Learn about using common negative expressions
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Natalia: The thing is that you suffer from laziness. |
| Carlos: What’s going on world? My name is Carlos and with me as always is Natalia. Natty, how are you doing today? |
| Natalia: I am doing great Carlos because today we are going to see one of my favorite, favorite – favorite, favorite phrases. |
| Carlos: Which? |
| Natalia: The thing is…Well it is not favorite, I just say it all the time, can’t avoid it. |
| Carlos: My god, she says it so much. And just so you know audience, Natalia has like a couple of what I would say are her stock phrases. |
| Natalia: Stock? |
| Carlos: Yeah like standard phrases, things that you say all the time and - the thing is, it is one of them. |
| Natalia: It is just like the thing is it is one of my favorite. |
| Carlos: You see, I swear I cannot get one call from her without hearing that as the introduction for whatever reason she called. So Carlos, the thing is and then she would continue to do whatever and then what was I going to say? |
| Natalia: Carlos. |
| Carlos: Am I lying? |
| Natalia: No. |
| Carlos: Okay. Just an observation but you know if you were wondering audience, no that is not the basis of our lesson. |
| Natalia: I should hope so. |
| Carlos: Well today I may now talk about the extent of not only her dirtiness but Natty now his laziness. |
| Natalia: Well dirty and lazy, man, this guy sounds like a catch. |
| Carlos: Hey so I might call him an artistic soul. He is not constrained by the social expectations of society. |
| Natalia: If that’s why you want to call it, Carlos, this guy reminds me of you for some reason. I don’t know. |
| Carlos: Lazy and dirty, my opposite you know. |
| Natalia: Carlos, Carlos, Carlos, tell me what else? |
| Carlos: But also discussion of a topic that I think is really interesting. |
| Natalia: Which is |
| Carlos: The use of double negatives. |
| Natalia: Why is that interesting? |
| Carlos: Well double negatives in English while common, is not technically correct. |
| Natalia: And? |
| Carlos: And in Spanish, it is correct. I mean, I think that’s interesting. |
| Natalia: You are such a nerd. It’s incredible. Every single day, every single day it just proves me more. You are such a nerd. |
| Carlos: For all the nerds out there, it is about the time to open up your lesson guide, your PDF reader because you know what, with that reading along, you will learn. |
| Natalia: there is nothing wrong about being a nerd. |
| Carlos: Not at all. |
| Natalia: You should accept it. |
| Carlos: Natty, I accept it. You know and being a nerd is very hard in your formative years but once you get older, nerds actually become you know, better people. |
| Natalia: Yeah. |
| DIALOGUE |
| 1. ISABEL: ¡Jaime, ya me tienes hasta acá! No me ayudas con la casa. Nunca |
| haces nada. |
| 2. JAIME: ¿Cómo que nunca hago nada? Justo ayer te dije que iba a lavar la |
| ropa. |
| 3. ISABEL: Y dime, ¿ya la lavaste? |
| 4. JAIME: Quise, pero no me inspiré... |
| 5. ISABEL: Lo que pasa es que tú sufres de pereza. |
| 6. JAIME: ¡Échale agua! ¡Quema, quema! |
| Carlos: And now slower. Una vez más esta vez lentamente. |
| 1. ISABEL: ¡Jaime, ya me tienes hasta acá! No me ayudas con la casa. Nunca |
| haces nada. |
| 2. JAIME: ¿Cómo que nunca hago nada? Justo ayer te dije que iba a lavar la |
| ropa. |
| 3. ISABEL: Y dime, ¿ya la lavaste? |
| 4. JAIME: Quise, pero no me inspiré... |
| 5. ISABEL: Lo que pasa es que tú sufres de pereza. |
| 6. JAIME: ¡Échale agua! ¡Quema, quema! |
| Carlos: And now with the translation. Ahora incluiremos la traducción. |
| 1. ISABEL: ¡Jaime, ya me tienes hasta acá! No me ayudas con la casa. Nunca |
| haces nada. |
| 1. ISABEL: Jaime, now I've had it up to here with you! You don't help me with |
| the house. You never do anything. |
| 2. JAIME: ¿Cómo que nunca hago nada? Justo ayer te dije que iba a lavar la |
| ropa. |
| 2. JAIME: How is it that I never do anything? Just yesterday I told you that I was |
| going to wash the clothes. |
| 3. ISABEL: Y dime, ¿ya la lavaste? |
| 3. ISABEL: And tell me, did you wash them? |
| 4. JAIME: Quise, pero no me inspiré… |
| 4. JAIME: I wanted to, but I wasn't inspired... |
| 5. ISABEL: Lo que pasa es que tú sufres de pereza. |
| 5. ISABEL: The thing is that you suffer from laziness. |
| 6. JAIME: ¡Échale agua! ¡Quema, quema! |
