation? |
| DIALOGUE |
| GISELA: ¿De quién es esta camisa? |
| LUIS: Esta camisa es mía. |
| GISELA: ¿Y los pantalones son tuyos también? |
| LUIS: No. Los pantalones son de mi hermano. |
| GISELA: No te creo. |
| LUIS: De verdad. Los pantalones son suyos. |
| GISELA: Whose shirt is this? |
| LUIS: This shirt is mine. |
| GISELA: And are the pants yours too? |
| LUIS: No. The pants are my brother's. |
| GISELA: I don't believe you. |
| LUIS: Really. The pants are his. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Lizzie: Possession is such an interesting idea. Que idea interesante la de posesión. |
| Allan: ¿Por qué lo dices? Why do you say that? |
| Lizzie: Because it expresses belonging. |
| Allan: Ah, right. For example los pantalones son de mi hermano “they are of him” in the sense that “they are his”. |
| Lizzie: A eso voy. That’s what I mean. |
| Allan: So when we say De quién es it’s like saying “Whose is it”? |
| Lizzie: Osea |
| Allan: Osea no expresamos solamente la posesión, possession, sino también pertenencia, belonging. Well Lizzie, what do you say we move on and take a closer look at some of the vocabulary that came up today? |
| Lizzie: Me parece muy bien. Where should we start? |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Allan: Let’s start with... |
| Lizzie: camisa |
| Allan: Shirt. |
| Lizzie: camisa, camisa |
| Allan: Then we have… |
| Lizzie: pantalón |
| Allan: Pants. |
| Lizzie: pantalón, pantalón |
| Allan: Now we’ll hear... |
| Lizzie: mío, mía |
| Allan: Mine. |
| Lizzie: mío, mía. mío, mía |
| Allan: Now we’ll hear... |
| Lizzie: tuyo, tuya |
| Allan: Yours. |
| Lizzie: tuyo, tuya. tuyo, tuya |
| Allan: Now let’s hear… |
| Lizzie: suyo, suya |
| Allan: His, hers, theirs. |
| Lizzie: suyo, suya. suyo, suya |
| Allan: And finally…. |
| Lizzie: no te creo |
| Allan: I don’t believe you. |
| Lizzie: no te creo |
| Allan: Now, Lizzie, this word camisa can be a little tricky. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Lizzie: ¿Por qué? Why? I mean, it just means “shirt”. |
| Allan: Well, the thing is there are different kinds of shirt, right? |
| Lizzie: Claro. |
| Allan: For example, a camisa generally refers to a buttoned down collared shirt, doesn’t it? |
| Lizzie: It does. |
| Allan: And how would you say T-shirt In Spanish? |
| Lizzie: Well, here in Peru, we say polo, but in other places they use the word camiseta. |
| Allan: Right, and this can be a little tricky since you can be looking for a T-shirt, and ask someone in the store for a camisa and they may take you to the aisle of formal clothes. It’s happened to me it can be a problem. So remember the difference between polo and camisa. polo is T-shirt, camisa is a dress shirt. |
| Lizzie: So this word, Allan, camisa, it’s a feminine noun, right? |
| Allan: Yes. |
| Lizzie: And how do we know that? |
| Allan: Oh, is an A ending, la camisa. |
| Lizzie: And this is in the singular form, right? |
| Allan: Yes. The plural form would be las camisas as in esas camisas son bonitas those shirts are nice. |
| Lizzie: Right. With the AS ending in the plural. |
| Allan: Alright. And you know, Lizzie, we should talk about the word pantalón. |
| Lizzie: Ok. |
| Allan: When we are talking about pants, as in the article of clothing, we use the plural pants, right? And not the singular “pant, it would sound strange in English to say “I put on my pant”, right? |
| Lizzie: Yeah, I see what you mean. |
| Allan: So we can say los pantalónes “the pants”, mis pantalónes “my pants”, or mi par de pantalónes “my pair of pants”. |
| Lizzie: Now, Allan, back in the conversation where we heard Esta camisa es mía., we see a really is easy word to learn and a useful one too. |
| Allan: Which ones that? |
| Lizzie: It’s mía.. |
| Allan: mía. like “mama mia”. |
| Lizzie: ¡Que chistoso! |
| Lizzie: But right, I think you are right. It’s a good one to comment on. This is our first look at what we call possessive pronoun. |
| Lizzie: Right, and what exactly is a possessive pronoun? |
| Allan: Let’s hold off just a bit before we get into that. In terms of its meaning though, we can translate it as “mine”. |
| Lizzie: A ver un ejemplo. |
| Allan: Esta camisa es mía. |
| Lizzie: This shirt is mine. |
| Allan: The sentence, of course, comes right from the conversation. |
| Lizzie: A ver otro... |
| Allan: Es todo mío. |
| Lizzie: It’s all mine. |
| Allan: And if want to talk about mío, we might as well mention tuyo. |
