Learn about phrases used when food is served
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Lizy: Buenos días, soy Lizy. |
| Alan: Alan here. |
| Lizy: Newbie series, lesson #11. |
| Alan: “Let’s Eat.” Hey people, my name is Alan Le Rue. |
| Lizy: I am Lizy Stoliar. |
| Alan: And we would like to welcome you to the 11th lesson of the newbie series in spanishpod101.com So Lizy, what are we going to talk about today? |
| Lizy: Food. |
| Alan: Uff, a favorite topic of mine and I am sure of yours as well. |
| Lizy: Definitely. What are we doing today? |
| Alan: Well, today we are going to look at expressions used in the beginning of a meal that is the “bon appetite” of Spanish. |
| Lizy: And where does our conversation take place? |
| Alan: Well this conversation takes place in a restaurant in Oaxaca, Mexico, where Manuel and Luisa are served lunch. |
| Okay, let’s get into today’s conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| MOZO: Aquí tiene su chimichanga con mole, señor. Servido. |
| MANUEL: Gracias. Se ve rica. |
| MOZO: Y para usted, señora, aquí tiene su burrito de carne. Servida. |
| LUISA: Gracias, señor. Se ve sabroso. |
| MOZO: ¡Buen provecho! |
| Alan: And now slower. Una vez más esta vez lentamente. |
| MOZO: Aquí tiene su chimichanga con mole, señor. Servido. |
| MANUEL: Gracias. Se ve rica. |
| MOZO: Y para usted, señora, aquí tiene su burrito de carne. Servida. |
| LUISA: Gracias, señor. Se ve sabroso. |
| MOZO: ¡Buen provecho! |
| Alan: And now with the translation. Ahora incluiremos la traducción. |
| MOZO: Aquí tiene su chimichanga con mole, señor. Servido. |
| WAITER: Here you have your chimichanga with mole, Sir. There you are. |
| MANUEL: Gracias. Se ve rica. |
| MANUEL: Thank you. It looks delicious. |
| MOZO: Y para usted, señora, aquí tiene su burrito de carne. Servida. |
| WAITER: And for you, Ma'am, here you have your beef burrito. There you are. |
| LUISA: Gracias, señor. Se ve sabroso. |
| LUISA: Thank you, Sir. It looks tasty. |
| MOZO: ¡Buen provecho! |
| WAITER: Bon appetite! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Alan: Umm “mole”, I love it. |
| Lizy: Me too. Have you ever been to Mexico and had the real “mole”, Alan? |
| Alan: You know, I have been to Mexico. I went to Mexico City about 10 years ago. What a fantastic experience! That city is big. |
| Lizy: Bueno, yo no he estado en México pero aquí sí he comido unos tacos riquísimos y una sincronizada, que es lo que me encanta, sincronizada de jamón y queso. Wow, es lo máximo. |
| Alan: Is that a Mexican dish, “sincronizada”? |
| Lizy: Sí, sí, sí, totalmente. |
| Alan: You know, I remember a couple of years ago, they opened a Taco Bell in Lima. Do you remember that? |
| Lizy: Sí. |
| Alan: And I think it lasted about six months and then it went bankrupt. I don’t think Peruvians could figure out why they had to spend so much money for beans. Okay, now we will look at the vocabulary and phrases for this lesson. First word... |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Lizy: “El”. |
| Alan: “The.” |
| Lizy: “El”, “el”. |
| Alan: Next we have... |
| Lizy: “La”. |
| Alan: “The.” |
| Lizy: “La”, “la”. |
| Alan: Now we will listen to... |
| Lizy: “Ver”. |
| Alan: “To see.” |
| Lizy: “Ver”, “ver”. |
| Alan: Next we have... |
| Lizy: “Servido, servida”. |
| Alan: There you are, “served.” |
| Lizy: “Ser-vi-do, ser-vi-da”, “servido, servida”. |
| Alan: Then we have... |
| Lizy: “Sabroso, sabrosa”. |
| Alan: “Tasty”, “flavorful.” |
| Lizy: “Sa-bro-so, sa-bro-sa”, “sabroso, sabrosa”. |
| Alan: And lastly... |
| Lizy: “Buen provecho”. |
| Alan: “Bon appetite.” |
| Lizy: “Buen pro-ve-cho”, “buen provecho”. |
| Alan: Liz, you know what else is really delicious in Mexico? |
| Lizy: ¿Qué? |
| Alan: A “burrito”. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Lizy: “El burrito está rico”. |
| Alan: “The burrito is delicious.” Hey let’s look at the word “el”. |
| Lizy: The word “el”, without an accent, means “the” for masculine nouns in the singular. In the plural, it changes to “los”. |
| Alan: Right. So how would we say if there are more than one “burrito” which I hope there is? |
| Lizy: So if there were more than one “burrito”, we would say “los burritos”. |
| Alan: This is an important article to remember people because it’s associated with all singular masculine nouns. |
| Lizy: Let’s flip the switch. The next word we are going to look at today is “la”. |
| Alan: Lizy, how about an example with “la”? |
| Lizy: “La chimichanga está rica también”. |
| Alan: “The ‘chimichanga’ is delicious too.” |
| Lizy: The word “la” means “the” for feminine nouns in the singular. |
| Alan: Right. It is the feminine counterpart to “el”. In the plural, “la” changes to “las”. |