| 6. JAIME: Throw water on her! She's burning, she's burning! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Natalia: She is burning, that’s funny. |
| Carlos: Well I could understand that though you know doing laundries isn’t exactly one of my favorite things. |
| Natalia: I will tell you something. I know a lot of people that suffer from laziness and it’s called like an inside laziness. |
| Carlos: An inside laziness? |
| Natalia: You just feel lazy inside. You are like ah! You know you don’t want to get up from bed, you don’t want to do anything. You are just like oh my god! I want to stay here looking at the roof. |
| Carlos: That’s kind of depressing Natty. |
| Natalia: No it’s laziness. |
| Carlos: Laziness, no I want to stay in bed and stare on my roof. Okay now that we’ve gone through the conversation, what do you say we run through some of the vocabulary Natty. |
| Natalia: Sounds like a good idea. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Carlos: Okay so today we are going to start off with an adverb. |
| Natalia: justo |
| Carlos: Just |
| Natalia: jus-to, justo |
| Carlos: And then up another adverb. |
| Natalia: ayer |
| Carlos: Yesterday. |
| Natalia: a-yer, ayer |
| Carlos: And then up a verb. |
| Natalia: lavar |
| Carlos: To wash. |
| Natalia: la-var, lavar |
| Carlos: And then up another verb. |
| Natalia: inspirar |
| Carlos: To inspire. |
| Natalia: ins-pi-rar, inspirar |
| Carlos: And next up, we have another verb. |
| Natalia: sufrir |
| Carlos: To suffer. |
| Natalia: su-frir, sufrir |
| Carlos: And finally a feminine noun. |
| Natalia: pereza |
| Carlos: Laziness. |
| Natalia: pe-re-za, pereza. Carlos |
| Carlos: Natty. |
| Natalia: Well the hardest one here I would say - pereza |
| Carlos: pereza |
| Natalia: The rest are quite easy. |
| Carlos: justo |
| Natalia: justo |
| Carlos: ayer |
| Natalia: ayer |
| Carlos: lavar |
| Natalia: lavar |
| Carlos: inspirar |
| Natalia: inspirar |
| Carlos: sufrir |
| Natalia: sufrir |
| Carlos: pereza |
| Natalia: pereza. Look at him. Perfect. |
| Carlos: I’m doing it better. |
| Natalia: You got an A today. Carlos I am buying you a Lolly! |
| Carlos: You know Natty, I have lost track of all those points that I had that I still haven’t collected on anything. |
| Natalia: Eventually you are going to get a big surprise. You are going to have like a bunch of laundry and it will be like your award is for you to wash this. |
| Carlos: Wait! My reward is for me to wash my laundry? |
| Natalia: My laundry. |
| Carlos: Your laundry. |
| Natalia: Yes. |
| Carlos: Well it is going a little far Natty. |
| Natalia: I love it. |
| Carlos: But you know what, knowing her, it wouldn’t surprise me. |
| Natalia: Carlos. |
| Carlos: Here you go Carlos, it is a gift. Here is my laundry, do it. |
| Natalia: Be healthy, wash my clothes. No, no, no, no, no Carlos! You know what, I am going to do something nice. I will show you how to use this vocabulary. |
| Carlos: I am all ears Natty. |
| Natalia: Okay first up is - justo |
| Carlos: justo |
| Natalia: Justo - this word has a number of different meanings. |
| Carlos: Okay well let’s not get ahead of ourselves. How is it being used here? |
| Natalia: Well here we are looking at it as an adverb, just, like just yesterday. |
| Carlos: Example. |
| Natalia: Justo ayer me fui de fiesta. |
| Carlos: Just yesterday, I went to the party. |
| Natalia: Yes. |
| Carlos: You know, it seems to me that’s an easy word to remember I mean since the Spanish and English are so similar. |
| Natalia: Well every little bit helps. |
| Carlos: Bueno, next |
| Natalia: ayer |
| Carlos: Ayer, yesterday. Yesterday, all my trouble seemed so far away. |
| Natalia: Ay, I appreciate talking about the Beatles music, but I think we should focus Carlos. |
| Carlos: Okay but this is one of the... |
| Natalia: Especially with like what was that “yesterday all my troubles seemed so far away”. |
| Carlos: I am tired Natty. |
| Natalia: Dude, dude, dude we love you. You are not going to…. |
| Carlos: Yesterday. All my trouble seems so far away. |
| Natalia: Let’s stick with the tired tone. Let’s stick with the tired tone. |
| Carlos: Okay. I believe in yesterday… |
| Natalia: For some reason, that movie - dead man walking 2.1 |
| Carlos: Okay. |
| Natalia: This dead man singing. |
