Babies are so cute! Their big eyes, tiny hands, their feeding habits... Today's big podcast is all about bottles. Learn important vocabulary for discussing bottles and preparing formula. It's an adorable lesson!
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Tengo otra palabra para el chupon o chupete. Mi suegro me dijo que en Puerto Rico se dice el bobo.
Who is choosing the baby pictures for baby week ? Because, kind of hate to say it but can not help myself, they are soooo cute :))) How do you say: The baby drinks 3 bottles of milk a day..? Is the word still 'biberón'? Oh, btw, Leo sounds very convincing saying 'No sé hacerlo!';)
@daphnedawn, creo que sí todavía sea "biberón":
@daphedawn, I think it is indeed still "biberón":
De verdad, mi esposa y yo normalmente hablamos sobre cuantas onzas toma el bebé – no nos importa cuantos biberones, sino si él toma leche suficiente. :) (Tenemos un hijo de 16 meses.)
Actually my wife and I normally talk about how many ounces the baby drinks – we don't care how many bottles, just whether he's drinking enough milk. :) (We have a 16-month-old.)
Y sí, a mí es muy fácil creer que Leo no sabe nada sobre los bebés. Lo siento, Leo. ;)
And yes, it's very easy for me to believe that Leo knows nothing about babies. Sorry Leo. ;)
O, y Liliana, lees las direcciones para saber cuanto fórmula y agua. :) Y hay que calentar el fórmula (después de lo ha mezclado con agua! :) ) pero mejor no usa el horno de microondas – este puede crear zonas calientes en el biberon que pueden quemarle al bebé. :|
(Claro que puedes agitar bien el biberón para igual las temperaturas, sólo hay que tener cuidado si lo se haces. ;) )
Oh, and Liliana, you read the directions to know how much formula and water. :) And you have to heat the formula (after mixing it with water!) but it's better not to use a microwave – that can create hot spots in the bottle that can burn the baby. :|y
(Of course you can shake the bottle well to equalize the temperatures, just be careful if you do that. ;) )
In the expansion section there is a sentence that reads.
"No hace falta agitarlo."
And the meaning you give is "Don't forget to shake it"
Why isn't the verb olvidar used? Could it read "No olvida agitarlo".
Can "No hace falta..." be used in place of "no olvida..." in other situations where I ask someone not to foget to do something?
Ellos tuvieron algunas nuevas palabras frescas en esta lección!!
@mgirll –
If you take “no hace falta...” in a literal sense, you get something akin to “don’t do this without...” We normally render that sentiment in English with “Don’t forget to...”, hence the translation. (Also, many things that we’d render with a gerund in English, like “shaking”, use the infinitive in Spanish, “agitar”.)
I think that you could use “no te olvides agitarlo”, but to me “no hace falta agitarlo” covers more ground: “Whatever might cause you to leave out the shaking – don’t!” :)
As always my two cents, the Real Teachers™ might completely disagree with me. ;)
(Supongo que esto debía de haber escrito en español también, pero a mí principalmente trata de inglés, así... ;) )
Hola mgirll.
No hace falta agitarlo is translated as it's not necessary to shake it. It's not used to tell someone not to forget something.
You're on the right track, but remember that when using the imperativo (mandato) in the negative form, the verb will change it's ending and look the same as the present form of the subjunctive.
Forget it. (tu) Olvidalo
Forget it. (ud.) Olvidelo
Don't forget to do it. (tu) No te olvides hacerlo.
Don't forget to do it. (ud.) No se olvide hacerlo.
Also it's really common when telling someone not to forget something to use the reflexive olvidarse
Don't forget. (tu) No se te olvide
Don't forget. (ud.) No se le olvide
Here you can see how the conjugation doesn't change, it's the third person present (mandato negativo) happening to both tu and to ud. It would be the same if you said it to a group of friends...
No se les olvide.
Thanks for the input Flynn and Hypersport. Some of this stuff is way over my head, but I'm trying to learn.
How does "No se te olvide" or "No se le olvide" make any sense??? I am so confused! I know you're right, I just can't wrap my head around it. How to use the reflexive verbs. How do you know when a verb is reflexive?
Hey SpanishPod Folks, how about a lesson set about reflexive verbs :)
umi_plum,
Bien venido a spanishpod! Welcome to spanishpod!
Hola flynn. No te preocupes, así se aprende. Y cada vez que intentamos a ayudarle a alguien, aprendemos algo al mismo tiempo ¿no?
mgirll: Yeah, the reflexives, lol. I hear ya, I remember the confusion well!
Ok, reflexive verbs can be looked at a couple of different ways.
There are the reflexive verbs that deal with us. For example, take lavar vs lavarse.
Lavo el carro. I wash the car.
Me lavo los dientes. I brush my teeth.
