Learn about the difference between the indicative mood and the imperative mood
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| INTRODUCTION |
| Lizy: Buenos días, me llamo Lizy. |
| Alan: Alan here. Newbie series lesson #19. “Look, the moon is full.” |
| Lizy: Hola Alan, ¿cómo te va? How is it going? |
| Alan: Hey pretty good Lizy. How about you? ¿Cómo estás? |
| Lizy: Muy pero muy bien, gracias. It’s nice to be back for another broadcast from spanishpod101.com. |
| Alan: That’s right. Today we have newbie lesson #19. |
| Lizy: Are you ready to teach something new? |
| Alan: As always Lizy, that’s why we are here. |
| Lizy: Great. The conversation today is a really special one. |
| Alan: Hey, why is that? |
| Lizy: Because it takes place in one of the most beautiful places in the world. |
| Alan: Uh, that sounds intriguing. Where is this beautiful place? |
| Lizy: It’s a little town up in the Andes of Northern Peru. |
| Alan: And what’s this town called? |
| Lizy: It’s called Huaraz. |
| Alan: Hah Huaraz, I know Huaraz. |
| Lizy: Umm that’s right. In today’s conversation, Glicerio and Fiorela are looking up at the night sky. |
| Alan: Well this sounds really, really nice. Lizy, have you been to Huaraz before? |
| Lizy: Yes, Alan. It’s so wonderful, wonderful and magical place. |
| Alan: I know and you know in Lima, it’s very difficult to see the stars at night because it’s always slightly overcast here but in Huaraz…. |
| Lizy: Huh wow! |
| Alan: I think you just spend hours counting the stars. I was just there a couple of weeks ago Lizy. Did I tell you? |
| Lizy: No, tell me please. Tell us, tell us. |
| Alan: Well in fact, you know I went through Huaraz on the way to a place called “Caras” which is quite a bit smaller even than Huaraz. It’s about one hour further into the mountains. Have you been? |
| Lizy: Yes, I’ve been there. It’s beautiful. |
| Alan: It’s awesome. It’s on the... |
| Lizy: Yeah. |
| Alan: Just for our listeners see if I can paint a couple of word pictures in the Cordillera Blanca. How can I explain? You have all these tremendous glaciers just towering above you and at the same time in the valleys, it’s very, very pastoral and actually fairly warm but we did some mountain biking, some hiking up to some lagoons. Really, just a beautiful trip. So I am glad we are going to Huaraz on our podcast today. |
| Lizy: You said it is like a painting. Well in any case, in this lesson, we are going to learn how to give commands in Spanish. |
| Alan: Command! So I can learn to boss you around Lizy, that’s great. |
| Lizy: That’s right. |
| Alan: Well, I can see how this can be useful for someone who is bossing people around all the time but what about everyone else. |
| Lizy: Alan, do me the favor of answering just one little question. |
| Alan: Of course, Lizy. |
| Lizy: Am I being bossy? |
| Alan: No ma’am, not at all why? |
| Lizy: Well, when I said, do me the favor, I gave you a command. |
| Alan: Aha. |
| Lizy: But I didn’t sound bossy, did I? |
| Alan: No, actually on the contrary you sounded very, very polite. I was just joking with you. |
| Lizy: Exactly. So today we are going to learn about some of the different ways that we can give commands in Spanish. |
| Alan: Well, that sounds good and it sounds pretty useful and we will definitely want to keep a look out for regional lessons that reference this one. |
| Lizy: Yeah, it will be interesting to see what the adaptations sound like. |
| Alan: All right, Lizy. Shall we? |
| Lizy: Let’s! |
| DIALOGUE |
| GLICERIO: ¡Mira, Fiorela! La luna está llena. |
| FIORELA: Es muy brillante. |
| GLICERIO: Hay muchas estrellas también. |
| FIORELA: Es verdad. Veo escorpión. ¿Ves? |
| GLICERIO: ¡Sí, mira la cola! |
| Alan: And now slower. Una vez más esta vez lentamente. |
| GLICERIO: ¡Mira, Fiorela! La luna está llena. |
| FIORELA: Es muy brillante. |
| GLICERIO: Hay muchas estrellas también. |
| FIORELA: Es verdad. Veo escorpión. ¿Ves? |
| GLICERIO: ¡Sí, mira la cola! |
| Alan: And now with the translation. Ahora incluiremos la traducción. |
| GLICERIO: ¡Mira, Fiorela! La luna está llena. |
| GLICERIO: Look, Fiorela! The moon is full. |
| FIORELA: Es muy brillante. |
| FIORELA: It's really bright. |
| GLICERIO: Hay muchas estrellas también. |
| GLICERIO: There are a lot of stars too. |
| FIORELA: Es verdad. Veo escorpión. ¿Ves? |
| FIORELA: It's true. I see Scorpio. Do ya see? |
| GLICERIO: ¡Sí, mira la cola! |
| GLICERIO: Yeah, look at the tail! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Alan: Okay now Lizy, in this conversation we see how to say “full moon” in Spanish. |
