Learn how to give commands using the Spanish imperative mode
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 |
| Dylan: Hola, hola a todos. This is Dylan, ¿cómo están? |
| Carlos: What’s going on pod101 world? My name is Carlos. “Giving Commands in Spanish: You Have to Eat Healthy Food.” In this lesson, you will learn about the imperative mood. |
| Dylan: This conversation takes place in a home. |
| Carlos: This conversation takes place between Carla and the twins. |
| Dylan: The speakers are friends. Therefore the speakers will be speaking informally. |
| Carlos: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| CARLA: ¡¡¡Hora de cenar, chicas!!! |
| AMANDA: ¿Cenar? Estoy jugando, ¿no ve? |
| CRISTAL: Quiero comer papas fritas... |
| CARLA: No, no, hay que comer vitaminas, comida sana. |
| AMANDA: Vieja bruja, ¡NO , NO , NO! |
| CRISTAL: Mis papas, mis papas, Pa-paaaaas... ¡quiero mis papasssssssss! |
| CARLA: ¡No lloren! Vamos a los videojuegos y comemos papas fritas entonces. |
| And now, slowly. |
| Una vez más, esta vez lentamente. |
| CARLA: ¡¡¡Hora de cenar, chicas!!! |
| AMANDA: ¿Cenar? Estoy jugando, ¿no ve? |
| CRISTAL: Quiero comer papas fritas... |
| CARLA: No, no, hay que comer vitaminas, comida sana. |
| AMANDA: Vieja bruja, ¡NO , NO , NO! |
| CRISTAL: Mis papas, mis papas, Pa-paaaaas... ¡quiero mis papasssssssss! |
| CARLA: ¡No lloren! Vamos a los videojuegos y comemos papas fritas entonces. |
| And now, with the translation. |
| Ahora, incluimos la traducción. |
| CARLA: ¡¡¡Hora de cenar, chicas!!! |
| CARLA: Girls, time for dinner!!! |
| AMANDA: ¿Cenar? Estoy jugando, ¿no ve? |
| AMANDA: Dinner? Can you see I'm playing? |
| CRISTAL: Quiero comer papas fritas... |
| CRISTAL: I want to eat french fries... |
| CARLA: No, no, hay que comer vitaminas, comida sana. |
| CARLA: No, no, you have to eat vitamins, healthy food. |
| AMANDA: Vieja bruja, ¡NO , NO , NO! |
| AMANDA: You old witch, NO , NO , NO! |
| CRISTAL: Mis papas, mis papas, Pa-paaaaas... ¡quiero mis papasssssssss! |
| CRISTAL: My parents, my parents, par-ents...I want my parents! |
| CARLA: ¡No lloren! Vamos a los videojuegos y comemos papas fritas entonces. |
| CARLA: Don't cry. Let's go to the videogames and we'll eat french fries then. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Dylan: Wow! I wonder if my kids treat my mom like the same way as these kids are treating the babysitter. |
| Carlos: Now these kids are like demons. I don’t think so. I think like you know, due to the general extended family aspect of Latin American households, I can see that you know, well in my experience, Latin American grandmothers don’t play that pshhh |
| Dylan: They just slap them. |
| Carlos: They just slap them. They hit them and you know, make them kneel on rice, maybe do that one’s. |
| Dylan: Wow! Or they can make them kneel on like up facing bottle caps. |
| Carlos: That’s just – no rice, rice hurts on your bare knees, let me tell you. Well, if you do anything and then your grandmother puts rice, white uncooked rice on the ground. You get to kneel on it for a long time, it kills your knees. |
| Dylan: Well, you will never do whatever you did again. |
| Carlos: No, I never did. Okay guys, let’s have a closer look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Dylan: “Cenar”. |
| Carlos: “To have supper or dinner.” |
| Dylan: “Ce-nar”, “cenar”. |
| Dylan: “Jugar”. |
| Carlos: “To play.” |
| Dylan: “Ju-gar”, “jugar”. |
| Dylan: “Vitamina”. |
| Carlos: “Vitamin.” |
| Dylan: “Vi-ta-mi-na”, “vitamina”. |
| Dylan: “Comida sana”. |
| Carlos: “Health food.” |
| Dylan: “Co-mi-da sa-na”, “comida sana”. |
| Dylan: “Viejo, vieja”. |
| Carlos: “Old.” |
| Dylan: “Vie-jo, vie-ja”, “viejo, vieja”. |
| Dylan: “Llorar”. |
| Carlos: “To cry”, “to weep.” |
| Dylan: “Llo-rar”, “llorar”. |
| Carlos: Okay guys, let’s have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Dylan: The first word we will look at is “cenar”. |
| Carlos: “Cenar”. “To have supper or dinner.” You know, I never called it “supper.” I mean, where do they do that? |
| Dylan: Not sure. Probably some places in the States. |
