Learn about prepositions
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Dylan: Hola, hola a todos. Habla Dylan, ¿cómo están? |
| Carlos: What’s going on pod101 world? My name is Carlos. In this lesson, you will learn about prepositions, “de frente”, “straight ahead.” |
| Dylan: The conversation takes place at the ticket counter. |
| Carlos: The conversation is between Jorge and the ticket vendor. |
| Dylan: The speakers are strangers. So they are speaking formally. |
| Carlos: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Jorge: Buenas tardes, quiero comprar tiquetes para el concierto de Vicente. |
| Vendedor: Caballero, aquí no los vendemos; nosotros vendemos los tiquetes para el concierto de David Bisbal. |
| Jorge: Disculpe, ¿usted sabe dónde los venden? |
| Vendedor: No estoy seguro, pero creo que en la siguiente ventanilla los venden. Pregunte. |
| Jorge: Gracias por su tiempo. Voy a preguntar. |
| Jorge: Good afternoon, I want to buy tickets for the Vicente concert. |
| Vendedor: Sir, we don’t sell them here, we sell the tickets for the David Bisbal concert. |
| Jorge: I’m sorry; do you know where they are being sold? |
| Vendedor: I’m not sure, but I think they’re selling them at the next window, go ask. |
| Jorge: Thank you for your time. I’m gonna go ask. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Carlos: So Dylan, you know we talked about Vicente Fernández before and you know this other artist. How much do you believe tickets will generally cost in this area? |
| Dylan: You know, in Costa Rica, I would say they go anywhere from like maybe USD20 up to like USD100 depending on where you are. Both of these guys Vicente Fernández and David Bisbal are really big artists. |
| Carlos: Now do price ticket is varied by country? Do you have an experience with that? They will say at concert at Mexico? |
| Dylan: I don’t think they vary that much, Carlos. I mean they are probably around the same from 20 bucks to 100. |
| Carlos: So we are not talking of New York prices. |
| Dylan: No, we are not talking, because it’s Latin America. |
| Carlos: And that’s true. Okay guys, let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Dylan: “Comprar”. |
| Carlos: “To buy.” |
| Dylan: “Com-prar”, “comprar”. “Tiquetes”. |
| Carlos: “Ticket.” |
| Dylan: “Ti-que-tes”, “tiquetes”. “Vender”. |
| Carlos: “To sell.” |
| Dylan: “Ven-der”, “vender”. “Seguro”. |
| Carlos: “Sure”, “insurance”, “safe.” |
| Dylan: “Se-gu-ro”, “seguro”. “Siguiente”. |
| Carlos: “Next.” |
| Dylan: “Si-guien-te”, “siguiente”. “Preguntar”. |
| Carlos: “To ask.” |
| Dylan: “Pre-gun-tar”, “preguntar”. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Carlos: Okay guys, let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Dylan: The first word we will look at is “comprar”. |
| Carlos: “Comprar”, “to buy.” A verb that gets me in a lot of trouble. |
| Dylan: You are a spender, hah! |
| Carlos: Yeah, I mean just the other day, I’ve taken money out of the ATM and all the cash is gone and I honestly don’t know where it goes. |
| Dylan: Well, that can be frustrating. |
| Carlos: I hear that you have a mind of an accountant, Dylan? |
| Dylan: That I do. Every penny is accounted for. |
| Carlos: I want to start doing that. That will probably help me in the long run. |
| Dylan: You’d be surprised. You carry a little notebook around. That shouldn’t be too hard. |
| Carlos: Now Jorge is going to the concert and he says “Buenas tardes, quiero comprar tiquetes para el concierto de Vicente”. |
| Dylan: “Good afternoon. I want to buy tickets for the Vicente concert.” See what did I tell you? The man is a legend. He is on One Name Madonna status. |
| Carlos: Hey Dylan, how many people do you think would go to a Vicente Fernández concert? |
| Dylan: I would think a lot. He would probably perform to a full stadium. |
| Carlos: Wow, that’s a lot. Okay. Dylan, ¿sabes qué? |
| Dylan: Dime. |
| Carlos: Compré tiquetes para Romeo y Julieta. |
| Dylan: The Romeo and Juliet that they are putting on “el Teatro Nacional”? |
| Carlos: That’s the one. I hope that it’s good. |
| Dylan: It’s a British company so you should get your money’s worth. |
| Carlos: It was a good “compra”, “purchase.” |
| Dylan: Good related word, Carlos. |
| Carlos: Moving on. |
| Dylan: “Tiquetes”. |
| Carlos: “Tiquetes”. I think that word is pretty obvious, “tickets.” |
| Dylan: “Buenas tardes, quiero comprar tiquetes para el concierto de Vicente”. |
| Carlos: “Good afternoon, I want to buy tickets for the Vicente concert.” |
| Dylan: Did you hear about the free concerts Juanes did en La Habana? |
| Carlos: Yeah, so it was completely free, no ticket necessary? |
| Dylan: No tickets necessary. It was a concert to promote peace in Cuba and reconciliation with the United States. |
