Learn how to form commands using reflexive verbs and how to use these commands with indirect object pronouns
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Karen: “Get wrapped up in Spanish” Hola Jessi ¿cómo te va? |
| Jessi: Muy bien Karen, gracias. ¿Y tú? |
| Karen: Muy bien. |
| Jessi: So, Karen, what are we going to learn in this lesson? |
| Karen: In this lesson, listeners are going to learn about commands using reflexive verbs. |
| Jessi: Where does this conversation take place and who is it between? |
| Karen: The conversation takes place at home and it’s between a mom and her son. |
| Jessi: So the conversation is between family, which means we’ll be hearing informal Spanish. Ok. Let’s listen to the dialogue. |
| Karen: Sí pasemos. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Mamá: Si vas a salir así te vas a congelar. Ponte algo más. Y recuerda llevarte tus guantes y algo para la cabeza. |
| Hijo: Pero si ya voy bien abrigado. Después no voy a poder ni moverme. Quiero estar cómodo. |
| Mamá: Hazme caso. Es por tu bien. Regresa por algo más calientito. |
| Hijo: Pero mamá, no hace tanto frío. Y sólo voy a caminar unas cuantas cuadras para la parada del camión. |
| Mamá: Si no me haces caso, te voy a llevar directamente a la parada de camión y estaré a tu lado hasta que llegue el camión. |
| Hijo: Ok. Ya me voy entonces. |
| Mamá: ¡No! ¡Espera que no estoy bien vestida! |
| Hijo: Adiós. |
| Mother: If you go out like that, you're going to freeze! Go put on more clothes. And remember to bring your gloves and something for your head. |
| Son: But I'm already all wrapped up warm! After that I won't be able to move. I want to be comfortable. |
| Mother: Listen to me. It's for your own good. Go and get something warmer. |
| Son: But mom, it's not that cold. And I'm only going to walk a few blocks to the bus stop. |
| Mother: If you don't do what I say, I'm going to take you directly to the bus stop and be by your side until the bus comes. |
| Son: Okay. I'm leaving then. |
| Mother: No! Wait, I am not well dressed! |
| Son: Bye. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Jessi: So, in the conversation, the mom says it’s cold, the son says it’s not. So, let’s talk a little bit about the weather. How is the climate in Latin America? Although, I suppose that’s too broad of a question, huh? |
| Karen: Yes. La verdad que hablar de clima ya que varía mucho dependiendo del país. |
| Jessi: Right. For example, I know that by the Amazon River the climate is really humid in, hot. |
| Karen: Así es, también que en las partes montañosas hace frío y que la zona desierta de Chile es seco. |
| Jessi: So, for example, to narrow it down, what can you tell us about the climate in Peru, where you’re from? |
| Karen: Bueno para comenzar, en Lima la capital de Perú no son marcadas la estaciones. En el veranos hace calor pero también no es un calor exagerado y en el invierno un poco de frío pero nada extremo. |
| Jessi: What about in spring and fall? |
| Karen: Bueno en primavera y otoño no hace ni calor ni frio. Se que se escucha un poco extraño pero es así. |
| Jessi: That sounds like a nice balance to me. Neither too hot nor cold. |
| Karen: Sí pero también a mi me gusta ver las cuatro estaciones del año. Me parece que tiene su encanto. |
| Jessi: So you like places that have four distinct seasons. Yes, there’s something nice about that, the change of the seasons. |
| Karen: Sí estoy de acuerdo. |
| Jessi: Ok, let’s move on to the vocab for this lesson. Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is? |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Karen: poner |
| Jessi: “To put”, “to place” |
| Karen: po-ner, poner |
| Jessi: Next is? |
| Karen: mover |
| Jessi: “To move” |
| Karen: mo-ver, mover |
| Jessi: Next up is? |
| Karen: hacer caso |
| Jessi: “To obey” |
| Karen: ha-cer ca-so, hacer caso |
| Jessi: Next is? |
| Karen: cuadra |
| Jessi: “Block” |
| Karen: cua-dra, cuadra |
| Jessi: Next up is? |
| Karen: vestir |
| Jessi: “To dress”, “to cloth” |
| Karen: ves-tir, vestir |
| Jessi: Next is? |
| Karen: congelar |
| Jessi: “To freeze” |
| Karen: con-ge-lar, congelar |
| Jessi: The next word is? |
| Karen: caliente |
| Jessi: “Hot”, “warm” |
| Karen: ca-lien-te, caliente |
| Jessi: Next we have? |
| Karen: guantes |
| Jessi: “Gloves” |
| Karen: guan-tes, guantes |
| Jessi: Next is? |
| Karen: abrigado |
| Jessi: “Coat” |
| Karen: a-bri-ga-do, abrigado |
| Jessi: And last we have? |
| Karen: parada |
| Jessi: “Stop”, “bus truck” |
| Karen: pa-ra-da, parada |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Jessi: Let’s have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word we’ll look at is? |
| Karen: Congelar |
| Jessi: “To freeze”. In the dialogue, the mom says: |
| Karen: “Si vas a salir así te vas a congelar. ” |
| Jessi: “If you go out like that, you’re going to freeze.” Sounds like mothers all over the world. |
| Karen: Sí. |
| Jessi: Of course, the meaning of “freeze” is not literal here, but it’s used kind of like a joke. I mean, he’s not literally going to freeze. We use it this way in English, too. |
| Karen: Así es. |
| Jessi: The next word is? |
| Karen: Guantes |
| Jessi: “Gloves” |
| Karen: Esa también es fácil. Pueden ser de diferentes materiales pero todos tienen la misma función: de proteger las manos de diferentes cosas. |
| Jessi: Ok. And the next word? |
| Karen: Abrigar. |
| Jessi: “To wrap”, “to keep warm” |
