Learn about using the subjunctive tense
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Lizzie: Hola hola, soy Lizzie. |
| Allan: Hey everybody, I’m Allan. Love in the time of cholera. Lizzie, today's topic is an awesome one - la literatura. |
| Lizzie: Wow, la literatura! |
| Allan: And we’d like to thank one of our students, Mariposa, for offering the suggestion. And to the rest of you we just want to remind you that if you have a topic you’d like us to cover, just make a request in the forum. In that way, you can have some customized lessons too. |
| Lizzie: Oye, Allan a propósito, ¿viste la pelicula que hicieron sobre El amor en los tiempos del colera? |
| Allan: Did I see the movie El amor en los tiempos del colera? No, I must admit I have not seen that movie even though it has been sitting on my shelf for the last couple of weeks. What about you? |
| Lizzie: Bueno realmente si pero… no me capturo tanto como el libro. |
| Allan: You didn’t like it as much as the book? I guess that’s a common thing. Well, anyway we’re going to cover this in today’s conversation. We run in to Ana and Jose. Ana is reading the book “Love in the time of cholera” by the Nobel prize-winning author from Columbia, Gabriel García Márquez. |
| Lizzie: ¿Y que vamos a estudiar? |
| Allan: Well, aside from a fascinating vocabulary list, we’re going to continue our study on the sequence of tenses. |
| Lizzie: Muy bien pero muy bien. Es un tema importantísimo. |
| Allan: It’s super important. And now, guys, it’s time to open up your pdf and get ready to follow along. As always we’re gonna start up by listening to a lesson conversation in Spanish at normal speed, then slowly, and then bilingually. |
| Lizzie: In the PDF be sure to follow along in the transcripts. |
| Allan: That’s right, guys. So much of the learning in Spanish is learning to associate the sound of a word with its written counterpart. Alright, Lizzie, it’s about that time. |
| Lizzie: Yes, listen closely to the following conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| JOSÉ: Hola, Anita. ¿Qué estás leyendo? |
| ANA: Ah, una novela. Se llama 'El amor en los tiempos del cólera'. |
| JOSÉ: ¡Ah, mira tú! Te gustan las obras de Gabriel García Márquez, ¿no? |
| ANA: Bueno, de hecho no soy fanática del realismo mágico, sin embargo, por lo que he leído, es posible que este libro cambie mi opinión. |
| JOSÉ: No lo dudo. Tiene sus poderes. Además, es una de sus obras maestras. |
| ANA: Así dicen, ¿no? |
| JOSÉ: Hey there, Annie. What are ya' reading? |
| ANA: Ah, a novel. It's called 'Love in the Time of Cholera'. |
| JOSÉ: Wow, look at you! You like Gabriel García Márquez's work, huh? |
| ANA: Well, I'm not much of a fan of Magical Realism, however, from what I've read, this book may possibly change my opinion. |
| JOSÉ: I don't doubt it. It has its powers. What's more, it's one of his masterpieces. |
| ANA: So they say, right? |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Allan: Well, Lizzie, I haven’t read that book but I’ve read “100 years of solitude” and this whole issue of magical realism. That’s when they take time ,a historical time and mix in magical elements, It’s very, very dream-like. Frankly, I just I can’t wrap my arms around it, I can’t sink my teeth in to it. What about you? Do you like it? |
| Lizzie: Este… veo que eres más de las obras literarias que van a la realidad. Bueno a mi sinceramente me gusta más la literatura romántica, Allan. |
| Allan: Oh, you’re just a hopeless romantic. You’re right, I’m more for the realism. Ok, friends, but enough about us. O=n to the vocabulary. Here we’re going to break down these words syllable by syllable, so that you can hear exactly how each word sounds. |
| Lizzie: Vamos |
| Allan: So let’s begin with… |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Lizzie: cólera |
| Allan: Cholera, anger. |
| Lizzie: cólera, cólera |
| Allan: Ok, next we’ll hear… |
| Lizzie: obra |
| Allan: Work. |
| Lizzie: obra, obra |
| Allan: Ok, good. Now we’ll listen to… |
| Lizzie: fanático, fanática |
| Allan: Fan, fanatic. |
| Lizzie: fanático, fanática, fanático, fanática |
| Allan: Now we have… |
| Lizzie: realismo |
| Allan: Realism. |
| Lizzie: realismo, realismo |
| Allan: And then… |
| Lizzie: mágico, mágica |
| Allan: Magical. |
| Lizzie: mágico, mágica, mágico, mágica |
| Allan: And finally… |
| Lizzie: poder |
| Allan: Power. |
| Lizzie: poder, poder |
| Allan: Ok, friends, time for a very quick pronunciation tip. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Lizzie: A ver. |
| Allan: Estudiemos la pronunciación de la palabra cólera. |
| Lizzie: cólera |
| Allan: Now, guys, this is a cognate which means that it’s kind of a freebee word. I mean it means the same in Spanish as it does in English, but there’s only one big difference - and that the way it's pronounced. Listen to the Spanish - cólera. |
| Lizzie: cólera |
| Allan: Spelled with a C-O with and accent over it, L-E-R-A. |
| Lizzie: cólera |
