Learn how to tell someone what you'll do in the future, so you'll be sure to be able to find what you're looking for
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Michelle: Hola a todos, Michelle aquí. |
| Carlos: What’s going on pod101 world? My name is Carlos. “We are going to tell you exactly where to find what you are looking for.” |
| Michelle: In this lesson, you will learn about periphrasis, “going to” plus infinitive. |
| Carlos: This conversation takes place in the supermarket. |
| Michelle: The conversation is between Fernanda and Sebastián. |
| Carlos: The speakers are friends and therefore they will be speaking informally. |
| Michelle: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Fernanda: Amor, no encuentro la carne. |
| Sebastián: Puedes preguntarle a la cajera dónde está. |
| Fernanda: Sí, voy a preguntarle. ¡Buenas señorita! ¿Sabes dónde está la carne? |
| Cajera: ¡Buenos días señora!, lamento decirte que no vendemos carne aquí. |
| Fernanda: ¡Pero! ¿cómo? |
| Cajera: Sí es extraño, pero en la tienda de al lado está la carnicería. |
| Fernand: Mmm, ¡gracias por la información!, vamos a ir. |
| Fernanda: Love, I can’t find the meat. |
| Sebastián: You can ask the cashier where it is. |
| Fernanda: Yeah, I’m gonna ask her. Hello, miss. Do you know where the meat is? |
| Cajera: Good morning, ma’am! I’m sorry to tell you that we don’t sell meat here. |
| Fernanda: But! How? |
| Cajera: Yes, it’s strange, but there is a butcher right next door. |
| Fernand: Mmm, thanks for the information. We’re gonna go. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Carlos: All right. You know what, you know what Michelle, I have noticed that customer service here is not really what it is in the States. It’s not the priority. Have you found that? |
| Michelle: Well, the thing is that a lot of bureaucracy exists here. So everyone kind of runs by the book. If what you need goes along with what is in the book, perfect. They will give you all the customer service that you want but if you have to step outside the lines, forget it. |
| Carlos: See that’s really annoying because in the United States, I feel like you know sometimes customer service, they go like above and beyond they want that and that’s been one reason and one problem I’ve really found here when dealing with business matters. |
| Michelle: Me too, but what can you do? |
| Carlos: Ey when in Rome or San José. Okay guys, let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Michelle: “Encontrar”. |
| Carlos: “To encounter”, “to run into”, “to meet by chance.” |
| Michelle: “En-con-trar”, “encontrar”. “Preguntar”. |
| Carlos: “To ask a question”, “to wonder.” |
| Michelle: “Pre-gun-tar”, “preguntar”. “Cajero, cajera”. |
| Carlos: “ATM”, “Bank teller”, “cashier.” |
| Michelle: “Ca-je-ro, ca-je-ra”, “cajero, cajera”. “Lamentar”. |
| Carlos: “To be sorry”, “to lament.” |
| Michelle: “La-men-tar”, “lamentar”. “Extraño”. |
| Carlos: “Strange”, “stranger.” |
| Michelle: “Ex-tra-ño”, “extraño”. “Carnicería”. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Carlos: “Butchers.” |
| Michelle: “Car-ni-ce-rí-a”, “carnicería”. |
| Carlos: Okay guys. Let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Michelle: The first word we will look at is “encontrar”. |
| Carlos: “Encontrar”. The verb that means “to encounter”, “to run into”, “to meet by chance.” |
| Michelle: Right and how do we have “encontrar” conjugated in the conversation today? |
| Carlos: Well, we heard in the conversation when Fernanda says, “Amor, no encuentro la carne”. |
| Michelle: “Love, I can’t find the meat.” Now is that past tense, present tense and perfect. Come on, what you got? |
| Carlos: Well, considering we have an “O” to “U” stem changing verb, we have the present tense. Thus I can’t find the meat in now. |
| Michelle: And not I couldn’t find the meat. |
