Learn how to conjugate the irregular Spanish verb that means "to bring"
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Fernando: “Quench Your Thirst in Spanish!” JP, how are you? Are you thirsty today, JP? |
| JP: I am thirsty. I can use a glass of water. How are you doing, Fernando? |
| Fernando: I am good, thanks. |
| JP: So Fernando, tell us what we are going to talk about today. |
| Fernando: My pleasure. In this lesson, you will learn about present tense verb with regular “yo” forms. This conversation takes place in an office during an interview. The conversation is between Claudio and the director of a company. The speakers will be using the formal register. |
| JP: All right, you are ready to hear this exchange between Claudio and the director? |
| Fernando: Yes. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Director: Gracias por su tiempo. ¿Gusta algo de tomar? |
| Claudio: Agua, si es tan amable. |
| Director: En un momento le traigo el agua. |
| Claudio: Qué amable. Muchas gracias. |
| Director: Thank you for your time. Do you want something to drink? |
| Claudio: Water, if you could be so kind. |
| Director: I'll bring you water in a moment. |
| Claudio: How kind. Thank you very much. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| JP: Fernando, what a polite conversation we had. |
| Fernando: I know, polite and brief. |
| JP: Yeah. |
| Fernando: Which is kind of nice. You know, it’s refreshing. |
| JP: Yeah, of course. |
| Fernando: Refreshing, yeah. |
| JP: Refreshing. |
| Fernando: I am sorry. |
| JP: Okay, so Claudio just sits down to the interview with the director and the director being very polite and nice, thanks him for his time. |
| Fernando: “Gracias por su tiempo”. |
| JP: “Gracias por su tiempo”. “Gracias” meaning “thank you” and “por su tiempo”, “for your time.” And then offers him something to drink. |
| Fernando: “¿Gusta algo de tomar?” |
| JP: “¿Gusta algo de tomar?” Now our word for “to drink” here |
| Fernando: “Tomar”. |
| JP: “Tomar”. Okay. “Tomar” can mean “to take” or can mean “to drink.” Now if we want to say “something to drink”... |
| Fernando: “Algo de tomar”. |
| JP: “Algo de tomar”. “Algo” means something. And let’s put it all together. “Would you like something to drink?” |
| Fernando: “Do you want something to drink?”, “¿Gusta algo de tomar?” |
| JP: “¿Gusta algo de tomar?”. The answer is “water, please.” |
| Fernando: “Agua, si es tan amable”. |
| JP: Okay. Now the word for “water” again? |
| Fernando: “Agua”. |
| JP: “Agua”. Okay, I know that from “Sesame Street”. |
| Fernando: Who did the Spanish “Sesame Street”? |
| JP: It was a long… |
| Fernando: That’s how long ago, folks. He is thinking. He cannot think that far back. |
| JP: It was a little cartoon. |
| Fernando: Yeah. |
| JP: Now how did he say “please”? |
| Fernando: “Si es tan amable”. |
| JP: “Si es tan amable”. Okay, this looks like four words and it’s kind of a long phrase. |
| Fernando: It’s very formal. |
| JP: Usually people just say “por favor”, right? |
| Fernando: Right, but I guess the situation presents this type of formality. |
| JP: Now it’s nice to say “si es tan amable” if you are asking for something a little extra, right? If you are asking for someone to go out of their way to do something. |
| Fernando: Yes, yes. |
| JP: You can say “si es tan amable”. |
| Fernando: “Si es tan amable”. |
| JP: Like “por favor” if you ask them to do something regular but if you ask for something extra like you know a glass of water when he doesn’t have to, oh if you could be so kind. |
| Fernando: Even the tone itself can lend itself to this type of formality. If you are at a really fine restaurant, you know, you can “agua, si es tan amable” and the director responds, “I will bring you water in a moment.” |
| JP: “En un momento le traigo el agua”. So “el agua” we know means “water” and “I will bring you the water”... |
| Fernando: “Le traigo”. |
| JP: “Le traigo”, “le traigo el agua”. So “I will bring you the water.” “Traigo” is the verb “traer” and then at the very beginning, we said “in a moment.” |
| Fernando: “In a moment”, “en un momento”. |
| JP: “En un momento le traigo el agua”. And Claudio answers, “oh how kind!” |
| Fernando: “Qué amable”. |
| JP: “Qué amable”. That word “amable” means “kind” or “friendly”, right? So “qué amable”, “how friendly”, “how kind of you.” |
| Fernando: Yes and he used it previously and now he is using it again to confirm the fact that he is a very kind, friendly person. |
