Learn how to form Spanish comparative expressions
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. ¿Cómo están? Habla Dylan. |
| Carlos: What’s going on, Pod101 world? My name is Carlos. In this lesson, you will learn about comparatives. |
| Dylan: The conversation takes place in a dance school. |
| Carlos: The conversation is between the dance instructor and Pedro. |
| Dylan: The speakers are strangers so they are speaking formally. |
| Carlos: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| PROFESOR DE BAILE: Hola a todos, mi nombre es Esteban. |
| PEDRO: Mucho gusto. Yo soy Pedro. |
| ANA: Hola, yo soy Ana. |
| CARINA: Y yo Carina. |
| PROFESOR DE BAILE: Bueno chicos, empecemos con la salsa. Un paso adelante y otro atrás. |
| PEDRO: Perdón Esteban, pero, ¿me puedes explicar más despacio? |
| Professor of dance: Hello, everyone. My name is Esteban. |
| Pedro: Nice to meet you. I am Pedro. |
| Ana: Hello, I am Ana. |
| Carina: And I am Carina. |
| Professor of dance: Okay, guys, let’s start with the salsa…one step forward and another one backward. |
| Pedro: Excuse me, Esteban, but can you explain it to me a bit slower? |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Dylan: That is so funny [laughter]. It’s so simple. |
| Carlos: Well, one step forward, the other one backwards. I mean, yes it is kind of strange. |
| Dylan: Slower, Carlos. |
| Carlos: I guess Pedro isn’t the swiftest of the bunch. |
| Dylan: Yes, I guess he is a beginner. |
| Carlos: Which you know I have gone to salsa classes and it’s true. It’s like three girls to every one guy. |
| Dylan: Hey, good place to pick up chicks. |
| Carlos: Yes, but they generally can’t dance either so it’s really not. |
| Dylan: Hmmmm. |
| Carlos: But you know what I will say, guys? If you do want to take a salsa class, you have to make sure where you are because styles differ all over the place. |
| Dylan: That is true. |
| Carlos: There’s Cuban salsa, Puerto Rican salsa, New York Salsa, Costa Rican Salsa, Miami Salsa, Los Angeles Salsa , that’s all over the place. |
| Dylan: But they all have something in common. That they are fun, upbeat and just conquer the dance floor. |
| Carlos: They do conquer the dance floor. I think it’s a nice looking dance. |
| Dylan: Yes, it is. |
| Carlos: Okay guys, let’s have a closer look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Dylan: “Todo, toda”. |
| Carlos: “All”, “everyone.” |
| Dylan: “To-do, to-da”, “todo, toda”. |
| Dylan: “Empezar”. |
| Carlos: “To begin.” |
| Dylan: “Em-pe-zar”, “empezar”. |
| Dylan: “Paso”. |
| Carlos: “Step.” |
| Dylan: “Pa-so”, “paso”. |
| Dylan: “Adelante”. |
| Carlos: “Forward.” |
| Dylan: “A-de-lan-te”, “adelante”. |
| Dylan: “Atrás”. |
| Carlos: “Backward.” |
| Dylan: “A-trás”, “atrás”. |
| Dylan: “Explicar”. |
| Carlos: “To explain.” |
| Dylan: “Ex-pli-car”, “explicar”. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Carlos: Let’s have a closer look at the use of some of the words and phrases on this lesson. |
| Dylan: The first word we will look at is “todo, toda”. |
| Carlos: And in this case “todos”. |
| Dylan: “Hola a todos”. |
| Carlos: “Hello everyone.” You know that is the most common first time introduction as a teacher. |
| Dylan: Yes, but you only say that once. What do they say after that? |
| Carlos: “Hola chicos”. Now this is what they say in you know, my Spanish classes English so you just say, “Hi, how are we doing today?” |
| Dylan: And then Spanish? |
| Carlos: Then Spanish. |
| Dylan: “Todos tenemos que estudiar”. |
| Carlos: “Everyone has to study.” You know I like it when you can for an example in a sentence like that. |
| Dylan: You have to try keeping things fresh. |
| Carlos: And I think we do a good job. |
| Dylan: But you can think of the related words. |
| Carlos: The adjective “cada” and “cualquier”. |
| Dylan: Which both mean “every”. |
| Carlos: And every single word that we cover here is valuable. |
| Dylan: Infomercial man is back. |
| Carlos: What’s next? |
| Dylan: “Empezar”. |
| Carlos: “Empezar”. “To begin.” Now we should have had that as our first word. |
| Dylan: Yeah, but whatever we have to let the cards fall where they will. |
| Carlos: That’s true. So where do we hear “empezar” in our conversation? |
| Dylan: “Empecemos con la salsa”. |
| Carlos: “Let’s start with the Salsa.” I’ve never heard it called “the salsa” before. |
| Dylan: Yes, that’s like saying “the sauce”. |
| Carlos: Although, salsa is my favorite style of dance. |
| Dylan: Well, let’s use an example sentence in the same conjugation. |
| Carlos: Sounds good. |
| Dylan: “Yo empecé mis clases hace un mes”. |
| Carlos: “I began my classes a month ago.” |
| Dylan: Verb tenses are easy like that. You have to listen closely. |
| Carlos: It’s getting easier and easier as time goes on. I will admit that. |
| Dylan: Well, what’s another verb that we can link with “empezar”? |
| Carlos: “Comenzar”. “To begin” or “to commence.” |
| Dylan: How would we use the same tense for “comenzar”? |
| Carlos: Ah, hmmm. “Comencé”. “Yo comencé mis clases hace un mes”. |
