Es contigo, mi vida, con quien puedo sentir... Que merece la pena vivir

It's with you, my honey, with whom I can feel... That life is worth living

Captions 7-8, Julieta Venegas - El Presente

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A few more examples:

If you've ever been to Spain, you know that ¿Vale? (OK?) or Vale. (OK.) is slang that is thrown around a lot amongst Spaniards. ¿Vale?

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.

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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:
 

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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.

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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.

To tell the tale of Speedy, A.B. Quintanilla starts, "Érase una vez" -- which means "Once upon a time." Hearing these words, listeners instantly know we are entering fairy-tale territory. "Érase una vez" or  "érase que se era" or "había una vez" are all ways to set up a fictional tale in Spanish, just like "once upon a time" in English. It's a fairy-tale convention.

Érase una vez, en un "little tiny" pueblito,

Once upon a time, in a little tiny town,

Caption 2, A. B. Quintanilla - Speedy Gonzalez

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Another convention we're all familiar with is the ending "And they lived happily ever after." In Spanish, you may hear: "Vivieron felices y comieron perdices" -- which a more literal translation would render "they lived happily and ate partridges." You see, partridges (perdices) are considered delicacies, so eating them signifies the good life. Plus, it rhymes.

Let's end on another rhyming note:

"Colorín, colorado... este cuento se ha acabado".

"Snip, snap, snout... this tale's told out" [Literally: Red, red-colored... this tale has ended"].

Caption 62, Cleer - El patito feo

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So to sign off this lesson, let's just say:
Y colorín colorado
esta lección se ha acabado.

"¡Órale, arriba, epa, epa, arriba, ándale!"
 

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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.

In addition to Dutch, Papiamento, and English, most Arubans can also speak perfect Spanish, as Landa Henríquez attests to by singing it with ease. The island has deep seated and ongoing ties with Venezuela, only fourteen miles to the south, and neighboring Colombia. So it should be of little surprise that Landa peppers her song with a common Colombian expression.

Ya sabes, te vas de Barranquilla y te pierdes tu silla

You know, you leave Barranquilla and you lose your chair

Caption 48, Landa Henríquez - Mujer Cuarenta

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The expression is actually a take on a popular saying from Spain which goes Él que se va a Sevilla, pierde su silla ("He who leaves Sevilla, loses his chair"). Either way, the meaning is the same: if you're not vigilent, you'll lose what is yours.

There is another way to express the same sentiment, and we hear it in a cumbia song playing at that disco that Milagros and Gloria have snuck out of the orphanage to visit in Muñeca Brava. 

Camarón que se duerme se lo lleva la corriente.

The shrimp that sleeps is taken away by the current. ["You snooze, you lose."]

Caption 29, Muñeca Brava - 1 Piloto - Part 6

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American English also expresses this idea with an analogy to sleep: "You snooze, you lose."

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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.

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Celebrating women of a certain age, Mujer Cuarenta is an invitation to party, dance, fool around and enjoy life, Caribbean style. Listen in:

Baila y canta y vive sin pena, si te enamoras, en hora buena

Dance and sing and live without worries, if you fall in love, congratulations

Caption 11, Landa Henríquez - Mujer Cuarenta

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"En hora buena" literally means "at a good hour," but it's understood as a congratulations -- as in, "Good for you!" or "Congrats!" You hear this in Spain and throughout Latin America -- from the Caribbean coasts down to the Southern Cone.

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When it's used as a noun, "enhorabuena" is usually written as one word. For example:

Todo el mundo quería darle la enhorabuena después del partido.
Everybody wanted to offer congratulations to him after the match.

But as an interjection, you'll see both "en hora buena" and "enhorabuena" (both are correct). Here are a few more examples:

Estamos, estamos... -Enhorabuena.

It's a deal, it's a deal... -Congratulations.

Caption 46, 75 minutos - Gangas para ricos

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En hora buena, Elena, tu hija es hermosa.
Congratulations, Elena, your daughter is beautiful.

¡Llegaste! ¡Enhorabuena!
You arrived! Congratulations / At last!

Queremos que Julio venga enhorabuena, porque ya han pasado dos semanas.
We want Julio to finally come back, because it's already been two weeks.

Note that in the last example above, "enhorabuena" is an adverb, modifying the verb "venir." In this usage, "enhorabuena" comes closer to its literal meaning of "at a good hour."
 

