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Dieciocho motivos pa' dejarte
Catorce consejos pa' olvidar
Quinientas razones para odiarte
Saco la cuenta, y a sumar...
Captions 1-4, Ricardo Arjona - Quien
Dejar(te), olvidar, odiar(te), sumar...
Songs sung in Spanish seem to contain a lot of verbs in the infinitive. Maybe that's because infinitives are so easy to rhyme -- since all end in either -ar, -er or -ir. But we digress. Among the new content on Yabla Spanish, there's a song by Guatemalan Ricardo Arjona. In it, we heard so many infinitives that we pored over the grammar rules to make sure we struck the right note in our translations. Below we'll highlight some of what we found along the way.
First, let's look at the translation of the first four lines of Arjona's song:
Dieciocho motivos pa' dejarte
Catorce consejos pa' olvidar
Quinientas razones para odiarte
Saco la cuenta, y a sumar...
Eighteen reasons to leave you
Fourteen tips to forget
Five hundred reasons to hate you
I do the math and I add...
Captions 1-4, Ricardo Arjona - Quien
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What do all the infinitives in bold have in common? OK, they are all -ar verbs. But what else? They are all preceded by a preposition -- specifically, para ("for, in order to") in the first three lines, and then "a" ("to"), above. As a rule, only the infinitive may follow prepositions in Spanish.
We've discussed the use of prepositions para and por (both meaning "for") before infinitives in a past newsletter, if you'd like to review. (Loyal readers: Remember Chayenne's song "Por amor, por amar"?). With that concept already covered, let's move to the fourth line of our excerpt above.
"Saco la cuenta, y a sumar...?" What does a + infinitive mean? A ver ("Let's see") is the most famous example. You hear it all the time -- sometimes just to buy time in spoken Spanish. You also might hear ¡A bailar! ("Let's dance!") to get people going on the dance floor, or ¡A volar! ("Let's fly!") at a graduation ceremony. It's one of the many ways to express a command in Spanish.
The a + infinitive construction in our new song by Arjona gave us a little pause, because translating a sumar as "let's add" sounded a little funny in English... But if you realize the singer is, in a sense, urging himself to crunch the numbers, the meaning falls into place.
Later in the song, we hear this line, twice:
Saco la cuenta y a restar...
I do the math and I subtract...
Caption 28, Ricardo Arjona - Quien
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As you've probably noted, for the English captions in these lines, we ended up choosing to keep the subject -- "I" -- throughout the sentence. But students who understand that a sumar and a restar are commands issued by the singer to urge himself on will have a better understanding of what the lyrics intend to communicate.
Can you find some more lyrics by Ricardo Arjona that use the preposition + infinitive construction? Here are a couple lines we were humming:
Dejaste minas en la casa
con objetivos de matar
You left mines in the house
with the objective of killing
Captions 33-34, Ricardo Arjona - Quien
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[Want a refresher on the other uses of the infinitives?
ThoughtCo has some nice explanations of infinitives in Spanish here]
Let's take another look at the quote from our video:
Bueno es una... se puede variar con todo lo que... lo que se le antoje.
Well it's a... you can vary it with everything that... that you wish.
Captions 29-30, Desayuno Puerto Escondido - Frijoles Refritos
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In the same sentence, the second of the two verb constructions is se le antoje. Why se le...? Well, it turns out, antojarse [or, more accurately, antojársele] is a particular verb that only appears in the third person. Antojársele means "to fancy," "to strike one's fancy," "to feel like," "to want" or "to have in mind." This particular construction conveys the sense that the person with the wish isn't completely in control of the situation. Let's dig into a few examples to help clarify: From Collins Spanish Dictionary, we glean:
Se me antoja una cervecita
I could go for a nice beer
No se me antoja ir
I don't feel like going
To conjugate this particular verb, note that only the object changes; the verb itself is always in the impersonal, third person. So it's:
| Se me antoja = I feel like | Se nos antoja = we feel like |
| Se te antoja = you feel like | Se les antoja = you all feel like |
| Se le antoja = he/she/one feels like | Se les antoja = they feel like |
[Remember in past newsletters, we've looked at other verbs that take direct objects. Specifically, we've coverered "gustar" (e.g., "me gusta"; see newsletter #20), "encantar" (see newsletter #48), and "emocionar" (see newsletter #69). Here, we're looking at what happens when you slap a se in front. In fact, one can (se puede) make a lot of generalizations in Spanish using se, like this one.]