| Carlos: Times there are changing. |
| Dylan: Now we use “tiquetes” the same way as in English. |
| Carlos: What do you mean? |
| Dylan: Well, we could talk about airline flights. |
| Carlos: “Tengo los tiquetes para Colombia”. “I have tickets for Colombia.” |
| Dylan: And for the almighty football, “mi papá compró los tiquetes para el partido de fútbol”. |
| Carlos: Now couldn’t we say “entradas”? |
| Dylan: Yes, “entradas” is a related word, “entrance”, “entry.” |
| Carlos: But I have also heard the word “boletos”. |
| Dylan: “Boletos” is a synonym for “tiquetes”, “tickets.” Now our next word is the yang to the ying of “comprar”. |
| Carlos: Let me guess, “vender”. |
| Dylan: “Vender”, “to sell.” That’s right. |
| Carlos: “Caballero, aquí no los vendemos. Nosotros vendemos los tiquetes para el concierto de David Bisbal”. |
| Dylan: “Sir, we don’t sell them here. We sell the tickets for the David Bisbal concert.” |
| Carlos: David who? |
| Dylan: Don’t worry about that. We are focusing on “vender”. |
| Carlos: No doubt. |
| Dylan: So I know you’ve noticed a new trend. |
| Carlos: Which one? |
| Dylan: Well, we have here an example of “vender”. How is the verb conjugated? |
| Carlos: In the example the verb “vender” is conjugated in the first person plural and the present tense of the indicative mood thus “vendemos”. For me, the “nosotros” form is always the easiest to figure out. |
| Dylan: So let’s try it out in the past tense. |
| Carlos: “Ya vendieron todos los tiquetes para el concierto de Juanes”. |
| Dylan: “They’ve already sold all the tickets for the Juanes concert.” |
| Carlos: I have no idea if they have or not but that man is popular so I figured yes. |
| Dylan: You are probably right. |
| Carlos: So how about some related words? |
| Dylan: “La venta”. |
| Carlos: A feminine noun that means... |
| Dylan: “The sale.” |
| Carlos: Next up. |
| Dylan: Next up is “seguro, segura” an adjective that means “sure.” |
| Carlos: “No estoy seguro”. “I am not sure.” |
| Dylan: Now “seguro” should be easy to remember but it kind of sounds like the word “secure.” |
| Carlos: I was just about to say that. |
| Dylan: Which is why “seguro” is also the word for “insurance.” |
| Carlos: Aha, that makes sense. |
| Dylan: But to use it in this sense, we could say “Fernanda siempre está segura de lo que dice”. |
| Carlos: “Fernanda is always secure in what she says.” I hate people like that. They can be snooty. |
| Dylan: Now you know that “seguro” can also be an adverb. |
| Carlos: That I did not know. |
| Dylan: Then the meaning changes to “possibly.” |
| Carlos: Claro, entiendo ahora. |
| Dylan: Siguiente. |
| Carlos: Next up. |
| Dylan: Yes, “next up” is “siguiente”. |
| Carlos: Okay. |
| Dylan: How do they use “siguiente” in our conversation today? |
| Carlos: “Pero creo que en la siguiente ventanilla”. |
| Dylan: “I think they are selling them in the next window.” |
| Carlos: Now, “siguiente” is one of those interesting words that isn’t exactly a cognate but at times they are treated as such. |
| Dylan: Why is that? |
| Carlos: Well, simply because to me it sounds like sequence, and that makes them next. |
| Dylan: Okay. |
| Carlos: No, seriously, “sequence”, “siguiente”. It’s not too farfetched. |
| Dylan: Well, when you put it like that, I guess you do have a point. |
| Carlos: Bueno. But I will say that I don’t use the adjective very much at all. |
| Dylan: No? |
| Carlos: No. Like we could say “voy a terminar mi trabajo para el siguiente lunes”. |
| Dylan: “I am going to finish my job for next Monday.” |
| Carlos: But I will probably say “voy a terminar mi trabajo para el próximo lunes”. |
| Dylan: “I am going to finish my job for next Monday.” So our related word would be... |
| Carlos: “Próximo”. And I blame TV. That’s what the adjective they use in the commercials. |
| Dylan: Last but not least, “preguntar”. |
| Carlos: “Preguntar”, “to question.” Now there is nothing that makes the word even slightly a cognate. |
| Dylan: “Voy a preguntar”. |
| Carlos: “I am going to ask.” Here we have “ir” plus “a” plus infinitive, very important construction. |
| Dylan: Now would you say that you use the construction often? |
| Carlos: Often? Almost every day. |
| Dylan: Almost? |
| Carlos: Okay, no every day. |
| Dylan: That’s what I thought. |
| Carlos: You know as a matter of fact, that actually is sentence that I use often, “voy a preguntar”. |
| Dylan: Any other way? |
| Carlos: When I say something stupid and my girlfriend has been on to ask me “pregúntame”. |
| Dylan: “Ask me.” For you, audience, that is the imperative mood otherwise known as commands. |
| Carlos: And when it is said with that tone, it really is a command. |
| Dylan: So if you wanted to tell someone not to ask you, how would you say that? |
