*Note that some strong language is discussed, so sensitive readers may wish to skip this lesson.
When something is importante (important), people usually care about it. In Spanish, the simplest way to say that one doesn’t care about something is to negate the verb importar (to care), as Victoria does when Federico asks her how she's feeling:
Que ya no me importa nada, Federico.
That I don't care about anything now, Federico.
Caption 20, Muñeca Brava - 41 La Fiesta - Part 4
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However, it’s possible—and very common—to use the verb importar without negation to express a lack of caring. The trick is to add to me importa (or me interesa) to a noun that conveys the idea of something of negligible value. Comino, pepino, cacahuate, and bledo are a few examples of such nouns. Let’s learn how to actually use them.
Semillas de comino (cumin seeds) are so minuscule that they are close to nothing:
Perdés el tiempo, querido. Absolutamente.
You're wasting your time, darling. Absolutely.
Porque me interesa un comino su candidatura.
Because I don't give a damn about his nomination.
Captions 39-40, Muñeca Brava - 41 La Fiesta - Part 5
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Using pepino (cucumber) or cacahuate (peanut) is also very common:
¡Se lo dije al mayordomo, me importa un pepino!
I told the butler, I don't give a damn!
Caption 30, Muñeca Brava - 7 El poema
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Another common word to use is bledo, or pigweed. For the Spanish, this plant, although edible, was considered flavorless. They brought the expression over with them to Latin America (where in fact the plant and its seeds have been consumed since pre-Hispanic times, for their nutritional and medicinal properties).
¡Me importan un bledo los quinientos mangos!
I couldn't care less about the five hundred bucks!
Caption 35, Muñeca Brava - 8 Trampas
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If you want to add extra emphasis you can use the interjection carajo ("damn" or "hell").
¿Y a vos qué carajo te importa?
And to you, what the hell does it matter?
Caption 20, Yago - 2 El puma
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In fact, you can use any bad word you can come up with. That includes all the really vulgar ones, but here are two examples that are not so offensive:
¿A mí qué diablos me importa su vida?
What the hell does your life matter to me?
Caption 6, El Ausente - Acto 2
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Y no por ellos que me importan un diablo.
And not because of them who don't matter a damn to me.
Caption 4, El Ausente - Acto 3
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Finally, we want to introduce you to a curious expression: me vale. It’s only used in Mexico and it’s interesting because it’s quite contradictory. While its literal meaning would be something like “I care” it actually means the exact opposite. This happens because, in Mexico, the verb valer (to be worth) can replace the verb importar (to care) in phrases such as the ones mentioned before. So me vale un pepino, me vale un comino, etc. are all very common. At some point, Mexicans just shortened these phrases to me vale:
Después de eso me vale si muero
After that I don't care if I die
Caption 32, Los Originales de San Juan - Ojala La Vida Me Alcance
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The common—and very contradictory—Mexican phrase me vale madres belongs to this group. It means “I don’t give a damn about it!” but its literal meaning is something like “It’s worth what my mother is worth to me.” Quite puzzling, right? Especially given the proverbial Mexican affection for their mothers!
We hope you have enjoyed this lesson!
Did you watch our video about Spanish negation? In it, Marta explains that to make a negative sentence in Spanish, you basically need to place the word no before the verb in any given sentence, like this one from our animated friend Guillermina:
No quería que jugáramos con nuestros juguetes.
She didn't want us to play with our toys.
Caption 49, Guillermina y Candelario - El mundo de los juguetes perdidos
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By combining the word no with the word ni (nor) you can negate more than one idea:
Porque sin ti no me importan los minutos ni los días
Because without you I don't care about minutes or days
Caption 8, Belinda - Bella Traición
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As in English, you can use ni (nor) as many times as you want:
No te conoce el toro ni la higuera,
The bull does not know you, nor the fig tree,
ni caballos ni hormigas de tu casa.
nor the horses, nor the ants at your house.
Captions 4-5, Acercándonos a la Literatura - García Lorca - Alma ausente
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There are some other negative words in Spanish: nada (nothing), nadie (nobody), jamás (never), nunca (never), and tampoco (neither). How are these negative words used in Spanish? You place them right before the verb:
Mira, nunca me vayas a olvidar
Look, never forget me
Caption 24, Alberto Barros - Mano a mano
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You can also combine these words with the word no. In this case you should use no before the verb and the additional negative after it:
Porque en el campo no hay nadie. -Claro.
Because there is nobody in the field. -Of course.
Caption 19, 75 minutos - Del campo a la mesa
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As you can see, this leads us to probably the most interesting thing about negation in Spanish: the fact that double and triple negatives are very common:
No me gusta deberle nada a nadie.
I don't like to owe anything to anyone.
Caption 12, El Ausente Acto 2 - Part 5
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Notice how in the previous quote the English translation uses the negative “don’t” first, and then the affirmative “anything” and “anyone” instead of “nothing” and “nobody” (which are the literal equivalent to nada and nadie). This is so because formal written English doesn’t use double negation. By contrast, the general rule in Spanish is not to mix negative and affirmative words in the same sentence. See for example:
Yo no pido nada más
I don't ask for anything else
Caption 14, Enrique Iglesias Alguien soy yo
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Where Spanish uses two consecutive negatives (no and nada), English uses one negative (don't) and one affirmative (anything). Saying "Yo no pido algo más" or "Yo pido nada más" in Spanish is similar to saying “I don’t ask for nothing else” in English.
Mi nombre es Crista Pérez...
My name is Crista Perez...
y soy estudiante de economía.
and I am a student of economics.
