Learn about using the verbs “decir” (to say) and “sugerir” (to suggest)
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Natalia: Buenos días, soy Natalia. |
| Carlos: What’s going on? My name is Carlos. “Understand me, I want to promote your culture.” What’s going on pod101world? With me as always is second part of this dynamic duo, Natalia. Naty, how are you doing today? |
| Natalia: I am doing wonderful Carlos, I’m really happy. |
| Carlos: Very good Naty, I like it when you are happy. |
| Natalia: Estoy muy contenta. |
| Carlos: Naty, I only have a couple of weeks left on my visa. |
| Natalia: Where are you going now this time? |
| Carlos: I don’t know, maybe Nicaragua. I have a friend who has family out there and they said that I could stay with them. |
| Natalia: Aren’t you lucky, Carlitos? |
| Carlos: Oh man, I thought you were going to waste that example on the intro. |
| Natalia: I wouldn’t dream of it. |
| Carlos: Good, but you know what? I am thinking Nicaragua and other than that I’ll go back to the States for Thanksgiving and Christmas so I’ll be getting plenty of stamps on my passport. |
| Natalia: But you have to be careful, they might start getting curious when they see it all filled up. |
| Carlos: Trust me I have already thought about that okay, they already look at me weird when I arrive across the border. So is Ana still having trouble? |
| Natalia: A little but I think she is going to solve it today. |
| Carlos: Good for her. You know customs is never a place you want to be in too long. At that point you are so close yet so far. |
| Natalia: Don’t talk to me about customs. |
| Carlos: Sounds like you had a bad experience. |
| Natalia: Carlos, you have no idea. |
| Carlos: Why don’t you tell us later? |
| Natalia: I think, I’ll think about it, I’ll think about it. |
| Carlos: When then I look forward to it. |
| Natalia: Carlos. |
| Carlos: What? |
| Natalia: I say we get into today’s conversation. |
| Carlos: Okay, so before we do, listen up guys, time to get up today’s lesson in your pdf reader and read along with us. This way you can get the audio and the visual. |
| DIALOGUE |
| OFICIAL: Pasaporte. |
| ANA: Aquí tiene. |
| OFICIAL: Veo que usted ha pasado un buen tiempo aquí en Costa Rica. ¿Qué es lo que hace? |
| ANA: Estoy realizando una investigación sobre la literatura costarricense. Soy escritora. |
| OFICIAL: Le voy a dar treinta días más. |
| ANA: Pero, oficial, he tratado de tramitar una visa de investigadora y el director de aduanas me sugirió que cruzara la frontera nomás. Me dijo que más facil es así. Entiéndame, quiero promover su cultura. |
| OFICIAL: Bueno, le doy noventa. Suerte. ¡El próximo! |
| OFICIAL: Passport. |
| ANA: Here you go. |
| OFICIAL: I see that you have spent quite a bit of time here in Costa Rica. What is it that you do? |
| ANA: I'm carrying out research about Costa Rican literature. I'm a writer. |
| OFICIAL: I am going to give you thirty more days. |
| ANA: But, officer, I have tried to process a Researcher's Visa, and the director of Customs suggested that I just cross the border. He told me that it's easier this way. Understand me - I want to promote your culture. |
| OFICIAL: Fine. I'll give you ninety. Good luck. Next! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Carlos: You know I think Ana is being a little honest, I mean do you think an official would actually be like, just cross the border I mean, really you can’t really say that. I remember when I crossed the border, they asked me what I do for a living, I said I was a teacher and they were like “do you have permission to work in Costa Rica?” and I’m like, “I’m a teacher in the United States”, it’s our summer vacation. |
| Natalia: Exactly, they just are picky and they are just looking to see if they can get you in a lie. |
