Learn about using the contraction “al”
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Lizy: Buenos días, soy Lizy. |
| Alan: Soy Alan. “Romance for Eliana and Ernesto, ‘enamorados’”. |
| Lizy: Sean muy bienvenidos. |
| Alan: Hi there everybody. I am Alan La Rue and I am joined here once again by the illustrious Lizy Stoliar. Lizy, ¿cómo te va? |
| Lizy: Muy, pero muy bien otra vez. Gracias por eso de “ilustre”. |
| Alan: Me va muy bien, Lizy. Very happy to be here. Today we have the fourth part of our mini-melodrama, “Romance número 4, Eliana y Ernesto enamorados”. |
| Lizy: So in this lesson, we are back with Eliana y Ernesto. |
| Alan: And those two have now taken the next step in becoming an item. They are now “enamorados”. |
| Lizy: Uyuyuyuy |
| Alan: Now this means they’ve made it known to their families that they are interested in each other but they haven’t taken the next step which is... |
| Lizy: Which is to become “novios”. |
| Alan: Right and if they were “novios” they would either be engaged or be on the road to engagement. |
| Lizy: Alan, do you remember when you and Shirley were “enamorados”? |
| Alan: Of course. |
| Lizy: What stands out in your memory when you think about what it was like to have “una enamorada latina”. |
| Alan: Well, come on Lizy, love is love across culture but I have to say that maybe Latin women are little more expressive than North Americans. |
| Lizy: Tú lo has dicho, Alan. Así somos las latinas. You have said it Alan. That’s the way we are. |
| Alan: So, how the last time we heard an improved Ramón with his new found consideration for Julia. Today we will listen to Eliana and Ernesto, the two love birds. |
| Lizy: And what about the grammar for today? |
| Alan: Well it’s hard to think about grammar when we are thinking about love but since we’ve been looking at prepositions for the last few lessons, I thought we would build on this by studying how certain prepositions get fused with articles. |
| Lizy: O sea, las contracciones. |
| Alan: You’ve got it. Time to get to it. Here comes another conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| ELIANA: ¿Qué, ya son las dos tan rápido? ¡Ya me tengo que ir! |
| ERNESTO: Amor, tranquila... |
| ELIANA: Me tengo que ir... al menos me invites a desayunar. |
| ERNESTO: Ay, mujer... ¡Quédate! ¿Qué desayunamos? |
| ELIANA: Frutas muy frescas y pan calientito. |
| ERNESTO: ¡Ya tengo hambre! |
| ELIANA: What, it's already two o'clock? I've got to go! |
| ERNESTO: Honey, relax... |
| ELIANA: I've got to go... unless ya' invite me to breakfast. |
| ERNESTO: Oh, sweetheart... Stay! What do ya' want for breakfast? |
| ELIANA: Fresh fruit and hot hard-rolls. |
| ERNESTO: That makes me hungry! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Lizy: ¡Qué tal conversación! |
| Alan: Yeah, it’s funny but I have to say that when you are starting out in a relationship with a native Spanish speaker, it can be pretty tricky to express yourself clearly. |
| Lizy: This little drama is almost a skill that the Brazilians are so populars. |
| Alan: Well, you would know better than I would, Lizy. |
| Lizy: Oh, yes. Alan, you said that it can be tricky to express yourself in a bilingual relationship. So tell us about a time when you got yourself into trouble in your relationship because of the language or cultural difference. |
| Alan: Uff, Lizy, too many to count and probably I have selective memory loss when it comes to that but let’s just say that I can’t count the number of times we’ve had disagreements or disputes because I’ve misunderstood maybe not the word but the subtlety of the word. So it’s complicated. |
| Lizy: Oh, you need patience in every relationship, especially with your wife. |
| Alan: I think she needs patience especially with me but, Liz, hey let’s get down to it. Time to break down some of the vocab that came up today. |
| Lizy: ¡Vamos! |
| Alan: So let’s begin with... |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Lizy: “Tener que”. |
| Alan: “To have to.” |
| Lizy: “Te-ner que”, “tener que”. |
| Alan: Next we will look at... |
| Lizy: “Al menos”. |
| Alan: “At least.” |
| Lizy: “Al me-nos”, “al menos”. |
