Learn all about Spanish grammatical inflections
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Dylan: Hola, hola a todos, habla Dylan, ¿cómo están? |
| Carlos: What’s going on pod101 world? My name is Carlos. “Spanish grammatical inflections, Let’s Go Guys, You Can Do It.” In this lesson, you will learn about grammatical inflections. |
| Dylan: Puzzle pieces. |
| Carlos: We will get to that point. |
| Dylan: How is Michelle doing in her first fitness plan? |
| Carlos: Well, she has met her sergeant. |
| Dylan: Oh oh, how is she reacting? |
| Carlos: Not very well. Having a trainer can be hard. |
| Dylan: Even if it’s informal. |
| Carlos: Let’s get into today’s conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| INSTRUCTOR: ¡Vamos, amiga, tú puedes cinco más! |
| MICHELLE: ¡Michelle, Michelle, me llamo Michelle y no puedo! |
| INSTRUCTOR: Amiga, ¡que sí puedes! Dale un giro a tu vida. |
| MICHELLE: Que me diga, Michelle, no puedo respirar. |
| INSTRUCTOR: ¡Amiga! ¿Es tu cuerpo sintiéndose vivo? |
| MICHELLE: No, creo que al revés. |
| And now, slowly. |
| Una vez más, esta vez lentamente. |
| INSTRUCTOR: ¡Vamos, amiga, tú puedes cinco más! |
| MICHELLE: ¡Michelle, Michelle, me llamo Michelle y no puedo! |
| INSTRUCTOR: Amiga, ¡que sí puedes! Dale un giro a tu vida. |
| MICHELLE: Que me diga, Michelle, no puedo respirar. |
| INSTRUCTOR: ¡Amiga! ¿Es tu cuerpo sintiéndose vivo? |
| MICHELLE: No, creo que al revés. |
| And now, with the translation. |
| Ahora, incluimos la traducción. |
| INSTRUCTOR: ¡Vamos, amiga, tú puedes cinco más! |
| INSTRUCTOR: Let's go, guys! You can do five more reps! |
| MICHELLE: ¡Michelle, Michelle, me llamo Michelle y no puedo! |
| MICHELLE: Michelle, Michelle, my name is Michelle and I can't! |
| INSTRUCTOR: Amiga, ¡que sí puedes! Dale un giro a tu vida. |
| INSTRUCTOR: Come on, buddy, of course you can! Turn your life around. |
| MICHELLE: Que me diga, Michelle, no puedo respirar. |
| MICHELLE: Let him say to me, Michelle, I can't breathe. |
| INSTRUCTOR: ¡Amiga! ¿Es tu cuerpo sintiéndose vivo? |
| INSTRUCTOR: Buddy, does your body feel alive? |
| MICHELLE: No, creo que al revés. |
| MICHELLE: No, I think the other way around. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Dylan: Poor Michelle, she is like dying in there. |
| Carlos: It’s worth it. It’s turning her life around. |
| Dylan: No gosh! |
| Carlos: “Come on, one more huh!” |
| Dylan: Oh Carlos! |
| Carlos: “Come on sweat, no pain, no gain.” |
| Dylan: Ah, that’s a good one. |
| Carlos: “No pain, no gain! Come on, feel the heat.” Do you just hear the rock in the background? *singing* |
| Dylan: No, poor Michelle. No…. |
| Carlos: *singing* Are they tired, come on, no. |
| Dylan: Oh, poor Michelle. I just feel sorry for her. |
| Carlos: Okay, whatever got it. Okay guys, let’s have a closer look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Dylan: “Dar”. |
| Carlos: “To give.” |
| Dylan: “Dar”, “dar”. |
| Dylan: “Giro”. |
| Carlos: “Turn”, “turning.” |
| Dylan: “Gi-ro”, “giro”. |
| Dylan: “Respirar”. |
| Carlos: “To brief.” |
| Dylan: “Res-pi-rar”, “respirar”. |
| Dylan: “Cuerpo”. |
| Carlos: “Body.” |
| Dylan: “Cuer-po”, “cuerpo”. |
| Dylan: “Al revés”. |
| Carlos: “In the opposite direction or order.” |
| Dylan: “Al re-vés”, “al revés”. |
| Dylan: “Vivo”. |
| Carlos: “Live”, “alive.” |
| Dylan: “Vi-vo”, “vivo”. |
| Carlos: Okay guys, let’s have a closer look at the usage of some of the words or phrases from this lesson. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Dylan: The first word we will look at is “dar”. |
| Carlos: “Dar”, “to give.” Now this is one of the Spanish verbs I learned as a child. |