| Carlos: Well, really and they try. Like you know, I feel good because I’m not taking any jobs away from Costa Ricans other than you and you can’t really do my job. |
| Natalia: Humm? |
| Carlos: Like the whole point of it is I’m not legally, I’m not able to work here but I’m not taking a job away from a Costa Rican. |
| Natalia: I know. |
| Carlos: So... |
| Natalia: Carlos, you would need to speak fluent Spanish to… |
| Carlos: To take a job from a Costa Rican? |
| Natalia: Yes. |
| Carlos: Well, I could always work in an English school or a call center. |
| Natalia: No, you know what? Even those places, you still need a little bit of Spanish. |
| Carlos: But I have a little bit of Spanish. Okay, you know what, Naty? Now that we’ve gotten to the... |
| Natalia: I’m not going to talk about it. |
| Carlos: Miau miau miau miau… (sings) |
| Natalia: Carlos, okay we lost him, we lost him, cut the cord. |
| Carlos: Okay, now that we’ve gone through the conversation, let’s go through the vocabulary. |
| Natalia: Yes, that sounds like a good idea. |
| Carlos: Alright, so we move on to the vocabulary section of today’s pdf lesson guide. Now we are going to start off with a verb. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Natalia: “Realizar”. |
| Carlos: “To carry out.” |
| Natalia: “Re-a-li-zar”, “realizar”. |
| Carlos: Next up we have a feminine noun. |
| Natalia: “Investigación”. |
| Carlos: “Investigation”, “research.” |
| Natalia: “In-ves-ti-ga-ción”, “investigación”. |
| Carlos: Then we have a verb. |
| Natalia: “Tramitar”. |
| Carlos: “To process.” |
| Natalia: “Tra-mi-tar”, “tramitar”. |
| Carlos: Alright, then we have a plural feminine noun. |
| Natalia: “Aduanas”. |
| Carlos: “Customs.” |
| Natalia: “A-dua-nas”, “aduanas”. |
| Carlos: Then up we have a verb. |
| Natalia: “Promover”. |
| Carlos: “To promote.” |
| Natalia: “Pro-mo-ver”, “promover”. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Carlos: Alright, next up we have a feminine noun and also an interjection. |
| Natalia: “Suerte”. |
| Carlos: “Luck.” “Good luck.” |
| Natalia: “Suer-te”, “suerte”. |
| Carlos: Here we go with some of the pronunciations Naty’s got an {inaudible 03:34} so she’s jumping around. |
| Natalia: I know, I know, but these are quite easy. I trust your Spanish, go. |
| Carlos: “Realizar”, “investigación”, “tramitar”, “aduanas”, “promover”, “suerte”. |
| Natalia: Okay, so me, I’m dying to get into a more advanced… |
| Carlos: She’s dying. |
| Natalia: [Laughs] Carlos, what’s with the sound effects? |
| Carlos: I don’t know, I’m in a happy mood man. |
| Natalia: Carlos, I think you drank too much coffee or something. |
| Carlos: You called me this morning and I was like “hi!” |
| Natalia: I know! I was like, why are you so cheerful? |
| Carlos: I was like “sunny day”. |
| Natalia: I know. You know he’s the kind of person that gets so happy you just want to smack him. |
| Carlos: And she has. Now listen Naty, I paid attention to the list. You aren’t fooling me with “realizar”. |
| Natalia: Good catch on the false friend. |
| Carlos: No, I mean really, it isn’t a quick jump to think it meant “to realize.” |
| Natalia: No, it’s not. It means “to carry out” or “to make manifest.” |
| Carlos: Okay wait, there really isn’t completely a false friend, I mean not really completely. |
| Natalia: ¿Por qué? |
| Carlos: Porque another definition of “realize” is to cause something to happen and I think that is similar to carrying out something or making it manifest. |
| Natalia: Well, I see your point but let’s look at an example regardless you know? “He realizado muchos proyectos este año”. |
| Carlos: “I have carried out many projects this year.” Isn’t that the truth. |
| Natalia: Audience, Carlos is what you might call a workaholic. |
| Carlos: It takes one to know one, Natalia. |
