Learn how to form the amazing shrinking words, contractions
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, habla Dylan, ¿cómo están? |
| Carlos: What’s going on, pod101world? My name is Carlos. “Putting the squeeze on your Spanish.” In this lesson, you’ll learn about contractions. |
| Dylan: This conversation takes place in a home. |
| Carlos: The conversation is between Daniel and Andrés. |
| Dylan: The speakers are friends and are speaking informally. |
| Carlos: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| DANIEL: Andrés, por primera vez en mi vida, me asusté, y no pude hablar con ella. |
| ANDRÉS: ¡¡¡Daniel!!!!, ¿¿¿¿estás enfermo????, me estás diciendo que..., ¿tienes miedo de hablar con una mujer? |
| DANIEL: Mmm, la verdad,¡¡¡ sí!!!! Aunque me da pena aceptarlo. |
| ANDRÉS: Que al hombre más mujeriego del mundo, ¡le da miedo hablar con una mujer!, ¡no puede ser real! |
| DANIEL: ¡Ves como esta vez es diferente! |
| Daniel: Andrés, for the first time in my life I got scared and couldn't talk to her. |
| Andrés: Daniel! Are you sick? You're telling me that...you're scared to speak to a woman? |
| Daniel: Mmm, the truth, yes! Although I'm embarrassed to accept it. |
| Andrés: That the world's biggest womanizer is afraid to speak to a woman! It can't be real! |
| Daniel: See how this time it's different! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Carlos: Man Dylan, looks like Daniel had the reputation of a womanizer but was shook by a woman. |
| Dylan: Wow! It’s like a movie. |
| Carlos: Happens at times. You know romantic comedy. We like to think that, but I think that personally it may not happen in such a way. |
| Dylan: You know, guys act like they are so brave but when it comes down to it, they are just timid scared little puppies. |
| Carlos: I remember the first time I spoke on the phone with a girl when I was like ten, I was so nervous. |
| Dylan: Oh Carlos... |
| Carlos: I was like what’s wrong with me? But that’s neither here nor there guys. Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Dylan: “Primera vez”. |
| Carlos: “First time.” |
| Dylan: “Pri-me-ra vez”, “primera vez”. |
| Dylan: “Asustar”. |
| Carlos: “To frighten”, “to scare.” |
| Dylan: “A-sus-tar”, “asustar”. |
| Dylan: “Enfermo”. |
| Carlos: “Sick.” |
| Dylan: “En-fer-mo”, “enfermo”. |
| Dylan: “Miedo”. |
| Carlos: “Fear.” |
| Dylan: “Mie-do”, “miedo”. |
| Dylan: “Aunque”. |
| Carlos: “Although”, “even though.” |
| Dylan: “Aun-que”, “aunque”. |
| Dylan: “Mujeriego”. |
| Carlos: “Womanizer.” |
| Dylan: “Mu-je-rie-go”, “mujeriego”. |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Carlos: Okay guys, let’s have a closer look at the usage of some the words and phrases for this lesson. |
| Dylan: The first word we’ll look at is “primera vez”. |
| Carlos: Dylan, there is a first time for everything. |
| Dylan: Isn’t that the truth. |
| Carlos: You know I think there is a first time we’ve ever doubled the expressions that describe the number of time. |
| Dylan: Well like we said, this adjective noun combination is one that should definitely be gone over. |
| Carlos: Yes and it seems that Daniel is going through something when he says “Andrés, por primera vez en mi vida, me asusté, y no pude hablar con ella”. |
| Dylan: “Andrés for the first time in my life, I got scared and couldn’t talk to her.” Huh! That’s big talk from someone. |
| Carlos: As I said, I’ve been scared so many times to talk to women. It happens to the best of us. |
| Dylan: Some more often than not. |
| Carlos: Aparentemente... |
| Dylan: Aparentemente... |
| Carlos: Aparentemente, por Daniel es su primera vez entonces. |
| Dylan: So then he was intimidated. That usually means that he likes the girl. |
| Carlos: True but if he wasn’t scared, that would be another indication all together. |
| Dylan: I remember when I was scared like before. |
| Carlos: Really? |
| Dylan: “Aún recuerdo la primera vez que lo besé”. |
| Carlos: The first time you kissed him, huh? |
| Dylan: Yes, it was special. |
| Carlos: Should be. You are together after almost fourteen years. |
| Dylan: Remember what I do not remember? |
| Carlos: What’s that? |
| Dylan: “La segunda vez, tercera vez, cuarta vez…” |
| Carlos: “The second time, third time or fourth time”? I’m pretty sure those were all done on the same day. |
| Dylan: Huh! Probably. |
| Carlos: Well, let’s move on to our next word. |
| Dylan: A very stressful verb. |
| Carlos: And what’s that? |
| Dylan: “Asustarse”. |
| Carlos: “To be scared.” |
| Dylan: Now we already heard the example but let’s try it once again. Just for good measure. |
| Carlos: Sure. “Andrés, por primera vez en mi vida, me asusté, y no pude hablar con ella”. |
| Dylan: “Andrés, for the first time in my life I got scared and couldn’t talk to her.” |
