Learn how to use proper titles
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| INTRODUCTION |
| Fernando: “Forms of Address in Spanish.” I am Fernando and I am joined as always by JP. JP, how are you? |
| JP: I am great, Fernando. How are you doing? |
| Fernando: I am doing great. Thank you. |
| JP: What are we talking about today in this lesson, Fernando? |
| Fernando: I am glad you asked. In this lesson, you learn about polite forms of address. The conversation takes place in an office lobby and the conversation is between Claudio and a receptionist. The speakers will be using the formal register. |
| JP: All right, let’s take a listen. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Recepcionista: ¿Se encuentra el señor Claudio? |
| Claudio: Sí, señorita. Soy yo. |
| Recepcionista: Señor, en un momento más pasa con el director. |
| Claudio: Gracias por el aviso. Aquí espero. |
| Receptionist: Is Mr. Claudio here? |
| Claudio: Yes, miss. It's me. |
| Receptionist: Sir, in a moment you'll go in to see the director. |
| Claudio: Thanks for the warning. I'll wait here. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Fernando: Yes, I believe it’s the reception area. |
| JP: And the receptionist is coming out because I think it’s time for Claudio’s appointment. |
| Fernando: Almost, “¿Se encuentra el señor Claudio?” |
| JP: So “is Mr. Claudio around?” |
| Fernando: Yes and Claudio responds “Sí, señorita. Soy yo”. |
| JP: Okay, says “yes Ms, that’s me…” |
| Fernando: “That’s me.” |
| JP: Right. All right, now the receptionist has some information obviously. She is going to say, it’s time for you to come in or whether the director will see you now. What is she saying? |
| Fernando: She replies, “Señor, en un momento más pasa con el director”. |
| JP: So she calls him “sir” and then she says, “in another moment, you will go in to talk with a director.” |
| Fernando: Yes, the director will be with you in a moment. |
| JP: Okay. So it will start. |
| Fernando: Yes. |
| JP: And Claudio says all right. |
| Fernando: “Gracias por el aviso. Aquí espero”. |
| JP: Okay. Now “gracias por el aviso” we were talking about this in the office before. I translated just “thanks for the warning”, right? |
| Fernando: Right. |
| JP: But “aviso” doesn’t – it’s not really like a warning like it’s not like a storm warning. |
| Fernando: It’s not a warning. Yeah, it’s more like thanks for the heads up. |
| JP: Okay. Thanks for the heads up, all right. And he says “I will wait here.” |
| Fernando: “Aquí espero”. |
| JP: “Aquí espero”, okay. Why don’t we talk about this dialogue more in depth along the lines of vocabulary and grammar. Let’s talk with vocabulary. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Fernando: “Pasar”. |
| JP: “To pass”, “to go by”, “to come by.” |
| Fernando: “Pa-sar”, “pasar”. “Esperar”. |
| JP: “To wait”, “to hope.” |
| Fernando: “Es-pe-rar”, “esperar”. “El aviso”. |
| JP: “Notice.” |
| Fernando: “El a-vi-so”, “el aviso”. “Encontrarse”. |
| JP: “To be at a location”, “to find oneself.” |
| Fernando: “En-con-trar-se”, “encontrarse”. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| JP: All right, Fernando. Let’s talk about these words in a little bit more detail. |
| Fernando: Sure, let’s start with “pasar”. |
| JP: “Pasar”. Okay, now “pasar” has a 1000 different meanings in Spanish. |
| Fernando: 1001. |
| JP: Okay, it’s translated in many, many different ways. The most obvious translation is “to pass” but you will hear “pasar” as like “to come in” or “to stop by.” |
| Fernando: Sí, “pasa”. |
| JP: That’s like “come in”, like when you knock on the door and somebody says “pasa”, right? |
| Fernando: “Pasa”, yeah. |
| JP: In the dialogue, the receptionist says “in another moment, you will go in to talk with the director.” |
| Fernando: “En un momento más pasa con el director”. |
| JP: So “pasa”, “you are going to go in.” |
| Fernando: Yes. |
| JP: Okay, and who are you going to go in with? The director. |
| Fernando: The director. |
