Learn how to use Spanish reflexive verbs with an indirect object
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Jessi: Hi everyone! Jessi here. |
| Karen: And I’m Karen. “Do dishes clean themselves in Latin America?” Hola Jessi, ¿cómo estás? |
| Jessi: Muy bien, Karen. Gracias. ¿Y tú? |
| Karen: Muy bien, gracias. |
| Jessi: So Karen, what are we going to learn in this lesson? |
| Karen: In this lesson, listeners are going to learn more about reflexive verbs. |
| Jessi: Where does this conversation take place and who is it between? |
| Karen: The conversation takes place at Héctor and Valerie’s house and it’s between Héctor and Valerie. |
| Jessi: Alright. And with that, let’s listen to the dialogue. |
| Karen: Sounds good. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Valerie: Los platos no se van a lavar solos, mi amor. |
| Héctor: ¿A poco? Yo pensé que sí. |
| Valerie: Ah, pues si quieres quédate viendo si se van a lavar solos. |
| Héctor: Bueno, pero tráeme una silla para estar cómodo. |
| Valeria: The dishes aren't going to wash themselves, honey. |
| Héctor: You don't say. I thought they would. |
| Valeria: Oh, well if you want, stay and see whether they're going to wash themselves. |
| Héctor: Sure, but bring me a chair so I can be comfortable. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Jessi: Speaking of housework. How is it divided up in Latin America? Who usually does what? |
| Karen: Well, that varies depending on age, I think. |
| Jessi: Okay. |
| Karen: The reason I say this is because older people have the mentality that women should be doing all the work at home and that’s because many years ago that’s exactly how it was. |
| Jessi: And so now things have changed, is what you are saying? |
| Karen: Yes, among younger couples these days, it’s become more and more common to share the housework. I would say it’s uncommon to see only the wife doing everything. |
| Jessi: I guess that has to do with women working more and more these days and for longer periods of time compared to the past. I agree that couples should share the work. Sounds like a good idea. |
| Karen: Yes, me too. |
| Jessi: One thing that I heard too is that it’s common to hire people to help with the cleaning and even the cooking sometimes. Is that right? |
| Karen: Oh yes, that’s actually very common for middle class and upper class families. It helps a lot, especially if there are kids at home. |
| Jessi: Very interesting. Thanks for the insight. |
| Karen: No problem. |
| Jessi: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is... |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Karen: “Solo”. |
| Jessi: “By oneself”, “only”, “alone.” |
| Karen: “So-lo”, “solo”. “Sola” is feminine. |
| Jessi: The next word is... |
| Karen: “Quedarse”. |
| Jessi: “To stay put.” |
| Karen: “Que-dar-se”, “quedarse”. |
| Jessi: Next is... |
| Karen: “Cómodo”. |
| Jessi: “Comfortable”, “convenient”, “easy.” |
| Karen: “Có-mo-do”, “cómodo”. “Cómoda” is feminine. |
| Jessi: Next we have... |
| Karen: “Mi amor”. |
| Jessi: “My love”, “honey.” |
| Karen: “Mi a-mor”, “mi amor”. |
| Jessi: Next is... |
| Karen: “Lavar” |
| Jessi: “To wash.” |
| Karen: “La-var”, “lavar”. |
| Jessi: The next word is... |
| Karen: “Traer”. |
| Jessi: “To bring.” |
| Karen: “Tra-er”, “traer”. |
| Jessi: Next is... |
| Karen: “Bueno”. |
| Jessi: “Okay”, “sure”, “well.” |
| Karen: “Bue-no”, “bueno”. |
| Jessi: Last is... |
| Karen: “A poco”. |
| Jessi: “No way.” |
| Karen: “A po-co”, “a poco”. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Jessi: Let’s take a closer look at the words and phrases from this lesson. The first one is... |
| Karen: The word “solo” or “sola”. |
| Jessi: “By oneself”, “only”, “alone.” |
| Karen: This word can be used in many different ways but it always implies “by oneself.” It’s pretty easy, for example, “estoy sola”. |
| Jessi: “I’m by myself.” |
| Karen: “Lo hago solo”. |
| Jessi: “I do it by myself.” |
| Karen: “Sólo esto”. |
| Jessi: “Only this.” And just keep in mind that it can either be “solo” or “sola” depending on if it’s referring to the masculine or feminine noun. Okay, and the next word? |
| Karen: “Quedarse”. |
| Jessi: “To remain”, “to stay”, “to keep.” |
| Karen: “Quedarse” is a reflexive form of the verb “quedar”. In the dialogue, we see the form “quédate”. |
| Jessi: This is what Valerie says to Héctor, “quédate”. |
| Karen: Yes. She says “quédate viendo a ver si se lavan solos”. She’s addressing him directly. |
| Jessi: She’s saying, “stay and see if they are going to wash themselves.” And the next word? |
| Karen: “Cómodo” or “cómoda”. |
| Jessi: “Comfortable”, “convenient.” |