| Carlos: You know, this would be a great opportunity to discuss reflective verbs. |
| Dylan: It would be but now is really not the time. |
| Carlos: No, you are right. That would be the grammar section. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Dylan: Can you think of the last time you used the verb “asustarse” in everyday conversation? |
| Carlos: Actually, I didn’t use it. I went to go make copies of my keys and my cleaning lady was in the house and she was ringing the bell when I came home and she jumped a little and said “Ay Carlos, ¡me asustó!” |
| Dylan: “Carlos, you scared me!” |
| Carlos: See examples like these are how I learn direct and indirect object pronouns. |
| Dylan: Once again man, let’s not get off the topic. |
| Carlos: Right, how about we look at the adjectives that are related to the verb “asustarse”. |
| Dylan: Bueno. |
| Carlos: “Asustado, asustada”. |
| Dylan: Scared a friend, anyway you describe it, it’s not a state of being that anyone likes to be on. |
| Carlos: I don’t know, Dylan. Thinking about when I go on roller coasters and such, I like to be scared sometimes. |
| Dylan: But you go skydiving too? |
| Carlos: I been twice. |
| Dylan: You are sick, Carlos. |
| Carlos: I take that you don’t mean sick in the positive sense. |
| Dylan: No, I don’t, but I was just looking for a good lead into our next word. |
| Carlos: Okay, good. I thought you were insulting me. |
| Dylan: We have the adjective “enfermo, enferma”. |
| Carlos: “Sick.” |
| Dylan: And since Daniel is an apparent ladies man we have Andrés exclaiming, I can’t imagine quite expressively “¿¿¿¿estás enfermo????” |
| Carlos: “Are you sick?” So we are talking about sick in the figurative sense. |
| Dylan: Yes, but you know that this is also the verb that we use to describe actual sickness. |
| Carlos: I know. |
| Dylan: This is also a good way to the difference between “ser” and “estar”. |
| Carlos: Wait, hold up, Dylan. You just lectured me about saving good stuff for grammar. |
| Dylan: Shhh. This won’t take but a second. “Mi abuelita está muy enferma”. |
| Carlos: “My granny is very sick.” |
| Dylan: And why did I say “está” and not “es”? |
| Carlos: Well, that would be because being sick is a temporary condition and thus we use “estar”. |
| Dylan: Good. One more explanation. Moving on. |
| Carlos: Okay, we have the noun “la enfermedad”, which is... |
| Dylan: “A sickness”, and a perfect related word because Daniel is sick with “fear.” |
| Carlos: Or “miedo”. |
| Dylan: Which happens to be our next word. |
| Carlos: “Miedo”, a noun that means... |
| Dylan: “Fear.” |
| Carlos: “Tiene miedo de hablar con una mujer”. |
| Dylan: “You are scared to speak to a woman.” |
| Carlos: Now that isn’t the literal translation. |
| Dylan: No, it’s not. |
| Carlos: And when what we have here is another example of the verb “tener” being used to describe a state of being, |
| Dylan: Here we have “tener miedo”, “to have fear.” |
| Carlos: But we translate it as, “you are scared.” |
| Dylan: Another good example of this is “tener hambre”. |
| Carlos: “To have hunger.” |
| Dylan: Which we translate as... |
| Carlos: “Hungry.” |
| Dylan: Once again on the very slippery slope of translation. |
| Carlos: But this rule applies to many states of being. |
| Dylan: So when you try to figure it out audience, think of “tener miedo”. |
| Carlos: Or “tener hambre”. |
| Dylan: Like I could say, “Mi hermano menor tiene miedo a las arañas”. |
| Carlos: “My little brother is scared of spiders.” You know we make the loose translation because really that is the way it sounds in English. |
| Dylan: Have you ever heard the adjective “miedoso, miedosa”? |
| Carlos: No, actually I haven’t. |
| Dylan: “Fearful.” |
| Carlos: Okay, good. Learn something new every day. |
| Dylan: Now here is a word I know you have trouble with. |
| Carlos: And what’s that? I have a big list of them. |
| Dylan: “Aunque”. |
| Carlos: “Aunque”. Do you know that is a conjunction, I know that but they can be confusing. |
| Dylan: “Aunque”. “Even though”, “although.” |
| Carlos: Oh, right. “Aunque” is one of the words that kept popping up in my everyday conversations and I couldn’t figure out what it meant. |
| Dylan: That’s what we are here for. Let’s look at the usage. Daniel is trying to explain himself when he says, “Aunque me da pena aceptarlo”. |
| Carlos: “Although I’m embarrassed to accept it.” |
| Dylan: Come on. Try to think of an example yourself. |
| Carlos: “Aunque no me gusta salir entre semana, a veces salgo los miércoles”. |
| Dylan: “Although I don’t like to go out during the week, sometimes I go out on Wednesdays.” It’s a good one, a lie, but a good one. |
| Carlos: Thanks, I know I’m lying through my teeth. |
| Dylan: Can you think of any related words? |