Note that there are other verbs in Spanish with the "-sele" construction that express unplanned, even out-of-control, occurrences. Some of the most common examples you might hear:
acabársele a alguien = to run out of
caérsele a alguien = to drop
ocurrírsele a alguien = to dawn on, to get the idea of
olvidársele a alguien = to forget
perdérsele a alguien = to lose
quedársele a alguien = to leave something behind
rompérse le a alguien = to break
For example, Se me perdió la llave might be translated into English as "I lost the key" but a more literal-minded, word-for-word translation is more like "The key was lost on me." It's a great way to reduce culpability, no?
As a final note: Related to the verb antojar is the oft-heard noun antojo, which means "whim." Pregnant women famously have antojos which we'd translated as "cravings" for, say, pickles and ice cream.
From a kitchen in Puerto Escondido (Oaxaca, México), we learn in Spanish about making refried beans -- two useful lessons wrapped up in one video. Note that we're not just talking about refried beans and rice: These onion-y beans can be served with bread, tortillas, cheese, scrambled eggs, sausage, nothing, everything... the sky's the limit. In sum, we hear, as a general rule:
Bueno es una... se puede variar con todo lo que... lo que se le antoje.
Well it's a... you can vary it with everything that... that you wish.
Captions 29-30, Desayuno Puerto Escondido - Frijoles Refritos
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Those of you following the subtitles word for word may wonder why we chose to translate se puede as "you can." Here, "you" is really an impersonal, general subject; it could also be translated as "one can." You see, in Spanish, the construction se + a verb in the third person (singular or plural) is commonly used to deemphasize the subject. Here are a few examples:
Se habla español aquí
"Spanish is spoken here"
Se come bien en esta cuidad
" People eat well in this city"
¿Cómo se dice "Formula One" en español?
"How do you say "Formula One" in Spanish?"
As you can see in the above examples, the "se + verb" construction can be translated into English in a few ways: (1) With a passive construction; (2) using "people" or "one" as the unspecified subject; or (3) using "you" as the subject, but in an impersonal, generalized sense. The third choice -- "you" -- seemed like the most appropriate translation for our refried bean recipe.
Native English speakers, if they directly mirror the English passive voice, can come up with unnatural Spanish phrases. Instead they need to accustom themselves to the Pasiva con "se."
"Cars are repaired in two days."
Los autos son reparados en dos días. [Not natural in Spanish]
Se reparan autos en dos días. [Natural in Spanish]
"This bill is being discussed in the Congress."
Este proyecto de ley está siendo tratado en el Congreso. [Not natural]
Este proyecto de ley se está tratando en el congreso. [Natural]
When native English speakers hear "tres tiempos" for the first time, they might think it means "three times." But Spanish uses a different word to describe "time," as in, "an occurrence." That word is "vez."
It just so happens that Orishas' music video featured "vez" three times ("tres veces"). Let's listen:
Una vez más yo te demuestro que no es facilito
Once again I show you that it's not as easy
Como el puré que preparaba tu vecino Lino. "Yo"
Like the mashed potatoes that your neighbor Lino used to make. "Yo"
Captions 38-39, Orishas - ¿Qué Pasá?
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OK. OK. So our translation doesn't rhyme like the rap it's aiming to explain... But you get the idea. Here's one more, without rhyme:
Una vez más tu vecino aquí me va a escuchar
One more time your neighbor will listen to me here
Caption 42, Orishas - ¿Qué Pasá?
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And then:
Pido una vez más su comprensión y aceptación
I ask once more for your comprehension and acceptance
Caption 66, Orishas - ¿Qué Pasá?
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As you might have figured out by now, "once, twice, three times..." is most faithfully translated as una vez, dos veces, tres veces... and so on. So, maybe you should read this email three times to make sure you have the "times" -- i.e., vez and tiempo straight.
It's time to learn a little bit more about tiempo -- which is one way to express time in Spanish.
So, tiempo means "time" -- as in "a system used to place one event in relation to another (such as past vs. present, yesterday vs. today)" -- it also means, less abstractly, "period" -- as in "a span of time" (which could be minutes, hours, days, weeks...). For example, soccer fans getting online updates should note that a match consists of primer tiempo, entretiempo and segundo tiempo, often abbreviated as 1T, ET and 2T, respectively. Meanwhile, in English, we might speak of first period (or, more common in soccer, first half), half time and then the second half.