Captions 1-2, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana - Crista Pérez
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Mi nombre es David del Valle.
My name is David del Valle.
Tengo veintiún años y soy estudiante de negocios internacionales.
I'm twenty-one years old and I'm a student of international business.
Captions 1-2, Amigos D.F. - Consejos para la calle
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Yo ya sé que Andrea es una tonta por estar celosa de una sirvienta.
I know that Andrea is silly for being jealous of a maid.
Caption 54, Muñeca Brava - 41 La Fiesta
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The same is true for nouns for roles or professions that end in a: el/la contrabandista (the smuggler), el/la policía (the police officer), el/la turista (the tourist), el/la baterista (the drummer), el/la artista (the artist). Notice how both circus artist Francisco Javier and Colombian TV star Natalia Oreiro refer to themselves as artista, but change the article based on their respective genders.
Sí, tú sabes que con el tiempo uno llega a ser un artista completo.
Yes, you know that with time you become a complete artist.
Caption 26, Circo Infantil de Nicaragua - Learning the Trade
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...porque yo ya me creía una artista de verdad.
...since I believed myself to be a real artist.
Caption 75, Biografía - Natalia Oreiro
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Welcome to our very basic lesson about gender in Spanish. How can we tell the gender of nouns in Spanish? Let’s look at the most general rule: Words that end in "a" are feminine, while those that end in "o" are masculine. Pretty easy, huh? Let's look at some examples:
Y la casa es súper bonita.
And the house is super nice.
Caption 86, Blanca y Mariona - Vida en general
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Since the word casa is a feminine noun, the speaker uses the definite feminine article la before the noun. Let's see another one:
El libro es tan bueno
The book is as good
Caption 21, Karla e Isabel - Comparativos
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In this case, the speaker uses the definite masculine article el before the masculine noun libro. By the way, please feel free to check our beginner-level lesson about definite and indefinite articles in Spanish grammar.
The unfortunate thing, however, is that this simple rule is not always true, as our friend Arume proves when she correctly says "el tema" (the topic) and not "la tema," which would be incorrect.
Y bueno ahí surge ya el tema de tengo novio, no tengo novio.
And well, that's when the topic of whether you have a boyfriend or not comes up.
Caption 75, Arume - La Vida Escolar
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Furthermore, in the first installment of our series on Andalusian farmers, "Del Campo a la Mesa," the eldest picker illustrates another exception when he says, correctly, "las manos" (the hands):
Pa' ganar cincuenta euros tienes que mover mucho las manos.
To be able to earn fifty Euros, you have to move the hands a lot.
Caption 29, 75 minutos - Del campo a la mesa
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And it's not just such exceptions but also some rules that can complicate the situation. For example, do you know why the Mexican band Café Tacuba’s lead singer says "el agua," using the masculine article "el" (the) instead of the feminine article "la" (the)?
El agua derramada está
The water is already spilled
Caption 17, Café Tacuba - Volver a comenzar
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It’s not because agua is a masculine noun but rather because of a rule in Spanish that states that any feminine noun that begins with a stressed "a" should take the masculine articles (el and un) in its singular form in order to facilitate pronunciation (by avoiding two "a" sounds in a row). This is similar to the manner in which the indefinite article "a" in English changes to "an" before vowels.
You will note, however, that this rule does not apply to the plural forms, which maintain their feminine articles (which end in "s" rather than "a" and thus don't pose the same pronunciation challenge):
Ellos vinieron aquí, a las aguas de la Charca Larga,
They came here, to the waters of Long Pond,
y había muchos seres extraños.
and there were many strange beings.
Captions 42-43, Salvando el planeta Palabra - Llegada
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And, in cases in which the "a" sound is unstressed, the rule doesn't apply, either:
La aceituna que yo he recogido está aquí.
The olive[s] that I have harvested [are] here.
Caption 19, 75 minutos - Del campo a la mesa
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In conclusion, let’s just say that native Spanish speakers learn the gender of words by hearing and using them constantly in real situations and not by memorizing exceptions or wondering whether the word tristeza (sadness) feels more masculine or feminine. That said, the more we immerse ourselves in authentic Spanish, the more we, as learners, can begin to “intuitively” know the gender of nouns that we frequently encounter, including those that don’t follow the common pattern.
In any case, if you feel ready to explore some of the rules and exceptions of gender in Spanish, we invite you to take a look at our lesson about the gender of inanimate objects in Spanish. We hope that this brief introduction to gender in Spanish was useful, and please feel free to send us your suggestions and comments.
A basic Spanish spelling rule: whenever you hear a nasal sound (m or n) before a p or b, you have to write m. For example, the first time you hear the word sombrero (hat), you might not be sure if you heard an m or an n sound before the b, but the rule tells us it has to be spelled with an m.
Un sombrero. Listones. Mire qué listones más bonitos
A hat. Ribbons. Look at what beautiful ribbons
para que se haga unos moños.
so that one can make some [hair] buns.
Captions 15-17, El Ausente - Acto 1 - Part 6
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This rule must be applied without exception. When a word that ends in an n is combined with a word that begins with a p or b to form a compound word like cien+pies → ciempiés (centipede) the n becomes an m. Some other examples of this are en+pollo (chicken) → empollar (to sit on eggs, to hatch), en+bala (bundle) → embalar (to pack) and en+belesa (the belesa is a narcotic plant) → embelesar (to captivate).
