Learn how to talk about the weather
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Lizy: Bienvenidos a SpanishPod101.com! |
| Lizy: Buenos días, mi nombre Lizy. |
| Alan: Hi everybody, Alan here. |
| Lizy: Newbie series, lesson #18. |
| Alan: “Is it raining?” Hello everybody and welcome back to spanishpod101.com coming to you from Lima, Peru. |
| Lizy: It’s a pleasure to be with you. |
| Alan: That’s right and today we have another newbie lesson. |
| Lizy: That’s right. Newbie lesson 18. |
| Alan: Now for any of our new listeners, this newbie series at spanishpod101.com is designed for anyone who is new to the language. |
| Lizy: That’s why it’s aptly named newbie. |
| Alan: Okay, so Lizy, today we are going to look at some more weather expressions. |
| Lizy: Always a good conversation starter. |
| Alan: That’s right. Now this time, we will focus on expressions related “to rain”, “la lluvia”. I love the way that word sounds. Could you say it for me? |
| Lizy: Of course “la lluvia”, “la lluvia”, “la lluvia”. |
| Alan: Oh, “la lluvia”, although I guess here the expression will be “rain”, rain go away and come again another day. |
| Lizy: ¡Qué bonito suena! So today’s conversation takes place here in Lima, the capital of Perú, where Carmen and Paula talk about the wet weather. |
| Alan: You know, Lizy, it’s nice to talk about the wet weather right now since we are still in summer. |
| Lizy: Well, for you it is but I like the cooler winter weather even if it does get damp. |
| Alan: Yeah, that’s something that’s pretty interesting about Lima. It only gets wet in the winter months. |
| Lizy: Right. Here we have “un microclima”, “a microclimate.” |
| Alan: Yeah, it’s interesting. You know, you never get that thunderstorm in the summer that clears the air and close everything down. |
| Lizy: Lima is renowned for its humidity. |
| Alan: All right. We have a lot to cover today. |
| Lizy: Yes we do. So let’s get into today’s conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| CARMEN: ¿Está lloviendo? |
| PAOLA: No. No es lluvia; es llovizna. |
| CARMEN: Mira, las gotas son chiquititas. ¿Las ves? |
| PAOLA: Sí, las veo, pero tampoco es llovizna. Es garúa. |
| CARMEN: Ya veo, Paola. Es garúa y es muy misteriosa. |
| Alan: And now slower. Una vez más esta vez lentamente. |
| CARMEN: ¿Está lloviendo? |
| PAOLA: No. No es lluvia; es llovizna. |
| CARMEN: Mira, las gotas son chiquititas. ¿Las ves? |
| PAOLA: Sí, las veo, pero tampoco es llovizna. Es garúa. |
| CARMEN: Ya veo, Paola. Es garúa y es muy misteriosa. |
| Alan: And now with the translation. Ahora incluiremos la traducción. |
| CARMEN: ¿Está lloviendo? |
| CARMEN: Is it raining? |
| PAOLA: No. No es lluvia; es llovizna. |
| PAOLA: No. It's not rain, it's a drizzle. |
| CARMEN: Mira, las gotas son chiquititas. ¿Las ves? |
| CARMEN: Look, the raindrops are tiny. Do you see them? |
| PAOLA: Sí, las veo, pero tampoco es llovizna. Es garúa. |
| PAOLA: Yeah, I see them, but it's not a drizzle either. It's mist. |
| CARMEN: Ya veo, Paola. Es garúa y es muy misteriosa. |
| CARMEN: Now I get it, Paola. It's mist and it's very mysterious. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Alan: Lizy, isn’t Lima a very unique place in the winter? I think that this conversation touches on this a little bit. |
| Lizy: Definitely. First of all, it never rains here. The precipitation that we have is “finísimo”, it’s very, very fine. |
| Alan: Right and what’s this called? |
| Lizy: We call it “garúa”. |
| Alan: And something that’s interesting about this kind of precipitation is that it doesn’t really fall or if it falls, it doesn’t fall very fast. |
| Lizy: Right. It just can’t often surround. We often feel like we are living in the clouds even though we are at sea level. |
| Alan: That’s kind of poetic but you are right. It’s just sort of wet air, isn’t it? |
| Lizy: Yes, thanks Alan. During the spring and in the fall, this mist rolls off of the sea and into the city. |
| Alan: Is that why Carmen calls it mysterious? |
| Lizy: I think so. When this happens at night, it gives the city such a strange appearance when you are walking on the street and you see someone a little ways away, all you can see is their silhouette. |
| Alan: Yeah, really he is mysterious, isn’t it? |
| Lizy: Yes, but it’s really hard to describe which is why you all should come to Peru to see it for yourself. |
| Alan: Okay friends, on to the vocab. Here we are going to break down these words syllable by syllable so that you can hear exactly how each word sounds. |
| Lizy: ¡Vamos! |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Alan: So let’s begin with... |
| Lizy: “Llover”. |
| Alan: “To rain.” |
| Lizy: “Llo-ver”, “llover”. |
| Alan: Next we will hear... |
| Lizy: “Llovizna”. |