| JP: Okay, so that’s the way we use “pasar” in this dialogue. What’s next? |
| Fernando: “El aviso”. |
| JP: “El aviso” is “notice.” “Avisar” is “to give notice” or even “to warn.” “El aviso” is “a notice.” |
| Fernando: Sí. In this case, Claudio says “gracias por el aviso”, “thanks for the notice”, “thanks for the heads up.” |
| JP: Right. |
| Fernando: Next word is “esperar”. |
| JP: “To wait for”, “to expect.” Now the one thing I want to point out about “esperar” is that it takes a direct object. So if I want to say “I am waiting for the bus”... |
| Fernando: “Espero el camión”. |
| JP: “Espero el camión”. In English, we say “to wait for”, “I am waiting for something”, and there is a preposition there. In Spanish, there is no preposition, “espero el camión”, right? |
| Fernando: “Espero el camión”. Now you can also say “espero que pase el camión”. |
| JP: Okay, “I hope the bus comes by.” |
| Fernando: Right. |
| JP: Hey we just used “pasar”. |
| Fernando: There you go. |
| JP: Okay. |
| Fernando: And we also use “espera”, to mean “hope.” |
| JP: Exactly. “I hope the bus comes by.” All right. |
| Fernando: The last one? |
| JP: Well, yeah, last one is... |
| Fernando: “Encontrarse”. |
| JP: “Encontrarse”. Now “encontrar” means “to find.” So “encontrarse” means “to find oneself.” Now the thing about that is... |
| Fernando: We are not trying to get all existentially here. |
| JP: Right. In Spanish, you can use “encontrarse” to talk about “being at a location.” So the receptionist asks, “is Mr. Claudio here?” |
| Fernando: “¿Se encuentra el señor Claudio?” |
| JP: Can “el señor” Claudio find himself here? |
| Fernando: Well, we hope so. |
| JP: Okay. What she is asking is, “is he located here?” |
| Fernando: Right. |
| JP: Okay, “are you here?” |
| Fernando: In the third person, that’s the thing. “¿Se encuentra el señor Claudio?” |
| JP: Right, right, right, she is speaking very politely in the formal register. So that’s the thing, “encontrarse” can mean “to be located at.” There is a couple other things that “encontrarse” can mean, as well like if it’s in the plural “encontrarse”, “my friends all met up at the mall.” |
| Fernando: “Mis amigos se encontraron en el centro comercial”. |
| JP: Okay. Now that’s “encontrarse” again but it’s a different sense, right? That’s the reciprocal sense. We did it to each other. |
| Fernando: For example JP, ask me “where I am at?” |
| JP: Where are you at? |
| Fernando: “Me encuentro en el estudio”. |
| JP: Okay. So you are located in the studio. |
| Fernando: Right. |
| JP: Okay. “I find myself in the studio.” |
| Fernando: Yes. |
| JP: Okay, cool, “encontrarse”. |
| Fernando: Let’s move on to the grammar section. |
| JP: In the grammar section today, we are going to talk about forms of address. So this is a pretty good thing to talk about in a beginner lesson. Now the reception asks, “is Mr. Claudio located here?” |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Fernando: “¿Se encuentra el señor Claudio?” |
| JP: Okay. Notice how she says “el señor Claudio”. She is speaking in the third person which is very polite. |
| Fernando: And it’s also formal setting. |
| JP: And when you use titles in the third person, you are going to use it with the article “el señor Claudio”, that we said “el”, and when we use titles in the third person, we are going to use the article “el señor Claudio”. Now you can see when she addresses him directly, she just calls him “señor”. Okay, so “sir in a minute, you are going to go in with a director.” |
| Fernando: “Señor, en un momento más pasa con el director”. |
| JP: When she is talking about him, she uses the article, “se encuentra el señor Claudio”. The same is true for “señorita”. Now Claudio addresses her directly saying “Yes, miss. It’s me.” |
| Fernando: “Sí, señorita. Soy yo”. |
| JP: Now later, when Claudio goes back and talks about her, he is going to say “the lady was very pretty.” |
| Fernando: “La señorita era muy guapa”. |