Vamos a empollar veinte criaturas
Let's hatch twenty children
Caption 16, Calle 13 - Tango del pecado
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Take note, this rule doesn’t apply to v, despite the fact that native Spanish speakers often conflate it with b. In fact, in Spanish, it is also a rule that you should always write n before v.
La gente no me parecía...
The people didn't seem to...
no me parecía el tipo de gente
they didn't seem to be the kind of people
con el que yo me quería involucrar.
I wanted to get involved with.
Captions 80-81, Arturo Vega - Entrevista - Part 2
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This rule is very useful when trying to figure out the proper way to spell certain Spanish words, especially considering that it is not uncommon to hear native speakers replace the m sound with an n sound. Listen to our Nicaraguan friend, Doña Coco:
Y hay mucho cristia'... este... católicos también.
And there's a lot of Christia'... I mean... Catholics also.
Caption 28, Doña Coco - Música
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Se me ha olvidado quién soy yo
I have forgotten who I am
Caption 2, Cienfue - Medio Alcohólico Melancólico
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As English speakers, we might be wondering why “I have forgotten,” in the caption above, isn’t using the first person (yo or "I") conjugation of haber, as in [yo] he olvidado...
In fact, Cienfue could have sung precisely that, which would be the most “English-like” way of expressing his thought:
[yo] he olvidado quién soy yo
I have forgotten who I am
Another alternative would be the pronominal (think “reflexive”) form, olvidarse:
[yo] me he olvidado de quién soy yo
I have forgotten who I am
Note that the pronominal option requires a “de” after olvidado. The reason for this is that olvidarse, like most pronominal verbs, does not take a direct object, while olvidar is “transitive”—meaning it does (and must) take a direct object. Native speakers often just “know” this instinctively.
Cienfue doesn’t opt for either of these, rather going with what, to English speakers, will be the most “foreign” (though commonplace in Spanish) construction, olvidársele. Olvidársele is what is known as the "impersonal" (or “terciopersonal,” third person) construction of olvidarse.
In contrast to what we are accustomed to in English, the subject of the sentence is the thing forgotten, while the person doing the forgetting is expressed as an indirect object (signified by the le appended to olvidarse). Something "gets forgotten" (passive voice) "by someone."
So, when Cienfue sings,
Se me ha olvidado quién soy yo
the subject of the sentence is “quién soy yo” (who I am) and the indirect object is “me” (me).
Cienfue is most literally saying:
“ ‘Who I am’ has been forgotten by me”
Most Spanish speakers, even if pressed, will find precious little (if any) difference in meaning amongst the three possible constructions. There are definitely regional as well as personal preferences.
It can also be argued that there are nuanced differences in emphasis. For example, the “impersonal” form places the least “blame” on the person doing the forgetting. This type of verb construction has even been called sin culpa (without blame), and it’s not the first time we’ve encountered it in our discussions.
What if you want to simply say "I forgot."? (e.g. in response to Por qué no fuiste a trabajar? Why didn't you go to work?)
Olvidé. INCORRECT (requires a direct object.)
Lo olvidé. (I forgot.) (direct object pronoun lo refers to “work”)
Me olvidé. (I forgot)
Se me olvidó. (I forgot.)
Let's cap this off with a few more examples of each possible olvidar constructions: transitive (the most "English-like", and perhaps least common), pronominal (looks like "reflexive") and impersonal:
You forget that I am the boss?
¿Olvidas que yo soy el jefe?
¿Te olvidas de que yo soy el jefe?
¿Se te olvida que yo soy el jefe?
Maria forgot to pick up her cat.
Maria olvidó recoger su gato.
Maria se olvidó de recoger su gato.
A Maria se le olvidó recoger su gato.
Jorge forgot his money.
Jorge olvidó el dinero.
Jorge se olvidó del dinero.
[In some cases, like this one, the pronominal form alters the meaning slightly. “Jorge forgot about the money,” or even “Jorge kissed the money goodbye.”]
A Jorge se le olvidó el dinero.
Now is a good time to catch up on (or review) these related lessons:
Accidental Grammar
Caer Bien: To Like It
Gustar: To Like, to Please, to Taste
“Le” in Verbs Like Gusta
Yabla Spanish viewer Donnie (dryanespanol) wrote and asked:
In "Fiesta en Miami," - Antonio pronounces the "h" when he says "hace." I have always been told this is a cardinal sin. Please explain.
That's a good question! Does the Canary Islander Antonio Polegre really pronounce the "h" in "hace"? Well, we took a listen and it SEEMS like he does! What is going on?
One of the first things we notice is that, in caption 35, when Antonio says hice mis amigos ("I made my friends"), we do NOT hear any "h" sound in hice. So why would Antonio pronounce hice correctly but not hace? We also notice that he didn't pronounce the final s in mis nor in amigos -- a common enough practice in many regions, and, oddly enough, perhaps a telling clue.
Hice mis amigos, tengo mi novia.
I made friends, I have my girlfriend.
Caption 35, Fiesta en Miami - Antonio
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Antonio uses hace four times in the video (once in captions 46 and 47 and twice in caption 52), each time as part the two word combination nos hace; and each time it really does sound like he is pronouncing the "h" in hace.
Nos hace amigos de otros amigos,
It make us friends of other friends,
nos hace conocer a gente.
it makes us meet people.
Captions 46-47, Fiesta en Miami - Antonio
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We did a little research to see if perhaps "Canarian" Spanish makes an exception to the "never pronounce the 'h'" rule. We don't find such an exception, but we do find another characteristic of Canarian Spanish echoed in a number of places, such as wikipedia:
/s/ debuccalization. As is the case with many varieties of Spanish, /s/ debuccalized to [h] in coda position.