| Alan: “Drizzle.” |
| Lizy: “Llo-viz-na”, “llovizna”. |
| Alan: Okay, now we will listen to... |
| Lizy: “Gota”. |
| Alan: “Drop”, “rain drop.” |
| Lizy: “Go-ta”, “gota”. |
| Alan: Next we will hear... |
| Lizy: “Chiquitito, chiquitita”. |
| Alan: “Tiny.” |
| Lizy: “Chi-qui-ti-to, chi-qui-ti-ta”, “chiquitito, chiquitita”. |
| Alan: Okay, let’s move on to... |
| Lizy: “Garúa”. |
| Alan: “Mist.” |
| Lizy: “Ga-rú-a”, “garúa”. |
| Alan: And finally... |
| Lizy: “Misterioso, misteriosa”. |
| Alan: “Mysterious.” |
| Lizy: “Mis-te-rio-so, mis-te-rio-sa”, “misterioso, misteriosa”. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Lizy: Alan, before we move on, let’s look a little closer at the word “chiquitito”. |
| Alan: It comes from the word “chico”. |
| Lizy: And we know that “chico” means? |
| Alan: It means “small.” |
| Lizy: What’s the function of this word? |
| Alan: It’s modifying the noun “gotas”. Lizy, I have a question for you. What do we call a word that modifies a noun like this? |
| Lizy: Ah, it’s an adjective. |
| Alan: Aha, right. Now what’s special about this word “chiquitito” is that it’s one of the ways of forming the diminutive. |
| Lizy: So let’s say that it’s raining out, we can say that “las gotas son chicas” which means “the raindrops are small” or if it’s just kind of a drizzle and the raindrops are very small we can say “las gotas son chiquitas”. |
| Alan: And if these raindrops are so small that they are like “a mist”, “una garúa”, we can say “las gotas son chiquititas”. |
| Lizy: Okay. So now let’s look a little bit closer at how some of these words are used. |
| Alan: Okay, as always, Lizy, I am game for that. |
| Lizy: So to begin, let’s look at the word “llover”. |
| Alan: All right. I am ready for an example. |
| Lizy: “Llueve todo el día”. This means “it rains all day.” |
| Alan: Of course but not in Lima. So we know that the verb “llover” means “to rain” and that “todo el día” means “all day.” I think we should describe where the word it comes in. |
| Lizy: Maybe we should look at this in the next section but for now, let’s say that this is called an impersonal verb. |
| Alan: All right. Good idea, Lizy. Impersonal verbs are easy because they only ever have one form. |
| Lizy: All right. So let’s move on and look at the word “llovizna”. |
| Alan: And would you let our audience know what this means. |
| Lizy: We use this word to refer to a drizzle as in the example “la llovizna es muy común en el invierno”, “drizzle is very common in the winter.” |
| Alan: So in this sense, it’s a noun. |
| Lizy: Alan, I know in English, we can use the verb “drizzle” as a verb too. We can do the same in Spanish. |
| Alan: Aha, pero claro. Of course, we have the verb “lloviznar”. |
| Lizy: You know, I think we should point out that the beginning of it even looks a little like the verb “llover” which we just covered. |
| Alan: Right they are very similar and as a verb, we can use it like this “llovizna en el invierno”. “It drizzles in the winter.” |
| Lizy: It’s interesting to point out how the usage in the Spanish is so similar to that of the English. |
| Alan: All right, Lizy, two more words. First, let’s look at the word “garúa”. |
| Lizy: This means “mist” as in the example, “la garúa es una cosa extraña”, “mist is a strange thing” and just like we saw with the nouns “lluvia” and “llovizna” this one too can be made into verb. |
| Alan: And for our audience, the verb is... |
| Lizy: It’s “garuar”. |
| Alan: How about an example with this one? |
| Lizy: Sure, “siempre garúa en el otoño”. “It always mists in the fall.” |
| Alan: Okay, now for those who have yet to visit Lima, this mist is something that plays a huge role in the climate here. |
| Lizy: It sure does. When there is a lot of “garúa” we always have to wash “las ventanas”, “the windows” and constantly “barrer”, means “sweep the floors” because there is this little dust that always comes into the house. |
| Alan: It’s really amazing how much maintenance is required. I mean, if you have a car, you need to wash your car 2 to 3 times a week. |
| Lizy: Yes, “otra cosa”, “another thing” that’s kind of interesting as a result of this “garúa” is how everyone waxes their floors. |
| Alan: That’s right and this is done pretty regularly. Isn’t it? |
| Lizy: Oh I would say about once a week. |
| Alan: ¿Y por qué? Why do people do this so regularly? |
| Lizy: We are manic. Well it makes it easier to get rid of the dust if the floor is freshly waxed. It also makes your house smell nice and clean. |
| Alan: You know, I think I’ve even seen people waxing the little walkway to their house and even their sidewalk. |
| Lizy: Yeah. People get a little obsessive about it. |
| Alan: Well, now that we’ve gotten deeper understanding of the vocabulary for today’s lesson, what do you say we take a closer look at the grammar? |