| Lizy: Right, “luna llena”. |
| Alan: So Lizy, why don’t you talk about the other three main phases of the moon? I mean, how do you say for example “new moon”, “waxy moon” and “wane moon.” |
| Lizy: Good question. To say “new moon”, we use the phrase “luna nueva”, “luna nueva”. |
| Alan: I see “luna nueva”, and what about “waxing moon”? |
| Lizy: We say “luna creciente”. |
| Alan: One more time. |
| Lizy: “Luna creciente”. |
| Alan: Okay, “luna creciente”. |
| Lizy: And to say “waning moon”, we use the phrase “luna menguante”, “luna menguante”. Vamos al vocabulario. |
| Alan: Right. On to the vocab. Here we are going to break these words down syllable by syllable so that you can hear exactly how each word sounds. |
| Lizy: ¡Vamos! |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Alan: Okay friends, let’s begin with... |
| Lizy: “Mirar”. |
| Alan: “To look at.” |
| Lizy: “Mi-rar”, “mirar”. |
| Alan: Okay, now let’s listen to... |
| Lizy: “Luna”. |
| Alan: “Moon.” |
| Lizy: “Lu-na”, “luna”. |
| Alan: Next we will hear... |
| Lizy: “Brillante”. |
| Alan: “Bright”, “shiny.” |
| Lizy: “Bri-llan-te”, “brillante”. |
| Alan: Now we have... |
| Lizy: “Estrella”. |
| Alan: “Star.” |
| Lizy: “Es-tre-lla”, “estrella”. |
| Alan: And then... |
| Lizy: “Verdad”. |
| Alan: “Truth.” |
| Lizy: “Ver-dad”, “verdad”. |
| Alan: And finally... |
| Lizy: “Cola”. |
| Alan: “Tale.” |
| Lizy: “Co-la”, “cola”. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Alan: You know Lizy, there is a word in there which might be a little bit confusing to our audience. |
| Lizy: Which one is that? |
| Alan: The verb “mirar”. |
| Lizy: Ah okay, what’s confusing about it? |
| Alan: Well, we said that it means “to look at” but in the conversation we also saw the verb “ver” and this means “to see”, right? |
| Lizy: That’s right. |
| Alan: Well, I think we should discuss the distinction between these two. |
| Lizy: Okay, well, let me ask you. When you say “I see”, are you always talking about an object in your sight? |
| Alan: Well, sometimes but not always since we often say “I see” when we really mean “I understand”, right? |
| Lizy: Right, but when we look at something, there is always an object upon which we are directing our eyes. |
| Alan: Right. We are observing. |
| Lizy: So one way to distinguish these two verbs is by saying that “ve”r is used to express perception and “mirar” to express observation. |
| Alan: Okay, “ver” to express perception and “mirar” to express observation. Okay, all right, well, let’s look a little closer at some of these words and see how they are used. |
| Lizy: Very clever, Alan. Let’s start by adding a bit to what we were just saying about the verb “mirar”. |
| Alan: Okay. |
| Lizy: What’s the stem of this verb? |
| Alan: “Mir-”, “mir-” |
| Lizy: Right and if the stem is “mir-”, then what’s the ending? |
| Alan: “Ar”. Now “mirar” is a regular verb. So which class of regular verbs end in “ar”? |
| Lizy: That’s the first conjugation. |
| Alan: Aha, so “mirar” is the first conjugation verb. |
| Lizy: That it is. And if it’s a regular first conjugation verb, does that mean that it’s going to follow the basic patterns of other verbs in the first conjugation or will it be different from them? |
| Alan: It will be the same. |
| Lizy: Right. So this verb “mirar” is conjugated the same way as verbs like “hablar”, “to speak”, “amar”, “to love”, “trabajar”, “to work” and “guardar”, “to save.” |
| Alan: Well, that makes it easier to remember how it’s formed, Liz. |
| Lizy: Definitely. |
| Alan: Okay, shall we move on? |
| Lizy: Now let’s look at the noun “luna”. |
| Alan: Something like “lunar”, right? |
| Lizy: Very, very close. The word “luna” means “moon.” |
| Alan: And by noticing the “a” ending in “luna”, can we say that this noun is feminine? |
| Lizy: Yes, we can. And did you know that the English word “lunatic” comes from the same root as the Spanish word “luna”, “moon”? |
| Alan: No, I didn’t know that. I should seeing as I am a lunatic but how can that be? |
| Lizy: Well, you see, people used to believe that lunacy had to do with the moon’s phrase changes. |
| Alan: Ah, so the moon is crazy hah! |
| Lizy: Apparently. |
| Alan: And so you will probably tell me that the stars are crazy too, right Lizy? |
| Lizy: No, no just the moon. The “stars” are “las estrellas”. |
| Alan: Okay and there you can find the root in the English word “stellar.” |
| Lizy: So we can say “las estrellas son brillantes”, “the stars are bright.” |