Obviously not written for the layman! A little more research tells us that "debuccalization" is a linguistics term that describes a sound being "reduced" to an "h sound" (e.g. the "h" in "high"), and that the "coda" position is the final position in a syllable, after the vowel.
So, if Antonio is "debuccalizing" the final "s" in nos, which produces an "h sound," then perhaps what we are hearing is not the "h" in hace but rather the "debuccalized /s/" (i.e. "h sound") at the end of "nos"! Could it be?
Let's look at captions 51 - 52:
Y al final yo considero que todo nos une,
And, in the end, I consider that everything unites us,
todo nos hace... todo nos hace ser humanos.
everything makes us... everything makes us human.
Captions 51-52, Fiesta en Miami - Antonio
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It's not as strong, but we think we can also MAYBE hear an "h sound" in nos une, almost coming out as 'no [h]une," and if that's true it supports the debuccalization theory.
Further, he does not pronounce the "h" in humanos (just as he doesn't the one in hice)-- so clearly it's not the case that he is in the habit of pronouncing every "h" that starts a Spanish word.
A Dominican friend of ours tells us that not only does Antonio's pronunciation of "nos hace" sound perfectly natural to him, but that he can think of many similar "debuccalization" examples in Dominican speech. In fact, he thought that Antonio's Spanish sounds more like that of the Caribbean than (what he considers) that of Spain. This makes sense, because linguists tells us that early Canarian settlers in the region had a great amount of influence in what we know now as "Caribbean Spanish."
No wonder Antonio feels right at home in Miami!
Spanish speakers in many regions are known for (in one way or another) reducing, softening, or "aspirating" their s's (or, as many frustrated learners would say, "dropping them" entirely). In fact, one of our resident experts, a guru of Spanish (though his students in Mexico City call him "professor"), told us that Antonio "is aspirating the s in nos, which could sound as if he were pronouncing the h in hace to someone who is not a native Spanish speaker."
Pasó apenas un año o una cosa así, y...
Hardly a year or so passed, and...
Caption 15, Biografía - Pablo Echarri
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La vida me ha dado un hambre voraz y tú apenas me das caramelos
Life has given me a voracious hunger and you just give me candy
Caption 11, Shakira - Loba
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Our recent interview with illustrator Antonio Vargas brings us another use of apenas you might be less familiar with:
Este restaurante todavía no existe; apenas se va a hacer.
This restaurant doesn't exist yet; it is about to be built.
Caption 3, Antonio Vargas - Artista - ilustración
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When placed before a future tense phrase, apenas often conveys the message that the action is just about to happen, or is on the verge of happening.
Yo creo que apenas va a empezar.
I believe it's just about to start.
Caption 17, Arturo Vega - Entrevista
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Le encanta el poder y le atrapa la noche
She loves power and the night ensnares her
Caption 6, Chayanne - Lola
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The Spanish verb encantar literally means "to enchant" or "to delight greatly," so when Chayanne sings "le encanta el poder," he means to say that "power enchants her" or "power delights her." In English we would simply say "she loves power." If this looks a lot like the way we use gustar (to please) when we want to say someone "likes" something, that's because encantar belongs to a family of verbs known as "verbs like gustar." These verbs always take an indirect object pronoun, usually to refer to the person who in the English version would be the subject, and in this example the "le" is the indirect object pronoun (her), referring to "Lola."
Atrapar/"to trap; to ensnare" is NOT a "verb like gustar," but Chayanne, in the interest of lyrical flow, seems to be doing his best to set it up like one. First, notice he is putting the subject la noche/"the night," after the verb atrapa/"ensnares" (a bit unusual, but not incorrect). Secondly, he is referring to Lola using the indirect object pronoun "le," but in this case it is really acting as a direct object pronoun. You can tell because it answers the question "what?" about the verb ("The night ensnares 'what?' It ensnares her") rather than the question "to whom?" or "for whom?" which would call for an indirect object pronoun.
Note that, unlike indirect object pronouns, the direct object pronouns in Spanish DO have gender distinctions, "lo" for him and "la" for her. Chayanne could have expressed the same sentiment by putting the subject before the verb and using the proper direct object pronoun, making it clearer for most Spanish learners:
La noche la atrapa.
The night ensnares her.
Strictly speaking, "le" is not to be used as a direct object at all, but Chayanne, like a great many of his fellow Spanish speakers, IS using "le" as a direct object. The phenomenon of using the indirect object pronoun "le" (or its plural "les") where you technically should have used a direct object pronoun is known as "leísmo," and its use varies by region. It is common enough that it is not always heard as "wrong" by a great many Spanish speakers, and there are even a few cases where "le" is seen, even by the strictest grammar mavens, as an acceptable alternate to the "proper" direct object pronouns.
These "acceptable" cases of leísmo usually involve the substitution of "le" for the masculine direct object "lo," but Chayanne is substituting "le" for the feminine direct object "la"—which, while not entirely unknown in colloquial Spanish, is usually not considered "acceptable" by those with learned opinions on such matters (such as the RAE).
Further reading:
https://www.thoughtco.com/leismo-and-related-variations-3079360
http://buscon.rae.es/dpdI/SrvltGUIBusDPD?lema=leísmo
Préndete, sácale chispas al "starter"
Turn on, get sparks from the starter
Caption 6, Calle 13 - Atrévete-te-te
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Que tú eres callejera, "street fighter"
You're a woman of the streets, a street fighter
Caption 9, Calle 13 - Atrévete-te-te
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He pronounces the English word "street" as "estreet."