| Carlos: “A mi no me lo preguntes”. |
| Dylan: “Don’t ask me”, perfect. Have you ever heard the verb “cuestionar”? |
| Carlos: No I haven’t but if there was a cognate, that wouldn’t be it. |
| Dylan: I know. I had to bring it up although. I never really hear it being used. |
| Carlos: But it is good to know that it’s out there at least. |
| Dylan: Now let’s take a look at some prepositions. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Carlos: What kind? |
| Dylan: Prepositions of space. |
| Carlos: Right, like “de frente”. |
| Dylan: Exactly. |
| Carlos: Now the expression “de frente” means “straight ahead.” |
| Dylan: Which is why we call this a preposition of space. |
| Carlos: Now how do prepositions serve? |
| Dylan: The preposition has the function of serving as the nexus of any syntactical element and its compliment. |
| Carlos: Nexus, isn’t that a super hero of some sort? |
| Dylan: What this nexus does is form an unbreakable bond between the preposition and its compliment and this bond is syntactic and phonetic alike. |
| Carlos: Okay. |
| Dylan: That’s to say that many times, a preposition and its compliment sound as one single word. |
| Carlos: Now we are going to continue studying prepositions over time. |
| Dylan: And why is that again? |
| Carlos: Because there are many, many different usages and even those can vary from region to region. |
| Dylan: So prepositions of space. |
| Carlos: Prepositions are indeclinable which means they have no grammatical inflections, meaning their form really never changes which makes them very easy to remember, trust me. |
| Dylan: That being said, the trick to using them is memorizing them and using them in the right word order. So let’s check out an introductory list of spatial prepositions. “De frente”. |
| Carlos: “Straight ahead.” |
| Dylan: “Atrás”. |
| Carlos: “Behind.” |
| Dylan: “Al costado de”. |
| Carlos: “Next to.” |
| Dylan: “Cerca de”. |
| Carlos: “Near to.” |
| Dylan: “En”. |
| Carlos: “In”, “on.” |
| Dylan: “La izquierda de”. |
| Carlos: “The left of.” |
| Dylan: “La derecha de”. |
| Carlos: “The right of.” |
| Dylan: “Encima de”. |
| Carlos: “On top of.” |
| Dylan: “Debajo”. |
| Carlos: “Under.” |
| Dylan: “Adentro”. |
| Carlos: “Inside.” |
| Dylan: Now that we have formation down, let’s check out some sample sentences. “Para llegar a la casa de tía, tenemos que seguir de frente”. |
| Carlos: “In order to reach my aunt’s house, we’ve got to continue straight ahead.” |
| Dylan: “Lucía y Martín se sentaron en la parte de atrás para ver mejor la película”. |
| Carlos: “Lucía and Martín sat in the back to see the movie better.” |
| Dylan: “El bar queda al costado de una farmacia”. |
| Carlos: “The bar is next to the pharmacy.” |
| Dylan: “El baño está cerca de la cocina”. |
| Carlos: “The bathroom is near the kitchen.” |
| Dylan: “Los libros están en la mesa”. |
| Carlos: “The books are on the table.” |
| Dylan: “Mariana está en su cuarto”. |
| Carlos: “Marianna is in her room.” |
| Dylan: “A la izquierda del parque hay un café bonito”. |
| Carlos: “To the left of the park, there is a nice cafe.” |
| Dylan: “Vivo a la derecha de la casa grande”. |
| Carlos: “I live to the right of the big house.” |
| Dylan: “¿Por qué dejas tu ropa encima de la cama?” |
| Carlos: “Why do you leave your clothes on top of the bed?” |
| Dylan: “El gato duerme debajo del sofá”. |
| Carlos: “The cat sleeps under the couch.” |
| Dylan: “Mi mamá se va adentro para contestar el teléfono”. |
| Carlos: “My mom is going inside to answer the phone.” |
| Dylan: What did you notice, Carlos? |
| Carlos: How the preposition “de”, “from”, plays a part in multiple prepositional phrases. |
| Dylan: Right. So prepositions in general have rich “polysemy”. |
| Carlos: “Polymesy…”, what? |
| Dylan: What this means is that they have multiple meanings. As you continue your Spanish studies, you will begin to recognize prepositional phrases or in other words, you will begin to identify the tendency of certain syntactic elements we use jointly. For example, the prepositional phrase “de aquí para allá”, “back and forth”, is so tightly fused syntactically and fanatically that it practically exists as a singular entity. |
| Carlos: So what would you say are the most important prepositions? |
| Dylan: The most important prepositions are “a”, “de”, “en”, “para” and “por”. We use these in a great many prepositional phrases and therefore it’s a good idea to become accustomed to seeing them and to expect them to add different shades of meaning when we use them in conjunction with other elements. |
Outro |
| Carlos: Okay guys, you know what that just about does it for today. |
| Dylan: ¡Hasta luego! |
| Carlos: Nos vemos, ¡chao! |
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