| Carlos: Okay you know what. You know what Natty, this is one of those basic words. It is like really, really basic. I mean when you learn ayer, you might as well learn hoy and mañana. |
| Natalia: I am sure people are not going to forget that - ayer - with this yesterday thing. |
| Carlos: But ey if it works |
| Natalia: You don’t get over this very simply. Imagine you are like eating in a train or whatever just listening to these chilling trying to learn Spanish and then this man comes singing this … please. |
| Carlos: That’s right. |
| Natalia: Anyways Carlos, yesterday, today, tomorrow respectively. Ayer Carlos llegó a San José. |
| Carlos: You know after a very, very relaxing weekend, yes I did but man, you know, one thing about the coastal towns of Costa Rica Natty. |
| Natalia: What? |
| Carlos: No hay agua caliente. |
| Natalia: Well you know Carlos, you know in those towns, this is so hot. You really don’t need it. You know it’s too hot. You panpiringo. |
| Carlos: Okay for hot water yes, I guess I am spoiled. |
| Natalia: Carlos, but you…. |
| Carlos: I am just saying let’s… |
| Natalia: [cough] |
| Carlos: What? |
| Natalia: Now allow me to say. |
| Carlos: Yes Natty. |
| Natalia: There is the Ecuador. |
| Carlos: Yeah. |
| Natalia: You are riding it. |
| Carlos: Okay. |
| Natalia: And you need to have a deep hot shower. |
| Carlos: Yes I do. |
| Natalia: In a place where it’s like 43 degrees. |
| Carlos: Yes I want. |
| Natalia: Carlos, would you ask for a blanket in hell? |
| Carlos: Yes I would actually. |
| Natalia: Oh my god! See that is like yeah. |
| Carlos: It’s a security thing. It’s like psychological. I need to like wrap myself up. |
| Natalia: Oh you need your blankie? |
| Carlos: I need my blankie. |
| Natalia: Oh my god! |
| Carlos: Don’t hate on it. You know but the thing is you are right. I didn’t even need a towel to dry myself like it happened…. |
| Natalia: Pero es rico bañarse con agua fría con tanto calor. |
| Carlos: Now I see what you are saying. You know it is nice to cool off with cold water. |
| Natalia: Anyways, for our audience - lavar - is an AR verb which means to wash. |
| Carlos: Like - Me lavé la cara. I washed my face. |
| Natalia: Did you? |
| Carlos: Of course every day twice. |
| Natalia: Well but it also relates to the noun - una lavada. |
| Carlos: A wash, like a wash of clothes , or a lot of laundry. |
| Natalia: Or another noun - una lavadora. |
| Carlos: That would be nice to have - Quiero una lavadora. |
| Natalia: No you have to… |
| Carlos: I want a dishwasher. |
| Natalia: You have to say… |
| Carlos: Yo quiero una lavadora. |
| Natalia: para navidad |
| Carlos: para navidad. Are you giving me one for Christmas Natty? |
| Natalia: No please hello. Only if I can use it too. |
| Carlos: Okay. |
| Natalia: Okay Carlos. Just now stop complaining about the heat and about the washing machine. You sound like you can’t live without these things. Como sufres, pobrecito. |
| Carlos: No, no. |
| Natalia: pobrecito, Carlos. |
| Carlos: hay pobrecito |
| Natalia: hay pobrecito Carlitos. |
| Carlos: No Natty, you know what. I ain’t suffering without a dishwasher but it would be nice you know, with that little jab you just took, we see the verb sufrir, is an IR verb that means to suffer. |
| Natalia: So if that’s the case “hot stuff” what does sufrimiento means? |
| Carlos: Suffering Natty. |
| Natalia: Ay! Suffering. So it is just like you don’t want to wash dishes out of laziness - pereza, eres perezoso, flojo, vago. |
| Carlos: Not true. Actually washing dishes is one of those things that you don’t want to do but once you tackle them like it doesn’t take much time but pereza. |
| Natalia: You know it doesn’t work like that for me. I rather have you give me a broom and sweep your roof than washing dishes. |
| Carlos: Okay why would you sweep a roof? |
| Natalia: Just for cleaning it. |
| Carlos: Okay. |
| Natalia: I am just being drastic. Well you know Carlos - pereza, ojo Carlos, pereza, ojo Carlos, the Z in Spanish is not pronounced like the Z in buzz or like the S of sons. |
| Carlos: Natty is a stickler for pronunciation. |
| Natalia: a which? |
| Carlos: A stickler. |
| Natalia: What? |
| Carlos: It’s kind of if someone takes something very, very seriously. |
| Natalia: Es importantísimo tonto, escucha , pereza, pere-za |
| Carlos: pereza |
| Natalia: pereza |
| Carlos: pereza |