| Alan: “Las estrellas son brillantes”. Well, that’s beautiful. And there is this great line by the poet Pablo Neruda that I think about sometimes when I hear the word “estrella”. |
| Lizy: What is it? |
| Alan: He says, “tu silencio es de estrella, tan lejano y sencillo”. |
| Lizy: Qué lindo... It means “your silence is like stars so distant and simple.” |
| Alan: That’s really beautiful. |
| Lizy: Yes. I really like it too. Now there is one more word I want to cover here before we move on to grammar. |
| Alan: Which one is that? |
| Lizy: It’s “verdad”. |
| Alan: Ah, well what do you call the decision that a jury makes? |
| Lizy: A verdict. |
| Alan: And when a jury comes to a verdict, do they claim that their decision is true or false? |
| Lizy: It has to be true. So a verdict is the telling of the truth. |
| Alan: I guess you could put it that way. |
| Lizy: In Spanish, we use the word “verdad” in order to say “true” or “right.” |
| Alan: Okay, yeah. So we can see the connection here between “verdict” and “verdad”. |
| Lizy: So when we say “es verdad” it’s like saying “it’s true” or “that’s right.” |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Alan: Okay. Now, amigos, let’s switch gears and take a look at how to give commands in Spanish. |
| Lizy: Okay. |
| Alan: Now remember, you were saying that when we give commands, we are not always bossing someone around. |
| Lizy: Right and we can add to this too. |
| Alan: An example always helps please. |
| Lizy: In the lesson conversation, we heard “¡Mira, Fiorela! La luna está llena”. |
| Alan: Right and that means “Look, Fiorela! The moon is full.” |
| Lizy: Now in this example, does Glicerio state what Fiorela is doing or does he express how he feels toward what she may do in the future? |
| Alan: He is definitely expressing how he feels toward the action. |
| Lizy: And the action is in the future? |
| Alan: Yes, it hasn’t happened yet. He is saying “Fiorela, look”, he wants her to look. |
| Lizy: Right but if he said “Fiorela, don’t look”, everything else that we’ve said so far would hold true except for the last thing, right? |
| Alan: Right. Everything would still be true except that now he is expressing that he doesn’t want the action to happen. |
| Lizy: And just based on the tone of this expression “¡Mira, Fiorela!” does it sound like it’s imperative for the speaker that the action happens or like it would be convenient. |
| Alan: Definitely imperative. |
| Lizy: I think we are really on to something here. |
| Alan: I agree. |
| Lizy: In Spanish, we say that the mood of a verb is imperative when the speaker gives a command to someone expressing his or her wish that this action happens or doesn’t happen in the future. |
| Alan: So we can call it the imperative mood? |
| Lizy: We can. |
| Alan: So in order to give a command in the imperative mood, why don’t you tell our audience what we need to do to the verb? |
| Lizy: Well, there are a number of different forms. |
| Alan: So for today, let’s just start up by forming positive commands, the ones which express that you want something to happen. |
| Lizy: And would this be formal or informal? |
| Alan: Well, for today let’s just look at the informal commands and we will come back to this in the future. |
| Lizy: All right. So there is a really easy trick for remembering this form. |
| Alan: Aha, another one of Lizy’s little secrets. Listen up audience. |
| Lizy: Let me ask you these. How do you say “he looks”? |
| Alan: That would be “mira”. |
| Lizy: Right, “mira”. And that’s the third person singular. |
| Alan: “He looks.” Yeah, that’s right. |
| Lizy: So if I say “mira, Alan”, have I changed the verb? |
| Alan: No, you are just pronouncing it with greater emphasis. |
| Lizy: Right. This is because I am saying, “look, Alan.” I am expressing what I want you to do. |
| Alan: I see. So the verb form doesn’t change. |
| Lizy: That’s right. That’s what’s so easy about giving informal commands with regular verbs, the third person singular form of the present tense is always used. |
| Alan: Well. Hey Liz, this has been a really, really interesting lesson and I think we are beginning to get a grasp on commands here. |
| Lizy: De igual manera. Likewise, Alan. |
Outro |
| Alan: All right guys, it’s been great to be here with you and we will see you soon. ¡Hasta pronto! |
| Lizy: ¡Chao! |
Easily master this lesson’s grammar points with in-depth explanations and examples. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Comments
Hide