Learn about abstract nouns of quality
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Lizzie: Sean todos bienvenidos soy Lizzie. |
| Allan: Allan here. The other path. Hey, Lizzie, today it’s a good day. |
| Lizzie: Why especially today? |
| Allan: Well because, Lizzie, our subject of study today demonstrates something. |
| Lizzie: What’s that? |
| Allan: That our students have reached another level, that’s right, today’s topic could be covered without our coverage of the fundamentals first. |
| Lizzie: Why? What are we studying today? |
| Allan: Well, today we are going to be looking at abstract nouns of quality in our grammar section. |
| Lizzie: I understand now without covering what nouns are, we wouldn’t be able to move to nouns of quality. |
| Allan: That’s right. |
| Lizzie: In this lesson, you will learn about a very interesting economist from Peru, Hernando de Soto. The conversation takes place in a café here, in Lima. |
| Allan: In it, Claudia and Jorge talk about the book and the author. |
| Lizzie: The speakers are friends therefore they will be speaking informally. |
| Allan: And hey, speaking of economists, this year Lima, well Peru really, is going to welcome the APEC World Conference. That’s the Asia Pacific Economic Forum so dignitaries and leaders from dozens of countries are going to be descending on Peru. We’re very, very excited about it here well its certainly keeping us busy at my Spanish school El Sol, in Miraflores Lima, with lots of the diplomats coming in a little bit earlier just to brush up on their Spanish. Ok, well, let’s move on and let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| JORGE: Claudia, creo que me quiero cambiar de carrera. Acabo de leer 'El otro sendero' y, pucha, quiero ser economista. |
| CLAUDIA: 'El otro sendero'... me parece que fue escrito por Hernán de Soto, ¿no es verdad? |
| JORGE: Así es. |
| CLAUDIA: Para ser franca, te comento que hace tiempo intenté leerlo, pero me pareció aburrido. ¿De qué se trata? |
| JORGE: ¿¡Aburrido!? ¡Oye, no te pases! ¿Sabes qué? En este libro, De Soto describe detalladamente cómo la clase baja peruana se hizo presente en el mercado siguiendo el camino de la informalidad. |
| CLAUDIA: ¿La informalidad? |
| JORGE: Claro. Ponte a pensar en Wilson o mejor aún en La Cachina. Lo que vemos aquí es la expresión revolucionaria de los pobres de este país, a los cuales no les quedaría otra, si no siguieran el sendero informal. |
| CLAUDIA: Asu... es interesante lo que me cuentas, pero de hecho tendría que leerlo yo misma para opinar. |
| JORGE: Claudia, I think I have to change my career. I've just read 'The Other Path' and, man!, I want to be an economist. |
| CLAUDIA: 'The Other Path'... I think it was written by Hernán de Soto, isn't that right? |
| JORGE: That's right. |
| CLAUDIA: To be frank, I'll tell you that a while back I tried to read it, but it seems boring to me. What's it about? |
| JORGE: Boring?! Hey, don't go overboard! You know what? In this book, De Soto describes in detail how the lower class of Peru made itself present in the market by following the road of informality. |
| CLAUDIA: Informality? |
| JORGE: Of course. Just think about Wilson, or even better, La Cachina. What we see here is the revolutionary expression of the poor people of this country, whom would not be left with any other option, if they didn't follow the informal path. |
| CLAUDIA: Wow... what you're saying is interesting, but I'd really have to read it myself in order to give my opinion. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Lizzie: Allan, have you read El otro sendero, ‘The other path’? |
| Allan: You know, to be honest, Lizzie, I haven’t read the book but I’ve read an awful lot about the book so I’m very familiar with the argument and I agree with it. But a book I did read recently by the same economist ,Hernando de Soto, is a book called the mystery of capital and he makes a really interesting argument there. He says that Peru and countries like Peru, developing nations, shouldn’t necessarily be considered as poor as they are because there is awful lot of hidden, sleeping capital, now by this he means that, for example in Lima. there are many people who have built their homes on land that they invaded in the massive land invasions in the 1970s. So here people have built a home on land of which they don’t have clear legal title, so this makes it very difficult for them to sell the land and it makes it very difficult, impossible for them to use that land and as a collateral for a loan. So what he says is we have to find a way to formalize their title of the land and that will give them capital overnight. |
| Lizzie: Yes, that’s right. There are a million of people living that way here, in Peru. |
| Allan: That’s right, millions. Just around Lima there’s a ton of what we call here pueblos jovenes, also known as maybe “shanty towns”. And that’s the scenario, people don’t own the land that they’re living on but they do own the house. Ok, now’s the time to move on to the vocabulary section of today’s lesson guide. Here we’re going to break these words down and give you some key points. Listen closely. First we have an adjective. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Lizzie: aburrido, aburrida |