| Carlos: Actually I can. Another conjunction that I kept hearing and wasn’t sure what it meant but once I put my mind to learning it all came together nicely. |
| Dylan: And what’s that? |
| Carlos: “Sin embargo”, “regardless.” And since I like saying regardless in English, that has become part of my everyday speech. |
| Dylan: That’s how it works. Bueno, last but not least we have a word that I think we’ve gone over maybe once before. |
| Carlos: Which? |
| Dylan: The adjective “mujeriego”. |
| Carlos: You know I’ve heard that charm before although I think it was on another level. “Mujeriego”, “womanizer.” |
| Dylan: If Daniel is scared of talking to a girl, he is no womanizer. This is no romantic comedy. |
| Carlos: That’s true. |
| Dylan: Which is why Andres says... |
| Carlos: “Que al hombre más mujeriego del mundo”. |
| Dylan: “The world’s biggest womanizer”, apparently not. My man has lost that title. |
| Carlos: Hey Dylan, no todos hombres son mujeriegos. |
| Dylan: No, not all the men are womanizers, todos son perros. |
| Carlos: Walked right into that one. You know a related word is the object of all of our affection. The base that we would recognize “mujer”. |
| Dylan: “La mujer”, “the woman.” |
| Carlos: Okay, before we get into a deep discussion. |
| Dylan: Let’s talk about contractions. |
| Carlos: Let’s. |
| Dylan: What are contractions? |
| Carlos: Well, contractions are how we made certain words smaller. |
| Dylan: Right, like in English we say “can’t” instead of “cannot.” |
| Carlos: Or “don’t” instead of “do not.” |
| Dylan: Most of the time this becomes the more common way of speaking. |
| Carlos: You know that is true. |
| Dylan: But in Spanish, there are only two cases in which we do this. |
| Carlos: Only two? Hey, that sounds simple enough. |
| Dylan: It’s a little trickier than it appears at first. |
| Carlos: Okay, let’s go to it then. |
| Dylan: Only the prepositions “a” and “de” can be turned into contractions when combined with the masculine singular definite article “el”. |
| Carlos: How do we do that? |
| Dylan: We take the position and fuse it with the masculine singular definite article to form the contractions “al” and “del”. |
| Carlos: Okay, let’s take a look at these one by one then. Well, we have to since really they are only two. |
| Dylan: In Spanish we combine the preposition “a” with a definite article “el” to say where the movement is directed. |
| Carlos: Right, so instead of incorrectly saying “voy a el mercado” we use the contraction to say... |
| Dylan: “Voy al mercado”. “I’m going to the market.” Doesn’t that just sound better? |
| Carlos: No, you are right. It does. It’s easier to say also. |
| Dylan: Well, then likewise when the preposition “de” is followed by “el”, the singular masculine definite article, we must use a contraction. “El mantenimiento de el edificio” becomes... |
| Carlos: I got this, “el mantenimiento del edificio”, “the maintenance of the building”, it comes out easier too. |
| Dylan: Let’s look at formation. |
| Carlos: Okay. So the formation of “a” plus “el” equals... |
| Dylan: “Al”. “Voy a la escuela”. |
| Carlos: “I go to school.” |
| Dylan: Versus “Vamos al partido”. |
| Carlos: “We go to the game.” See the difference in the gender of the noun you are describing? That is the key, “de” plus “el” equals “del”. |
| Dylan: “Ellos son de los Estados Unidos”. |
| Carlos: “They are from the United States.” |
| Dylan: Versus “el pescado es del mar”. |
| Carlos: “The fish is from the sea.” Let’s look at some example sentences. |
| Dylan: “Caminamos al norte de la ciudad”. |
| Carlos: “We walk to the north of the city.” |
| Dylan: “Al menos no perdimos el partido”. |
| Carlos: “At the very least, we didn’t lose the game.” |
| Dylan: “¿Vas al trabajo?” |
| Carlos: “You are going to work?” “You are going to work?” |
| Dylan: “Manejo al campo”. |
| Carlos: “I drive to the country.” |
| Dylan: “Le doy una bandera al presidente”. |
| Carlos: “I give a flag to the president.” |
| Dylan: “Necesito ir al baño”. |
| Carlos: “I need to go to the bathroom.” |
| Dylan: “He venido del centro”. |
| Carlos: “I’ve come from downtown.” |
| Dylan: “Es la casa del viejo”. |
| Carlos: “It’s the old man’s house.” |
| Dylan: “Mis primos son del mismo barrio”. |
| Carlos: “My cousins are from the same neighborhood.” |
| Dylan: Note that these contractions are made only with the definite article “el” for singular masculine nouns. |
| Carlos: So what about when we are talking about feminine or plural nouns? |
| Dylan: When we are talking about feminine nouns or plural nouns the definite article “la”, “los”, or “las” are used, in this case there is no contraction. |
Outro |
| Carlos: Note taken. Okay guys, that just about does it for today. |
| Dylan: Nos vemos, ¡chao! |
| Carlos: ¡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