OK. Now let's spend a little time with the latest videos on Yabla Spanish. In one, we hear restaurant manager José Luis Calixto Escobar of Mexico speak of tiempos in the following sentence:
La comida sale económicamente porque contiene lo que son tres tiempos.
The food is cheap because it has what are three courses.
Caption 38, Fonda Mi Lupita - Encargado
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Outside of México, it may be more common to hear talk of una comida con tres platos (literally: "a meal with three plates") to describe "a three-course meal." Una comida en [o, de] tres tiempos describes the same idea. To illustrate, José goes on to describe a soup course, then a rice or pasta and then a meat plate. Yum. This menú -- another word used to describe a meal of many parts -- even comes with water. Completamente (That's José's oft-repeated verbal tic. Think: "totally" in English.)
Incidentally, flip comida de tres tiempos around, and you have los tres tiempos de comida -- that is, breakfast, lunch and dinner, or the three meals/mealtimes of the day. Note that comida not only means "food," but that it also can describe the time spent eating food -- i.e., a meal.
Just a few moments later in the Oreiro interview, Natalia Oreiro's father corrects himself with the phrase mejor dicho, which can be translated as "better said" or "rather." Note that dicho ("said") is the past participle of the irregular verb decir ("to say").
Es lo que te dije anteriormente, es ver a la gente, cómo...
It's what I told you previously, it's seeing the people, how...
Mejor dicho, ver a Natalia... cómo le llega a las personas ¿no?
Rather, seeing Natalia... how she reaches people, right?
Captions 80-83, Biografía Natalia Oreiro - Part 8
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We also hear dicho in our interview with the co-founder of Tu Rock es Votar Armando David. Armando says dicho y hecho ("said and done").
Y dicho y hecho, eso generó toda una controversia durante muchos meses en donde...
And said and done, that generated a whole controversy during many months in which...
Captions 67-68, Tu Rock es Votar - Armando
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Looking around at other dicho sayings, we found the catchy:
Del dicho al hecho hay gran trecho.
From the saying to the deed, there's a big distance.
(or "Easier said than done.")
By the way, another definition for dicho actually is "saying," as we noted previously in this space.
Moving right along, with Natalia's proud papa, we come across this line:
Lo que más me emociona... es lo que te dije anteriormente.
What moves me the most... it's what I told you previously.
Captions 79-80, Biografía - Natalia Oreiro - Part 8
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You see, emocionarse is a reflexive verb meaning "to be moved [by]." Like the verbs gustar or encantar (which we wrote about in this space before), emocionar agrees with the object of the sentence -- i.e., whatever it is that is moving -- instead of the speaker.
To see emocionarse at work, we are featuring a touching interview with the Mexican musical group Belanova this week. Here are the examples we gleaned from their interview:
...es porque les emociona nuestro proyecto.
...it's because they are moved by our project. (Or: ...it's because our project moves them.)
Caption 28, Belanova - Entrevista - Part 3
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Que nos emociona mucho hacerlo, que es lo más importante...
That really moves us when doing it, which is the most important...
Caption 39, Belanova - Entrevista - Part 3
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...que a toda la gente que ve a Belanova se emociona.
...which moves all the people who see Belanova.
Caption 41, Belanova - Entrevista - Part 3
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In the examples above, note that emociona (the third personal singular, present form of emocionar) agrees with the project, action or sight that is considered moving. Meanwhile, the object pronouns les (for "them"), nos (for "us") and se (for "everyone" -- i.e., toda la gente) let us know who is being moved by the subject in each of the examples above.
A Ana y María les emocionan las películas de amor antiguas.
Ana and Maria are moved by old love films.
Estas historias nos emocionan mucho.
These stories really move us.
Our four new video clips deliver more than fifteen minutes of spoken Spanish -- subtitled and translated -- to your computer. To learn all you can from the rapid-fire banter, check out Yabla's "slow play" feature. (To activate, simply click SLOW on the Yabla Player). By taking the pace down a notch, you might notice some nuances that could otherwise elude you.
One subtlety we noted in the eighth installment of our chat with actress Natalia Oreiro was that she and her father use the phrase "de repente" in different ways. First, let's listen to Natalia describe seeing herself on TV in her first starring role:
Y mirando Canal Nueve... el estreno y de repente aparezco yo... tah, tah...