| Carlos: Which will be the imperfect tense and that will be opening a whole other can of worms. |
| Michelle: Right. We aren’t getting into that right now. |
| Carlos: But let’s use an example from another past tense, the preterit tense. |
| Michelle: “Ayer Camilo encontró el libro debajo de la cama”. |
| Carlos: “Yesterday Camilo found the book under the bed.” |
| Michelle: Now how do you generally think of “encontrar”? |
| Carlos: Well, to be honest, I usually think of it in relation to the verb “conocer”. |
| Michelle: And we only use “conocer” when we meet someone for the first time or at least in the sense of meeting. |
| Carlos: Right but “encontrar” is used when we are meeting when I already know you. |
| Michelle: A related word we could also bring up would be “el encuentro”. |
| Carlos: “The meaning”, “the encounter.” You know that’s a good name for like a movie, “El encuentro”. |
| Michelle: Okay, okay. Moving on, we have another verb, “preguntar”. |
| Carlos: “To ask a question” or “to wonder.” |
| Michelle: Now we have an interesting construction in today’s conversation. |
| Carlos: Right. Sebastián says, “puedes preguntarle a la cajera dónde está”. |
| Michelle: “You can ask the cashier where it is.” |
| Carlos: Now we notice the “le” at the end on the infinitive verb “preguntar”. |
| Michelle: Correct and this is the combination of the infinitive and the indirect object pronoun in the... |
| Carlos: Third person. |
| Michelle: That is part of the Spanish that presents problems for many people. |
| Carlos: Yes, it does, and we will go over in depth in another lesson. For now, I think it’s important that we just pointed it out. |
| Michelle: Okay, can you think of another example using this combination? |
| Carlos: Let me think. “Sonia le preguntó a Nancy la hora”. |
| Michelle: “Sonia asked Nancy the hour.” |
| Carlos: See like this is really confusing for me sometimes or most of the times. |
| Michelle: But you did it perfectly in Spanish. |
| Carlos: Oh, just because I did it perfectly in Spanish doesn’t mean it’s easy for me to translate in English. |
| Michelle: Well, then that’s “la pregunta”. |
| Carlos: “The question.” You know I love when related words are so easy like that. |
| Michelle: Okay then, what does “la pregunta” usually require? |
| Carlos: “La respuesta”. “An answer”, a noun. |
| Michelle: Next we have another noun. |
| Carlos: Which? |
| Michelle: “Cajero, cajera”, “cashier”, and another more modern meaning. |
| Carlos: ATM, ATM takes everything! |
| Michelle: The fact that we didn’t call ATMs ATMs it will confuse you. |
| Carlos: Yes or the fact that they are machines called “ATH” or ATHs. |
| Michelle: Well, they are actually “cajero automáticos”. While that is good practical information, in our conversation, we heard... |
| Carlos: “Puedes preguntarle a la cajera dónde está”. |
| Michelle: “You can ask the cashier where it is.” |
| Carlos: Now “cajera” is the actual “cashier.” |
| Michelle: Yes but we would also use it to point out where the registers are since that is the most common usage in English. |
| Carlos: Now can we also think of this as like “a teller”? |
| Michelle: Well, we could say “mi novio es cajero en el Banco Nacional”. |
| Carlos: “My boyfriend is a teller at the National Bank.” |
| Michelle: Banking terms can be complicated. |
| Carlos: Yeah, like banks themselves. |
| Michelle: You know me. I don’t want to get into that. |
| Carlos: I know that’s why I brought it up. |
| Michelle: Uhh… |
| Carlos: Our next word fittingly is “lamentar”. |
| Michelle: “To be sorry”, “to lament” which you should be doing right now since you brought up banks. |
| Carlos: I know, I know but I wouldn’t really be sorry like that cashier that says “lamento decirte que no vendemos carne aquí”. |
| Michelle: “I am sorry to tell you that we don’t sell meat here.” |
| Carlos: You know that’s really strange and really annoying for me especially. |