| Karen: Bueno abrigar significa ponerse o colocarse algo para mantenerse más caliente. |
| Jessi: Yes, and if you remember that the word [*] in Spanish means “coat”, then you should be able to easily remember the meaning of “abrigar”. |
| Karen: Sí, es una buena idea recordar ambas palabra juntas: abrigo y abrigar. |
| Jessi: All right. And next we have? |
| Karen: Caliente. |
| Jessi: “Hot”, “warm” |
| Karen: Normalmente el signifcado de esta palabra es “hot” cómo cuando se toca algo caliente: cómo en comidas, bebidas incluso el clima. |
| Jessi: Right. And the word we had in the dialogue was actually a variation of this word, “calientito”. |
| Karen: Correcto. Calientito. Cambiamos el final a “ito” esto es conocido como el diminutivo. |
| Jessi: Right. The diminutive in Spanish. The meaning of “calientito” is closer to “warm”. So, Karen, can we say that “caliente” is “hot” and “calientito” is “warm”? |
| Karen: Sí, yo diría que eso es correcto. |
| Jessi: Ok. And the last word is? |
| Karen: Parada. |
| Jessi: “Stop”, “stopping” |
| Karen: En el dialogo significa parada, por que se refiere a la parada del autobus. |
| Jessi: Which is “bus stop”. |
| Karen: OK, pasemos a la sección de gramática. En esta lección aprenderán sobre comandos usando los verbos reflexivos. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Jessi: In this lesson we’re going to look at the command form of reflexive verbs. First, a quick review of reflexive verbs “ar”. Reflexive verbs end in “se” and are used when the subject and the object of a sentence refer to the same person or thing. |
| Karen: Correcto algunos ejemplos comunes son lavarse, sentarse, ponerse, etc. |
| Jessi: Yes. And they all refer to doing something oneself or to oneself. “Lavarse” – “to wash oneself”, “sentarse” – “to sit oneself”, “ponerse” – “to put on clothes” or “to dress oneself”. So, those are reflexive verbs. By the way, if you’d like more information on those reflexive verbs, be sure to give Beginner Series, Season 5, Lessons 22 &23 a listen. And today we’re talking about commands also known as the Imperative form. |
| Karen: Esta es la forma que se usa cuando se le pide a alguien hacer algo. |
| Jessi: Right. At this level, you should be familiar with creating the informal and formal Imperative forms. It was also covered in Lesson 18 of this series, so you can listen to that lesson again to review. And now, we’re going to combine the two, the command form of reflexive verbs. |
| Karen: No es para nada dificil. |
| Jessi: No, quite easy to get the hang of. So, when you conjugate reflexive verbs, you always have the object pronoun with it. |
| Karen: Correcto. Me voy a poner una chaqueta. |
| Jessi: “I’m going to put on a jacket.” That “me” is part of the verb “ponerse”, so when we make affirmative commands out of these, we still need the object pronoun. Where does it go, Karen? |
| Karen: Justo después del verbo. |
| Jessi: That’s it. It’s attached to the end of the verb. I think it’s best to show with some examples. |
| Karen: En el dialogo la madre dice: “Ponte algo más” |
| Jessi: “Go put on more clothes.” So, the original verb is “ponerse” – “to put on”, we have the informal Imperative “pon” and then the object pronoun “te” right after it. |
| Karen: Sí, ponte algo más. |
| Jessi: That’s the informal way to say it. How about the formal way? |
| Karen: El imperativo formal de “poner” es “ponga”. |
| Jessi: Right. “Ponga”. And then, plus the object pronoun, which makes “pongase”. |
| Karen: Así es. |
| Jessi: Let’s look at some more examples. Here’s a common one you hear a lot in the command form “entarse”. |
| Karen: O buen punto, usamos esta palabra bien seguido. |
| Jessi: The informal command would be? |
| Karen: sientate |
| Jessi: And the formal command would be? |
| Karen: Sientese |
| Jessi: Here’s another good one. Levantarse |
| Karen: Ah sí, recuerdo a mi mamá diciéndome cuando era chica : “Levantate, ya son las doce.” |
| Jessi: “Wake up. It’s already 12 o’clock.” Yes, “levantate” is one you may hear a lot, especially if you enjoy sleeping in. So, anyway, just remember the object pronoun at the end. |
| Karen: Sí y también si un pronombre está unido al final de un comando necesitamos usar acento. |
| Jessi: Good point. Note that when you make commands using the reflexive verbs, we add an accent. The reason is to maintain the proper stress. |
| Karen: El acento se coloca seguido de la última sílaba antes de unir el pronombre. |
| Jessi: So, to look at the example we just used, “levántate”, the accent gets added to the first “a” sound. Levántate. |
| Karen: Así es. |
| Jessi: Ok. And there’s one last minor thing I want to add. |
| Karen: Oh ¿Qué es? |
| Jessi: The rule we talked about here is for affirmative commands, like “Do this.” or “Do that.”. But, when we have negative commands, the rules are a bit different. |
| Karen: Comandos negativos, como “Don’t do that.”? |
| Jessi: Right. So, as an example, let’s look at the verb for “to fall asleep”. |
| Karen: Dormirse |
| Jessi: To tell someone to sleep you would say? |
| Karen: Duermete. |
| Jessi: So, we have “te” at the end. And to tell someone not to sleep? |
| Karen: No te duermas. |
| Jessi: “Don’t fall asleep.” Notice how the pronoun comes before the verb “no te duermas”. |
| Karen: Ah buen punto Jessi. |
Outro |
| Jessi: So, just keep that in mind. Ok. Well, that’s going to do it for today. Well, see you all next time. |
| Karen: Hasta luego. |
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