Learn how to use ser to discuss the place of origin
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Fernando: In-Flight Entertainment. In this lesson you will learn about ser. This conversation takes place on a plane, the conversation is between Jimmy and Sandra, and they’ll be speaking in the familiar register. |
| JP: Alright, let's listen to this conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| JIMMY ¿Y esa canción? |
| SANDRA ¿Mande? |
| JIMMY “bruta ciega sordomuda....” |
| SANDRA Ah sí. Qué pena. Es una canción de Shakira. |
| JIMMY Ah, bueno. ¿De dónde eres tú? |
| SANDRA Soy de Cozumel. |
| JIMMY Ah, sí, Cozumel... |
| SANDRA ¿Y tú? Eres americano, ¿no? |
| JIMMY Sí, soy estadounidense. |
| SANDRA ¿De Nueva York? |
| JIMMY No, ... angelino. |
| SANDRA Ah, ¿sí? No manches. |
| JP: One more time, with the translation. |
| JIMMY: ¿Y esa canción? |
| JIMMY: So that song... |
| SANDRA: ¿Mande? |
| SANDRA: Excuse me? |
| JIMMY: “bruta ciega sordomuda....” |
| JIMMY: "Bruta ciega sordomuda...." |
| SANDRA: Ah sí. Qué pena. Es una canción de Shakira. |
| SANDRA: Oh yeah. How embarrassing. It's a Shakira song. |
| JIMMY: Ah, bueno. ¿De dónde eres tú? |
| JIMMY: Oh, okay. Where are you from? |
| SANDRA: Soy de Cozumel. |
| SANDRA: I'm from Cozumel. |
| JIMMY: Ah, sí, Cozumel... |
| JIMMY: Ah yes, Cozumel... |
| SANDRA: ¿Y tú? Eres americano, ¿no? |
| SANDRA: What about you? American, right? |
| JIMMY: Sí, soy estadounidense. |
| JIMMY: Yes, I'm from the United States. |
| SANDRA: ¿De Nueva York? |
| SANDRA: New York? |
| JIMMY: No, ... angelino. |
| JIMMY: Nope, I'm an Angelino. |
| SANDRA: Ah, ¿sí? No manches. |
| SANDRA: Oh yeah? No kidding. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| JP: Well, Fernando, it looks like Jimmy is a talker. |
| Fernando: ¿Mande? |
| JP: You know, one of those people on the plane who wants to talk to the person to him. |
| Fernando: Yes, he's a talker. He asks Sandra what song she's singing... it's an old song by Shakira; it's very famous. Anyway, that's just his icebreaker, because next he asks her where she's from. |
| JP: Cozumel, right? Which is an island off the coast of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. |
| Fernando: Right. Sandra guesses that Jimmy's American, but guesses wrong about New York. |
| JP: He's not from New York, he's Angelino. |
| Fernando: Angelino... from Los Angeles. |
| JP: Like you, Fernando! |
| Fernando: Just like me. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| JP: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| Fernando: ¿Y tú? [natural native speed] |
| JP: And you? |
| Fernando: ¿Y tú? [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Fernando: ¿Y tú? [natural native speed] |
| JP: Next. |
| Fernando: No manches. [natural native speed] |
| JP: No kidding. |
| Fernando: No manches. [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Fernando: No manches. [natural native speed] |
| JP: Next. |
| Fernando: Qué pena [natural native speed] |
| JP: How embarrassing. |
| Fernando: Qué pena [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Fernando: Qué pena [natural native speed] |
| JP: Next. |
| ¿Mande? [natural native speed] |
| JP: Excuse me? |
| ¿Mande? [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| ¿Mande? [natural native speed] |
| JP: Last one. |
| Fernando: De dónde [natural native speed] |
| JP: Where from. |
| Fernando: De dónde [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Fernando: De dónde [natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| JP: Ok, now let's take a look at these phrases, what are we gonna look at? |
| Fernando: Let’s first look at ¿Y tú? |
| JP: ¿Y tú? This is how you ask "what about you?" Literally, it means "and you." ¿Y tú? |