| Karen: So the main meaning of this word is “comfortable.” It can mean “convenient” when talking about price, meaning that the price is not high. |
| Jessi: So what if we want to say that something is uncomfortable? |
| Karen: In that case we add “in” to the beginning and say “incómodo” or “incómoda”. |
| Jessi: That’s easy enough. |
| Karen: Yes. And one last note about this word, know that “cómda” is a feminine noun as well and it means “chest of drawers.” |
| Jessi: Got it. And the last one, please. |
| Karen: “A poco”. |
| Jessi: “No way.” |
| Karen: This one is used mainly when someone is surprised about something. Now remember that “poco” by itself means “a little”, so don’t forget the “a” before it, “a poco”. |
| Jessi: In the dialogue, Héctor uses it sarcastically. Valerie tells him that the dishes won’t wash themselves and he says “¿A poco?” kind of like “really, you don’t say!” |
| Karen: Así es. Okay, let’s move to the grammar point. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Jessi: In this lesson you’ll learn more about using reflexive verbs. We talked about them in the last lesson. |
| Karen: Yes, we talked about what they were and how they conjugate. |
| Jessi: Just for fun, why don’t we review that a little here? |
| Karen: Sure. |
| Jessi: So if you remember, reflexive verbs are used when the subject and the object of a sentence refers to the same person or thing. |
| Karen: Yes, the nuance is that someone does something by themselves or to oneself. |
| Jessi: Reflexive verbs always have “se” after the final “ar”, “er” or “ir”. |
| Karen: Like “moverse”. |
| Jessi: “To move oneself.” |
| Karen: “Cortarse”. |
| Jessi: “To cut oneself.” |
| Karen: “Llamarse”. |
| Jessi: “To call oneself.” And what was the important rule we learned when conjugating these reflexive verbs? |
| Karen: Don’t forget the reflexive pronouns. The “se” end changes to match the subject and it comes before the verb itself. |
| Jessi: So to give some examples? |
| Karen: “Yo me levanto a las diez”. |
| Jessi: “I get up at ten.” Notice how we have “me” before the verb “levanto”. Can you give us another example? |
| Karen: “Sergio se pone la ropa”. |
| Jessi: “Sergio puts on clothes.” Notice how we have “se” before the verb “pone”. Now, what are we going to look at today? |
| Karen: Well, we are going to look at what happens when we have a sentence in which we use two verbs, one of them reflexive. |
| Jessi: Yes. When we have a regular verb, followed directly by a reflexive verb, what happens to that reflexive pronoun? Basically, here’s what happens. When we have two verbs, we have the option of putting the pronoun before the first regular verb or after the reflexive verb. It may be a little hard to picture, so please follow along in the reflexive notes too. |
| Karen: Let’s look at some examples. I think that would help. |
| Jessi: Okay, how about the sentence “I want to wash my face”? “Want” is “querer” and “to wash oneself” is “lavarse”. So how do we put these together? |
| Karen: There are two ways actually. The first way is this, “me quiero lavar la cara”. |
| Jessi: So the pronoun “me” comes before the first verb, “quiero”. |
| Karen: Right. Now we can also say “quiero lavarme la cara”. In this one the pronoun “me” is attached to the end of the reflexive verb “lavar”. |
| Jessi: So let me get this straight. We can either say “me quiero lavar la cara” or “quiero lavarme la cara”. |
| Karen: That’s exactly right and they mean the same thing. |
| Jessi: Let’s show another example. |
| Karen: Sure. How about “Sergio se necesita afeitar la barba”? |
| Jessi: “Sergio needs to shave his beard.” Okay, that works. So in this sentence, the two verbs are “necesitar” and “afeitarse”.Pay attention to the placement of the reflexive pronoun. Let’s hear the sentence again. |
| Karen: “Sergio se necesita afeitar la barba”. |
| Jessi: “Se necesita afeitar”. “Se” comes before the first verb. And our other option? |
| Karen: “Sergio necesita afeitarse la barba”. |
| Jessi: “Necesita afeitarse”. Here the pronoun comes after the reflexive verb. |
| Karen: Exacto, either one is okay. |
| Jessi: And lastly, let’s look at our example from the dialogue. |
| Karen: Valerie says “los platos no se van a lavar solos”. |
| Jessi: “The dishes aren’t going to wash themselves.” “No se van a lavar solos”, so does that mean we can also say “no van a lavarse solos”? |
| Karen: Yes, exactly. Excellent. |
| Jessi: Okay, I think we’ve got it now. Listeners, have you got it now too? |
Outro |
| Karen: That’s going to wrap it up for this lesson today. |
| Jessi: If you have any questions about what we went over, don’t hesitate to leave us a comment. |
| Karen: ¡Hasta la próxima! |
| Jessi: ¡Adiós! |
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