And watching Channel Nine... the premiere and suddenly I appear... tah, tah...
Captions 64-65, Biografía - Natalia Oreiro - Part 8
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The word "repente" on its own means "fit" or "burst." But in everyday spoken Spanish, it's often heard in the idiom "de repente" which primarily means "all of a sudden" or "suddenly." That's how Natalia uses it here, when she was surprised to see her own image on the TV screen.
But just a few lines later, we hear from Natalia's dad. He's obviously not a professional actor and he, well, hesitates on camera more than his daughter, explaining:
...pierdo la continuidad de... de... de... de repente de escucharla.
...I lose the habit of... of... of... maybe of listening to her.
Caption 77, Biografía - Natalia Oreiro - Part 8
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In the Oreiro family's native Uruguay (as well as in Venezuela), de repente can also mean "maybe," according to the Diccionario de la lengua española from the Real Academia Española. Another translation of de repente (although it doesn't fit here) is "spontaneously," i.e., without premeditation. Who would have guessed?
Cuando lo vi con esa mujer me dio un repente de furia.
When I saw him with that woman, I went into a fit of rage.
On the Venezuelan shore, Francisco expresses his deep appreciation for the wild, natural beauty of his surroundings. In front of the camera, Francisco hesitates a few times, but it's not from lack of conviction. He's simply buying time to find the right word. For example:
Los arrecifes... la... la... el fondo marino en... en sí que es demasiado increíble.
The reefs... the... the... the ocean floor it'... itself is too incredible.
Captions 7-8, Playa Adícora - Francisco - Part 4
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One might take pause upon hearing en sí because those two words separately can mean "in" and "yes." But sí with an accent over the i is not just an affirmation; it's also a reflexive personal pronoun (short for sí mismo / sí misma) meaning himself, herself, itself, oneself, yourself (as in the formal usted), yourselves (ustedes) or themselves -- depending on the context.
Lo leyó para sí misma.
She read it to herself. [not out loud]
Cada uno debe hacerlo por sí mismo.
Each person has to do it himself or herself.
Solía pensar por sí mismo; no era influenciado por los tan llamados expertos.
He used to think for himself; he wasn't influenced by the so-called experts.
¡Venga y compruébelo por sí mismo!
Come and check it out for yourself!
Let's look back at our original example and home in on the idiom en sí, which means the same thing as en sí mismo (English translations: "in itself" or "in and of itself" or simply "itself").
El trabajo en sí no era interesante, pero le daba la posibilidad de viajar.
The job itself wasn't interesting, but it gave him the opportunity to travel.
Amor es bueno en sí naturalmente,
Love in itself is naturally good,
[from Juan Boscán's Sonnet, a sixteenth century poem]
You will also find it interesting to note that volver en sí, which we might be tempted to translate as "to come back to one's self," is an expression that means "to regain consciousness / to come to." It can also mean "to come around," as in "to realize the truth."
Si no vuelve en sí pronto, debemos llevarlo a un hospital.
If he doesn't come to soon, we must take him to a hospital.
Por suerte volvió en sí y se dió cuenta que era una locura.
Luckily he came around and realized it was a crazy idea.
This lesson has valor en sí misma, if you ask us!
If you want to engage in small talk in Spanish, you should learn to chat about the weather "el clima" or "el tiempo". In our travel video from Mexico City (a.k.a. D.F., or Distrito Federal), some local friends share many helpful nuggets for prattling on about the temperature, rain, global warming -- three common topics of conversation pretty much anywhere in the world. For example, regarding the temperature:
Yo diría, templado... Eh... un clima ni muy caliente ni muy frío.
I'd say, mild... Uh... a climate neither too warm nor too cold.
Captions 5-6, Amigos D.F. - Clima en el DF
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And just a few captions later, on what falls from the skies:
Un poco de lluvias, este... este... chispeadas... a veces, en ocasiones granizo...
Some rain, um... drizzles... Sometimes, occasionally hail...
Captions 9-10, Amigos D.F. - Clima en el DF
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Or, if you want to discuss the melting glaciers:
Con el relajo este del calentamiento global... los... los climas se disparan un poco.
With this global warming mess... the... climates get a little out of control.