| Fernando: ¿Y tú? The next expression we have is "No manches." |
| JP: haha, this is a pretty Mexican expression, you say it to express disbelief. It's kind of like saying "Don't mess with me," or "quit kidding around." No manches. |
| Fernando: No manches. She says this after he says that he's angelino. |
| JP: LA? For real? No kidding! |
| Fernando: No manches! The next expression is qué pena. |
| JP: How embarrassing. Qué pena. Why did she say this? |
| Fernando: Because Jimmy had caught Sandra singing to herself, and then asked about it. Oh, how embarrassing. Qué pena. Next we have the question ¿Mande? |
| JP: this is the Mexican way of saying sorry, what? ¿Mande? It's mostly Mexicans who say this, the rest of the Spanish speaking world might say ¿cómo? But here, Sandra is Mexican, so she says ¿Mande? You say that, right, Fernando? |
| Fernando: ¿Mande? |
| JP: Exactly. |
| Fernando: Our last phrase is ¿De dónde? |
| JP: That literally means "from where." ¿De dónde? |
| Fernando: Así es. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| JP: We saw three forms of the verb ser in the dialog today. |
| Fernando: Ser is is one of the verbs that means "to be" in Spanish. We use ser to talk about identity. |
| JP: So we heard ser when Sandra says she's from Cozumel. |
| Fernando: Soy de Cozumel. |
| JP: I'm from Cozumel, soy de Cozumel. The verb here is "soy," it means "I am" and it's the first person singular form for ser. Soy. |
| Fernando: Jimmy uses "soy" twice after that when he says he's American. He says "soy estadounidense." |
| JP: I'm american, soy estadounidense. |
| Fernando: And we hear it again when he says he's an Angelino. "soy angelino." |
| JP: I'm Angelino. Soy angelino. So every time we want to say "I am" they say soy. What about the second person, Fernando? |
| Fernando: Sandra asks, "where are you from?" ¿De dónde eres tú? |
| JP: ¿De dónde eres tú? De dónde means "from where," and then the verb for "you are" is eres. |
| Fernando: Eres. |
| JP: So we have first person soy, and second person eres. Third person is "es," right? |
| Fernando: Yes, and we hear "es" when Sandra identifies the song. She says "es una canción de Shakira." ES una canción. |
| JP: that ES means "it is," it can also mean "he is" or "she is" but since we're talking about a song in this sentence, the ES we use here is "it is." So let's do a quick recap. To be? |
| Fernando: Ser |
| JP: I am? |
| Fernando: soy. |
| JP: You are? |
| Fernando: eres. |
| JP: it is, or he is, or she is? |
| Fernando: es. |
| JP: Ok, those are the singular forms of SER in the present tense; soy, eres, es. There are plural forms too, so you can check those out in the lesson notes. But real quick, I want to talk about how we used ser to identify. We used ser with a noun when we wanted to name an object; in this case it was a song. |
| Fernando: It's a song "es una canción" |
| JP: We also used ser with an adjective to talk about nationality and hometown. |
| Fernando: Soy estadounidense, soy angelino, yo soy mexicano... |
| JP: Finally, when we wanted to give our place of origin, we used ser with de, and then the place name. |
| Fernando: Soy de Cozumel. Eres de New York. |
| JP: And we heard ser in the question "where are you from." |
| Fernando: ¿De dónde eres tú? |
| JP: ¿De dónde eres tú? Did you hear that de? The order of the sentence was switched around because it's a question, but you can definitely hear the 2nd person singular of SER which is eres. And the question is ¿De dónde eres tú? So that de gets bumped out to the beginning of the sentence, but it's all still there; ser plus de. |
| Fernando: Así es. |
Outro |
| Fernando: That just about does it for today. |
| JP: For now, it’s time to say goodbye, so hasta luego! |
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