| Lizzie: Lógico. |
| Allan: So Lizzie, we said that estos pantalones means “these pants”, right? |
| Lizzie: Right. |
| Allan: And if I say estos pantalones son de ti it’s like saying “these pants belong to you”, isn’t it? |
| Lizzie: Por supuesto. |
| Allan: And if they belong to you, then they’re yours? |
| Lizzie: Right, so in Spanish it’s either son de ti or son tuyos. |
| Allan: Right. And again, with the pants example. |
| Lizzie: Los pantalones son tuyos. |
| Allan: Great. |
| Lizzie: Anything else, you can like to cover here. |
| Allan: Well, one quick point. |
| Lizzie: Ok. |
| Allan: That phrase no te creo - this is a great example of what we call pronominal verb, in the sense that it’s directing its action on to the pronoun. “I don’t believe you” - no te creo. |
| Lizzie: And the placement of the pronoun is so characteristic of the Spanish language. |
| B: Exactly. It comes before the verb, no te creo, so when we say no te creo, we’re saying “I don’t believe you”. |
| Lizzie: Right. From the verb creer, “to believe” - no te creo |
| Allan: And in the conversation, when Gisela says no te creo, she’s using it in the sense of disbelief. |
| Lizzie: Ok. |
| Allan: And if we add the verb poder to the sentence - poder means can or to be able - we get something like this: no te puedo creer. |
| Lizzie: Right, no te puedo creer. |
| Allan: And literally, this means “I can’t believe you”. |
| Lizzie: Right again. |
| Allan: But now, this person seems to be expressing disbelieve, but rather admiration. It’s like saying “I can’t believe what you have done”, no te puedo creer. |
| Lizzie: Allan, is this a saying that you use? |
| Allan: Yeah, for example, a friend of mine recently told me, that he’s taking a dream trip to the Amazon jungle, and I said no te puedo creer. |
| Lizzie: And what about when other people have said it to you? |
| Allan: I’d answer sí, créeme es verdad. |
| Lizzie: Alright, so now, let’s move on and talk about a little bit more about possessive pronouns. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Allan: Ok, Lizzie, so let me ask you, that blue car in the parking lot, el auto azul ¿es tu auto?, is it your car? |
| Lizzie: Si, es mi auto Yeah, it’s my car. |
| Allan: And if it’s your car, then we could say it’s yours, couldn’t we? |
| Lizzie: Claro.es mio It’s mine. |
| Allan: Now, when you put it that way, the noun auto] disappears, right? |
| Lizzie: Yeah, it does. |
| Allan: And what’s the gender of the noun auto? |
| Lizzie: It’s masculine, el auto. |
| Allan: Now, instead of saying mi auto “my car”, we’re saying mio, “mine”. |
| Lizzie: Right. |
| Allan: And what kind of word is mio? |
| Lizzie: Well, this is one of the possessive pronouns. |
| Allan: And what’s the number and gender of it? |
| Lizzie: It too is singular and masculine. |
| Allan: And this is really the key point, right here, the number and gender for word like mio tells us which noun is replacing with its ending. |
| Lizzie: Exactly. So if we are at a party and I ask you, ¿Son tus amigos, o son amigos de Gabriel?, “Are they your friends or are they Gabriel’s friends?” How might you respond? |
| Allan: Oh, I could say si, son mios “They’re mine.” So, Lizzie, what are the forms of mio then? |
| Lizzie: We have mio and mia in the masculine and feminine singular, and mios and mias in the plural. |
| Allan: And what about to say “yours”. If I ask you: Is this my glass? este mi vaso?. How might you respond? |
| Lizzie: si, es el tuyo |
| Allan: And the number and gender of the word vaso , which means “glass”. |
| Lizzie: Singular and masculine. |
| Allan: And now, look at how we saw el tuyo. First, we have el the masculine singular definite article, and then tuyo without O ending, that often tells us that it’s masculine and singular. |
| Lizzie: Right, and just as we saw with mio the word tuyo has the same endings - tuyo for the masculine and tuya feminine singular tuyos and tuyas in the plural. |
| Allan: And similar to what we saw in the possessive adjectives, with possessive pronouns the same form are used for “his, hers, and your” in the formal sense. |
| Lizzie: And what are those forms? |
| Allan: We have suyo and suya in the masculine and feminine singular, and suyos and suyas in the plural. |
| Lizzie: Right, so if I ask you ¿La guitarra es de Felipe?, “Is it Felipe’s guitar?” How would you answer? |
| Allan: I could say si, es la suya. |