| Michelle: “Lamento mucho esta situación”. |
| Carlos: “I am really sorry about the situation.” |
| Michelle: “Lamentar” is a word you really feel. |
| Carlos: Right, like you really feel apologetic. |
| Michelle: Like the common apology using the verb “sentir”. |
| Carlos: “Lo siento”, which literally translated means... |
| Michelle: “I feel it.” |
| Carlos: So you use these words not just when you are apologetic... |
| Michelle: But when you really feel the others bad situation as your own. |
| Carlos: And you are really sorry. |
| Michelle: Next up. We have a word that is a bit stranger. |
| Carlos: Right, I should hope so. It’s an adjective that means “strange.” |
| Michelle: “Extraño”. |
| Carlos: Not to be mistaken with the verb “extrañar”, “to miss.” |
| Michelle: No, here we have the general description where something is kind of weird. |
| Carlos: Right. I mean like not selling meat in a market. |
| Michelle: “Sí, extraño”. |
| Carlos: “Yes, it’s strange.” See even he admits it. |
| Michelle: Boy like when we are out the other night and we saw that guy, remember? |
| Carlos: Oh yeah, how could I forget. |
| Michelle: What did you say? |
| Carlos: “La ropa de ese hombre es muy extraña”. |
| Michelle: “The man’s clothes are really strange.” |
| Carlos: He was wearing a pink pocket jacket and rubber boots for the farm in the club. |
| Michelle: Yeah, and it wasn’t even Halloween. He was really looking for attention. |
| Carlos: Right, and he got it. I just don’t think he was getting the type of attention he wanted. |
| Michelle: Well, you never know. “Qué raro, ¿verdad?” |
| Carlos: “How strange, right?” You know “raro” is a good adjective to use as a related word. |
| Michelle: Last but not least, “carnicería”. |
| Carlos: “Carnicería”, “the butcher.” Now you know if you like to cook, making friends with the butcher is quite important. |
| Michelle: Like a hairstylist or a barber, it is one of the most important relationships in your life. |
| Carlos: Ain’t that the truth. |
| Michelle: “Pero en la tienda de al lado está la carnicería”. |
| Carlos: “But there is a butcher right next door.” |
| Michelle: You know, my mom is a creature of habit. |
| Carlos: As most mothers are. |
| Michelle: Right. “Mi mamá siempre compra en la carnicería de la esquina”. |
| Carlos: “My mom always buys in the butcher on the corner.” So your mom knows what’s good, a butcher is a very, very important friend to have. |
| Michelle: My mom also has a “panadería”. |
| Carlos: A “bakery.” You know, fresh bread everywhere. That is what I love about Latin America. |
| Michelle: Umm it is a good thing. Isn’t it? |
| Carlos: Are you kidding me, it’s my favorite. |
| Michelle: Now are you a creature of habit? |
| Carlos: Yeah when I find something I like, I have to be going there. The stability is comforting to me. |
| Michelle: Oh yeah? |
| Carlos: Yeah. |
| Michelle: So it’s your intention? |
| Carlos: Yes. |
| Michelle: Today we study how to express future actions using “la perífrasis”. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Carlos: And in English, it is “periphrasis” which is... |
| Michelle: A unit made up of one verb in a personal form and another in an impersonal form. |
| Carlos: And when does this way of speaking usually takes place? |
| Michelle: This way of speaking often takes place in the absolute future. |
| Carlos: Here we conjugate the personal verb “ir”, “to go” and then we add the preposition “a” and the affinitive to the future action to be carried out. |
| Michelle: Like in our conversation today. |
| Carlos: “Sí, voy a preguntarle”. |
| Michelle: “Yes, I am going to ask her.” |
| Carlos: Unlike the absolute future tense which expresses the definitive statement that we will do something, we are expressing here “el futuro de intención”, “the future of intention”, which shows... |