| Allan: Boring. |
| Lizzie: aburrido, aburrida, aburrido, aburrida |
| Allan: As in the example… |
| Lizzie:La película estuvo bien aburrida, dormí rico. |
| Allan: “The movie was really boring, I slept great.” Now next up we have a feminine noun. |
| Lizzie: informalidad |
| Allan: Informality. |
| Lizzie: informalidad, informalidad |
| Allan: As in the example… |
| Lizzie:En el mercado peruano existe un porcentaje sorprendente de la informalidad. |
| Allan: “In the Peruvian market there’s a surprising percentage of informality.” Ok, again a feminine noun. |
| Lizzie: economista |
| Allan: Economist. |
| Lizzie: economista, economista |
| Allan: As in the example… |
| Lizzie: Los economistas reunidos en una conferencia sobre el acuerdo de libre comercio. |
| Allan: “The economists gathered in a conference about the free trade agreement.” This time we’ll look at a masculine noun.. |
| Lizzie: mercado |
| Allan: Market. |
| Lizzie: mercado, mercado |
| Allan: As in the example… |
| Lizzie: El mercado está alla. |
| Allan: “The market is over there.” Now this time, an adjective. |
| Lizzie: mismo, misma |
| Allan: Same. |
| Lizzie: mismo, misma, mismo, misma |
| Allan: As in the example… |
| Lizzie: Ellos tienen mismo profesor. |
| Allan: “They have the same professor.” And finally, another adjective. |
| Lizzie: revolucionario, revolucionaria |
| Allan: Revolutionary. |
| Lizzie: revolucionario, revolucionaria, revolucionario, revolucionaria |
| Allan: As in the example… |
| Lizzie: Ellos pertenecen al movimiento revolucionario. |
| Allan: They belong to the revolutionary movement. |
| Lizzie: Ahora a escoger la palabra. |
| Allan: Ok, guys, I think the word to pay particular attention to is revolucionario,. Notice that when you begin a word with an R, the R takes on that rolling sound, RRR, so it’s revolucionario, not revolucionario,. That, my friends, would be gringo speech. |
| Lizzie: revolucionario |
| Allan: Ok. Let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrase from this lesson. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Lizzie: You know, our lessons are never boring but out first word is aburrido. |
| Allan: And this means “boring” or “bored”. |
| Lizzie: Comes from the verb aburrir, “to bore”, “to get bored”. |
| Allan: For example? |
| Lizzie: Por ejemplo, es un libro aburrido. It’s a boring book. |
| Allan: You hear that audience? Pay attention to the sound of the double R. aburrido |
| Lizzie: aburrido |
| Allan: Practice that a little and soon you will be rolling your Rs with the best of them. |
| Lizzie: What’s our next word? |
| Allan: economista |
| Lizzie: economista |
| Allan: This is an interesting word because it is both a masculine and feminine noun that means “economist”. |
| Lizzie: That’s right, don’t get confused with that A ending. We would say Marcos es economista, como tambien Maria es economista.. |
| Allan: Exactly. See? Both feminine and masculine. |
| Lizzie: Let’s relate this word to the feminine noun, la economia. |
| Allan: And don’t forget the adjective economico. |
| Lizzie: La palabra próxima. |
| Allan: Next word, mercado. |
| Lizzie: Not a new one. We know that mercado is “a market”. |
| Allan: Right, like supermercado, “a supermarket”. |
| Lizzie: Right, but today we also see that the masculine noun mercado means “market” in the financial sense as well. |
| Allan: Don’t even get me started on the financial markets. |
| Lizzie: I won’t so let’s move on |
| Allan: Mismo. |
| Lizzie: Mismo. |
| Allan: This adjective can be a little tricky. We’ve seen before that it means “the same”. |
| Lizzie: Like Tenemos el mismo profesor. |
| Allan: “We have the same professor.” But we saw it used differently today, didn’t we, Liz? |
| Lizzie: Yes. Today we see that it could mean “self” as in yo mismo. |
| Allan: I, myself. |
| Lizzie: Tendria que leerlo yo mismo. |
| Allan: “I would have to read it for myself.” Now, the next one is a pretty cool word. |
| Lizzie: revolucionario |
| Allan: revolucionario This adjective means “revolutionary”. |
| Lizzie: Let’s relate it to la revolucion, “revolution”, and the verb revolucionar, “to revolutionize”. But remember that the adjective revolucionario is often used as a noun in which in this case it means a revolutionary person un rebelde, “a rebel”. |
| Allan: And who would be the rebels at SpanishPod101.com? |
| Lizzie: Us, of course. |
| Allan: Right, of course. |
| Lizzie: Ok, Allan, what grammar are we going to study today? |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Allan: Abstract nouns of quality. |
| Lizzie: Thanks for being clear. |
| Allan: Well, the more familiar you become with nouns in Spanish, the easier it will be for you to intuit words which you are not completely sure about. At least that’s what I found in my own learning experience. |
| Lizzie: How did you become more familiar? |
| Allan: Personally, by learning some general rules about the formation of nouns and that helped me become a better gambler, so to speak. That’s when you begin to step forth and start speaking Spanish without translating it from your native languages, but you’re taking a couple of chances. |
| Lizzie: That must have been a fun milestone. |