| Alan: Now we have... |
| Lizy: “Mujer”. |
| Alan: “Woman.” |
| Lizy: “Mu-jer”, “mujer”. |
| Alan: Then... |
| Lizy: “Caliente”. |
| Alan: “Hot.” |
| Lizy: “Ca-lien-te”, “caliente”. |
| Alan: Now let’s hear... |
| Lizy: “Quedarse”. |
| Alan: “To stay.” |
| Lizy: “Que-dar-se”, “quedarse”. |
| Alan: And finally... |
| Lizy: “Pan”. |
| Alan: “Bread.” |
| Lizy: “Pan”, “pan”. |
| Alan: Well done Lizy, thanks. |
| Lizy: No problem. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Alan: So guys, before we put these words in context, let’s mention a quick pronunciation tip. |
| Lizy: Muy bien, a ver... |
| Alan: Let’s consider the word “mujer” which means “woman.” |
| Lizy: “Mujer”. |
| Alan: Spelled “m-u-j-e-r”. Now the sound of the letter “J” can vary somewhat. It can either be really soft, almost like the “h” of “hope.” |
| Lizy: “Mujer”. |
| Alan: Or the “J” can sound a little guttural. By that I mean, there is a slight rumble in the back of your throat. |
| Lizy: “Mujer”. |
| Alan: Right on, Lizy. Now let’s put some of these words in context. |
| Lizy: Your wish is my command. |
| Alan: Uh I like that. I would like a plate of cookies please and a coffee. |
| Lizy: ¿¡Qué!? Oye no te pases señor La Rue, cuidadito, ¡eh! ¡O te acuso con tu esposa! |
| Alan: All right. So as long as we are talking about the word “mujer”, let’s point out the particular usage that it has in today’s conversation. In the conversation, we heard Ernesto say “¡Ay, mujer... !“ |
| Lizy: How is it being used here? |
| Alan: That’s a good question. Let’s think about that. First we have the interjection “¡Ay!” which is used to express some form of admiration. |
| Lizy: Okay. |
| Alan: And then the word “mujer”. Now Lizy, is Ernesto really referring to Eliana as “a woman” or “as woman”? |
| Lizy: Like woman. |
| Alan: Umm, that’s right. So the way he’s used “mujer” is different than if I said “su hija ya es una mujer”, “her daughter is already a woman.” |
| Lizy: Ah, right. This is different. |
| Alan: Aha, so when Ernesto says “mujer”, whom is he addressing? |
| Lizy: Eliana. |
| Alan: Right. So can we say that “mujer” can be used as a form of address? |
| Lizy: Claro. |
| Alan: And in this case, does it have positive or negative connotations? |
| Lizy: La connotación es positiva. |
| Alan: All right. So it’s positive and is this always the case? |
| Lizy: No, sir. Other times it can be negative but it’s a really common term of endearment. |
| Alan: Exactly. You can even refer to your female partner as “mi mujer” and there is no degrading connotation attached. |
| Lizy: Muy bien, ¿avanzamos? |
| Alan: Sure. Here is another question. |
| Lizy: Shoot. |
| Alan: In Spanish, how would we translate the following expression? “There are only two seats left.” |
| Lizy: “Sólo quedan dos asientos”. |
| Alan: Okay. So he used the verb “quedar” here. “Sólo quedan dos asientos”, literally “only two seats remain.” Now, if we use the present tense to express a future action, how would we say the following in Spanish, “I will stay here”? |
| Lizy: Ahora sería “me quedo aquí”. |
| Alan: Aha, so this time you are using the verb “quedar” but you are also using the pronoun “me” you are saying “yo me quedo”. |
| Lizy: Así es. |
| Alan: And we see something similar in today’s lesson conversation. Ernesto says “¡Quédate!” Here it’s a command. |
| Lizy: Un mandato. |
| Alan: That’s right, a command, and in this sense it means “stay” or “stay over”. So when we use the verb “quedar” in the pronominal sense, we usually call it “quedarse” and it means “to stay” instead of “to remain.” |
| Lizy: Muy bien, Alan. Ahora, ¿una más? |
| Alan: Claro, Lizy. In English, what is the unit of measurement for heat? |
| Lizy: It is calories, right? |
| Alan: Right, calories. And how do you say “heat” in Spanish? |
| Lizy: “Calor”. |
| Alan: Aha and what’s the stem of this word “calor”? |
| Lizy: “Cal-”, spelled “c-a-l.” |
| Alan: And in today’s conversation, when Ernesto asks Eliana what she wants to have for breakfast, what does she say? |
| Lizy: “Frutas muy frescas y pan calentito”. |
| Alan: And is there a word in that sentence that has the stem that we saw with the word “calorie” and “calor”? |