| Dylan: Why? |
| Carlos: Because I would say “dame dame”, I know how to say “give me” from a very early age. |
| Dylan: You were a spoiled child hah not to say a spoiled brat. |
| Carlos: Well, yeah you could say that. As a matter of fact, my dad’s little pet name for me was spoiled brat but I wasn’t the only child. |
| Dylan: That does explain a whole lot. |
| Carlos: Any way, we heard in our conversation when the instructor was killing Michelle and says, “Dale un giro a tu vida”. |
| Dylan: “Turn your life around.” |
| Carlos: Or “give your life a turn”, but it doesn’t sound very good. |
| Dylan: No, it doesn’t but with something like “Dame tu número de teléfono, por favor” we see a more direct translation. |
| Carlos: Right. “Give me your phone number, please.” |
| Dylan: Are you familiar with the verb “entregar”? |
| Carlos: No, that’s a new one for me. What does it mean? |
| Dylan: “To handover.” |
| Carlos: Another useful verb when you want something. |
| Dylan: Hah rocking those important verbs up hah! |
| Carlos: Yep. |
| Dylan: Next up, we have a masculine noun, “giro”. |
| Carlos: “Gyros.” I love those. I can’t find them in Costa Rica. |
| Dylan: “Giro”, Carlos, not “Gyro.” |
| Carlos: Oh sorry, “giro”, right. |
| Dylan: Turn, it’s in the example that we just heard. |
| Carlos: “Dale un giro a tu vida”. |
| Dylan: “Turn your life around.” |
| Carlos: I got to warn you, Dylan. I am going to say something very profound right now. |
| Dylan: Oh god, go on. |
| Carlos: “La vida da giros en los momentos más importantes”. |
| Dylan: “Life turns in the most important moments.” Love your arts. |
| Carlos: Thank you, I try. Were there arts in there? |
| Dylan: “Giros”. |
| Carlos: “Giros”. Don’t make fun of me. You are discouraging a student. Now would I be wrong in assuming that “girar” is related? |
| Dylan: That’s a safe bet. |
| Carlos: “Girar”, “to turn.” Another one of my driving verbs. |
| Dylan: Also the feminine noun “vuelta”. |
| Carlos: I remember that from another recent lesson, “corner.” |
| Dylan: That’s right. |
| Carlos: What’s next? |
| Dylan: “Respirar”. |
| Carlos: “To breathe.” |
| Dylan: That’s a quick answer. |
| Carlos: I will tell you why in a minute but let’s get back to the conversation where it’s being used. |
| Dylan: Hah, Michelle is being worked very hard and she said “no puedo respirar”. |
| Carlos: “I can’t breathe.” |
| Dylan: Now I am curious. Why you answered “respirar” so quickly? |
| Carlos: Because one of my favorite songs in the world is called Respiration. |
| Dylan: And what, you recognized it as a cognate? |
| Carlos: No, it begins with a woman saying softly “Escúchala, la ciudad respirando”. |
| Dylan: Nice, “listen to the city breathing.” |
| Carlos: Yep, quite poetic when you apply it to New York City. |
| Dylan: I bet. I think it wouldn’t work in San José? |
| Carlos: No, not at all. |
| Dylan: Well, you kind of touched on a related word. |
| Carlos: I did? |
| Dylan: Yeah, you did. What’s the name of that song again? |
| Carlos: Respiration. |
| Dylan: Do you know how to say that in Spanish? |
| Carlos: Nope. |
| Dylan: That’s easier than you think. |
| Carlos: What “respiración”? |
| Dylan: Exactly. I think we can move on now. |
| Carlos: You are the boss. |
| Dylan: “Cuerpo”. |
| Carlos: “A body”, masculine noun. |
| Dylan: Hah, that one you know. |
| Carlos: Of course, the body parts are one of the first thing you learn. |
| Dylan: I love the instructor’s question. “¿Es tu cuerpo sintiéndose vivo?” |
| Carlos: “Does your body feel alive?” Hah after workout like she is getting, I am sure it does. |
| Dylan: Now you know, you don’t have to apply it to just humans. |