| Carlos: Once again, I love the meal verbs. “To do dinner”, classic. |
| Dylan: “Ayer mis amigos y yo cenamos en un restaurante italiano”. |
| Carlos: “Yesterday my friends and I ate dinner at an Italian restaurant.” I love Italian food but there is something about the sauce that is different here. |
| Dylan: Yeah, I notice that too when I go to the States. |
| Carlos: I always wonder what that is exactly but anyway, you know Carla is trying to get these girls to come eat. |
| Dylan: “¡¡¡Hora de cenar, chicas!!!” |
| Carlos: “Time for dinner girls”, and you know, they aren’t going to come easily. |
| Dylan: Well, you know the related noun for “cenar”. |
| Carlos: Of course, “la cena”, “the dinner.” |
| Dylan: And you don’t play when it comes to meals. |
| Carlos: No, I don’t. |
| Dylan: Our next word is the verb “jugar”. |
| Carlos: “Jugar”, “to play.” |
| Dylan: But in our conversation, we hear it used in its gerund form. |
| Carlos: “¿Cenar? Estoy jugando, ¿no ves?” |
| Dylan: “Dinner? Can’t you see that I am playing?” |
| Carlos: Such charming little girls. |
| Dylan: Well, I wasn’t much easier. |
| Carlos: No? |
| Dylan: “Cuando era niña, siempre estaba jugando juegos de mesa”. |
| Carlos: “When I was a little girl, I was always playing table games.” |
| Dylan: I never wanted to go eat dinner. |
| Carlos: Me neither. It was always “un juego”, some kind of game going on. Much more important to being hungry. |
| Dylan: But you need your “vitamins.” |
| Carlos: Or “vitaminas”, our next word hah! |
| Dylan: Yep and Carla is falling victim to the usual plea that children never listen to. |
| Carlos: And what’s that? |
| Dylan: “No, no, hay que comer vitaminas, comida sana”. |
| Carlos: “No, no, you have to eat vitamins. Healthy food.” |
| Dylan: That’s an argument she will win. |
| Carlos: I sincerely doubt that. |
| Dylan: We got to trick them with fruit. |
| Carlos: Right. |
| Dylan: “Hay que comer frutas altas en vitaminas”. |
| Carlos: “You have to eat fruits that are high in vitamins”, and they taste good too. |
| Dylan: That’s one of the blessings of living in Costa Rica, all the fresh fruit. |
| Carlos: But how do we generally take our vitamins these days? |
| Dylan: “En una pastilla”, “a pill” or “una tableta”, “a tablet.” |
| Carlos: You know, I’ve heard those aren’t even that efficient of vitamins. |
| Dylan: Better to get your vitamins in food. |
| Carlos: Or “comida sana”, “healthy food.” |
| Dylan: Right which is the basis of Carla’s failed argument when she says, “No, no, hay que comer vitaminas, comida sana”. |
| Carlos: “No, no, you have to eat vitamins, healthy food.” |
| Dylan: With “comida sana” we have a noun and an adjective. |
| Carlos: You know Dylan, “Los doctores recomiendan comer comida sana”. |
| Dylan: “Doctors recommend eating health food.” |
| Carlos: You know, I always try to keep it healthy but sometimes McDonald’s just calls me. |
| Dylan: That would be the opposite, “la comida chatarra”. |
| Carlos: “Junk food.” |
| Dylan: Yep and that usually comes in the form of “la comida rápida”. |
| Carlos: “Fast food.” That one I know. |
| Dylan: The more you will eat that now, the worst you will be when you are older. |
| Carlos: Right. I don’t want a middle-age beer gut. |
| Dylan: And you will look older too although I assume Carla does not deserve being called an old witch. |
| Carlos: Right, “vieja bruja”. |
| Dylan: “You old witch.” |
| Carlos: So this is not a flattering adjective in the sense. |
| Dylan: No, not at all, but it can be used in the general neutral sense. |
| Carlos: How so? |
| Dylan: “La directora es de la escuela es vieja”. |
| Carlos: “The school’s director is old.” Right, here it’s just stating the fact and not really using it as an insult. |
| Dylan: No, especially when it’s coupled with “bruja”. |
| Carlos: A feminine noun. |
| Dylan: That is not very polite in either Spanish or English. |
| Carlos: Right, “witch.” “Vieja bruja”, “old witch.” That might sound all the more venomous from a 6-year old. |
| Dylan: But we all know that in reality las brujas no existen. |
