SpanishPod - yardbird Conversations

Re: Stop Eating

yardbird — 2008-11-12 13:09:07

En la lección, oigamos de las comida chatarra. Pero encimo de aquí, Esti dice "la comida basura." which means garbage. Is she saying the Spanish thing? I just want to communicate well with Mexican and other Latin American Spanish speakers. Is catarra the better choice for me? Basura is nicely dramatic and yucky, but I just want to know which word to favor. Grácias.

Re: Sneezing

yardbird — 2008-10-02 06:37:58

Hace much tiempo que no veo ningún comentario por los maestros aquí. Why? It feels like only students talking to each other and speculating about problems and questions now. Where is the instruction, now? I miss the SpanishPod team explaining things for us.

Re: Sold Out

yardbird — 2008-09-11 10:37:04

I thought it was a strict rule that you never use tener to ask something like this. The classic example is asking a waiter "¿tienes huevos?" I thought you must *walways* ask hay huevos, hay Negra Modelo, etc. Yet the customer (el cliente) asked tienes, although the clerk (dependiente?) eventually said "hay glaciadas," which is more what I thought was correct. Not "yo tengo glaciadas," as if she were offering him some donuts from her own breakfast. Thanks for explaining.

Re: Forget it

yardbird — 2008-08-12 13:10:44

1. I think there's a Dan Savage joke here, about couples counseling. That's a Seattle reference. I can tell by the partner's petulant sarcasm that something about the relationship isn't quite right, and that some work needs to be done before things get worse.

2. My polyglot friends, is there any linguistic relationship between the Spanish calzone for underwear and the Italian for a delicious item of food? Hey, honey, bring me and Angelo some of your delicious linguine al pomodoro, two glasses of chianti and some boxer shorts and cannoli.

No, seriously, calzone/calzone. Relationship?Thanks.

Re: Doesn't work

yardbird — 2008-08-04 20:30:33

Esti,

I understood all that. Honestly I did.

Cobre, I don't understand why you say that "esposa" can mean "novia,." You think it's like saying "my old lady?" That's "mi ruca" in L.A. Spanglish, I think. As for the b&d handcuffss, I don't know what that was about. And the long list of single words, each one with an on-mouse-over balloon, I'm sorry but I can't read any of that or figure out why you made the words clickable. I'm blind and my screen reader program can't deal with that. Anyway, best of luck with getting your ladies to wash the dishes while wearing handcuffs. I still don't understand why you say where you live, the wives won't do any work. But it's okay. I must have missed the joke or something. that happens sometimes.

Re: Doesn't work

yardbird — 2008-08-04 13:55:25

Hola Cobre,

I know some people seem to prefer "funcionar" for this purpose, though "to serve" conveys more nuance and sense of context, when you want to achieve that. I think, anyway. As for your revision, "las esposas?" Is this a joke about a certain fundamentalist community in Texas that's been in the news lately? Or are you writing from Saudi Arabia? In which case, sorry. Don't cut back any more on the oil production. We started to develop more efficient cars and better energy technology back in the 1970s, but then we spaced out. My best to all your wives. If you aren't in that cult, or in the Middle East, you could always wash a dish or two. That goes back to the 1970s, too. Just a suggestion. technolg9poi ooio9il lraifundmalmany of these "

Re: Doesn't work

yardbird — 2008-08-04 09:15:26

Una pregunta: The lesson is devoted entirely to explaining "serve" as a way to say something works, or doesn't work. Sin embargo, nevertheless, every comment in this thread uses the alternative word "funcionar," to function. I know both are legitimate. But how do you choose? And why is everyone using funcionar here even though the lesson uses servir? Finally, something amusing to share. More than once, here in Los Angeles, I have heard Spanish speakers say of something that doesn't work (the doors of a Methro bus, in this instance) "no trabajan!" They are translating directly from English! I find that amusing.

Re: For what?

yardbird — 2008-07-29 18:27:33

Stevester, I see. So where cierra la boca might indeed mean close your mouth, using callar is more specialized because it distinctly means stop the mouth from talking. Not just close it.

I learned to say callate la boca with a smile when I was a substitute English and ESL teacher in the Los Angeles public schools.

Re: Send me an e-mail

yardbird — 2008-07-29 14:09:26

I meant "malogato. Sorry. Although wouldn't you really say only malgato?

Re: Send me an e-mail

yardbird — 2008-07-29 14:05:25

It felt as if part of the joke about the wrong email address got lost. Wouldn't the feminine form of "malagata" seem like a pretty obvious clue to have missed, once you knew it was the wife's email? Maybe they're one of those too-cute couples and he uses malagato and she calls herself malagata? In any case, that seemed like an amusing element that was overlooked.