| Natalia: [Laughs] I know. I know, it’s been a lot of work lately. |
| Carlos: Now the next word, I can say can be trusted completely. |
| Natalia: “Investigación”. |
| Carlos: Yes, yes. “Investigation.” |
| Natalia: Or “research” and “un investigador” and “una investigadora” are “researchers.” |
| Carlos: Okay Naty, can you use it in a sentence for us, please? |
| Natalia: Okay. “Es una investigación sobre la educación primaria”. |
| Carlos: “It’s an investigation about primary education”, that’s kind of like my thesis. You know Naty, I was so happy when I was finished with that thing. |
| Natalia: I bet. |
| Carlos: It was a big process. |
| Natalia: That would have been a good leading to “tramitar” but sadly while it doesn’t use to process, here it is being used in the sense of processing a visa. |
| Carlos: Aaah gracias for clarifying. |
| Natalia: “¿Recuerdas cuando tramitamos tu visa y se demoró todo el día?” “Do you remember when we processed your visa and it took all day?” |
| Carlos: Yes, it wasn’t a pleasant experience. So many questions. |
| Natalia: “No me gusta pasar por aduanas”. “I don’t like to go to customs.” |
| Carlos: Here we have an example before the actual word is defined. “Aduanas” means… |
| Natalia: “Customs.” |
| Carlos: But like “customs office”, right? Not like “local” or “cultural customs.” |
| Natalia: No, that is “costumbres”. |
| Carlos: Naty, didn’t you have an annoying experience when travelling to Australia? |
| Natalia: It wasn’t that annoying it’s just you know the fact that I always carry a bunch of jewelry everywhere I go and I was wearing a big wood necklace and the guy at the customs took my necklace away from me because it was Costa Rican wood. |
| Carlos: Oh my God! Seriously? |
| Natalia: Yes, because our Costa Rican wood taken in Australia could have tiny parasites that could kill all the Australian trees. So they took a lot of jewelry from me, they didn’t know where Costa Rica was, it was a bit of a mess. I stayed there two hours actually. They were like “what are you doing in Australia?”, “what do you want from Australia?”, I see a kangaroo that’s all. |
| Carlos: You know what? Next up… |
| Natalia: You know what I said, Carlos? |
| Carlos: What did you say, Naty? |
| Natalia: You are going to crack up. When I went into New Zealand they told me the reason I wanted to go to New Zealand, I was going there for usual touristy stuff, right? But then they asked me “what’s the reason?”, “what calls your attention from New Zealand?” and I’m like “the lord of the rings”. |
| Carlos: I get they get that a lot. |
| Natalia: I said I wanted to see the scenery. I did not see the scenery. |
| Carlos: Well, you know what, Naty? Next time “que tenga buena suerte”. |
| Natalia: ¿Que tenga buena suerte? Gracias. |
| Carlos: Now you have good luck. |
| Natalia: Bueno, Carlitos. You can say “suerte”. |
| Carlos: Okay. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Natalia: So Carlos, today we are going to do something that is very common in Spanish. |
| Carlos: What? Say “hijo de...” |
| Natalia: Carlos! Although that is common... |
| Carlos: “Hijo de…” |
| Natalia: Okay, we got it. He just sounds like somebody stepped on his toe. |
| Carlos: Okay, what is it Naty? What’s so common? |
| Natalia: Okay, so relating to someone, there’s someone else told you. So in this case in order to support your claim, so listen, sometimes when you are trying to explain things to someone, why we deserve something, we are surpassing suggestion and support. “He told me that”, “he suggested that”, “she recommended me to”, you know etc. So in Spanish to do this we often use the verbs “decir” and “sugerir” in the preterit tense along with the indirect object pronoun. |
| Carlos: Wait, just those two? |