| Michelle: This shows our intention to carry out an action with less absolute certainty. |
| Carlos: Now there is a structure that we use... |
| Michelle: And in order to build this structure, we need to know the conjugation of the verb “ir”, “to go.” |
| Carlos: In which tense? |
| Michelle: That’s the thing. You need to know it in both the imperfect past tense and the present tense. |
| Carlos: Okay, let’s get it down then. |
| Michelle: Here is the formula. |
| Carlos: No, no I got it, I got it. Personal verb “ir” plus “a” plus infinitive impersonal verb. So let’s look at the present tense. |
| Michelle: Okay, sounds good to me. “Yo voy a”, “tú vas a”, “él va a”, “ella va a”, “usted va a”, “nosotros vamos a”, “vosotros vais a”, “ellos/ellas van a”, “ustedes van a”. |
| Carlos: Pretty straightforward to the point. Let’s check the imperfect tense. |
| Michelle: Okay, here we go with the imperfect past tense. “Yo iba a”, “tú ibas a”, “él iba a”, “ella iba a”, “usted iba a”, “nosotros íbamos a”, “vosotros ibais a”, “ellos/ellas iban a”, “ustedes iban a”. Not so bad. |
| Carlos: No, not at all, but some examples really would help things along. |
| Michelle: But of course, let’s go. “Yo voy a caminar en el parque”. |
| Carlos: “I am going to walk in the park.” |
| Michelle: “Vas a hacer tu tarea”. |
| Carlos: “You are going to do your homework.” All right contrast this to the following news of the absolute future. |
| Michelle: “Iré a caminar en el parque”. |
| Carlos: “I will go to walk in the park.” |
| Michelle: “Harás tu tarea”. |
| Carlos: “You will do your homework.” Now observe the difference between the present tense and the imperfect past tense conjugation of the verb “ir”, “to go.” |
| Michelle: “Yo voy a trabajar”. |
| Carlos: “I am going to work.” |
| Michelle: “Yo iba a trabajar”. |
| Carlos: “I was going to work.” |
| Michelle: “Tú vas a venir”. |
| Carlos: “You are going to come.” |
| Michelle: “Tú ibas a venir”. |
| Carlos: “You were going to come.” |
| Michelle: “Ella va a dormir”. |
| Carlos: “She is going to sleep.” |
| Michelle: “Ella iba a dormir”. |
| Carlos: “She was going to sleep.” |
| Michelle: “Nosotros vamos a jugar”. |
| Carlos: “We are going to play.” |
| Michelle: “Nosotros íbamos a jugar”. |
| Carlos: “We were going to play.” |
| Michelle: “Vosotros vais a comer algo”. |
| Carlos: “You all are going to eat something.” |
| Michelle: “Vosotros ibais a comer algo”. |
| Carlos: “You all were going to eat something.” |
| Michelle: “Ellos van a correr”. |
| Carlos: “They are going to run.” |
| Michelle: “Ellos iban a correr”. |
| Carlos: “They were going to run.” |
| Michelle: Remember that we refer to “ir”, “to go”, as the personal verb in this case because we are conjugating it to show who was going to carry out the impersonal action. |
| Carlos: The untouched infinitive. |
| Michelle: There are two reasons why this periphrastic construction is so important to learn. |
| Carlos: Why? |
| Michelle: First it’s very, very common in every day speech since this expresses a future tense in a less direct way than the absolute future. |
| Carlos: It is. You know, I remember being surprised when I realized how much I really do use this construction in every day speech. |
| Michelle: Right. Now secondly, it’s so important to learn because the verb is very, very irregular which means that you are going to have to memorize the forms. |
| Carlos: Right irregulars are the bane of my Spanish educational existence. |
| Michelle: Oh, don’t be so dramatic. Now there are other periphrastic constructions in Spanish. |
| Carlos: Right, for example we can say “estoy por llegar” which means “I am about to arrive” or “este concepto puede ser difícil”, “this concept can be difficult.” |
Outro |
| Michelle: That it can and on that note, that just about does it for today. |
| Carlos: Okay guys, ¡nos vemos! |
| Michelle: ¡Adiós! |
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