| JP: Okay, “la señorita era muy guapa”. He said “la señorita”. When you talk about somebody and use the title, you are going to use that “él” o “la”. So “señor” obviously is “sir” or “Mr.”, “señorita” is obviously “Ms.” What other titles we have in Spanish? |
| Fernando: We have “señora”. |
| JP: Okay, “señora”. That completes the set, right? “Señor”, “señorita”, “señora”. Okay, what’s the difference between “señorita” and “señora”, Fernando? |
| Fernando: “Señorita”, you don’t want to undershoot someone’s age just by first glance I guess. |
| JP: Okay, so it’s about age then? |
| Fernando: It’s about age, yeah. “Señorita”, you would address, you know a teenager, “señorita” or a young person, young female, by “señorita”. |
| JP: And who would you address by “señora”? |
| Fernando: Well, you would address your friend’s mom for example. “Hola señora, mucho gusto”. “Hola señora, ¿cómo le va?”. |
| JP: So it’s like Ms and Mrs, right? |
| Fernando: Uhum. |
| JP: In English, Mrs is for married women and Ms is for unmarried women. Is that the same for “señora” and “señorita”? |
| Fernando: Not necessarily, no because I mean you are going to have a “señorita” who is married but then you might have a “señora” who isn’t married. |
| JP: So what does that mean, Fernando? If she is married and you are still calling her “señorita”. What does that mean about her? |
| Fernando: She is just young. |
| JP: She is young. So it’s really age, it’s not marital status. |
| Fernando: Exactly. So those are the common titles. What other titles we have? |
| JP: Well, we have professional titles “doctor”, “doctor”. |
| JP: Okay. |
| Fernando: “Lawyer” which is “licenciado” but “licenciado” here it takes on a more eclectic definition. So you can call someone who is a graphic designer “licenciado en diseño gráfico”. |
| JP: Okay. |
| Fernando: So you can call that person “licenciado” or “licenciada”, depending on the person’s sex. |
| JP: Now we don’t do that in English. Somebody that has a diploma, we call them “a title” but in Mexico you do, you call them “licenciado”. |
| Fernando: You also address people with titles in the Spanish speaking countries. |
| JP: Right, because it refers to their degree that they have earned in college. |
| Fernando: Exactly. |
| JP: Okay, “licenciado”. |
| Fernando: “Licenciado”. And then you have “engineer”, “ingeniero”. |
| JP: “Ingeniero”. Now these are titles that we don’t use in English. We don’t call someone “hey engineer Jones”, “hello college graduate Smith.” |
| Fernando: Right, you don’t, you know “hey linguist JP.” |
| JP: We don’t. We should but we don’t. So in… |
| Fernando: So in English, what you will see is titles being conferred upon people when its post graduate. So you know, someone who has a PhD or who is actually you know a physician, a doctor. So you will call let’s say Cornell West, “Dr. Cornell West”, because he has a PhD. |
| JP: Okay, but in Spanish it’s much more common to use these titles in regular speech, right? |
| Fernando: Yes. |
| JP: Okay, cool. So we had “doctor”, “profesor”, ... |
| Fernando: “Profesor”, of course. |
| JP: “Licenciado”, “ingeniero”, “arquitecto” también... |
| Fernando: Architect. |
| JP: Now of course, those are just professional titles. There is also of course military titles like “capitán” and… |
| Fernando: “Capitán”, “general”, ... |
| JP: Now the thing about all these titles is when you are addressing someone, you use the title without an article. You say “capitán” or you say “señor” or you say “doctor” when you are talking directly at them. When you are talking about them, you are going to use an article, right? So you are going to say “el señor Olivas” said this, “el doctor Olivas” said this or “el arquitecto Olivas” so and so built this monument. So the moral of the story is no article when you are talking to them but when you are talking about them, you use an article. |
Outro |
| JP: Cool. I guess that’s it for today. It’s time to go. ¡Hasta luego! |
| Fernando: Adiós. |
Easily master this lesson’s grammar points with in-depth explanations and examples. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Comments
Hide