Re: For what?

yardbird — 2008-07-29 13:41:56

¡Qué lección preciosa! But it made me realize that I'm confused about something. I understood cierra los ojos, por cierto. But I realized that the expression for "be quiet!" or "shut up!" is something like (in the tú form, again) "callate la boca." From what verb infinitive does that come, and what does it mean, and why don't we say "cierrate la boca," or something like that? Ay, ¡que soy confundido!

Re: Bonfire Night

yardbird — 2008-06-23 22:47:31

Hola todos. There seem to be several ways to say "of course." Por supuesto, as in this lesson. There's also ¿como no? and also ¿como que no? Could someone shed light on why you'd choose one rather than the other at a given moment? Thanks.

Re: Shopping List

yardbird — 2008-05-28 23:32:11

Cuando voy al ssuper, mantengo en la babeza mi lista de la compra. Tipicalmente, la lista contiene muchas cosas, incluyendo leche, fresas, queso, lechuga, tomates, cebollas rojas, ajo, broccoli, un pollo entero, unas bottelas de Cabernet Sauvignon, Medóc o Malbec, huevos, pan freancesa, y más Pensando en la lista, hace agua la boca.

. uweso, coasa dontiene

Re: Pets

yardbird — 2008-05-25 16:39:53

Test. Previous message did not post.

Re: Pets

yardbird — 2008-05-25 11:23:51

Re: Gardening

yardbird — 2008-05-20 09:36:41

Test, please ignore. Sorry.

Re: Blackout

yardbird — 2008-04-30 15:11:35

Esti, Enhorabuena? Is that castillano? I wonder how it developed. I wonder what the "enhora" part means? Anyway,I want to point out that you seem to have corrected one of my sentences although you addressed the remark to Cantinflás. you wrote: You should say: PARA MÍ no es ni una lata ni un lío un apagón, sino una gran tragedia. Thank you. That's so much more graceful than the way I tried to express it. Just received the notice that my subscription expires today. No wonder the homework lesson doesn't show up on my Elementary page. Creo que debo communicarme en seguida con mis amigos de PayPal, n'est-ce pas? That was a tip of the hat to JP.

Re: Telephone card

yardbird — 2008-04-29 10:57:08

Hi, More choices for asking for something. First of all, it doesn't work to try translating the familiar polite English request (may I have?) directly into Spanish. In Spanish, none of it involves something to do with a word for possession, like "have." As someone said above, you'd only wind up sounding as if you were holding a bottle of Carta Blanca in your hand and, for some reason, asking someone else, a waiter or waitress in this case, whether or not what you're holding in your hand is actually a beer. The word "have" just isn't involved in any of the alternative requests. Me gustaría more precisely means "it would please me," and that's fine for a gentle request, but again, it's not a direct translation of the English "may I have." What we're after here is the social and tonal equivalent, not a translation. Not only the question mark/rise at the end of "me da x" indicates that it's not a harsh demand. Word order matters, too. The actual demand/command form would be "dame una cerveza" in the usted (formal) form and "deme una cerveza" in the familiar tú form. That literally means "Give me." Another polite option is to start with the expression "quiero una cerveza" (I want a beer),but temper it by using the (help JP, is it the subjunctive form? The conditional?)of quiero: Quisiera una cerveza. I would say that this one most closely approximates the polite tone and meaning of "May I have." But literally, it means "I would like a beer," as opposed to "I *want* a beer." And whoever suggested that just saying "Una cerveza, por favor," would work is spot on.A beer, please. Works every time. :-) The rest is just more eloquent and formal, and very nice, but this simple utterance should serve well and sound sufficiently civil. Hope some of the above is accurate and helpful. Ahora, me gustaría mucho bebir una cerveza negra muuy fría con tortilla chips (?) and a bowl of freshly-made pico de gallo. Yummy!

Re: Blackout

yardbird — 2008-04-29 09:32:02

Hola Esti, Muchas gracias por tu ayuda. Pero no sé esta frase: enhorabuena y sigue así. I think the second part means "and keep on that way," of course, but what's the first word mean? Que quiere decir? Also, I noticed that I typed something like demasiado when I really just meant exactly what you substituted. Todo. Oh, well. Just a mental lapse. De nuevo, grácias.

Re: Blackout

yardbird — 2008-04-28 15:10:29

Aquí en Los Angeles, sufrimos un apagón a véces en los viernos más caliente, y a mí no me gustan. No solamente a causa de prlblemas tratando de los comestibles y el aire condicionario sino porque no sirve la computadora. Y necesito esa para hacer casi todo porque estoy casi ciego y mi computadora tiene programas especiales con que puedo hacer demasiado. Por lo tanto (thanks, Leo), para mí un a pagón no es una lata o un lio sino una grán tragedia. Another excellently designed elementary lesson, clear as glass, and JP and Lili continue to be a delightful and effective teaching team. You go, guys! ¡Siguen adelante! And of course please correct my Spanish mistakes in this post. :-)