| Lizy: “Caliente”. |
| Alan: And Eliana is saying that she wants “pan caliente”. |
| Lizy: “Calentito”. |
| Alan: And this means... |
| Lizy: “Hot.” |
| Alan: Okay, so “caliente” means “hot” which shouldn’t come as a huge surprise since we already know that “calor” means “heat.” Now here is a question for you. Does the word “caliente” have this double connotation of sexual excitement as well as “heat”? |
| Lizy: Definitely. |
| Alan: And so is it safe to say that we can understand Eliana’s comment here as a sort of “innuendo”? |
| Lizy: Claro. What do you think she means when she says “pan caliente”, “hot hard rolls”? |
| Alan: Lizy, wow, what an unfair question. I am not even going to go there. |
| Lizy: In Spanish, we have lots of “innuendos”. Ahora pues, la gramática. |
| Alan: That’s right. Time for grammar. |
| Lizy: Así es. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Alan: Muy bien. So in today’s conversation, Eliana says “al menos que me invites a desayunar…” Now Lizy, here we see the word “al” simply spelled “a-l.” |
| Lizy: Right. |
| Alan: Now here this word is used in a phrase with the preposition “menos”. So when we say “al menos” we mean at least? |
| Lizy: You got it. |
| Alan: But what’s really going on with the word “al”. Let’s consider another example. |
| Lizy: Okay, go ahead. |
| Alan: We can say “me gusta ir al cine”. |
| Lizy: “Me gusta ir al cine”. |
| Alan: And the word “cine” means what? |
| Lizy: It means “the movie theater”, “the cinema.” |
| Alan: Okay and is this noun masculine or feminine? |
| Lizy: Masculine. |
| Alan: And is it singular or plural? |
| Lizy: Just one. So it’s singular. |
| Alan: Okay, so “el cine” we’ve got a masculine singular noun and before it, the definite article “el”. Now Lizy, when we are speaking, it’s pretty easy to blend together adjacent vowel sounds right? |
| Lizy: Cierto. |
| Alan: So first we have a preposition “a” which we just looked at in the newbie lesson 27 and there, we learned that when the direct object of a verb is a person, we need to use the preposition “a” before it. So we have to say “llamo a Fernando” but not “llamo Fernando”. |
| Lizy: I remember. |
| Alan: All right. So the preposition “a” and now we have the word “el”. |
| Lizy: As in “el cine”. |
| Alan: Right and this is defining which cinema we are talking about, right? I mean we are saying the cinema. The cinema that we both know. |
| Lizy: Así es. |
| Alan: And this is an article, right? |
| Lizy: Sí, maestro. |
| Alan: So can we call this a definite article? |
| Lizy: Claro, así se llama. |
| Alan: Okay. So here is the thing. When the preposition “a” is followed by masculine singular article, we make a contraction. |
| Lizy: Una contracción. |
| Alan: Una contracción. So instead of saying “me gusta ir a el cine” we say “me gusta ir al cine” and when we write this we have to combine these two words. So all we are going to do is drop the “E” of “el” and combine them to get “al”. |
| Lizy: Another example could be “voy a tomar un taxi al café”. |
| Alan: Hey, that’s a good one. So here “voy a tomar un taxi al” we see “al café” again and this just means “to the cafe” but we see the contraction “al” because the noun “café” is singular and masculine and it has that definite article “el” and another thing we should point out is that contrary to the rule in English, in Spanish, this contraction is mandatory. It’s not just for style. |
| Lizy: Hablando de los cafés. Me provoca tomar uno, Alan. |
| Alan: Yeah Lizy, tell me what’s your favorite cafe here in Lima? |
| Lizy: Se llama “Café Café”. Es un lugar muy lindo, muy acogedor. Ubicado en una callecita de Miraflores que es uno de los distritos aquí en Lima. |
| Alan: Oh, I love that. It’s right in front of the park. That’s a great place to sit and watch the people walk by, always full of people. |
| Lizy: Yes. Bueno, maestro, ¡ya se acabó la fiesta! |
Outro |
| Alan: That’s all the time for today. Have fun guys, learn lots and we will catch you next time. ¡Hasta luego! |
| Lizy: ¡Hasta luego! ¡Chao, chao, chao! |
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