| Lizy: So if we were going to talk about more than one “chimichanga”... |
| Alan: We would say “las chimichangas”. |
| Lizy: Again this article is very important because it’s associated with all feminine nouns. |
| Alan: Okay, the next vocabulary word is “ver”. Lizy, would you give us an example with “ver”, please? |
| Lizy: “La comida se ve bien”. |
| Alan: “The food looks good.” This is a case of a passive verb conjugation. |
| Lizy: Let’s wait until a future lesson to get into that, okay? |
| Alan: Okay, sure, but for now let’s just look at the form “se ve”. Lizy, how could we translate that? |
| Lizy: Literally this means “it is seen” but we translate it as “it looks” in the sense of it appears. |
| Alan: Okay, this brings us to the last expression today which is “buen provecho”. |
| Lizy: “Aquí está la comida, buen provecho”. |
| Alan: “Here is the food, bon appetite.” I like how we just translated Spanish into French for English speakers. |
| Lizy: Well isn’t that a French word used all the time in English? |
| Alan: Yep, that it is. In fact in English, we don’t really have a good expression for it except maybe “enjoy.” |
| Lizy: So “buen provecho” literally means “good gain” or “good advantage” but in Spanish, it’s used to say “Bon appetite”. It also has its counterpart in Spanish, “buen apetito”. |
| Alan: Both of these phrases are used in the same way at the moment when food is served but I think “buen provecho” is more common. What would you say, Liz? |
| Lizy: Así es, buen provecho es muy común. Y eso tiene una respuesta, que és… “servido”. |
| Alan: That’s right. So if you want to wish somebody “bon appetite”, you say “provecho” and if you are the person who is sitting down and eating, you would say “gracias, servido”. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Alan: Now let’s move on and have a more thorough look at the grammar used in this lesson. |
| Lizy: Today we are going to focus on the expressions “servido” and “buen provecho”. |
| Alan: Sounds good. |
| Lizy: The word “servido” literally means “served.” |
| Alan: But in Spanish, it’s used to say “there you go” or “here you go.” |
| Lizy: “Buen provecho”. On the other hand, it’s generally used like we say “bon appetite” in English. That is at the moment when food is served to someone. |
| Alan: Lizy, can you take us back to where “servido” appeared in the conversation? |
| Lizy: “Aquí tiene su chimichanga con mole, señor. Servido.” |
| Alan: “Here you have your ‘chimichanga’ with ‘mole’, sir. There you go.” Now the word “servido” is interesting. |
| Lizy: Why? |
| Alan: Because it’s like saying “be served” as opposed to “help yourself.” |
| Lizy: Yeah. Also if this word is said to a man, then “servido” is used and if it’s said to a woman, then “servida” is used. |
| Alan: That’s right “servido” for man, “servida” for woman. This expression shows courtesy for other people and humbleness on the part of the server. |
| Lizy: Okay, now let’s look at the expression “buen provecho”. |
| Alan: As in... |
| Lizy: “Aquí tiene su sopa, buen provecho.” |
| Alan: “Here you have your soup, bon appetite.” |
| Lizy: Right. So at the moment when someone is served “buen provecho” is said to let them know that you hope they enjoyed their meal. |
| Alan: This too is used mainly as a courtesy and to show politeness. However there is another usage for this phrase too. |
| Lizy: Right. “Tengo que salir, gracias. Buen provecho.” |
| Alan: “I have to leave, thank you. Enjoy.” So this is the case when you have to get up from the table before the rest of your guests for one reason or another. |
| Lizy: Saying “buen provecho” here is more like saying “enjoy the rest of your meal” than saying “bon appetite.” Many times, the saying is shortened to “provecho” in this case. |
| Alan: That’s right. Remember, politeness is important in Latin America and Spain. Let me give you kind of an example here, Lizy. That in a restaurant if you are getting up from your table and as you are leaving and for example, small restaurant, and there is only a few other tables there, it’s pretty common to tell the people who you’ve never met, you’ve never spoken to but they are sitting there eating. As you leave the room, you say “buen provecho” and they will say “gracias”. |
| Lizy: Así es, Alan. Comparto esa idea. That’s right. You never want to get up without excusing yourself. |
| Alan: That wouldn’t be good. Lizy, what would happen if someone did that? |
| Lizy: Sería un malcriado y se ve horrible. |
Outro |
| Alan: That’s right. It wouldn’t look good at all. Okay folks, this brings us to the end of today’s lesson. See you soon. |
| Lizy: Nos vemos pronto, ¡chao! |
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