| Carlos: What? Animals? |
| Dylan: Think bigger. |
| Carlos: Ah, okay. No, you lost me. |
| Dylan: “Cuerpos celestiales”, “heavenly bodies.” |
| Carlos: Ah, stars and whatnot. Good point. |
| Dylan: But looking for a related word closer to the meaning that is being conveyed in the conversation, we have “figura”. |
| Carlos: A feminine noun that means “figure.” |
| Dylan: I figured that’s easy for you. |
| Carlos: Hahaha Dylan, so funny. |
| Dylan: I didn’t thought it was funny, fine. You need no fun sometimes, let’s move on. |
| Carlos: Sure, let’s move on. |
| Dylan: Okay, we have an adverbial locution. |
| Carlos: Ah, one of those. |
| Dylan: “Al revés”. |
| Carlos: “In the opposite direction or order.” Makes sense. |
| Dylan: Why? |
| Carlos: Well, to me it’s obvious, “revés”, “reverse.” I mean once that’s pointed out, it’s pretty much obvious. |
| Dylan: Which is why Michelle says, she doesn’t feel alive. She says “Creo que al revés”. |
| Carlos: “I think the other way around.” Ah, I have been there after a hard workout. |
| Dylan: Me too. |
| Carlos: But how else can we use “al revés”? |
| Dylan: Well, something I run into every day, “los niños pequeños se ponen los zapatos al revés”. |
| Carlos: “The little kids put their shoes on the opposite way.” I remember those days putting the wrong shoes in the wrong feet and it so little entertained me back then. |
| Dylan: We can also link “incorrectamente”, “incorrectly”, an adverb which is clearly linked. Last but not least, we have “vivo”. |
| Carlos: Adjective, “live”, “alive.” |
| Dylan: Can you imagine being in Michelle’s position when a trainer asks you “¿Es tu cuerpo sintiéndose vivo?”? |
| Carlos: “Does your body feel alive?” That might be where I look up in my trainer and well, give them a certain gesture that’s not that polite. |
| Dylan: There is an even more common use of “vivo” that I am sure you have seen in bars and places like that. |
| Carlos: Oh sure, “Música en vivo el viernes”. |
| Dylan: “Live music on Friday.” |
| Carlos: But those are two different contexts. |
| Dylan: Yep. |
| Carlos: How about some related words? |
| Dylan: “Existir”. |
| Carlos: Hah true, you can’t be alive, you don’t exist. Can’t or can you. |
| Dylan: Dum dum dum Today grammatical inflections. |
| Carlos: Grammatical inflections. I love grammatical inflections. |
| Dylan: Oh, so this lesson is going to just blow you away. |
| Carlos: Can’t wait. |
| Dylan: Okay, so you know there are three main types of inflections in Spanish. Do you remember what they are? |
| Carlos: Well. First group, nominal inflections. |
| Dylan: Can you explain more? |
| Carlos: Well, this group is inflected with regards to gender and number. The endings are “O” and “A” for the masculine and feminine singular and “os” and “as” respectively. |
| Dylan: Very concise. |
| Carlos: I’ve been studying grammar bank. |
| Dylan: Okay, then what about verbal inflections? |
| Carlos: Man, this group is inflected with regard to person and number. The endings of the first person singular are the present indicative “o”, second person singular “s”, third person singular “a” or “e”, first person plural “mos”, second person plural “is”, third person plural “en”. This group is also inflected with regard to tense and mood. The endings are “aba”, the preterit and perfect indicative first conjugation, “ia”, preterit and perfect indicative second conjugation, “ra”, “se”, preterit pluperfect subjunctive, “ria” conditional, “re” future subjunctive, “e” present subjunctive first conjugation, “a” present subjunctive second and third conjugation. |
| Dylan: Breathe, Carlos, breathe! |
