Learn how to use reflexive pronouns and talk about work
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| INTRODUCTION |
| John: Chatting With Your Coworkers About Work in Mexico. John Here. |
| Laura: Hola. I'm Laura. |
| John: In this lesson, you’ll learn to talk about work. The conversation takes place at a business dinner. |
| Laura: It's between Fernando, Alma and Alan. |
| John: The speakers are co-workers and they have known each other for a while, therefore, they will speak informal Spanish. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Fernando Rojas: ¿Cómo terminó la reunión de ayer? Tuve que salirme temprano. |
| Alma Cordero: Nos quedamos hasta muy tarde, pero llegamos a un acuerdo. |
| Alan Brown: Nuestra propuesta fue aprobada. |
| Fernando Rojas: Qué bien, valió la pena ejercer presión. |
| Alma Cordero: Exacto, y como será una inversión muy fuerte no podemos tomarlo a la ligera. |
| John: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Fernando Rojas: ¿Cómo terminó la reunión de ayer? Tuve que salirme temprano. |
| Alma Cordero: Nos quedamos hasta muy tarde, pero llegamos a un acuerdo. |
| Alan Brown: Nuestra propuesta fue aprobada. |
| Fernando Rojas: Qué bien, valió la pena ejercer presión. |
| Alma Cordero: Exacto, y como será una inversión muy fuerte no podemos tomarlo a la ligera. |
| John: Listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| Fernando Rojas: ¿Cómo terminó la reunión de ayer? Tuve que salirme temprano. |
| Fernando Rojas: How did yesterday's meeting end? I had to leave early. |
| Alma Cordero: Nos quedamos hasta muy tarde, pero llegamos a un acuerdo. |
| Alma Cordero: We stayed until late, but we came to an agreement. |
| Alan Brown: Nuestra propuesta fue aprobada. |
| Alan Brown: Our proposal was approved. |
| Fernando Rojas: Qué bien, valió la pena ejercer presión. |
| Fernando Rojas: That's great, it was worth pressing the matter. |
| Alma Cordero: Exacto, y como será una inversión muy fuerte no podemos tomarlo a la ligera. |
| Alma Cordero: Exactly, and since it will be a big investment, we cannot take it lightly. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| John: Even though Fernando had to leave early, it seems like it was good news. |
| Laura: Yes, it seems that way! Their proposal was accepted. |
| John: It must have been pretty stressful to present the proposal in the meeting. |
| Laura: But it was worth it. |
| John: Are Mexican companies willing to accept proposals from employees? |
| Laura: Usually, yes they are. |
| John: What is the best way to present a proposal? |
| Laura: You should formally ask the boss, or whoever is in charge, for permission. |
| John: Getting permission first is good, as that way you won’t be wasting your time. |
| Laura: That’s right. Then present to the colleagues in your area. |
| John: Or, whoever would be working on the proposal. |
| Laura: That’s right. |
| John: Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| John: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is... |
| Laura: terminar [natural native speed] |
| John: "to end, to finish, to terminate" |
| Laura: terminar[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Laura: terminar [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have... |
| Laura: pena [natural native speed] |
| John: "pain, trouble" |
| Laura: pena[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Laura: pena [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have... |
| Laura: propuesta [natural native speed] |
| John: "proposal" |
| Laura: propuesta[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Laura: propuesta [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have... |
| Laura: aprobado(a) [natural native speed] |
| John: "approved" |
| Laura: aprobado(a)[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Laura: aprobado(a) [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have... |
| Laura: qué bien [natural native speed] |
| John: "that's great, it's great" |
| Laura: qué bien[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Laura: qué bien [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have... |
| Laura: ejercer presión [natural native speed] |
| John: "to press the matter" |
| Laura: ejercer presión[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Laura: ejercer presión [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have... |
| Laura: tener [natural native speed] |
| John: "to have" |
| Laura: tener[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Laura: tener [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have... |
| Laura: inversión [natural native speed] |
| John: "investment" |
| Laura: inversión[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Laura: inversión [natural native speed] |
| John: Next we have... |
| Laura: tomar a la ligera [natural native speed] |
| John: "to take lightly" |
| Laura: tomar a la ligera[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Laura: tomar a la ligera [natural native speed] |
| John: And last... |
| Laura: acuerdo [natural native speed] |
| John: "agreement" |
| Laura: acuerdo[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Laura: acuerdo [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| John: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word is... |
| Laura: tener que |
| John: meaning "to have to." |
| John: This is a phrase. |
| Laura: The first word is tener, which means "to have." Next is que. |
