Learn how to ask if taking pictures is allowed
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| May I Take Your Picture? in Mexican Spanish |
| How many times have you been on a trip with your camera, trying to immortalize an epic moment? In Mexico, there are many amazing landscapes and people to tempt your camera, and you won’t put it away! I know you don’t want to jeopardize your marvelous album of Mexico. That’s why we will be devoting this lesson to more photography phrases. |
| In the last lesson, we learned how to ask someone to take a picture of you: |
| ¿Nos podría tomar una foto, por favor? |
| But what do you do if you see a woman in traditional Mexican clothing and you want to take a picture of her? Sometimes with people that you don’t know, this request can be bothersome. That’s why you must be as nice as you can. |
| “Excuse me, may I take your picture, please?” in Spanish is |
| Disculpe, ¿Le podría tomar una foto, por favor? |
| Let’s break it down: |
| (slow) Dis-cul-pe, ¿Le po-drí-a to-mar u-na fo-to, por fa-vor? |
| Once more: |
| Disculpe, ¿Le podría tomar una foto, por favor? |
| You know the meaning of disculpe and por favor, so let’s explain the rest of our phrase. |
| Le is translated as “to you”. |
| (slow) le. |
| le. |
| Then we have, podría, a form of the verb that means “to be able to”. |
| (slow) po-drí-a. |
| podría. |
| Next comes tomar, which means “to take.” |
| (slow) to-mar. |
| tomar. |
| After that comes una foto, meaning “a picture”. |
| (slow) U-na fo-to. |
| Una foto. |
| The whole request is |
| Disculpe, ¿Le podría tomar una foto, por favor? |
| Other situations where you’ll need permission to snap photos include museums, art galleries, churches and shops. |
| “Is it allowed to take pictures here?” in Spanish is |
| ¿Está permitido tomar fotos aquí? |
| Let’s break it down: |
| (slow) ¿Es-tá per-mi-ti-do to-mar fo-tos a-quí? |
| And once again: |
| ¿Está permitido tomar fotos aquí? |
| The first words está permitido mean "is it allowed" |
| (slow) es-tá per-mi-ti-do |
| está permitido |
| The second word, tomar, is the verb "to take" as in "take a picture." |
| fotos means "photos" – you just added an “s” to the word foto to make it plural. |
| (slow) fo-tos |
| fotos |
| And aquí means "here". |
| (slow) a-quí |
| aquí |
| So the whole question is |
| ¿Está permitido tomar fotos aquí? |
| To close out today's lessons, we’d like you to practice what you have just learned. I’ll provide you with the English equivalent of the phrase and you’re responsible for shouting it out loud. You’ll have a few seconds before I give you the answer, so !buena suerte! which means “Good luck!” in Spanish. |
| “Excuse me, may I take your picture, please?” - Disculpe, ¿Le podría tomar una foto, por favor? |
| “Is it allowed to take pictures here?” - ¿Está permitido tomar fotos aquí? |
| Alright! That's going to do it for this lesson. Hasta luego. |
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