Spanish speakers seem to have trouble saying some English words that start with "s," adding an "e" sound to the beginning? But why would it be? Especially when Hato seems to be able to say "sippy" without turning it into "esippy":
Mira, nena, ¿quieres un "sippy"?
Look, babe, would you like a sippy [a little sip]?
Caption 41, Calle 13 - Atrévete-te-te
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If Hato has no trouble with "sippy," why does he say "estreet" and "estarter" instead of "street" and "starter?" Furthermore, there are plenty of Spanish words that start with an unadulterated "s" sound that we hear him pronounce clearly throughout the song: "sácale," "sudor," "salte," "sacúdete," "seria," and so on. He seems to have no problem with those.
You may have already started to notice a pattern! While many Spanish words start with the letter "s" and an accompanying "s" sound, they almost always follow this leading "s" with a vowel. It's when the first "s" in an English word is followed by consonant (s + consonant) that Spanish speakers feel compelled to precede an English word with an "e" sound. Why? Because almost no Spanish words that start with an "s" are followed by a consonant.
Spanish words that have an "s+consonant" near the beginning pretty much all start with an "e" as the first letter. Certainly you noticed that the language is "español" and not "spañol"? Or that the country from whence it all came is España (not Spaña)? Looking again to Calle 13 for clues, we hear:
Destápate, quítate el esmalte
Show yourself, remove your nail polish
Caption 3, Calle 13 - Atrévete-te-te
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In the word "esmalte" (nail polish), there is an "s+consonant" near the beginning of the word, but, in line with norms of Spanish, it is preceded by an "e."
Modern life causes "stress" in English speakers but Spanish speakers experience "estrés." Why? It's because when this English word made its way into Spanish, it conformed to a typical Spanish pattern. Likewise, when a shop that sells long bread rolls filled with meats and toppings opens up on Old San Juan, Residente and his buddies will no doubt be happy to grab "sandwiches" (or "saandweeches") at "Subway" (or "SOOBway"). The beginning "s" sounds in "subway" and in "sandwich" are no problem, because they are followed by vowels: "u" and "a", respectively -- a pattern Spanish speakers are well accustomed to. ¿Sí o no? -¡Supongo que sí!
Keep an ear open for Spanish words that begin with an "s" and with an "es." Does the theory fit? We hope so, or it will be an escándalo!
Side note: On the other side of the coin, the "es + consonant" phenomenon runs so deep in Spanish-language phonetics, and so many English "s" words have a corresponding similar Spanish "es" word, that Spanish speakers learning English sometimes mistakenly that think that "es + consonant" is only a Spanish-language thing. This will lead them to say specially for especially, state for estate, and streme for extreme, thinking that the "e"s are a hangover from their Spanish pronunciation. You just have to remember Ricky Ricardo from I Love Lucy, the Cuban immigrant musician and bandleader who was always ready to admonish Lucille Ball's character with "Lucy! You've got some splainin' to do!"
Let's stop by the kitchen of the Di Carlo mansion, setting of preparations for the big gala in Muñeca Brava. The maids are very excited. They want to get a detailed description of how Mili looked as she made her Cinderella-like debut. Notice that Socorrito uses the imperfect tense of both ver (to look) and bajar (to go down, to lower, to descend) when she asks:
...Contame, contame,
...Tell me, tell me,
¿cómo se la veía cuando bajaba de la escalera?
how did she look as she was walking down the stairs?
Caption 1, Muñeca Brava - 41 La Fiesta
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If you've ever heard anything at all about the imperfect tense, it's that it applies to past actions that are not completed or that are ongoing. We see that quite clearly above in the case of bajaba; Mili "was walking down," an action that was ongoing at the time. However, another rule of the imperfect, one less bandied about, also comes into play here: the imperfect is employed when describing two or more simultaneous past actions. Socorrito wants to know how Mili "looked" (using the imperfect veía) as (at the same point in time) she was going down the stairs.
With her usual enthusiasm, Mariposa definitely puts them in the moment when she answers:
Socorrito, ¡no sabe lo que era! Parecía una princesa.
Socorrito, you can't imagine! She looked like a princess.
Caption 2, Muñeca Brava - 41 La Fiesta
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There is yet another well-documented use of the imperfect that we can cite here: its use to "set the scene" or provide background information, especially at the beginning of a larger story. She uses the imperfect era (from ser, to be) when she says ¡no sabe lo que era! which literally translates to "you don't know how it was!" And she employs parecía (she looked like), which is an imperfect conjugation of parecer (to appear as/to look like/to seem like). Mariposa is setting the stage for the fairy tale taking place in the ballroom, and doing so in much the same way one would recite an actual fairy tale (which is no surprise if you remember that Muñeca Brava is a retelling of the Cinderella story).
The start of your average ghost tale or mystery story makes a good illustration of using the imperfect to paint a background picture:
Era una noche oscura y tormentosa, llovía y unos pájaros cantaban a lo lejos.
It was a dark and stormy night. It was raining and a few birds were singing from a distance.
[Note that in Spanish one can also use the past continuous tense, for example estaba lloviendo (it was raining) or estaban cantando (they were singing)—but it would not likely be used by native speakers when setting a scene or providing a backdrop. We'll look at the past continuous, aka past progressive, in a different lesson.]
More well-known to the average student of Spanish is the use of the imperfect to refer to a habitual or repeated action in the past. We saw an example of this in an earlier episode of Muñeca Brava when Milena says to Louise:
Sí, antes nos veíamos siempre.