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Meanwhile, Spanish has two other congratulatory interjections: "Felicidades" and "Felicitaciones." There's some overlap between the three words, but "enhorabuena" and "felicitaciones" tend to congratulate accomplishments or achievements while "felicidades" might celebrate an occasion like a birthday.

There's a bit of lunfardo

-- that is, slang particular to Argentina and Uruguay -- that slips into the Biography of our Uruguayan-born, Argentinean-raised Natalia. For example, listen to this line:

Yo creo que tuvieron una relación muy linda, muy intensa, muy... muy copada.

I think that they had a very nice relationship, very intense, very... very cool.

Captions 34-35, Biografía - Natalia Oreiro - Part 10

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Podemos sacar algo copado esta noche y lo estrenamos en la bailanta.

We can get something cool tonight and wear it at the disco.

Captions 87-88, Muñeca Brava - 7 El poema - Part 3

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The adjective copado / copada is translated as cool, but what does it mean exactly? As in English slang, cool can be hard to capture. "Cool!" can mean "great!" (or "chévere," "guay" or even "chido" in Mexico). A cool kid could be laid-back or up on the latest trends (or "en la onda"). He or she could also be someone who helps his friends ("genial" or "macanudo" in Latin America). So, what is "una relación copada" trying to convey? Well, the relationship wasn't cool in the sense of temperature, obviously. It wasn't laid-back if it was also "very intense" ("muy intensa"). That leaves us with the kind of cool that's great ("genial"). There are a number of lunfardo dictionaries online with different shades of the meanings of copado. Cool?

In the latest installment of Natalia Oreiro's Biography, we learn more about the young actress and singer's accomplishments. For a vocabulary boost, let's listen to some of those sweet words of success.

In the very first line, we hear:

En muy pocos años, Natalia Oreiro logró convertirse en una auténtica diva de la televisión y de la música pop.

In just a few years, Natalia Oreiro managed to become a true television and pop music diva.

Captions 1-2, Biografía - Natalia Oreiro - Part 10

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"Logró," past tense of the verb "lograr," should sound familiar to our devoted subscribers: In videos Yabla posted during the campaign of one of the former Presidents of Mexico, Felipe Calderón, we heard the verb "lograr," oh, six or seven times in less than five minutes of the tape.

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The verb means "to achieve," to obtain," "to manage" or "to succeed in." As with the English words "achieve" or "succeed in," the Spanish "lograr" implies that there was a purpose or goal in mind and, further, it also implies effort. So, note that Natalia Oreiro quickly succeeded in becoming a big star -- which was not only her aim all along, but something she put a lot of work into.
 
[Usage note: If you're wondering what to say at a graduation ceremony or at the end of a marathon in the Spanish-speaking world: "¡Felicidades! ¡Lo lograste!" ("Congratulations! You did it!") usually does the trick.]

An approximate synonym for "lograr" is "ganar," which has several shades of meaning -- including "to win," "to gain" or "to earn." In our new Natalia Oreiro video, a few lines later, we hear that her show was a winner (un ganador):

"Muñeca Brava" ganó en dos ocasiones consecutivas el Martín Fierro a mejor novela.

"Muñeca Brava" won two consecutive times the Martín Fierro award for best soap opera.

Captions 19-20, Biografía - Natalia Oreiro - Part 10

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Note that one may, for example, win a prize (ganar un premio) with hard work and talent, win the election (ganar las elecciones) with popular ideas or win the lottery (ganar la lotería) by pure chance. To clarify that something was won with intention, you may hear "logró ganar" which means "managed to win" or "succeeded in winning." For some context, check the sports pages for a story of a deserving team that managed to win (logró ganar) an important game or match.
 

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Keeping following the beautiful Ms. Oreiro and you'll encounter more sweet words of success. For now, we'll leave you with two more lines from Part 10 of our Biography video:

Natalia había superado sus sueños.

Natalia had surpassed her dreams.

Caption 23, Biografía - Natalia Oreiro - Part 10

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Con su música, Natalia había conquistado mercados alrededor del mundo.

With her music, Natalia had conquered markets around the world.

Caption 39, Biografía - Natalia Oreiro - Part 10

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Over in Salamanca, Spain, we hear some poetry as we contemplate the statue of Fray Luis de León. Maybe we were thirsty at the time, but in one line, we were interested to hear:

A exprimir aquellos años, quiere guardarlo, ¡atención!