Captions 11-12, Amigos D.F. - Clima en el DF
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Later in the video clip, we're let in on a little rhyme about the weather. In English you may know "April's showers bring May's flowers." Well, in Mexico, we hear:
De hecho hay un dicho que dice: "enero loco, febrero otro poco."
In fact, there's a saying that goes, "January is crazy, February, a bit too."
Captions 28-29, Amigos D.F. - Clima en el DF
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Sniffing around for some more catchy phrases, we found this website of Refranes sobre los meses del año. (Incidentally, they cite the same phrase but pushed ahead by a month, febrero loco, marzo otro poco.)
Going to the private party where The Ramones were performing for the first time ever ended up changing the life of painter/artist Arturo Vega. Our featured video interview with Vega captures the story.
Entonces yo fui porque, pues, era una fiesta, ¿verdad? Y Dee Dee me caía bien.
So I went because, well, it was a party, right? And I liked Dee Dee.
Caption 52, Arturo Vega - Entrevista - Part 3
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So, students following the subtitles of this interview may choose to click the Spanish words that they don't know for Yabla's handy dictionary definitions. It happens that if they clicked caía, the dictionary would reveal that it's a third-person past tense of the verb caer. And what does caer mean?:
All these definitions are true, but what about "liking someone" -- as the verb is used here? Turns out that in Spanish, to say you like someone, you basically say that someone, well, falls well for (or, to) you. That is to say, Me cae bien means "I like him/ her" or "He/she made a good impression on me."
Conversely, Me cae mal means "I don't like him/her."
You may be wondering if he might have used the verb gustar, which also can be used to indicate liking something or someone. However, when using gustar to refer to people, there can be romantic/sexual connotations. Using caer bien eliminates any potential misunderstanding, as it refers to a purely platonic attraction.
In your travels through the Spanish speaking world you will undoubtedly come across other interesting uses of caer.
Cualquier cosa te caigo más tarde, ¿vale?
Anyway, I might drop by later, OK?
Caption 34, Confidencial: Asesino al Volante - Capítulo 1
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No puedes caer así sin avisar. (slang)
You can't drop by like that without calling.
Siempre es igual, le cuentas un chiste y cae media hora más tarde.
It's always the same, tell him a joke and he gets it a half hour later.
Me puedes
You can get to me / I can't resist you
[song title, La Gusana Ciega - Me Puedes]
The song title for La Gusana Ciega's new video may at first sound like an incomplete phrase. After all, it's common to see the verb poder (to be able to) conjugated with a direct object -- as in, me puedes -- followed by another verb in the infinitive, such as Me puedes ayudar, (You can help me) -- or, with question marks, ¿Me puedes ayudar? (Can you help me?).
So, when encountering me puedes on its own, one may struggle to find sense in "you can me." (You can what me?) But the verb poder can also mean "to be stronger than," or "to have power over," which will give us "You are stronger than me / You have power over me" or, seen from another angle, "I can't resist you."
To investigate further, we went straight to the source, Daniel Gutierrez, lyricist/vocalist/guitarist of La Gusana Ciega. We asked him what he had in mind when he titled the song "Me puedes." Daniel, who speaks English quite well, replied and told us how the title ties into the song's refrain of me vas a ver llorar (you're going to see me cry):
It would be sort of a YOU GET TO ME referring to "you can make me cry" if you want.
¡Gracias, Daniel! If only we could always contact all our video stars directly. Alas, no podemos.
La curiosidad me pudo y fui a ver el combate de lucha.
Curiosity got to me [got the best of me] and I went to see the wrestling match.
Está bien, me puedes... vamos a ir al zoológico el domingo.
Alright, I can't say no [to you]... we'll go to the zoo on Sunday.
Estoy a régimen, pero la torta de chocolate me puede.
I'm on a diet, but I can't resist chocolate cake.
¡Ese chico me puede!
I'm crazy for that boy! [can't resist him]
Esta niña me puede... no pude decirle que no.
I can't resist this girl [her charms]... I couldn't say no to her.
Cuando llegué estaba enojada, pero esa sonrisa me puede...
When I arrived I was angry, but I can't resist that smile...
NOTE: You might be wondering if it's therefore possible to say te puedo for "you can't resist me." But our translators inform us that native speakers don't do this, and probably wouldn't understand it if you attempted to convey this sentiment like that.