Yes, we always used to see each other.
Caption 68, Muñeca Brava - 18 - La Apuesta
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Y muchas veces la gente se confundía.
And several times people would get confused.
Caption 40, David Bisbal - Haciendo Premonición Live
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The other simple past tense in Spanish (called "simple" because its conjugations are only one word long) is known as preterite and is used for past actions that are completed and non-habitual. We find an example in a recent music video from The Krayolas:
Cuando yo la vi por primera vez me enamoré en un dos por tres
When I saw her for the first time I fell in love with her instantly
Captions 1-2, The Krayolas - Little Fox
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The singer uses the preterite vi (saw) instead of the imperfect veía (was seeing/used to see) because he is talking about a specific, completed instance of laying eyes on someone.
Read more interesting things about the imperfect on the 123TeachMe site and be sure to visit Spaleon to master the imperfect conjugation of all verbs.
Dime por favor quién me mandó quererte.
Tell me, please, who told me to love you [why should I love you?].
Caption 1, Romeo y Julieta - Episodio 59
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Romeo wants to know who in the world asked him to love Julieta: Dime, por favor, quién me mandó quererte. "Tell me, please, who told me to love you." It's a rhetorical question. Nobody asked him to love her, so why should he?
Perhaps you are familiar with the verb mandar, meaning "to send." Many Spanish learners (and even many native speakers) are likely to be tempted to translate quién me mandó quererte as "who sent me to love you." But there is another meaning of mandar, which is "to order" or "to tell" (someone to do something), and this is the meaning that Spanish grammarians inform us comes into play when the construction is mandar + infinitive.
A Pedro lo mandé traer un litro de leche.
I told Pedro to bring a liter of milk.
If Romeo had wanted to say "Tell me who sent me to love you," he would have had to put an a before the infinitive, Dime quién me mandó a quererte. The construction mandar a + infinitive means "to send" (someone to do something).
A Pedro lo mandé a traer un litro de leche.
I sent Pedro to bring [back] a liter of milk.
Since the meanings are so close, it is only natural that in many parts of the Spanish-speaking world people use mandar and mandar + a indistinctly. In other words, they no longer differentiate between the two. Something similar is happening with deber and deber + de, remember? But it is a good idea to learn the rule while understanding that it doesn't always hold up. Like many other things having to do with rules and life!
When it’s over, it’s over. It’s like in Aleks Syntek’s song "Intocable" (Untouchable), where the poor guy was dumped and ends up consoling himself by singing:
Si en el juego del amor
If in the game of love
ahora soy el perdedor
now I'm the loser
debo salir adelante
I must move on
Captions 4-6, Aleks Syntek - Intocable
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In Spanish, when we want to express an obligation or a responsibility, we use the verb deber, properly conjugated of course, followed by the infinitive of the verb denoting the action that we must carry out.
Debo hacer mi tarea.
I must do my homework.
Debiste haberme avisado.You should have warned me OR you should have told me in advance.
"Deber + infinitive" tends to imply a sense of *internal* obligation, whereas "tener que + infinitive," which is extremely common and very close in meaning, tends to convey a sense of *external* obligation.
Emilio debe levantar su ropa sucia.
Emilio should pick up his dirty clothes. (For his own good and that of the household.)
Emilio tiene que levantar su ropa sucia.
Emilio must/has to pick up his dirty clothes. (Or his mother will ground him.)
So any time you want to express a sense of responsibility or obligation, especially one that stems of an internal sense of duty, just conjugate the verb deber and then add the infinitive of the action verb.
Sé que no será fácil pero debo confesarle la verdad.
I know it won't be easy but I must confess the truth.
But hold on there for a minute! A little later in the song, Syntek changes the syntax around considerably by singing:
Debes confundida estar
You must be confused
Caption 13, Aleks Syntek - Intocable
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Actually two things are happening simultaneously, so you should be patient and bear with us! (¡Debes ser paciente y aguantarnos!)
First of all, the syntax. Normally, one would say, sing or write:
Debes estar confundida.
You must be confused.
He turned the sentence on its head so this line Debes confundida estar would rhyme with the next one:
Terminar por terminar
To break up for the sake of breaking up
The second thing here is a finer point of Spanish grammar. When one wants to give the listener or reader the idea of probability, one also uses the verb deber, but before the infinitive, one should also include the preposition de. Technically, this is what Aleks Syntek should have sung:
Confundida debes de estar.
You must be [probably are] confused.
Denisse Guerrero makes the opposite error (adding "de" where she should have left it out) when she sings "Lo siento, niño, debo de partir" (I'm sorry, boy, I must leave) in line 27 of the Belanova video "Niño":
Lo siento, niño, debo de partir
I'm sorry, boy, I must leave
Caption 27, Belanova - Niño
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Strictly speaking, she should have simply sung "debo partir" (I must leave). But we are not out to pick on pop stars*!
Many native speakers, both in Spain and Latin America, are not consciously aware of this difference and tend to sweep it under the rug, which is unfortunate because there is a huge difference between responsibility or obligation, and probability.
Check out these two sentences, which mean two different things:
Aleks Syntek debió de entender la diferencia.
Aleks Syntek probably understood the difference. (That is the most likely scenario.)
Aleks Syntek debió entender la diferencia.
Aleks Syntek should have understood the difference. (Because it was his obligation or responsibility.)
See what we mean? Let’s chalk it up to the poor girl’s unfortunate decision to leave him, when debió quedarse con él (“she should have stayed with him”). But there’s no accounting for taste.