| Lizy: Sounds like a very good idea. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Alan: Now before we were talking about the verb “to rain” which is “llover”, right? |
| Lizy: Right, “llover”. |
| Alan: So we mentioned it being impersonal. Maybe we can pick up from there. |
| Lizy: Okay, so here is the question. When we are talking about the weather using a verb like “llover”, “to rain”, can I be the subject of this verb, I mean, can I rain? |
| Alan: No, that doesn’t really make sense. Does it? |
| Lizy: And can you be the subject, can you rain? |
| Alan: No, that doesn’t work either, would it? |
| Lizy: Can we rain? |
| Alan: I don’t think so, I can’t. Can you? |
| Lizy: Can they rain? |
| Alan: Well not unless they have some kind of freakish powers. |
| Lizy: Exactly. For each tense, there is only one form of a verb like “llover” which can be used here. |
| Alan: Aaha and what is this form called? |
| Lizy: For the verb “llover” it’s “llueve”. |
| Alan: And this means... |
| Lizy: It means “it rains.” |
| Alan: So just one form, hah! |
| Lizy: Just one form. |
| Alan: Are you sure? |
| Lizy: I am sure. |
| Alan: Are you positive? |
| Lizy: Yes. |
| Alan: Now for the other verbs that we’ve looked at, there are many, many forms. |
| Lizy: Right but these are special because for each tense, they only have one form. |
| Alan: Can we tell our audience the name for this type of verb? |
| Lizy: Well, yeah, but the concept is more important than the term. |
| Alan: I agree but come on, the audience. |
| Lizy: Okay. In that case, you can tell them that this is called a defective verb. |
| Alan: A defective verb. Okay folks, go write that down. |
| Lizy: So today, we saw three verbs that are like this. They are “llover”, “lloviznar” and “garúar”. |
| Alan: So all of these are defective verbs. |
| Lizy: Yeah, they are and when we form these verbs, we are always going to conjugate into the third person singular. |
| Alan: Hah, so that means that this will be the same form as the one we used for he and she but to make this clear, let’s look at some examples. |
| Lizy: For example, “llueve mucho en el sur de Chile” which means “it rains a lot in the south of Chile.” |
| Alan: Okay, so here we see that the third person singular form of the verb has been used “llueve”. |
| Lizy: Right. Like we said, this form is “llueve”, “it rains.” |
| Alan: All right. That seems to make sense. Now how about using one of the other verbs. |
| Lizy: Well, let’s see, we could use the verb “lloviznar” and say “llovizna poco en el verano”. “It drizzles just a little bit in the summer.” |
| Alan: See how clear the pattern is. |
| Lizy: Yeah, the verb “lloviznar” has been changed to “llovizna” in order to say “it drizzles.” |
| Alan: Okay, let’s finish up with one more example. |
| Lizy: Okay, this time with the verb “garuar”. For example, “en la costa garúa, pero no llueve” and this means, “on the coast it mists but it doesn’t rain.” |
| Alan: Hey that’s a good example since it uses two of these verbs. |
| Lizy: And you can see that they are both in the third person singular form “garúa” and “llueve”. |
| Alan: These impersonal verbs seem pretty important to know. |
| Lizy: Yeah that’s right. You know another example of these is with the verb “hacer” when we are using it to express the existence of something. |
| Alan: Also good to bring up. |
| Lizy: So Alan, for many of us here in Lima, the “garúa” is really hard to stand. Do you find it annoying? |
| Alan: I don’t really get annoyed at the weather here Lizy. In fact, I find it gets a little boring. I mean between winter and summer, it’s a little moisture, a little drier, a little warmer, a little cooler but you have to remember, I come from Canada where – you know, where I was born Lizy, it went from 40 below in the winter to 40 above in the summer. I mean those are strange. Here I mean the weather is fine. The weather is fine but I don’t really get excited about it or upset. |
| Lizy: On the contrary, I love the rain. |
| Alan: Well, I will invite you to Canada. |
| Lizy: Thank you very much. Well this is where we will stop for today. |
| Alan: So you know where you can find an in-depth explanation of both impersonal and effective verbs? |
| Lizy: I am going to guess the grammar bank in the learning center. |
| Alan: You heard that audience. Just one click away. |
| Lizy: You know what else might be beneficial and interesting? |
| Alan: I am going to say Costa Rican 18, Peruvian 18 and Iberian 18. |
| Lizy: All based off of this lesson. This is the root. |
| Alan: And that’s the fruit. |
Outro |
| Lizy: Until next time friends |
| Alan: ¡Chao amigos! |
| Lizy: ¡Chao! |
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