| Allan: Notice we’re not pronouncing this O sound like the open A of cholera. It’s got to be the very deep O of cholera. |
| Lizzie: cólera Muy bien ahora al vocabulario. |
| Allan: Cool, we’ve got a nice set of words to study today. Let’s start by adding just one more thing about the word cholera. |
| Lizzie: Adelante |
| Allan: bueno por un lado se refiere a la enfermedad cólera pero por otro lado significa ira. |
| Lizzie: como por ejemplo: eso me da cólera. |
| Allan: Right, while we take this word as a cognate in the sense that Adelante and “cholera” both refer to the sickness, the Spanish word can also be used to express anger, and it’s really common. So this expression that Lizzie just gave us, me da cólera really shows how this second meaning is put to use. |
| Lizzie: ¿Algo más, Allan este...acerca de esta palabra? |
| Allan: Well, guys, just remember that you need to put the accent over the O. It’s not optional. |
| Lizzie: Muy bien. Ahora prosigamos al vocablo obra. |
| Allan: Obra. Lizzie, where did we hear this in today’s conversation? |
| Lizzie: cuando José pregunta: Te gustan las obras de Gabriel García Márquez, ¿no? |
| Allan: Ok, so that was translated as “You like Gabriel García Márquez’s work, huh?” |
| Lizzie: Wait, you’re translating obra as “work”. |
| Allan: You got it. |
| Lizzie: But don’t we use trabajo to mean “work”. |
| Allan: Well, sometimes obra refers to an artistic word that’s why we say obra maestra and translate it as “masterpiece”. |
| Lizzie: Pero a veces cuando están arreglando una calle levantan un letrero que dice: ¡Cuidado! Obras. No me vayas a decir que estamos hablando de la misma obra. |
| Allan: Ok, point taken. So we should also add that obras usually in the plural in the sense is also used to mark out a construction site. You might see a sign that says ¡Cuidado! ¡Obras!, so that just means something like “Careful! Men at work!” |
| Lizzie: Men at work, wow! Eso me recuerda a un grupo Australiano de música muy bueno. ¿Seguimos a la proxima palabra? |
| Allan: Con gusto. Ahora enfoquemos en la palabra realismo. |
| Lizzie: realismo |
| Allan: Alright, Lizzie, what’s the root of this word? I mean what word can we recognize in it? |
| Lizzie: real |
| Allan: Right, spelled the same in English and Spanish. Pronounced “real” in English and real in Spanish. Now, after this root we see the ending ismo, which coincides perfectly with the English ending ISM. |
| Lizzie: How does this change the meaning of “real”? |
| Allan: Well. when we add the ending or suffix ismo to a word we’re talking about a doctrine or a theory related to it. among other things of course. |
| Lizzie: So what’s the doctrine or theory here? |
| Allan: Well, in the conversation we hear the phrase realismo mágico, which of course is a literary genre and we translate this as magical realism. So, in this case, we’re talking about a whole set of tenets related to this literary school of thought. For example in the works of Gabriel Garcia Marquez it’s often the case that everything seems to be happening as it would in real life, then all of a sudden something magical or absolutely illogical just happens. |
| Lizzie: So when we say realismo mágico, we’re talking about a story that follows the scheme. |
| Allan: That’s right. But going back to the formation, this suffix is used all the time. For example, another literary genre – modernism. Lizzie how would we say “modernism” in Spanish? |
| Lizzie: sería modernismo |
| Allan: And what about “romanticism”? |
| Lizzie: romanticismo |
| Allan: So/ guys/ this is one of the formations you can really fake it if you’re not sure. |
| Lizzie: What? |
| Allan: No, I’m serious. You’re never going to be old to remember every word you learn, so it’s a big part of building your vocabulary this trick of just learning how to intuit the formation of a word. |
| Lizzie: Buen consejo. |
| Allan: That’s right. So, guys, last word - poder. |
| Lizzie: Como por ejemplo, tiene sus poderes. |
| Allan: “It has its powers.” Now, you may be thinking poder, I know this one. It means “to be able” or “can”. What are we going over this again for? Again, why? But I have to warn you, we’re not looking at a verb here. |
| Lizzie: No señor. Aquí la palabra poder es un sustantivo. |
| Allan: That’s right, and we recall that sustantivo means noun. So that’s right, the word poder can also be used as a noun, and as such it would mean “power”. |
| Lizzie: Sometimes when we use a verb as a noun it can sound very poetic. |
| Allan: I think you’re right, Lizzie. But can you give us an example of what you mean? |
| Lizzie: Por ejemplo… los poetas siempre hablan de sus pesares. |
| Allan: Good one. So as a verb pesar, on one hand means “to weigh” or “to be heavy”, but on the other hand it means “to regret”. And when we use this as a noun as in: el corazón es un refugio de mis pesares, we tend to translate this plural noun as “sorrows”, so we would get “my heart is a refuge of my sorrows”. |
| Lizzie: Or one more example of this is deber. |