*At least one pop diva wasn't daydreaming during her grammar lessons. Natalia Oreiro, as eloquent as she is lovely, correctly uses "deber de + infinitive" when she says:
Más que sentirme mal yo,
More than feeling badly myself,
imagínate cómo se deben de sentir ellos.
imagine how they must feel.
Captions 40-41, Biografía - Natalia Oreiro
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That's it for today. We hope you find this lesson useful and we invite you to send us your comments and suggestions.
Eh... y bueno, ahora estamos con Karla, con quien iremos a caminar y a pasear un rato.
Eh... and well, now we're with Karla, with whom we're going to stroll and walk around for a while.
Captions 20-21, Sevilla, España - Porteñas paseando
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Once again, quien is clearly acting as a relative pronoun, referring to "your cousin,"
and so is written with no accent over the e.
So what about cases where the sentence contains no noun or pronoun to which quien refers?
Quite often, this is a sign that an accent is needed. The most common case is when quién takes on the role of "interrogative pronoun," which, as the name implies, involves a question, as when the powerful and beautiful Julieta Venegas ponders:
¿Quién nos dice que la vida nos dará el tiempo necesario?
Who says that life will give us the necessary time?
Caption 3, Julieta Venegas - El Presente
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And quién is utilized in indirect questions as well, as Juliana, back in Sevilla, demonstrates for us:
No sé quién irá a ver este video...
I don't know who will watch this video...
Caption 13, Sevilla, España - Porteñas paseando
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How would we treat quién if Julia were to have made her statement positive?
As it turns out, an accent is still required, even though most English speakers would not consider this an indirect question. You might look at this as a case where an indirect question is present, but it is being answered. The highly respected María Moliner dictionary calls this type of usage aclaratoria (explanatory). Note that there is still no noun or pronoun present to which quién is referring, so it is not behaving as a relative pronoun.
Like other interrogative pronouns, quién also retains the tilde when used in exclamatory way. (You will notice that these "quién" exclamations don't translate to English literally.)
¡Quién pudiera tener tus ojos!
If I only had your eyes!
¡Quién te escuchara todas las bobadas que estás diciendo!
If only the rest of the world could hear all the stupid things you are saying!
So, are there cases where quien doesn't relate to a nearby noun or pronoun, but still doesn't take an accent? Yes, when the "who" refers to some non-specific person, and so is taking on the role of "indefinite pronoun."
Quien mucho habla, no tiene nada que decir.
The person/a person who speaks a lot has nothing to say.
In this same vein, the phrase como quien means "like a person who" or "like someone who," sometimes best translated into English with "as if he/she [were someone he/she is not]":
Él contestó el interrogatorio como quien nunca hubiera conocido a la víctima.
He answered the interrogation like someone who (as if he [was someone who]) never had met the victim.
And, in another "indefinite" role, quien can also be used in place of nadie que (nobody that / nobody who) in phrases like this one:
No hay quien me detenga.
There is not anybody who can stop me. / There is nobody who can stop me.
[In English we can't have the double negative]
Poor Mili! She's caught between scheming Ivo and his grandmother, who have cooked up a plan to turn her from un desastre into a more refined woman. When Mili protests to the grandmother, she takes Ivo's side:
Mi nieto tiene razón. Vos sos una muchacha en estado... digamos... casi salvaje.
My grandson is right. You're a girl in a state that is... let's say... almost savage.
Captions 76-77, Muñeca Brava - 18 - La Apuesta - Part 6
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Por primera vez, la mariposa tiene razón.
For the first time, the butterfly is right.
Caption 12, Muñeca Brava - 9 - Engaños - Part 5
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While tiene razón literally means "has reason," it is best translated as "is right."
Here's another example of tener + razón
Juan tenía razón, necesitábamos mejores atacantes.
Juan was right, we needed better forwards [soccer].
Sometimes you will see tener + la razón. The meaning is the same: "to be right."
En lo que respecta a mi casa, mi esposa cree que siempre tiene la razón.
As far as my house goes, my wife believes that she is always right.
But what if you literally want to say "he has reason," as in this example?
He has reason to believe Annie will get an A.
(perhaps she is smart, she got an A last semester, the teacher likes her, etc.)
In this case we want to employ either the phrase "tener razones para" or "tener motivos para":
Él tiene razones para creer que Annie va a sacar un A.
He has reason to believe that Annie is going to get an A.
Él tiene motivos para creer Annie va a sacar un A.
He has reason to believe that Annie is going to get an A.
Also, as we touched upon in a previous lesson, "tener por qué" also means "to have reason," but you will find it used mostly in the negative sense:
Él no tiene por qué creer que Annie va a sacar un A.
He has no reason to believe that Annie is going to get an A.
No tengo por qué quejarme.
I have no reason to complain.
No tengo por qué contarte mis secretos.
I have no reason to tell you my secrets.
No tienes por qué preocuparte.
You have no reason to worry.
On rare occasions, you will come across "tener por qué" used in the positive sense:
Ellos tienen por qué luchar.
They have reason to struggle.
"¡Órale, arriba, epa, epa, arriba, ándale!"
Sound familiar? Yes, it's the fastest mouse in all Mexico -- Speedy Gonzales! -- and he stars in A.B. Quintanilla's music video. But instead of racing around rescuing people, Speedy is tending to a broken heart in this fun video. Listen in:
Él nunca le teme a nada pero esta vez sí lloró
He is never afraid of anything but this time he did cry
Captions 12-13, A. B. Quintanilla - Speedy Gonzalez
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Poor Speedy! It takes a lot to make this brave mouse cry. In fact, Speedy's fans might not believe their fearless hero would actually shed tears, so the song adds an emphatic "sí" to get the point across. With "sí" placed in front of the verb "lloró", the sentence means "...he DID cry" (with the stress on the verb) or "... he did indeed cry." Believe it or not: He did.