Notice in the second sentence that I had to use the reflexive because I was washing something that is a part of me.
¿Qué haces? Me estoy peinando. What are you doing? I'm combing my hair.
¿Qué haces? Estoy peinando el perro. I'm combing the dogs hair.
Then there's the times when we use reflexives to refer to something like this...
¿Cómo hacen la carne aquí? How do they make the meat here?
¿Cómo se hace la carne aquí? How is the meat made here?
Notice in the first sentence that hacer was conjugated for ellos (the employees) and in the second sentence it is conjugated third person singular (referring to the meat).
Also with reflexives you can put the se at the front of the sentence or attach it to the verb.
Se tienen que secar. Tienen que secarse. They have to dry. (secarse) (could be something you just painted)
Now hear if we were to use secar instead of secarse...Tienen que secar...then we would be talking about some people that have to dry something else, like maybe their car or clothes or something.
Ok, another way to use reflexive verbs is when something is happening to you, or to someone else.
Like in the example...no se te olvide. It's like you're saying....don't let it forget itself on you. Or don't forget.
Se te cayó algo. You dropped something.
This is common with olvidar too.
Lo olvidé. I forgot it. (1st person preterite cause I'm the one who did the forgetting)
Se me olvidó. I forgot it. (It forgot itself on me) (3rd person preterite for the thing that was forgotten)
The second one kind of puts the blame on the thing that you forgot, like it was less intentional, you didn't mean to forget it.
mgirll, sorry for the late resopnse! You discovered a tranlsation error! Sorry about that.
No hace falta agitarlo. No need to shake it.
I have corrected it on the Expansion page. :)
@flynn, thank you !
thanks hypersport, your post comes just in time to help with a similar discussion i am having in my spanish class.
It seems to me, and i may well be wrong, that something that often looks like reflexive verbs at work is more like personal style in that the spanish seem to use subject pronouns sparingly but like to pepper their conversation with indirect object pronouns to make things flow more smoothly.
its like the difference between saying im going to eat breakfast and im going to eat me some breakfast. although the second version conveys a feeling that you are more eager for breakfast the proposed action remains basically the same so to think of it as a separate verb with a separate definition seems overly formal to me i would say the "me" is a condiment that you can add or not. certainly it makes more sense to me this way than having to imagine an infinite dictionary that contains all the possible "reflexive" definitions
what do you think? am i talking me nonesense?
donperigo, that's exactly how I like to think of it. :)
mgirll:
Well, it doesn't make much sense in English.
I think there are basically two ways of learning this kind of structures (and there are fierce advocates of both ways who believe that the other way is just wrong and does more harm than good; thus choose wisely!):
Well, this particular sentence is rather difficult to translate literally. My best literal translation of "No se te olvide" would be "It should not forget itself to you." but I had to translate the imperative mode with "should" which is not very literal. But at least you can see the grammatical roles that "it" and "you" play in the Spanish sentence. Again: you are right, it doesn't make much sense in English. (But that's only because it's Spanish.)
¡ Yessss! take that spanish grammar. JP and me , we agree :-) (
notice i didnt need the "we" there (although i would in spanish))
I often find myself dropping the extra pronouns in because theres a beat missing, because it "feels" right and not because im trying to express a particular shade of meaning. No one has told me to stop, yet. Mind you they probably just feel sorry for the incoherant babbling gringo. Its easier to just keep smiling, maintain eye contact and back away slowly :-)
Having said that i would be very interested, as im sure would thousands of listeners, in a "lets nail down how to use verbs reflexively" series since, for me, it seems to be the subject that involves the most vague hand waving and trite reassurances that youll get the hang of it eventually." the dread subjunctive" is quite straightforward by comparison. I find these tacit admissions that its difficult to explain very exasperating.
Perhaps Spanishpod could make a newbie lesson "lavarse" through intermediate "irse" to advanced lessons with imperfect subjunctive constructions with multiple floating pronouns, all with "in depth" discussion of how it all fits together, when and where to go reflexive, why, what are the rules, tricks, mental models etc . Might this gramatical "theming" already be part of plan X?
BTW the search tool is really lame. It cant find a single useful reference to "reflexive" on the site
Thank you thank you thank you for the discussion on this!!! My brain is still fuzzy, but everything helps :)
@hypersport, estoy de acuerdo, intentar enseñar es una de maneras mejores para aprender. ;)
@mgirll, one note about @hypersport’s point:
I keep running across this type of construction, and have always found it interesting. English is a very me-oriented language: I brush my teeth, I forgot it, I like it. Spanish, to me, feels much less so: Me lavo los dientes, se me olvidó, lo me gusta. Effects and relationships feel more important than the fact that it’s you taking the action.