To squeeze those years, he wants to keep it, attention!

Caption 29, Francisco Pérez - Fray Luis de León

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What would thirst have to do with our snippet above? Well, asking for "exprimido" -- which means "squeezed" -- is the best way to order fresh-squeezed orange juice.  The verb "exprimir" has three main meanings in Spanish: 1) To squeeze, 2) To wring (as in wringing out clothing), and 3) To exploit (as in squeezing or wringing all that's possible out of workers, for example).

Related to "exprimir" at the root is "imprimir," which means, 1) To print (as in printing out pages of a document), 2) to stamp or to impress, and 3) To give (as in to transmit or pass on to). Here are two examples.

Bueno, hay que imprimir copias, hay que hacer opciones.

Well, it's necessary to print copies, it's necessary to depict options.

Caption 75, Leif - El Arquitecto Español y su Arte

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Y tenemos como toda la otra parte que es de impresos.

And we have, like, the whole other area that is for printing.

Caption 77, Lo que no sabías - Arte electrónico

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Colombia is famous for growing and exporting a product that some people around the world are hopelessly addicted to. Yes, rich Colombian coffee is what we're talking about. In the first installment of this series of videos on Colombia's coffee industry, we get a guided tour of a storehouse for the coffee beans.

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"La Bodega," is the title of this video tour, because "bodega" is the word for the coffee beans' "warehouse." It's interesting that "bodega" has its own entry in English dictionaries as a wine shop, a barroom, a storehouse for maturing wine and a small grocery store in an urban area. Well, "bodega" means all of those things in its native Spanish as well, and on top of that it's a place to store coffee beans. The etymology of the word goes all the way back to the Latin "apotheca," storehouse, which itself is descended from the Greek "apotheke" (αποθήκη), which also means storehouse. The more modern definitions concerning wine and groceries evolved from the places where wine or supplies were stored to be sold. And now you know.

Bueno, ésta es la bodega de Almacafé.

Well, this is Almacafé's warehouse.

Caption 6, Una Historia de Café - La Bodega

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Ok. So what do we find in La Bodega? Each section of this bodega holds up to 20,000 sacks ("sacos") of coffee beans, each from a particular region ("departamento") of Colombia. We learn that the entire bodega holds approximately 200,000 sacks of coffee beans collected from the harvest ("la cosecha"). Impressed? That's quite a coffee buzz.

Cada, cada nave de la bodega tiene una capacidad de aproximadamente veinte mil sacos de café.

Each, each section of the warehouse has a capacity of approximately twenty thousand coffee sacks.

Caption 19, Una Historia de Café - La Bodega

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Soon, we'll post the videos that bring you into the laboratory where the Colombian coffee beans become cups of Joe.

If you recall, in the past we've discussed the use of estar harto when you are "fed up" with something of someone. We also talked about the use of aguantar to indicate that your tolerance is still intact. Well, we hope you're not yet sick of this subject! In this episode of Muñeca Brava Mili introduces us to yet two more ways to test our limits.

Mirá, flaco, la verdad es que no te banco y me voy a ir, porque no te soporto.

Look, dude, the truth is I can't stand you and I'm going to leave, because I can't put up with you.

Captions 53-54, Muñeca Brava - 18 - La Apuesta - Part 4

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The verbs bancar and soportar both have pretty much the same meaning as aguantar: "to tolerate," "to put up with," "to stand" etc. For emphasis, Mili is employing each verb, negated, in separate phrases "no te banco" and "no te soporto" -- she does not want to hang out with Ivo!

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Bancar is the less formal, and you will probably only find it employed this way in "Southern Cone" countries, such as Argentina and Uruguay.

¡Estoy harta de Juan! No lo banco más.
I'm sick of Juan! I can't stand him anymore.

Should Milagros walk the streets dressed like THAT? In one of the episodes of Muñeca Brava, our long-legged heroine gets all dolled up in a tight outfit to go dancing. Sister Cachetes isn't so sure about this. She says:

Pero igual me voy a quedar rezando para que no te pase nada, ¡y ojo!

But I'll nonetheless stay here praying that nothing happens to you, and careful!