| Allan: That’s probably a more common one in spoken Spanish. We know that the verb deber means “should” or “ought”, but when we use it as a noun it means “duty”. |
| Lizzie: Asi es. |
| Allan: Ok, Lizzie, you mentioned earlier that you had read el amor en los tiempos de cólera. What did you think of it? |
| Lizzie: Ay Allan, me impacto muchisimo. |
| Allan: Very, very strong impact. ¿Y qué fue lo que más te gusto? |
| Lizzie: Bueno ya que estábamos hablando del realismo mágico, en cada página puedes descubrir algo nuevo y eso te va a atrapar. |
| Allan: That’s right, that was a book full of surprises but, hey, it’s the matter of taste. Ok, friends, let’s switch gears. Now and focus on today’s grammar topic now last time we looked at the infamous sequence of tenses, which is really just a fancy way to describe how we move from one mood to another in compound sentences. |
| Lizzie: Y hoy Allan ¿qué estamos estudiando? |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Allan: Well, I want to build on this topic a little more since it’s so common and since it came up again in today’s conversation. |
| Lizzie: Buena idea, puede ser un poco complicado este tema ¿no? |
| Allan: Puede ser, pero bueno vayamos al grano. Lizzie, can you repeat the sentence where this came up? |
| Lizzie: Anita says: es posible que este libro cambie mi opinión. |
| Allan: “This book may possibly change my opinion.” Ok, how many verbs do we have here? |
| Lizzie: Dos |
| Allan: ¿Y cuáles son? |
| Lizzie: They are es and cambie. |
| Allan: Let’s start with the verb es. What’s this verb in the infinitive? |
| Lizzie: It’s ser. |
| Allan: And what’s the person and number of this verb form es. |
| Lizzie: It’s the third person singular. |
| Allan: Ok, here’s the big question: what’s the mood of this verb here? |
| Lizzie: Es el modo indicativo. The indicative mood . |
| Allan: Great. So here we have the clause es posible que. Literally “It’s possible that. Now, guys, here’s a little trick. |
| Lizzie: Another one of Allan’s secret tips. |
| Allan: Whenever you see this phrase, es posible que, the verb in the following clause is always going to be formed in the subjunctive mood. I’m going to repeat that when you see this phrase es posible que, the verb in the following clause is always, always going to be formed in the subjunctive mood. So let’s take a look and see just how this happens. Lizzie, could you repeat the entire question one more time? |
| Lizzie: es posible que este libro cambie mi opinión. |
| Allan: So after the phrase es posible que, we have the clause este libro cambie mi opinión. So what’s the verb here? |
| Lizzie: El verbo es cambie. |
| Allan: And the person in tense? |
| Lizzie: Tercera persona singular. |
| Allan: Ok, third person singular, cambie. Now, the big question again, what’s the mood of this verb? |
| Lizzie: Esta vez es el modo subjuntivo. |
| Allan: Ah, the subjunctive mood. So, again, the verb in the first clause is in the indicative mood es posible que, and the verb in the second clause or the subordinated clause is the subjunctive mood. este libro cambie mi opinión. |
| Lizzie: bueno imagino que ya quieren saber por que usamos el modo subjuntivo aquí. |
| Allan: You’re probably right. Guys, we tend to use the subjunctive mood after a clause that expresses possibility or doubt. |
| Lizzie: Claro. Por eso podríamos decir: dudo que ese libre cambie mi opinion. |
| Allan: Exactly. And this means “I doubt this book will change my opinion”. |
| Lizzie: Bueno Allan hoy ya hemos conversado sobre la obra de Gabriel García Márquez. |
| Allan: Oh well, gosh, I have to say Mario Vargas Llosa, the famous Peruvian writer. Wonderful, wonderful stuff. I think we will be talking of him in a future lesson, but you know me Liz I’m more of a… I’m more to the realism so I read a lot of non-fiction. I just read a wonderful book by Andrés Oppenheimer, who’s a journalist. He lives in Miami but he writes in Spanish wonderful book called Cuentos chinos, and it’s about the rise of China mostly and the effect it’s going to have on south America. He really takes a swing at Chavez and Venezuela. And then another book I’m looking at is by a local journalist called Jaime de Althaus. And it’s about capitalism in Peru, probably not that fun. But hey, I enjoy it. To each his own. |
| Lizzie: Y a ami aunque me gusta más leer sobre metafísica y romance debo decir que hay dos autores latinoamericanos que me atrapan: Paulo Coelho y José Ingenieros de Argentina. |
| Allan: Great guys too. |
| Lizzie: Bueno hasta aqui llegamos por hoy chicos chicas. |
Outro |
| Allan: Alright, guys, so this is as far as we go today. Now a couple of suggestions. If it seems like we went just a little fast for you, try playing this podcast from the beginning again. |
| Lizzie: That’s all. Cuidense, chao. |
| Allan: That’s right, guys. Thanks so much for joining us for this highbrow lesson where we dealt with literature. |
| Lizzie: Hoy estamos muy literarios. |
| Allan: That’s right. We’ll see you guys soon. Have fun. Bye. |
| Lizzie: Chao! |
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