| Carlos: Sorry, I just impressed of that explanation. |
| Dylan: So what about the last group, verbal nominal inflection? |
| Carlos: I got this too. Verbal nominal inflections. This is made up in the infinitive ending “R”, the gerund “ndo” and the past participle “do”. Definitely not as hard to explain as verbal inflections. |
| Dylan: Hah, definitely not. |
| Carlos: Well Dylan, I gave some very good definitions. |
| Dylan: That you did. |
| Carlos: So how about some examples? |
| Dylan: Sure, an example of nominal inflection “somos hermanas”, “we are sisters.” Let’s break down, “hermanas”, “herman” minus “a” minus “s”, “herman”. |
| Carlos: “Herman”. |
| Dylan: This conveys the quality of being siblings. |
| Carlos: And the “a” in the case the noun is feminine and that we are talking about being a sister. And what about the “S”? |
| Dylan: Well, this tells us that there is more than one sister. |
| Carlos: Nice break down, Dylan. |
| Dylan: Thank you Carlos, but we aren’t done yet. Here is an example of verbal inflection “¿Qué me decías?” Let’s break it down. |
| Carlos: “Decías”, “des” minus “ía” minus “s”. |
| Dylan: “Dec”. This conveys the meaning of speaking or telling. |
| Carlos: And “ía”. |
| Dylan: “ía” indicates that the verbal action took place in the preterit imperfect of the indicative. You tell me about that “S”. |
| Carlos: The “S” tells us that the second person singular “tú”, “you”, is the subject of this verb. I told you I like grammatical inflections. It’s like a puzzle. |
| Dylan: So then let’s get our last example in. Verbal nominal inflection, “Tengo ganas de comer”. |
| Carlos: I think I can do this. I will break down “comer”, “comer” minus “r” is “come”. So “come” conveys a meaning of eating. |
| Dylan: And “R”? |
| Carlos: Well, the “R” indicates the infinitive form of the verb which for all intensive purposes operates as a noun. |
| Dylan: Let me take care of some examples. |
| Carlos: Always down. |
| Dylan: Nominal inflection, “Los niños siempre toman una siesta”. |
| Carlos: “The kids always take a nap.” |
| Dylan: Verbal inflection, “Se levantaron temprano”. |
| Carlos: “They got up early.” |
| Dylan: Verbal nominal inflection, “Prefiero levantarme tarde”. |
| Carlos: “I prefer to get up late.” |
| Dylan: Learning the fundamentals of inflection in Spanish will give you a clear idea of the big picture. |
| Carlos: Like pieces in a puzzle. |
| Dylan: Let’s not overuse the metaphor. |
| Carlos: Sorry. |
| Dylan: For example, if you are at the intermediate level, you’ve undoubtedly found yourself in situations where you follow the general meaning of what someone is saying in Spanish but there are some words here and there which are new to you. |
| Carlos: It happens all the time. |
| Dylan: If you learn to recognize the way the Spanish words change their endings which is just another way of saying if you learn the inflections of Spanish, then you will be able to understand the function of the word and many times by learning this information, you will be able to intuit the meaning of the root. |
| Carlos: That’s all true, but let’s say I don’t really understand everything we just covered for argument sake, Dylan. |
| Dylan: I recommend studying the basics of morphemes and other grammar topics related to word structures like prefixes, radicals and suffixes. Also you can apply what you learned here to any lesson that focuses on verbs in any tense. |
Outro |
|---|
| Carlos: It does make learning Spanish and any other language for instance pretty easy. Okay guys, that just about does it for today. |
| Dylan: ¡Chao! |
| Carlos: ¡Nos vemos! |
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