| Allan: Well, it was Lizzie and it just feed my desire to learn more. |
| Lizzie: Hear that, audience? Get to that point. We are here to help you get there. Allan? |
| Allan: Yes. |
| Lizzie: What are abstract nouns of quality? |
| Allan: Well, these are related to adjectives and they designate qualities or properties of people, places or things. Like, for example, informalidad, “informality”, which is the quality of being informal, “informal”. |
| Lizzie: Ok. |
| Allan: Now, another example can be found in the abstract noun of quality sensatez, which means “sensibility”, from the adjective sensato, “sensible”. And yet another example is seen in the case of inteligencia, “intelligence”, which comes from inteligente, “intelligent”. |
| Lizzie: Ok, that’s clear. Get that, audience? |
| Allan: Of course, all abstract nouns of quality cannot be classified into these three categories but a pretty good number of them can. |
| Lizzie: How do we form abstract nouns of quality exactly? |
| Allan: Ok, well they’re formed in different ways. Abstract nouns of quality are formed with the ending DAD, D-A-D, or TAD, T-A-D. |
| Lizzie: Ok, so like maldad, “evilness”, from the adjective mal, “evil”. |
| Allan: Or posibilidad, “possibility”, from the adjective posible, “possible”. |
| Lizzie: Or lealtad, “loyalty”, from the adjective leal, “loyal”. |
| Allan: They can also be formed with the ending EZ, which is spelled E-Z. |
| Lizzie: Like brillantes, “brightness”, from the adjective brillante, “bright”. |
| Allan: Or escasez, “scarcity”, from the adjective escaso, escasa which means “scarce”. |
| Lizzie: sencillez, “simplicity”, from the adjective sencillo, sencilla “simple”/ |
| Allan: Abstract nouns of quality can also end with CIA, C-I-A. |
| Lizzie: Like democracia, “democracy”, from the adjective democráto, democrata which means “democratic”. |
| Allan: Or urgencia, “urgency”, from the adjective urgente, “urgent”. |
| Lizzie: Or emergencia, “emergency”, from the adjective emergente, “emerging”. |
| Allan: Wow, that’s a lot of examples. |
| Lizzie: That’s right. Nos quedan muchas posibilidades. |
| Allan: That’s right, we’re left with a lot of possibilities. Let’s use some in sentences. |
| Lizzie: La lealtad de los socios creció entre más trabajaron juntos. |
| Allan: The partner’s loyalty grew the longer they worked together. |
| Lizzie: La brillantez en la mañana campesina suscitó en mí un sentimiento profundo de nostalgia. |
| Allan: “The brightness of morning in the countryside gave rise to a deep feeling of nostalgia in me.” Wow, that’s a nice example. Very visual. |
| Lizzie: How about: La escasez de agua, causó un pánico en la ciudad. |
| Allan: “The water scarcity caused a panic in the city.” Well, not as poetic, I think, as the first example. |
| Lizzie: Me gusta tu sencillez Allan La Reu. |
| Allan: I guess that could be taken either as a compliment or an insult. I don’t think I would like to be called simple. |
| Lizzie: ¿Me permite usar el teléfono? Es una urgencia. |
| Allan: “May I use the phone? It’s an urgency” or “It’s urgent”. Now, there’s a perfect example to use when you are in a place without a cell and you have to make a call. |
| Lizzie: ¡Ven, apurate! Es una emergencia! |
| Allan: “Come on, hurry up! It’s an emergency!” Which is what you would say when they are hesitating to give you their phone. |
| Lizzie: Notice that all of these abstract nouns of quality are feminine. |
| Allan: Yes, but this is not always the case. |
| Lizzie: True, but with words that take the endings covered here, DAD, TAD, EZ, CIA, as a general rule of thumb you can expect them to be feminine. |
| Allan: There are other types of noun that can be studied in relation with these, Lizzie, such as primitive noun and derived nouns. An example of this could be seen in the noun pan, “bread”, which is primitive. |
| Lizzie: Whereas panadero, “baker”, and panadería, “bakery”, are derived. |
| Allan: Yeah. This subject may seem a little complicated though. |
| Lizzie: But like we said earlier, there will come a time when learning these rules will come in handy. |
| Allan: And let me share this with you audience - when you pass over that hump of understanding, there are a few better feelings. It’s really empowering. |
| Lizzie: Time for the Tarea. |
Outro |
| Allan: That’s right, before we wrap up for today, it’s time to assign today’s homework. |
| Lizzie: In today’s grammar point, we covered abstract nouns of quality and showed how this can be formed by starting with the adjective form and adding N ending. |
| Allan: So, here’s what you have to do. We’re going to give you five words and abstract nouns of quality in English, and your job is to figure out the adjectives in Spanish and then choose the correct ending. Ready? |
| Lizzie: Ahi vamos. Numero uno Sickness, numero dos happiness, numero tres urgency, numero cuatro truth, numero cinco evilness. |
| Allan: And remember, overachievers, you can always check out the answers and the comments on the answers by downloading the premium audio track titled Tarea, which means “homework.” Well, that just about does it for today. Nos vemos pronto. |
| Lizzie: Hasta prontito. Chao. |
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