If you want to say "Let's get to the point" in Spanish, you might say, "Vamos al grano." While the literal translation of this colloquial Spanish expression is "Let's get to the grain," ir al grano is used to convey the idea of getting to the substance of something, pushing aside all superfluous niceties.
The noun grano in Spanish has a plethora of meanings, including "grain" (e.g., of cereal or sand), "kernel," "seed," "bean" (as in coffee), or "pimple" (a blemish on the skin). Let's take a look at some examples of these various uses:
Un grano de arena hace un ladrillo y un ladrillo hace un castillo
A grain of sand makes a brick and a brick makes a castle
Caption 32, Rivera Tras la tormenta
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Vamos a separar todos los granos que tienen imperfecciones.
We are going to separate all the beans that have imperfections.
Captions 9-10, Cacao - Leyenda de Quito, Ecuador Cómo se hace el chocolate.
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Note that the expression en grano, which means in its grain form, is also used for some common food items:
un poco de elote en grano, acelgas,
a bit of whole kernel corn, Swiss chard,
Caption 7, Osos en la cocina Venado y ensalada asada
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y lo que, eh... nos ayudó a... a dar el sabor también es achiote y, eh... sal en grano.
and what, um... also helped us to... to give [it] the flavor is achiote and, um... sea salt.
Captions 49-50, Otavalo Proyecto familiar Kawsaymi - Part 2
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However, beyond these traditional uses, the Spanish word grano appears in many idiomatic expressions, which, like in English, express ideas beyond their literal meanings. Let's first take a look at a couple of examples of the aformentioned expression: ir al grano (to get to the point):
Algo en tus labios color carmín
Something in your carmine lips
Sugiere que vayamos al grano
Suggests we get to the point
Captions 16-17, Babasónicos - Risa
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Sobre Alicia hablaremos en un momento, pero ahora vamos al grano.
We'll talk about Alicia in a minute, but now let's get to the point.
Caption 35, Negocios Problemas laborales - Part 3
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Note that alternative translations for this idiom in English might include: "Let's cut to the chase" and "Let's not beat around the bush."
Now, let's take a look at some other interesting idioms containing the word grano or its diminutive, granito:
Spanish expression: apartar el grano de la paja
Literal translation: to separate the seed head from the straw
English equivalent: to separate the wheat from the chaff
Meaning: to separate out what’s good or valuable from what isn’t
Spanish expression: hacer una montaña de un grano de arena
Literal translation: to make a mountain out of a grain of sand
English equivalent: to make a mountain out of a molehill
Meaning: to make a big deal out of nothing
Spanish expression: poner su granito de arena
Literal translation: to put in one's little grain of sand
English equivalents: to do one's bit/offer one's two cents/plant the seed
Meaning: to contribute, offer one's opinion, or inspire something to begin
Let's take a look at some Yabla clips with this latter expression:
Desde que mis padres pusieron el primer granito de arena en mi formación musical, yo he seguido preocupándome en cultivarla.
Ever since my parents planted the first seed in my musical training, I've kept being concerned with cultivating it.
Captions 2-4, Club de las ideas Antonio J. Calvillo, musicólogo
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o sea, tengo la intención de... de hacerlo, o poner mi granito de arena,
I mean, I have the intention to... to do it, or to do my part,
Caption 16, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana Manuel Orozco Sánchez - Part 2
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As an interesting side note, the Spanish equivalent of the English idiom "to take with a grain of salt," which entails having skepticism about something, does not include the word grano. Instead, tomar con pinzas (to handle with tweezers), or the more literal tomar con reservas (take with reservations/have reservations about), are used to express this concept.
That's all for now. We hope you have learned a lot about some literal and figurative uses of the word grano in Spanish and hope to bring you more interesting Spanish idioms and their English eqivalents in the future. In the meantime, don't forget to put in your granito de arena (suggestions and comments).
One of the very first things a student of Spanish or any language learns is how to count. So, what comes after veinte (twenty)? Veintiuno! (Twenty-one!) Simple, right? So listen to this young man from Mexico introduce himself in front of the video camera:
Hola, ¿cómo están? Mi nombre es David del Valle. Tengo veintiún años y soy estudiante de negocios internacionales.
Hi, how are you? My name is David del Valle. 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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So where did the "o" at the end of veintiuno go? As it turns out, "veintiuno" is on a short list of Spanish words that lose their last, unstressed syllable when they come before certain nouns. [To get technical, we're talking about "apocope," (apócope in Spanish) defined as "the loss of one or more sounds or letters at the end of a word" (Merriam-Webster).]