| JP: For getting that glass of water. |
| Fernando: Yes. “Muchas gracias”, that’s how he answers. |
| JP: “Muchas gracias”. “Thank you very much.” All right, let’s take a look at the vocabulary in this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Fernando: “Tomar”. |
| JP: “To take”, “to drink.” |
| Fernando: “To-mar”, “tomar”. “El agua”. |
| JP: “Water.” |
| Fernando: “El a-gua”, “el agua”. “Amable”. |
| JP: “Kind”, “nice”, “friendly.” |
| Fernando: “A-ma-ble”, “amable”. “Traer”. |
| JP: “To bring.” |
| Fernando: “Tra-er”, “traer”. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| JP: Four little words today. So which one we are going to start with? |
| Fernando: Let’s start with “tomar”. |
| JP: “Tomar”. Okay, now we said earlier that “tomar” means “to take” or “to drink.” In this case, it definitely means “to drink.” |
| Fernando: “To drink.” |
| JP: “You want something to drink.” |
| Fernando: “You want something to drink”, unless he is taking a bottle of water. |
| JP: Okay. Is he always drinking a bottle of water? |
| Fernando: Always, yeah, we don’t know. |
| JP: All right, what’s next? |
| Fernando: “El agua”. |
| JP: “El agua”. Okay, now a lot of people know this word “agua” means “water.” I want to point out that it’s “el agua”. Okay, now “agua” is feminine, it’s going to be “agua fresca” or “agua pura”. It’s got that “a” feminine ending, “el agua”. But it’s “el agua” because the word starts with a stressed “a” and it’s kind of hard in Spanish to say “la agua”. So instead of saying “la agua” we say “el agua”. |
| Fernando: We don’t use the apostrophe like Italians or French do. |
| JP: Okay, so we got to use that masculine determiner. But don’t be fooled, “agua” is still feminine even though it starts with “el”. |
| Fernando: It’s a little tricky but you will get the hang of it. |
| JP: Absolutely. |
| Fernando: Next word, “amable”. |
| JP: “Amable”. “Kind”, “friendly”, “nice.” You know I hear it a lot as a formula. People will just say “gracias, muy amable”. |
| Fernando: Yes, exactly. “Thank you for that, very nice.” |
| JP: Yeah, it comes out all in one breath. And last one... |
| Fernando: “Traer”. |
| JP: “Traer” is “to bring.” Okay and we are going to be talking about “traer” a little bit in the grammar section because it is mostly regular but it’s got a funky “yo” form. |
| Fernando: And that starts right now. |
| JP: Welcome to the grammar section. We are going to talk about verbs with the “g” in the “yo” form, okay? So for example “traer” means “to bring”, if I want to say “I bring”... |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Fernando: “Yo traigo”. |
| JP: “Yo traigo”. Okay, did you hear that “g” in the first person? |
| Fernando: I did. |
| JP: Yeah, “traigo”. Now the rest of the verb “traer” is totally regular, “traes, trae, traemos, traéis, traen”, but it’s just the “yo” form that has a “g” in it. Don’t ask me why. |
| Fernando: Why? |
| JP: Now I said don’t ask me. |
| Fernando: I am sorry, that was… |
| JP: Don’t ask me why but there are a few verbs that are regular except for the “yo” form and “traer” is just one of them. In fact, I have a list here 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 – 7 other verbs have a “g” in the “yo” form. |
| Fernando: Nice. Do you want to go through all of them? |
| JP: We will go through some of the greatest hits. So… |
| Fernando: Thank you very much to clerk. |
| JP: Okay. So “decir” is “say” or “to tell.” So if I want to say “I say”... |
| Fernando: “Yo digo”. |
| JP: “Yo digo”. The rest of the verb “decir” is totally regular, “dices, dice, decimos, decís, dicen”. It’s just that “yo” form that has a “g”, “digo”. The same is true for “hacer” which is super high frequency verb. It means “to do” or “to make”, “hacer”. If I want to say “I do” or “I make”… |
| Fernando: Let me do this, let me do this. “Yo hago”. |
| JP: “Yo hago”. |
| Fernando: Now this is…. |
| JP: I get it, “yo hago”, “I will do it.” |
| Fernando: Yeah. There is no one else in the studio anyway. |
| JP: So “hacer” is regular in all forms except for the “yo” form which is “hago”. It has a “g” in it. Also “poner”, “pongo”, “salir”, “salgo”,... |
Outro |
| JP: All right Fernando, I think that’s it for today. |
| Fernando: I think so. |
| JP: All right. Time to say goodbye, ¡hasta luego! |
| Fernando: ¡Adiós! |
Comments
Hide:smile: Thanks for the explanation of why "el" is used with the feminine noun agua. I don't remember reading the explanation for this in my text from school. Thanks, again.