| Lizzie: And the number and gender. |
| Allan: la guitarra singular and feminine. |
| Lizzie: excelente |
| Allan: Now, Lizzie, do you remember what possessive adjective we used to say “our” as in “it’s our house”? |
| Lizzie: sure. It’s nuestro. |
| Allan: As in? |
| Lizzie: As in es nuestra casa. |
| Allan: And now to say “it’s ours”. |
| Lizzie: es la nuestra |
| Allan: Right, la nuestra, which is singular and feminine. la nuestra, “ours”. And, Lizzie, what about the forms of this? |
| Lizzie: They’re nuestro and nuestra in the masculine and feminine singular, and nuestros and nuestras in the plural. |
| Allan: Right, so I can say, los autos son nuestros, “the cars are ours”. |
| Lizzie: Muy bien. |
| Allan: And finally, there’s one more we should look at. When you’re talking to a group of people informally and you want to say yours, we have the word, vuestro |
| Lizzie: That’s not one you hear in Peru very much. |
| Allan: No. But this form is mainly used Spain. But i think, that people here will understand it, even though it’s not used, don’t you? |
| Lizzie: Sí, es probable. |
| Allan: And with this one we can say, es vuestra casa “it’s your house”. |
| Lizzie: Right, or son vuestros vecinos “they’re your neighbours”. |
| Allan: Yeah, you know Lizzie, I remember when I was just starting out, and for a while, it was hard for me to make the distinction es mi auto “it’s my car” and el auto es mio “the car is mine”. |
| Lizzie: So how did you learn to make it? |
| Allan: Well, just hard work. I sat down with the teacher one day and I practiced and I practiced. We did drills back and forth with the white board. Yeah, we worked at it. |
| Lizzie: Yeah, that’s one of those cases where practice makes perfect. |
| Allan: You got that right, Lizzie. |
Outro |
| Allan: Well, Lizzie, this has been really great. |
| Lizzie: Yeah, this is pretty interesting territory to cover. |
| Allan: Unfortunately, that’s all the time we have for today. |
| Lizzie: Bueno ha sido un gran placer. |
| Allan: Igualmente, Lizzie. We’ll see you soon. |
| Lizzie: Que todos estén bien. ¡Ya nos vemos, chao chao chao! |
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Comments
HideThanks to Kevin Macleod for the music used in today's lesson! This lesson should come in handy when you are staking claim to that which is yours. Next time you want to let someone know something belongs to you, give these possessive pronouns a try. Anyone want to try out posting a few sample sentences using possessive pronouns for some feedback?
Hola Bertie,
Thank you for your comment.
Yes, the use of the definite article will depend of the context.
Sigamos practicando!
Saludos,
Carla
Team SpanishPod101.com
In the conversation Lizzie used the phrase 'el tuyo' when talking about the glass. However, the other examples don't use the definite article, simply tuyo, mio etc. Is the definite article optional, if not when is it used?
Thanks
Hola William,
Thank you for your comment.
Yes, it can be tricky.
Sigamos practicando!
Saludos,
Carla
Team SpanishPod101.com
De verdad, camisa y polo is tricky since the english Polo word is actually the button up dress shirt. Very interesting
Hi My N,
Thank you for posting!
Please let us know if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
Cristiane
Team Spanishpod101.com
very helpful possessive pronounce!
Hola Kim,
Thank you for your comment.
They are similar and use to give affirmation about something or someone.
e.g.
Es verdad que tu hermana se casa? - Is it true your sister is getting married?
De verdad me gusta el hígado frito. - It's true I like fried liver.
Saludos,
Carla
Team SpanishPod101.com
Is there a difference in meaning or usage between "Es verdad" and "De verdad". It seems like in the last few lessons both have been used to mean something at least very similar... Thanks!
Hola Teresa,
Gracias por tu comentario.
"la" refers to "mochila", Feminine noun.
But yes, you can also say "Esta mochila es tuya."
eg.
"Este carro es el tuyo." or "Este carro es tuyo."
"Esta casa es la tuya." or "Esta casa es tuya."
Saludos,
Carla
Team SpanishPod101.com
Hi
In one of the examples, the translation for "This backpack is yours" is "Esta mochilla es la tuya". I would like to know why is the "la" necessary in front of tuya. Is it wrong to say "Esta mochilla es tuya"?
Hola JungMin,
"créeme" means "trust me"
"me cree" means "you trust"
Can you see the difference?