| John: In this case, it means "to." So the phrase means "to have to." |
| Laura: You can use this phrase when something must be done or carried out. |
| John: In what situation can you use this phrase? |
| Laura: You can use it in both formal and informal situations. |
| John: Can you give us an example using this phrase? |
| Laura: Sure. For example, you can say... Tengo que levantarme temprano. |
| John: ...which means "I have to wake up early." |
| John: Okay, what's the next word? |
| Laura: llegar a un acuerdo |
| John: meaning "to reach an agreement." |
| John: Let’s break this phrase down. |
| Laura: First is llegar, which means "to reach." Next is a un. |
| John: This means "to a." The final word means "agreement, commonground." |
| Laura: That is acuerdo. |
| John: You can use this to say that two people have made an agreement. |
| Laura: You can use it in informal and formal situations. |
| John: Can you give us an example using this phrase? |
| Laura: Sure. For example, you can say... Puedo llegar a un acuerdo si justifico mi opinión. |
| John: ... which means "I can reach an agreement if I justify my opinion." |
| John: Okay, what's the next word? |
| Laura: valer la pena |
| John: meaning "to be worth it." |
| John: This is also a phrase. |
| Laura: The first word is valer, which means "worth, to value." Next is la pena. |
| John: This means "the trouble." It literally means "to be worth the trouble." |
| Laura: You can use this when something paid off. |
| John: Yes, when something was worth the trouble you had to go to. |
| Laura: It can be used in both formal and informal situations. |
| John: Can you give us an example using this phrase? |
| Laura: Sure. For example, you can say... Vale la pena salir a ver el atardecer. |
| John: ... which means "It is worth it to go outside and see the sunset." |
| John: Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| John: In this lesson, you'll learn how to talk about work. |
| John: We’ll begin by looking at reflexive pronouns, which are used in practically every conversation in Spanish and can be a little bit confusing. So listeners, please make sure to check the PDF Lesson Notes of this lesson for more information. Okay, so the reflexive pronouns are used when the subject in the sentence performs an action on themselves. |
| Laura: An example of a reflexive pronoun in Spanish is me. |
| John: This can be translated to English as "I, my, to me." An example sentence is... |
| Laura: Me duele la cabeza. |
| John: "My head hurts." As you can see in this example, the subject "I" is receiving the action "to hurt" The next reflexive pronoun is... |
| Laura: te |
| John: This is "you, your, to you." Again, an example sentence, please? |
| Laura: ¿Cómo te llamas? |
| John: "What’s your name?" Note how even in the most basic of the Spanish exchanges we find reflexive pronouns. And the last reflexive pronoun we’ll talk about in this lesson is... |
| Laura: nos |
| John: This means "we, to us." And let’s hear an example with this pronoun. |
| Laura: Nos darán un aumento. |
| John: "They will give us a raise." Note that there are more reflexive pronouns and you can find more about them in the Lesson Notes. Now, where should we place the reflexive pronoun? Before or after the verb? |
| Laura: It depends on the verb’s tense, how it’s conjugated. |
| John: Reflexive pronouns can be placed before a conjugated verb or attached to the end of the verb. |
| Laura: The reflexive pronoun comes before the verb if the verb is conjugated in the following tenses: |
| John: present, past, future and negative imperative form. For example, in present tense: |
| Laura: Me levanto temprano. |
| John: "I wake up early." Now using the negative imperative form: |
| Laura: No te vayas. |
| John: "Don’t go." Now, in what cases do we place the reflexive pronoun attached after the verb? |
| Laura: When the verb is in infinitive form, it’s a gerund, or while using the affirmative imperative form. |
| John: For example, let’s hear an affirmative command to contrast with the negative command example we heard earlier |
| Laura: Lávate las manos. |
| John: "Wash your hands." Now let’s hear an example using a verb in the infinitive form. |
| Laura: Tengo que beberme el jarabe para la tos. |
| John: "I have to drink the cough syrup." |
| John: Now, something you must pay attention with is that some verbs change their meaning if they are used with a reflexive pronoun. |
| Laura: For example, despedir |
| John: "to fire," |
| Laura: becomes despedirse |
| John: "to say goodbye." The other verbs this affects are listed in the lesson notes, make sure to check them. Next, we’ll look at some phrases to help us talk about work. |
| Laura: First is Platícame cómo_. |
| John: "Tell me how…." And an example sentence? |
| Laura: Platícame cómo terminó la reunión de ayer. |
| John: "Tell me how the meeting ended yesterday." The next phrase is... |
| Laura: No podemos tomarnos a la ligera_ |
| John: "We cannot take lightly..." |
| Laura: No podemos tomarnos a la ligera la ultima opinión de los arquitectos. |
| John: "We cannot take lightly the last opinion from the architects." And our last phrase is... |
| Laura: ¿Qué te pareció_ |
| John: "What did you think about…?" |
| Laura: ¿Qué te pareció el evento de hoy? |
| John: "What did you think about today's event?" |
Outro |
| John: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Laura: Hasta la próxima. |
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