Remember, when nothing follows the number 21, every syllable is pronounced:
¿Cuántos años tiene David?
Veintiuno.
How old is David?
Twenty-one.
But when 21 is followed by a masculine noun or feminine noun that begins with a stressed "a" or a stressed "ha" sound -- it loses that final "o" and an accent mark is added to keep the stress on the "ú." For example:
David tiene veintiún años.
David is twenty-one years old.
El pobrecito tiene veintiún granos.
The poor kid has twenty-one pimples.
La caja tiene veintiún hachas.
The box has twenty-one axes.
When 21 is followed by a feminine noun that does not begin with a stressed "a" or "ha" sound, the final "o" in veintiuno becomes an "a," giving us veintiuna, for example veintiuna chicas (twenty-one girls) or veintiuna sillas (twenty-one chairs).
El libro tiene veintiuna páginas.
The book has twenty-one pages.
[Note: It is not at all uncommon to hear this rule as it pertains to feminine nouns being "broken" by native Spanish speakers. For example, the Spanish pop group "21 Japonesas" (21 Japanese Girls) is often called "Veintiún Japonesas" by broadcasters, much to the dismay of language watchdogs.]
The number "one" ("uno") and any other number that ends with "one" follows the same pattern, so it's "ochenta y uno" without a noun following the number, but ochenta y un años or ochenta y una reglas ("eighty-one rules"). [Note that no accent mark is needed for the u in un since there could be no confusion regarding which syllable to stress in the one syllable word.]
Other common words that drop endings before certain nouns include "ciento -> cien" ("100"), "bueno -> buen" ("good"), and "santo -> san" ("saint"). There is a more extensive list of apocopes in Spanish here.
So, how does La Secta's refrain go? (¿Cómo dice el estribillo de La Secta?) Here it is:
Llora mi corazón
My heart cries
Rogando tu perdón
Begging for your forgiveness
Captions 7-8, La Secta - Llora mi corazón
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In this lyric's translation, we noted that perdón means -- and sounds like -- "pardon" in English. But it also means "forgiveness." Because "begging your pardon" sounds too stilted and too close to the question "Beg your pardon?," we chose "forgiveness" here.
Aquí estoy, ya me ves, suplicándote perdón.
Here I am, as you can see, imploring your forgiveness.
Caption 67, Biografía - Enrique Iglesias
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(Incidently, "Beg your pardon?" -- as in, "What did you just say?" -- is usually ¿Cómo? in Spanish.)
Coming soon on Yabla Spanish, we'll provide consejos para la calle ("advice for the street") to teach you when to use perdón (pardon), permiso and disculpe (excuse me). Tune in then to learn the best way to clear a path and beg forgiveness when you knock someone down.
In our latest live concert footage of Belanova, lead singer Denisse Guererro turns to the audience and asks:
Este mundo gira y algún día ha de morir
This world spins and someday it shall die
pero contigo -¿Cómo dice, Guadalajara?
but with you -How does it go, Guadalajara?
Captions 28-29, Belanova - Tus ojos
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The crowd responds by singing along to the well known song. North of the border, concertgoers might hear the words "How does it go?" to provoke a similar sing-along.
But wait. Most of you know the verb decir most often means "to say" or "to tell." It's ir that typically means "to go." A literal-minded translation of ¿Cómo dice? might be something more like "What does [it / the song / the tune] say?"
When we asked around, we gathered some more examples of English phrases in which "go" is best expressed in Spanish with decir. Here they are:
As the song goes
Como dice la canción
As the saying goes
Como dice el refrán
So the story goes
Se dice
So the argument goes (reputedly)
Según se dice
Hearing "decir" used in this context, it becomes much easier to understand another new music video. In "Llora mi corazón," La Secta Allstar leads into their own refrain with:
Y dice...
And it [i.e., the song's refain] goes [like this:]...
Caption 6, La Secta - Llora mi corazón
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So, how does La Secta's refrain go?
Did you wonder why it's "lo mismo" and not "el mismo" or "la misma" in our examples above? The answer is that "lo" is the neuter article in Spanish and it is used to stand in for an abstract idea, concept, category or quality--in other words, something that's not a concrete object or person. One way to translate it is as "thing" -- but sometimes there's no easy translation.