Saludos,
Carla
Team SpanishPod101.com
When I respond to someone saying "No te creo" to me, why is the correct answer "créeme" and not "me cree"? My logic is that the subject is put before the verb in Spanish so the translation of "(you) trust me" needs to be "me cree" like "me trae el menu". I think it is of the same principle as "digame", which I didn't understand the grammatical mechanism of either. Can you please walk me through the grammar as to why it is "créeme" and not "me cree"?
Hola Robin,
Thank you for sharing your experience learning Spanish.
Stay tuned we have a new lesson for you every week.
Saludos,
Carla
Team SpanishPod101.com
Hi Justin,
Of course there are many theories on the best way to learn a language, (the best probably being total immersion in the culture with a teacher) but key to learning any discipline is practice, review, and exposure. One of the beauties of the 101 system is that the instructors speak naturally,so that you get used to the cadence of the language. They also make it a point to constantly reinforce concepts already learned. You will find as you progress through the courses (I assume the methods will be the same as in the Korean course I took) that they will use less and less English, and you will be following nearly everything they say.
One suggestion for now is to open the PDF and follow along during the lesson. Verbalize the dialogue along with the speakers. Another good trick is to read the PDF in advance and then listen and follow along without looking. Test yourself on the dialogue and the example sentences. Take a quick look, and then try to say them without looking. They are short,so do it multiple times. After completing a rigorous review of the PDF,listen to the lesson one more time, and you will be ready for the next lesson. Since you already have a substantial Spanish vocabulary,find some Spanish material on line with both audio and the written words. The Bible in Bible Gatreway.com is good. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+1&version=NVI. If you like literature, check out http://albalearning.com/ . If you enjoy learning about the culture of the Spanish speaking world, check out http://www.veintemundos.com/en/. For my money the 101 system is the best value out there for learning a language, and supplementing it with some of those other resources, you will find your fluency increasing dramatically in a fairly short period of time.
Hi Justin Hansen,
Thank you for your comments and for sharing your experience with us.
Have you tried practicing your Spanish pronunciation using our recording tool? You can find it at the "lesson materials" > Line by line, and vocabulary list / expansion. [it is a little mic icon, next to the audio]
Let us know if you were able to find it, and your feedback.
About the listening Spanish skills, we recommend you to practice more often (maybe listening to Spanish news).
We have this video series, that will be helpful to improve your listening skills: https://www.spanishpod101.com/index.php?cat=Bonus+Video+Courses
We will consider all your suggestions while working on new lessons and material. Feel free to ask and suggest as often as you wish.
Saludos y gracias!
Laura
Team SpanishPod101.com
Hola Justin,
Thank you for your feedback!
Our team will review your comment to take in count for future lessons.
Gracias!
Carla
Team SpanishPod101.com
Hello, I also wanted to mention that understanding Spanish in a conversation is extremely frustratingly difficult. I took four semesters recently at a community college, I was one of the top students and everyone went to me for help (probably has something to do with being a software engineer and writing code in 10 languages). Anyhow, even this being the case, and knowing the whole language's grammar, when giving a final project in Spanish 4 neither myself, nor anyone in the entire class could even conjugate simple verbs in the present off the top of their head without a major pause and it was very awkward. Even hearing statements in the present when spoken fast I have a really hard time understanding what is being spoken even though I have nearly a 100% memorized understanding of the grammar and a very good vocabulary of which I keep expanding on. After coming back from Barcelona, Spain over New Years I have been spending hours and hours a day going over what I already know, and working with various apps to improve my vocabulary, reading Spanish, and listening to Spanish on the radio here in Southern California.
Still, even though this is all the case, I find it extremely difficult to understand spoken Spanish when spoken really fast (at normal speed).
Does anyone have any suggestions or can you comment on this?
Thanks a lot!
Hello, I just finished this lesson and as was recommended I wanted to post some important feedback. First of all this is really great material. I do, however, think that it would be better to have less overall lessons because it is too spread out. I also think the material should more closely follow the PDF (there is too much deviation).
Also, more importantly, I think the biggest flaw in this system is that there is no opportunity to say the word in Spanish immediately after the speaker is done in the main audio. I think saying the English and then saying the Spanish is a horrible idea. There needs to be repetition immediately after the speaker integrated into the main audio (not like in the absolute beginner lessons).
Hola Marie,
Thank you for your feedback!
We have fixed it.
Gracias,
Carla
Team SpanishPod101.com
Hello,
Estoy disfrutando sus lecciónes! (I am enjoying your lessons!) I realized there is a typo in the Lesson Notes on page 5. It says the plural possessive pronoun "ours" is "nusctros" instead of "nuestros." It had me very confused until I heard Lisy say the correct form.
Gracias!
Marie