| Carlos: It says, you, my family is from the Caribbean and there is no shortage of ghost stories and wobbling witches. |
| Dylan: They use “la brujería”, “witchcraft.” |
| Carlos: And also a salsa from El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico, “¡Demonio!” |
| Dylan: But last but certainly not least, we have “llorar”. |
| Carlos: “Llorar”, “to cry”, sad, sad also a song by Oscar D’León. |
| Dylan: This is where Carla needed to be strong. |
| Carlos: Yeah, but she fold down, “¡No lloren!” |
| Dylan: “Don’t cry.” Man, those twins are good. |
| Carlos: Yeah and evil. |
| Dylan: But you got to look past it, “mi hija siempre llora en la escuela”. |
| Carlos: Why does your daughter always cry in school? |
| Dylan: Because she is a toddler and that’s what they do always with “las lágrimas”. |
| Carlos: “The tears.” |
| Dylan: Carlos, do you know what form we use when we give negative commands? |
| Carlos: That would be the subjunctive form, Dylan. |
| Dylan: And what does that require? |
| Carlos: For regular verbs conjugating in the subjunctive to give negative commands simply requires that we conjugate the stem of the verb in the “yo”, “I” form. So while it sounds difficult, really it isn’t. |
| Dylan: Okay, but that’s not all. What comes after or what’s next? |
| Carlos: Well, then we drop the “O” and interchange the corresponding “ar” and “er” and “ir” endings of the verb as for the informal “tú” form. What I mean is we substitute “a” for the endings of the “er” and “ir” verbs. So then we drop the “O” and exchange the corresponding “ar” and “er”, “ir” endings of the verb “as” or “es” for the informal “tú” form. What I mean is, we substitute “a” for the endings of “er” and “ir” verbs. |
| Dylan: And that is the similarity because likewise we substitute “e” into the endings of “ar” verbs to form the subjunctive. |
| Carlos: So really we are learning two things at once. |
| Dylan: Well, what about irregular verbs? |
| Carlos: Well, irregular verbs follow the same pattern. |
| Dylan: Right. Generally we must first conjugate the stem of the verb in the “yo”, “I” form, then we substitute “a” into the corresponding endings of “er”, “ir” verbs or we do the opposite for “ar” verbs. |
| Carlos: Let’s take a look at some examples so we have a clear idea of how this is done. |
| Dylan: Negative commands for regular verbs. |
| Carlos: “Ar” verb, “cerrar”, “to close”. |
| Dylan: “No cierres la puerta”. |
| Carlos: “Don’t close the door”, “tú” informal command. “Er” verb, “comer”, “to eat.” |
| Dylan: “No comas la hamburguesa”. |
| Carlos: “Don’t eat the hamburger”, “tú” informal command. “Ir” verb, “escribir”, “to write.” |
| Dylan: “No escribas la carta”. |
| Carlos: “Don’t write the letter”, “tú” informal command. |
| Dylan: Good work, good work but those were the easier regular verbs as was the example from our conversation “¡No lloren!”, “don’t cry!” With the irregular verbs, we have our work cut out for us. |
| Carlos: Right those pesky irregulars. We have to learn the individual. Always have to break away from the system. |
| Dylan: Irregular verbs. |
| Carlos: “Decir”. “To say.” |
| Dylan: “No digas nada.” |
| Carlos: “Don’t say anything”, “tú” informal command. “Hacer”, “to do”, “to make.” |
| Dylan: “No hagas eso”. |
| Carlos: “Don’t do that”, “tú” informal command. “Tener”, “to have”. |
| Dylan: “No tengas miedo”. |
| Carlos: “Don’t be scared”, “don’t have fear”, “tú” informal command. |
| Dylan: Did you notice how we substitute “a” for the endings of “er”, “ir” verbs? |
| Carlos: Yeah and I also noticed that we substitute “e” into endings of “ar” verbs to form the subjunctive. That is kind of confusing I must admit. |
| Dylan: Don’t get discouraged. |
| Carlos: I will try. You try too, audience. |
| Dylan: Mastering the use of subjunctive and the imperative mood is one of the most difficult aspects of Spanish. |
Outro |
|---|
| Carlos: Well guys, you heard Dylan. Keep optimistic and studious. That just about does it for today. |
| Dylan: ¡Hasta luego! |
| Carlos: Chao, ¡nos vemos! |
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