Here are some more phrases that take "lo" before an adjective:
lo bueno = "the good part, what's good"
lo fácil = "the easy part, what's easy"
lo important es que... = "the important thing is that..."
lo mío = "(that which is) mine"
lo nuestro = "(that which is) ours"
lo más = "the most" -- as in LoMásTv, of course!
Let's look at the refrain once more (with "lo" as our focus):
No es lo mismo una sospecha que saberlo de verdad
A suspicion isn't the same [thing] as knowing it for sure
No es saberlo de verdad lo mismo que una sospecha
Knowing it for sure isn't the same [thing] as a suspicion
Captions 7-8, Circo - La sospecha
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Now, you've noted that "lo" is standing in for something unknown in this song -- something that's neither masculine nor feminine per se. When "lo" appears before an adjective or adverb, it's easy to recognize as neuter. But, to complicate matters, "lo" can also be a masculine direct object -- as in, "Lo vi" ("I saw him"). The only way to straighten out whether "lo" is a masculine or neuter object in a sentence is via the context.
In our Circo song lyrics, the second "lo" (-- "saberlo") also stands in for something undefined. As the direct object of a verb, lo works in a similar way in these common phrases:
Lo siento = "Sorry" (or, literally, "I feel it")
No lo sabía = "I didn't know [it]"
No quiero saberlo = "I don't want to know [it]"
For more on the neuter, see
ThoughtCo.com > Spanish language > The neuter gender in Spanish
When we premiered the spacy music video Bienvenido by Sizu Yantra several months ago, we received this letter:
If someone had asked me to translate "if you find the world sickly" I might have come up with "si el mundo tú encuentras enfermizo"... could someone explain why the "lo" is in there? --DonJorge, San Mateo, CA
Si al mundo lo encuentras enfermizo, delirante y brutal...
If you find the world sickly, delirious and brutal...
Caption 2, SiZu Yantra - Bienvenido
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When lo is not busy working as a neuter article (e.g. lo importante, "the important thing/what's important"), or as an "undefined" neuter direct object (e.g. No puedo creerlo, "I can't believe it"), lo can also be found serving duty as the masculine singular direct object pronoun, just as la does as the feminine singular direct object pronoun.
¿Dónde encontraste el perro?
Lo encontré en la calle.
Where did you find the dog?
I found it on the street.
¿Desde cuándo has querido a María?
Siempre la he querido.
Since when have you loved Maria?
I have always loved her.
¿Quien rompió la mesa?
Juan la rompío.
Who broke the table?
Juan broke it.
As you can see, when we mention the direct object by name (e.g., el perro), it comes after the verb. When we replace it, the direct object pronoun (such as lo, or la) comes before the verb.
However, it is permissible in Spanish to mention your direct object by name AND put it before the verb, but if you do this you must include both the object and its pronoun. When we do this we provide more emphasis to the direct object, as Sizu Yantra emphasizes "el mundo" in the example above.
Al perro lo encontré en la calle.
I found the dog in the street.
La mesa la rompió Juan.
Juan broke the table.
Now's a good time to go back and take another listen to Bienvenido by Sizu Yantra! (it's in the "Music Videos" section).
Puerto Rican band Circo remind us that a suspicion is, by definition, not the same as a confirmed fact. Here's the refrain:
No es lo mismo una sospecha que saberlo de verdad
A suspicion isn't the same as knowing it for sure
No es saberlo de verdad lo mismo que una sospecha
Knowing it for sure isn't the same as a suspicion
Captions 7-8, Circo - La sospecha
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The repeated refrain is reminiscent of a series of jokes in Spanish that start "No es lo mismo [decir]..." ("It's not the same [to say]..."). For example:
No es lo mismo decir: "me río en el baño" que "me baño en el río."
And the English translation?
It's not the same to say: "I laugh in the bathroom" as "I bathe in the river."
And that's funny? Well, the little joke is hinged on the fact that the verbs "reirse" ("to laugh") and "bañarse" ("to bathe") have conjugations that sound just like the nouns "el río" ("the river") and "el baño" ("the bathroom"). And that's why flipping the words around is un chiste (a joke) only in Spanish. Just try translating a groan-worthy English "knock-knock" joke into another language...
You can find dozens more "no-es-lo-mismo" chistes online with a simple search.
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