Learn about the gender of Spanish adjectives
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Fernando: Charmed. In this lesson, you will learn about gender agreement in adjectives. The conversation takes place on an airplane. The conversation is between Jimmy and Sandra. Jimmy and Sandra will be speaking in the familiar register. |
| JP: Alright, let's listen to this conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| SANDRA (cantando) "Bruta, ciega, sordomuda, torpe, traste y testaruda. Es |
| todo lo que he sido por ti me he convertido en una cosa |
| que no hace otra cosa mas que amarte pienso en ti día y |
| noche, no sé cómo olvidarte..." |
| JIMMY Con permiso... |
| SANDRA Ay disculpe. Adelante. |
| JIMMY Me presento. Me llamo Jimmy. |
| SANDRA Jimmy, mucho gusto. Me llamo Alejandra. |
| JIMMY Perdón. ¿Cómo te llamas? |
| SANDRA Alejandra. |
| JIMMY Alejandra. |
| SANDRA Así es. Pero me dicen Sandra. |
| JIMMY Sandra, mucho gusto. |
| SANDRA Encantada. |
| JP: One more time, with the translation. |
| SANDRA (cantando) "Bruta, ciega, sordomuda, torpe, traste y testaruda. Es |
| todo lo que he sido por ti me he convertido en una cosa |
| que no hace otra cosa mas que amarte pienso en ti día y |
| noche, no sé cómo olvidarte..." |
| JIMMY Con permiso... |
| JP: Excuse me. |
| SANDRA Ay disculpe. Adelante. |
| JP: Oh, sorry. Go ahead. |
| JIMMY Me presento. Me llamo Jimmy. |
| JP: Let me introduce myself. My name is Jimmy. |
| SANDRA Jimmy, mucho gusto. Me llamo Alejandra. |
| JP: Jimmy, it's a pleasure. My name's Alejandra. |
| JIMMY Perdón. ¿Cómo te llamas? |
| JP: Sorry, what was your name? |
| SANDRA Alejandra. |
| JP: Alejandra. |
| JIMMY Alejandra. |
| JP: Alejandra. |
| SANDRA Así es. Pero me dicen Sandra. |
| JP: Right. But they call me "Sandra." |
| JIMMY Sandra, mucho gusto. |
| JP: Sandra, it's good to meet you. |
| SANDRA Encantada. |
| JP: Charmed. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| JP: Alright, Fernando, we've got some in-flight small talk today. |
| Fernando: Yes, and we're also seeing how people introduce themselves in Spanish. |
| JP: So Sandra is minding her own business, she's singing a Shakira song to herself... |
| Fernando: ... and Jimmy wants to get to his seat, so he says "con permiso." |
| JP: She lets him in, and then Jimmy introduces himself. Says his name's Jimmy... |
| Fernando: ... and then Sandra introduces herself as Alejandra, but then says she goes by Sandra. |
| JP: This is a very useful dialog about how to introduce one's self. Let's look at some of the vocabulary and phrases that we heard. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Fernando: Con permiso [natural native speed] |
| JP: Excuse me |
| Fernando: Con permiso [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Fernando: Con permiso [natural native speed] |
| JP: Next. |
| Fernando: Adelante. [natural native speed] |
| JP: Go ahead. |
| Fernando: Adelante. [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Fernando: Adelante. [natural native speed] |
| JP: Next. |
| Fernando: mucho gusto [natural native speed] |
| JP: it's a pleasure |
| Fernando: mucho gusto [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Fernando: mucho gusto [natural native speed] |
| JP: Next. |
| Fernando: Así es. [natural native speed] |
| JP: That's right. |
| Fernando: Así es. [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Fernando: Así es. [natural native speed] |
| JP: Next. |
| Fernando: encantado [natural native speed] |
| JP: charmed |
| Fernando: encantado [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Fernando: encantado [natural native speed] |
| JP: Next. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| JP: Let's have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Fernando: The first word/phrase we’ll look at is con permiso. |
| JP: This is the phrase you use when someone's in you're way, so you want to politely ask to get by. It's like saying "excuse me." Con permiso. |
| Fernando: Con permiso. And the response is "Adelante" |
| JP: Adelante is a way of saying "go right ahead." Adelante. |
| Fernando: Yes. |
| JP: Ok, we also have two expressions that are the Spanish equivalent of "nice to meet you." |
| Fernando: Yes. The first one is "mucho gusto." |
| JP: Mucho gusto. Literally, this is "much pleasure." Mucho gusto. |
| Fernando: Later Sandra says "encantada" which is also a way of saying "nice to meet you" |
| JP: Encantada. Literally, this is "charmed." Encantada. You'll notice Sandra uses the feminine form, 'encantada.' Ends with an -a. The masculine form would be 'encantado,' which is the form I use, since I'm a dude. But Sandra is a woman, so she says 'encantada.' |
| Fernando: There's one last expression, "así es." |
| JP: Ok, "así es" is a confirmation. What happens is that Jimmy repeats Alejandra's name and he does it correctly. So to confirm she says "así es." Maybe in English, she might have said: "that's right." In Spanish "así es." |
| Fernando: "así es." |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| JP: For our grammar point today, I want to talk some more about adjectives. Encantada is a feminine form, the masculine form would be... |
| Fernando: Encantado. |
| JP: Encantado. So if I'm charmed by meeting someone, I could say that "encantado." |
| Fernando: Encantada, encantado. |
| JP: Both mean "charmed." Now I want to mention today that adjectives agree in gender with the nouns they're modifying, but also in number. So when you hear someone say "encantado" you know they're describing someone masculine and singular. |
| Fernando: Sandra is feminine and singular, so she says "encantada." |
| JP: Right. Now if we were talking about a group of women, maybe Sandra and her sisters, we'd have to use feminine plural. |
| Fernando: Encantadas. |
| JP: Así es. You can hear that "encantadas" has an /s/ at the end. Encantadas. So that's the feminine plural form. Encantadas. |
| Fernando: The masculine plural form would be "encantados" you hear the masculine ending /o/ and the plural /s/. |
| JP: Encantados. Así es. Now the trick is that that feminine plural ending is used for a group of women, there are no men in the group. However, if you use the masculine plural "encantados" you might be referring to a mixed group, with men and women, who are all charmed. This is because the feminine form is exclusive, but the masculine form is not exclusive only to males. In fact there's no grammatical form that refers exclusively to males. So, for example, if you take the word for sisters, hermanas, you know we're only talking about sisters. Hermanas. However, if you take the masculine plural "hermanos.” |
| Fernando: ...it could mean brothers... |
| JP: ...it could mean brothers, but more often than not "hermanos" refers to "brothers and sisters." It's a mixed group. |
| Fernando: So if they were all charmed to meet Jimmy, they'd all say "encantados." |
| JP: Así es. |
Outro |
| Fernando: That just about does it for today. |
| JP: I guess now, it’s time to go. Hasta luego! |
| Fernando: Hasta luego! |
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