Captions 15-16, Muñeca Brava - 18 - La Apuesta

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Mili replies:

Ah, ¿sí? ¿Ojo con qué? ¿Ojo con qué? No me va a pasar nada.

Oh, yeah? Careful of what? Careful of what? Nothing is going to happen to me.

Captions 17-18, Muñeca Brava - 18 - La Apuesta

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In case you didn't realize that "ojo" literally means "eye," the good nun points to her eye as she speaks. In Argentina, this is a very common gesture that means, "careful!" or "watch out!".

In fact, you can silently point to your eye without saying a word and still be understood to be issuing a warning. Outside of Argentina, throughout Latin America and in Spain, the exclamation "¡Ojo!" is used and understood as well.

Note that Mili responds "¿Ojo con qué?" ("Careful of what?"). If you want to warn someone to be careful of something or someone in particular, use the preposition "con." Here are a few examples:

¡Ojo con los perros!
Careful of the dogs!

¡Ojo con los niños!
Watch out for the boys!

¡Ojo con los verbos irregulares en español!
Watch out for irregular verbs in Spanish!

Ojo could be replaced by guarda, and the meaning would be much the same.

¡Guarda con el escalón, te vas a tropezar!
Watch out for the step, you´re going to trip!

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If you want to be more formal, you would go with cuidado. For example, you will often see this used on signs:

Cuidado con el perro
Beware of the dog

Here is another example of cuidado:

Pero cuidado con la máquina, ¿eh?

But, careful with the machine, OK?

Caption 12, 75 minutos - Del campo a la mesa - Part 7

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Arturo Vega moved from Mexico to the U.S. decades ago, so he's very well versed in all sorts of Americana. In fact, in our Spanish-language interview, he's occasionally searching for the right Spanish word, when the English one is at the tip of his tongue. For example, when Vega described a beloved belt buckle featuring an eagle that looked like it was made by "drunk Vikings," he asks his interviewer for help finding the right word.
 

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Listen in:

Yo tenía un cinturón... que lo compré en una tienda del ejército, de esas de... cómo se dice, de

"surplus", de, de desperdicios, de...

I had a belt... that I bought at an army store, one of those... how do you say, of

surplus, of, of leftovers, of...

 

-De segunda.

-Second-hand.

 

De segunda, con un águila muy grande. Era de una banda militar.

Second-hand, with a very big eagle. It was from a military band.

Captions 45-50, Arturo Vega - Entrevista - Part 4

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In the U.S., we all know about Army-Navy surplus stores, where you can find fatigues, drab-olive jackets and eagle-blazoned belts. But selling military surplus to the public for discount prices is not a common practice in many other countries, hence the struggle for words here. Vega says "surplus" in English, which is usually translated as "excedente" in Spanish. But Vega follows up with "desperdicios" which translates as "waste," "scraps" or "leftovers" -- as in, "desperdicios sólidos" ("solid wastes").
 

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Hearing his search for words, our interviewer jumps in with "De segunda" -- which is short for "de segunda mano" ("second hand"). Now, second-hand stores are known the world over. Although Vega must know that second-hand is a bit different than Army-Navy surplus, but he's simply trying to tell a story here. In other words, the belt was cheap, OK? And from that cheap belt came Vega's inspiration for the famous logo for the Ramones.

The title of Gardi's smoky song, "Leña Apagada," might be translated as "Extingushed Firewood." The image is meant to be kindling that was once on fire but has been put out.

Se vistió de hielo y leña apagada.

She dressed up as ice and extinguished firewood.

Caption 16, Gardi - Leña apagada

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The verb "apagar" means "to put out / to extinguish" (as in a fire) or "to turn off" (as in a light, an electrical appliance or a car). The opposite of "apagar" is "encender" ("to light" and "to turn on"). Here are a couple of examples:

Tienes la llama que enciende mi alma y nos hace volar

You have the flame that ignites my soul and makes us fly

Caption 12, Monsieur Periné - Bailar Contigo

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¿Apagaste las luces? ¿Y la televisión?
Did you turn out the lights? And [did you turn off] the television?

¿Puedes encender una moto sin llaves?
Can you start up a motorcycle without keys?

If you're searching around for "an on/off switch," that would be "un interruptor de encendido" in Spanish.  Ready to shut down (apagar) your computer now?