| Dylan: “I began my classes a month ago.” Next up, “paso”. |
| Carlos: You know, I always thought this word means “pass”, but it actually means “step.” |
| Dylan: Yes. |
| Carlos: I kept getting confused in dance class when they would talk about doing another step in Spanish. |
| Dylan: “Un paso adelante y otro atrás”. |
| Carlos: “Once step forward and another one backwards.” Wow, they are learning the basic, basic, basic steps. |
| Dylan: It all starts with the basic. |
| Carlos: Oh you aren’t lying Dylan, it all starts with the basics, just like Spanish. When you learn something like that, it gives you the knowledge of what else you can learn. |
| Dylan: Stand back audience! Carlos is preaching on his pulpit. |
| Carlos: Hey, I’m just speaking the truth. |
| Dylan: Amen. |
| Carlos: I know some related words too. |
| Dylan: What you got? |
| Carlos: “Vueltas”, the all-important turn, and “alzada”, “a dip.” And those are always impressive. |
| Dylan: “¡Vamos, adelante!” |
| Carlos: “Forward, ahead.” Which would make sense since we are starting with the next words. |
| Dylan: “Un paso adelante y otro atrás”. |
| Carlos: “One step forward and another backwards.” |
| Dylan: “Adelante” is a word that one will hear often while walking a city street in Latin America. |
| Carlos: Definitely. If you are close to any shop of some kind vendors will try to get you to enter their shops by screaming something like… |
| Dylan: “¡Hay un descuento hoy, caballero! ¡Pase adelante!” |
| Carlos: “There’s a sales today sir! Come on in!” |
| Dylan: Now the opposite or “opuesto” is… |
| Carlos: “Back, backwards.” |
| Dylan: And this adverb is the next word on our list. |
| Carlos: “Atrás”. |
| Dylan: Man, we are just playing around with this one sentence. |
| Carlos: It’s a hefty sentence Dylan, full of examples. |
| Dylan: Well, let’s think of another example sentence, one that doesn’t have anything to do with dancing. |
| Carlos: Okay. “Yo entré por la puerta de atrás”. |
| Dylan: “I entered from the back door.” |
| Carlos: Now, what does it mean when I hear “atrás de”. |
| Dylan: With the addition of the preposition “de”, “atrás” becomes “behind.” |
| Carlos: Well, thanks for that explanation. |
| Dylan: Wait until the one from our next verb, “explicar”. |
| Carlos: “To explain”, I think that’s self-explanatory. |
| Dylan: Okay, now let’s go deeper into that. |
| Carlos: Sorry. |
| Dylan: “¿Me puedes explicar más despacio?” |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Carlos: “Can you explain it to me a bit slower?” I used to ask the same thing. Learning a new dance style can be difficult. |
| Dylan: Yes, like anything else it depends on the teacher. |
| Carlos: You know, I think that dancing requires an especially patient teacher. |
| Dylan: Porque las cosas hay que explicarlas muchas veces. |
| Carlos: But just like Spanish, learning any dance will come with practice. Dancing salsa in the clubs didn’t teach me. Dancing in my living room did. |
| Dylan: And how did you start learning Spanish? |
| Carlos: Everyday practice. Speaking Spanish every day and little by little my skills increased more and more. |
| Dylan: Well, a related word for “explicar” is “la explicación”, “the explanation”, and I think we got yours. |
| Carlos: That you did. So Dylan, what is a comparative? |
| Dylan: A comparative uses adjectives and adverbs to show a relationship of comparison between two things or actions. |
| Carlos: Right, I remember now. |
| Dylan: This comparison is one of degree through which something is shown to have a quality to a greater or lesser extent than that of something. We usually associate more and less with comparatives. |
| Carlos: Now, one way to form comparative expressions is by using the words “más”, “more”, and “menos”, “less.” |
| Dylan: I’ll do one better. Let’s have a look at some comparatives. “Más despacio”. |
| Carlos: “Slower.” |
| Dylan: “Más rápido”. |
| Carlos: “Faster.” |
| Dylan: “Más grande”. |
| Carlos: “Bigger.” |
| Dylan: “Más brillante”. |
| Carlos: “Brighter.” |
| Dylan: “Menos despacio”. |
| Carlos: “Slower.” |
| Dylan: “Menos despacio”. |
| Carlos: “Faster.” |
| Dylan: “Menos rápido”. |
| Carlos: “Slower.” |
| Dylan: “Menos grande”. |
| Carlos: “Smaller.” |
| Dylan: “Menos brillante”. |
| Carlos: “Dimmer.” Nice list but how about some sample sentences. |
| Dylan: “¿Puedes hablar más despacio?” |
| Carlos: “Can you speak slower?” |
| Dylan: “El cielo puede ser más brillante”. |
| Carlos: “The sky can be brighter.” |
| Dylan: “Tú estás más grande”. |
| Carlos: “You are bigger.” |
| Dylan: There are many uses of comparative expressions and these are just a few. |
Outro |
| Carlos: Right, but it can be helpful to associate the “er” endings in English with these constructions in Spanish. But in future lessons, we will study the comparatives in greater depth. But you know what guys? That just about does it for today. |
| Dylan: ¡Hasta luego! |
| Carlos: Nos vemos, ¡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