| Natalia: hm pereza, isn’t the only noun that means laziness. We also have - flojera. |
| Carlos: Oh I’ve heard that. Natty, which would you say is more common? |
| Natalia: Pereza, definitely. Pereza is worldwide. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Carlos: Okay well Natty, you know what’s really common? |
| Natalia: Your love of grammar. |
| Carlos: Man, I do need to come up with some material. |
| Natalia: Your joke is just getting old. |
| Carlos: Okay. |
| Natalia: Super, super, super, super old. I told you two series ago. |
| Carlos: Well Natty, what are we covering today? |
| Natalia: Ah Carlos, what’s with the moody mood? |
| Carlos: I’m not in the mood. |
| Natalia: ay, pobrecito, está sufriendo. Carlos está sufriendo. |
| Carlos: Okay like I can’t be moody like once ever. |
| Natalia: estás sufriendo, pobrecito. |
| Carlos: Okay Natty, what are we covering today. |
| Natalia: The use of double negatives. |
| Carlos: Ouch I had it. You know what, I had an old English teacher that was like nasty if we use double negatives. |
| Natalia: Why? |
| Carlos: Well it’s commonly used in English but you know, really technically it isn’t correct. |
| Natalia: Well in Spanish, we often have to use double negatives in order to form a negative statement. |
| Carlos: Really that’s kind of strange. |
| Natalia: I would think that would sound strange to do. It does really sounds right in English but don’t worry, once you begin speaking Spanish a lot more, it becomes very, very, very easy. It’s all about developing a habit. |
| Carlos: I bet. And that sounds easy enough. I mean it’s one of those things that just clicks one day. |
| Natalia: Exactly. It is just a bunch of practice. |
| Carlos: Okay, bueno, ejemplos. |
| Natalia: Nunca nada - Never anything. Nunca hago nada. |
| Carlos: I never do nothing. You know what, that sounds like some of my friends in New York. Hey man, I never do nothing. |
| Natalia: That sounds like my friend right next to me. Anyways, well…that is the literal translation really it becomes I never do anything. |
| Carlos: Okay, another |
| Natalia: No, nada. Don’t, doesn’t anything. No sé nada, literally I don’t know nothing. |
| Carlos: Now I am starting to realize how much people use double negatives in English and why it does sound really bad. |
| Natalia: Well now you can use them guilt free but really I don’t know anything or I know nothing. |
| Carlos: Cool. |
| Natalia: No, nadie. Don’t doesn’t, anyone, anybody. No conozco a nadie aquí. What does that mean literally? |
| Carlos: Literally I don’t know nobody here. |
| Natalia: Exactly, but then how would it be said correctly in English? |
| Carlos: I don’t know anybody here or I know nobody here. |
| Natalia: Exactly and this is how we translate it. |
| Carlos: Excellent. So no one gets to be ignorant and wrong in English while at the same time correct in the Spanish. |
| Natalia: Very rarely does a treat like that come along. |
| Carlos: You speak no lies Natty. |
| Natalia: I also take no prisoners. Carlos |
| Carlos: Yes. |
| Natalia: You know what? |
| Carlos: What? |
| Natalia: It’s time for your - tarea sabiondo. |
| Carlos: Ouch! |
| Natalia: Feo, menso, tonto, Okay so we are going to give you a sentence in Spanish with an English translation. The sentence will describe something or someone. What you have to do is to create a negative form of the statement in Spanish and then English. For example, if I say Yo sé todo, I know everything, the answer would be Yo no sé nada, I don’t know anything. How does that sound? |
| Carlos: Absolutely peachy Natty. |
| Natalia: Peachy. |
| Carlos: Peachy. |
| Natalia: You know number one, Siempre me llamas. |
| Carlos: You always call me. |
| Natalia: Two, Hay alguien en la cocina. |
| Carlos: There is someone in the kitchen. |
| Natalia: Three, Siempre llegas tarde. |
| Carlos: You always arrive late. |
| Natalia: Four, Conocí a muchas personas en la fiesta. |
| Carlos: I knew a lot of people at the party. |
| Natalia: Five, Buscaba el avión en el cielo y lo ví. |
| Carlos: I searched for the plane of this guy and I saw it. |
Outro |
| Carlos: All right, remember people, you can always get the answers and comments on the answers by checking out the premium audio track label Tarea, homework. |
| Natalia: Okay, [*] |
| Carlos: We’ll see you later guys. Bye-bye. |
| Natalia: Bye! |
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