| Natalia: Yes and after a while this becomes very natural because it just pops out in the language all the time. |
| Carlos: Wait so then it will be useful to know the conjugations of the verbs “decir” and “sehe... sehe…” |
| Natalia: “Sugerir”. |
| Carlos: “Sugerir”. “Decir” and “sugerir”. |
| Natalia: Definitely since they are both irregular. |
| Carlos: Ouch, irregulars. |
| Natalia: Irregular. |
| Carlos: Irregular, and how do you say that in English? |
| Natalia: I’ve just said it. |
| Carlos: Okay, irregulars, I’ll try my luck. |
| Natalia: “Suerte”. |
| Carlos: Thank you, Naty. Good review. Bueno, “decir”, “to say” or “to tell.” |
| Natalia: “Yo... |
| Carlos: dije”. |
| Natalia: “Tú... |
| Carlos: dijiste”. |
| Natalia: “Él, ella, usted... |
| Carlos: dijo”. |
| Natalia: “Nosotros... |
| Carlos: dijimos”. |
| Natalia: “Vosotros... |
| Carlos: dijisteis”. |
| Natalia: That was good! “Ellos, ellas, ustedes... |
| Carlos: dijeron”. |
| Natalia: Nice. |
| Carlos: Keep going I’m on a roll and I don’t know when it’s going to end. |
| Natalia: Okay, okay, okay, let’s take advantage of this moment. Hell is freezing. |
| Carlos: I thought my feet were cold. |
| Natalia: What? |
| Carlos: Nothing, go ahead. |
| Natalia: Carlos, “sugerir”. |
| Carlos: “To hint”, “to insinuate”, “to suggest.” |
| Natalia: “Yo... |
| Carlos: sugerí”. |
| Natalia: “Tú... |
| Carlos: sugeriste”. |
| Natalia: “Él, ella, usted... |
| Carlos: sugirió”. |
| Natalia: “Sugirió”. |
| Carlos: “Sugirió”. |
| Natalia: “Sugirió”. |
| Carlos: “Sugirió”. |
| Natalia: “Sugirió”. |
| Carlos: “Sugirió”. |
| Natalia: Breath in. |
| Carlos: She’s mocking me right now. |
| Natalia: I’m not. Me, I’m helping. Breath in, breath out. “Sugirió…” |
| Carlos: “Sugirió”. |
| Natalia: “Sugirió”. |
| Carlos: “Sugirió”. |
| Natalia: Great. |
| Carlos: “Sugirió”. |
| Natalia: Aha. “Él, ella, usted... |
| Carlos: sugirió”. |
| Natalia: “Nosotros... |
| Carlos: sugerimos”. |
| Natalia: “Vosotros... |
| Carlos: sugeristeis”. |
| Natalia: “Ellos, ellas, ustedes... |
| Carlos: surgieron”. |
| Natalia: No. “Sugirieron…” |
| Carlos: “Sugirieron”. |
| Natalia: God! What is that? You ruined it! |
| Carlos: Hey, “sugirió”. Like I don’t know. |
| Natalia: Well, Carlitos learned a word today. |
| Carlos: I did learn it more. |
| Natalia: Well Carlos, you know that’s great. Now you have to use them. |
| Carlos: Okay. “Me dijo que usted me podría ayudar”. |
| Natalia: “Me dijo que usted me podría ayudar”. Good, what does that mean? |
| Carlos: “He told me that you might be able to help me out.” |
| Natalia: Nice, alright here’s one more. “Ella me sugirió que vayamos a ese café”. |
| Carlos: “She suggested that we go to the café.” |
| Natalia: Well, nice job, but now let’s really see what you are made of. I think it’s time for today’s “tarea”. |
| Carlos: “La tarea”, “the homework.” |
| Natalia: So because you think you know all these forms, let’s do this. I’m going to give you a list of words. All of these are going to be forms of the verb “decir” and “sugerir” in the preterit. What you have to do is translate them into English and give the person and number of the verb. For example, using a different verb is… I say… “hablaron”, then the answer would be “they spoke”, third person plural. |
| Carlos: Well, alright. |
| Natalia: One, “sugerimos”. Two, “sugeristeis”. Three, “sugeriste”. Four, “sugirieron”. Fifth, “sugerimos”. Six, “dijiste”. Seven, “dije”. Eight, “dijo”. Nine, “dijimos”. And ten, “dijeron”. |
Outro |
| Carlos: That wraps it up for today. |
| Natalia: ¿Sugieres que terminemos? |
| Carlos: Yes and I’m assuming that we’re done. |
| Natalia: Okay. |
| Carlos: It took me a minute to realize what she said but I got it. You talk fast but that is for today. I’ll see you next time. Goodbye. |
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