As you know, "sí" with an accent over the "i" means "yes," as in the affirmative answer to a question. But "sí" is also widely used in Spanish to add emphasis to an assertion. In English, we make affirmations with "indeed," the auxiliary verb "do" and/or by stressing the verb.
Let's look at some examples to clarify.
Yo sí estoy trabajando en el proyecto final.
I AM working on the final project.
Carlos sí puede tocar la armónica.
Carlos can indeed play the harmonica.
A Nancy sí le gusta Miguel.
Nancy DOES like Miguel.
Note that the emphatic "sí" appears just before the verb in these affirmative statements in Spanish. In the English equivalents, we might stress the verb -- as indicated in all caps above.
For more examples of the emphatic sí at work, we turn to our friends in Mexico City. Yes, Amigos D.F. are back, talking about kidnappings. Listen in:
.. pues sí ha habido mucha inseguridad...
... well, there HAS been a lot of insecurity...
...O sea, como que sí hay interés de parte de las autoridades
... I mean, it's like there IS interest from the authorities
Yo sí tengo la esperanza que se reduzc'... se reduzcan este tipo de eventos, ¿no?
I DO have the hope that these kinds of events will be red'... will be reduced, right?
Caption 57, Amigos D.F. - El secuestrar
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When you listen to native Spanish speakers make affirmations -- like the ones above -- note that there's no stress placed on the verbs themselves. It's a rookie mistake for Spanish students to say something like "Yo sí TENGO la esperanza..." when native speakers would simply let the "sí" make the emphasis for them.
Another interesting phrase to tumble from Landa Henríquez's lips is:
La mujer a los cuarenta, ya sabes está requete buena
A woman in her forties, you know she's very very hot
Caption 41, Landa Henríquez - Mujer Cuarenta
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"Estar buena" is "to be hot," as in sexually attractive. It's got little to do with the temperature on those sweltering Caribbean nights. (Meanwhile, the sand might be hot under foot, but you'd use "estar caliente" to describe that.) But what's "requete"? According to the authoritative Diccionario de la Lengua Española (by the Real Academia Española), "requete-," "rete-" or "re-" are prefixes that intensify the meaning of what follows -- like "very" in English, or "muy" in Spanish.
Abre el baúl, mueve la candela... -Slow... Señor Maquinitero.
Open the trunk, move the candle... -Slow... Mister Mix Master.
Captions 7-8, ChocQuibTown Interview - Eso es lo que hay
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In our exclusive interview with ChocQuibTown, we meet the band, including its leader ("líder"), bass player ("bajista"), and a guy named Slow, who describes himself as Señor Maquinitero. Señor what?? After watching Slow busy at work on turntables, with equalizers and computer cords all around, it makes sense to conclude that he's calling himself something close to "Mister Mix Master," as we translated in the captions. You see, una máquina is "a machine." The diminutive maquinita is "a little machine" or "a video game." Finally, the suffix "-ero" can be added to a noun to create a new word that describes somebody who works with that noun. Here are a few examples:
Yo iba a ser jugador de Millonarios o, en su defecto, ingeniero constructor de puentes.
I was going to be a Millonarios (soccer) player or if that falls through, a bridge building engineer.
Captions 30-31, Los Años Maravillosos - Capítulo 3 - Part 6
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Aprendió todos los oficios: vaquero, mayoral, domador de potros.
He learned all the trades: cowboy, shepherd, horse-breaker.
Caption 18, Europa Abierta - Jassin Daudi - Con arte
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zapato (shoe) + -ero = zapatero (cobbler or shoe salesman)
vaca (cow) + -ero = vaquero (cowboy)
ingeniería (engineering) + -ero = ingeniero (engineer)
rap (as in rap music) + -ero = rapero (rapper, rap artist)
Knowing your suffixes helps decode words that you might not find in your dictionaries -- like maquinitero or rapero. But note that Spanish has more than one suffix for professionals or tradespeople. For example, a standard Spanish dictionary lists someone who works with machines (e.g. to fabricate parts) as un maquinista ("a machinist"). Some more:
bajo (bass) + -ista = bajista (bass player)
batería (drums) + -ista = baterista (drummer)
taxi (taxi) + -ista = taxista (taxi driver)
Eh... toco... toco tarola... Batería, baterista. -baterista de Banda Pioneros.
Um... I play... I play the snare drum... Drums, drummer. -the drummer of Banda Pioneros.
Captions 4-5, Banda Pioneros - ¡Conócelos!
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A few nouns can have either -ero or -ista added to them to form new words, like the all important fútbol (soccer). Note that the definitions are slightly different:
Futbolero = soccer supporter
Futbolista = soccer player
But don't make sweeping generalizations about -ero vs -ista from the sporty example above. For example, a professional "bookseller" is a "librero" while a "book lover" or "book worm" is "amante de los libros," "un bibliófilo" or "ratón de biblioteca." Knowing the suffixes can help you along, but some memorization is required to get the details right (as in English).
Finally, we want to clarify: You might have noticed that the suffix -ista always ends in a, regardless of the gender of the person who's being described. With words like futbolista and taxista, you must rely on the articles to get the gender across. For example:
La futbolista = the female soccer player
Un taxista = a male taxi driver
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