As you head off to bed in Spain or Latin America, you may hear "Dulces sueños" ("Sweet dreams"). But note that the noun "sueño" isn't just for dreamers. From our online dictionary:

Sueño (masc.)
shut-eye, light sleep; sleep, unconscious state entered into by the body for the purpose of rest and rejuvenation (in humans and animals); dream, series of thoughts and visions which occur during sleep; delusion
                                                   --Babylon Spanish-English

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Here are a few more examples of "sueño" for sleep and dreams:

¿Cuántas horas de sueño necesitas?
"How many hours of sleep do you need?"

" Yo tengo un sueño"
"I have a dream" (as Martin Luther King famously declared)

Tengo sueño
"I'm sleepy"

Es el hombre de mis sueños
"He's the man of my dreams"

Naturally enough, "sueño(s)" make their way into many songs. Search Yabla's music directory and you'll find it in song titles like "Bienvenido al sueño" ("Welcome to the Dream") by SiZu Yantra and "Por El Boulevar De Los Sueños Rotos" ("Along the Boulevard of Broken Dreams") by Joaquín Sabina.  In our latest batch of new videos, sueño pops up within two musical numbers.
 
In Gardi's Leña apagada, if you aren't too distracted by the Cuban singer's hirsute axila, you might grapple with lyrics like this line:

Dicen que su sueño respiraba moribundo

They say that her dream breathed as if dying

Caption 32, Gardi - Leña apagada

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Ok. It's figurative. Chalk it up to poetic license.

Moving right along... Within the documentary of Alejandro Fernández's music, we hear the singer belt out:

Sueño contigo.

I dream of you.

Caption 6, Documental de Alejandro Fernandez - Viento A Favor

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Aha. This "sueño" is a verb, not a noun. It's is the first-person (present tense) form of the verb "soñar" ("to dream"). "Soñar" is a stem-changing verb (o -> ue), as is "dormir" ("to sleep").  Here are a few examples of dream and sleep as verbs:

Hola. -¿Papá, no dormiste anoche acá?

Hello. -Dad, didn't you sleep here last night?

Caption 27, Muñeca Brava - 1 Piloto

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Que sueñes con los angelitos
May you dream of little angels (an expression meaning, basically, "Sweet dreams")

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While in English,  you "dream of" or "dream about" someone or something, in Spanish, the preposition to use to get the same point across is "con" (which, as you probably know, usually takes the meaning "with" -- but not in this situation).  Here are two more examples:

¿Sueñas conmigo?
Do you dream about me?

Juan sueña con Jeannie.
Juan dreams of Jeannie.

"Soñar con" is just one of those verb-preposition pairings you must memorize to speak like a native. Sleep on that one, ok?

In the Argentine drama Provócame, we hear an ugly exchange between Mariano and his mamá. First, she calls her son an imbecile and then, a little later, Mariano spits:

¡Estoy harto de que te metas en mis cosas, mamá!

I'm sick of you sticking your nose in my business, mom!

Estoy harto de vos.

I'm sick of you.

Captions 34-35, Provócame - Capítulo Seis

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Yes, he's had it up to here, as we might say in English. Hearing these lines, we were reminded of the theme song for another drama in our library: Disputas. The song goes like this:

Me llamas para decirme que te marchas...

You call me to tell me that you're leaving...

que ya no aguantas más...

that you can't take it anymore...

que ya estás harta de verle cada día...

that you're fed up of seeing him each day...

de compartir su cama...

of sharing his bed...

Captions 15-20, Disputas La Extraña Dama - Part 2

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Did you notice it's "harta" instead of "harto" in the song? The "you" is obviously female. You see, "harto(a)" is an adjective that on its own means "full." It agrees with the person who's, well, had it.

In this song, a similar sentiment is expressed with "ya no aguantas más" ("you can't take it anymore"). We wrote about the verb "aguantar" ("to endure, to bear, to stand, to put up with, to tolerate") before, in this lesson. As it happens, we also hear the word uttered in the newest installment of Provócame by young Julieta who claims to be running a very high fever (40º C = 104º F!). She says:

No parece porque me aguanto.

It doesn't look like it because I tolerate it.

Caption 47, Provócame - Capítulo Seis

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You see, Julieta is enduring her illness in a way someone who's fed up with sickness might not. In a sense, you can tolerate (aguantarse) something until you are sick of it (estar harto).