¡Hola Tamara!
Claro que sí, puedes decir "¿Quiere usted algo de tomar?" en lugar de "¿Gusta algo de tomar?" 😊 Ambos son correctos y se usan para ofrecer algo de beber. La diferencia principal es que "¿Quiere usted algo de tomar?" es un poco más formal, mientras que "¿Gusta algo de tomar?" es un poco más informal y amigable. ¡Ambas opciones son excelentes!
Feel free to let us know if you have any questions.
Gracias,
Team SpanishPod101.com
Puedo decir "Quiere usted algo de tomar?" en lugar de "Gusta algo de tomar?"
Hola Chidakash,
Thank you for your question.
No, they don't mean the same.
Sigamos practicando.
Saludos,
Carla
Team SpanishPod101.com
Significan lo mismo las palabras se encuentra y tomar lugar?
Hola Vincent Brancato,
Thank you for your feedbacks.
We try to focus on the lessons theme to not confuse the students with too much information.
We appreciate you helpful comments.
Saludos,
Carla
Team SpanishPod101.com
two comments/questions
there is not translation for "quench your thirst" that would be interesting
Also I think that maybe one should have mentioned - especially to Joan - that although beber seems to be only "to drink" tomar has also other meanings
So a little deceptive - for example you should indicate that for decir - yo (first person singular) is not the only irregular conjugation for that very
Hola Joan,
Thank you for your questions.
Yes, both mean the same.
Sigamos practicando!
Saludos,
Carla
Team SpanishPod101.com
The difference between "beber" and "tomar?" Both are to drink, no?
Hi Raelynn,
Thank you for the cute emoticon!
We hope you liked the lesson!😄
Have a great day!
Cheers,
Lena
Team SpanishPod101.com
😀
Hola Laura,
Thank you for your comment.
Yes, its only use in Spain.
Sigamos practicando!
Saludos,
Carla
Team SpanishPod101.com
Hello.
It says that traéis is used in Spain. Is there something else we would say in other countries, or is the usted form not used elsewhere?
Hola Elena,
Thank you for your comment.
Yes, you are correct.
Please let us know if you have any questions.
Saludos,
Carla
Team SpanishPod101.com
In the second sentence in Vocabulary for traer, can you confirm that it should be trajéramos and not trajéremos? Thanks.
Hola Paul Vincent Safar,
Thanks a lot for your feedback. We are continuously working on improving our site, app, and materials, therefore the opinion of our students is highly valuable.
I will forward your message to our team for consideration! 😇
Saludos,
Levente
Team SpanishPod101.com
I have tried various online Spanish courses and in general yours ranks pretty high for me. I like its brevity and format. I did want to point out a small thing,though, in that the transcripts often have mistakes. It's not a huge deal but a bit distracting. I also sometimes wish perhaps a few more minutes were added to each lesson that would go through some more examples of the grammar or vocab in other contexts ouside the dialogue..just a suggestion. thanks!
Hola Bertie,
Thank you for your comments.
Sorry, you can only add the vocabulary words from the lessons.
As for “le traigo el agua” is translated in the future tense because is an acción that will happen in the near future.
Sigamos practicando!
Saludos,
Carla
Team SpanishPod101.com
...... 'le traigo el agua'. Doesn't this this mean I bring water, in the present tense whereas he is saying 'I will bring water in a moment? Why is he not using the future tense?
Thanks
Bertie
I would like to add 'si es tan amable' to my flashcards. Is it possible?
Thanks
Bertie