Not sure if that’ll help, but I found the language more confusing before I started slowly internalizing that flavor. ;)
@donperigo –
Hear hear! You can add me to the thousands there. This is something I’ve never seen truly covered well. Yes, you do definitely have to use it to learn it, and you do need experience, but guidance in gaining [us] some experience would be a great thing. ;)
mgirl
the only thing i can find without spending the day trawling the site is me having a moment of clarity about a year ago (sorry but the formatting got lost in the great leap sideways later that year)
weve been round the "se me he olvidado" loop a few times.
theres a lot more out there but its lost for the moment.
hypersport dio como ejemplos:
Se tienen que secar. Tienen que secarse
Mi pregunta es, son ambas correcto?
Yo nunca sé donde poner 'se' - antes del verbo o después.
(por favor corríjame si me equivoco)
Que quiero decir:
hypersport gave as examples:
Se tienen que secar. Tienen que secarse
My question is - are both correct?
I never know where to put 'se' - before the verb or after.
(please correct my errors)
anstruther,
En este caso, sí, ambos ejemplos son correctos.
Siempre se puede poner 'se' antes o después del verbo?
Que quiero decir:
Can you always put 'se' before or after the verb?
anstruther, usually the "se" goes before the verb but it goes after the conjugated verb when it is a command. levantanse! (Get up!)
it can also go after the verb when the verb is in its infinitive form. tienen que levantarse. (they need to get up)
Hope this helps.
Gracias kikuyu. Fue muy útil y estoy seguro que voy a aprendir a base de práctica.
Que quiero decir:
Thank you kikuyu. It was very helpful and I'm sure I'll learn with practice.
Además,
después del gerundio
Están levantándose
o
Se están levantando
pero No se usa después del participo pasado
Se han levantado
No hay otra opción aquí
gracias dubhais por añadiendo eso acerca del gerundio.
bien saber de los gerundios
(I'm trying to write 'good to know' but don't know if this does it - seems to come across more as 'tastes good' or 'well to know' whatever that means)
anstruther, es bueno saberlo.
gracias, kikuyu
es bueno saberlo ése tambien - es una frase muy útil
yo quiero un bebe.
kikuyu: Supongo que la forma correcta es "¡levantense!", ¿no? I assume the correct form is "..."
anstruther: Un error pequeño: "aprender" (no aprendir)
kikuyu & anstruther: Pero los pronombres (como "se") siempre van antes de los verbos en el imperativo negativo. Es decir: "¡Levantense!" es correcto pero la forma negativa es: "¡No se levanten!" But the pronouns (like "se") always come before the verbs in the negative imperative. That is: "..." is correct but the negative form is: "..."
Para resumir: los pronombres sólo pueden ir después de los verbos en el infinitivo, el imperativo afirmativo, y el gerundio. To sum it up: the pronouns can only go after the verbs in the infinitive, the affirmative imperative, and the gerund.
I found this nice neat little lesson about reflexive verbs.
http://spanishexpert.blogspot.com/2008/01/reflexive-verbs-and-reflexive-pronouns.html
Ok, I think a lot of my confusion lies in trying to understand the different types of Spanish pronouns. I would love to see some lessons that discuss the types of pronoun being used, what family of pronouns it comes from, how and why it's used like it is. This would be great in the Elementary level :) Did I hear "lesson set"?
mgirll: I guess the various types of pronouns would be great topics for some La Clave shows. :) But who knows whether we will see any more La Clave shows? :-/
The newbie lessons are actually full of all kinds of pronouns. A few months ago I spent some time writing some "grammar notes" for the first 40 newbie lessons; most of the pronouns are also discussed in these notes (with examples from the lessons).
martinillo,
Muy bien. Gracias por estar tan meticuloso con todos los ejemplos. Thanks for being so thorough with all of the examples.
y
Gracias por corregir mi ortagrafía del imperativo positivo de Uds. Thanks for correcting my spelling of the affirmative command form for Uds.
levantense Uds!
corrección: Martinillo gracias por (estar) ser tan meticuloso con todos los ejemplos!
Martinillo, they would be great for La Clave shows which I love!!! Is SpanishPod getting rid of La Clave??? I am so out of the loop here!
mgirll: Don't worry, we all are! :) I guess JP was the main driving force behind La Clave. As he is leaving soon, I'm not sure about the future of La Clave. (Well, actually I'm not so sure about the future of SpanishPod either. Oh, and I decided not to worry where Praxis Language is heading. :)
kikuyu: De nada. Y gracias por haber corregido "estar"; yo habría hecho el mismo error.
You're welcome. And thanks for having corrected "estar"; I would have had made the same error.
Martinillo, I just listened to the podcast explaining that JP and Esti are leaving. I'm glad to hear that they have found great opportunities for themselves and wish them the best of luck, but I have to say I will really miss JP's explaination of things. He is such a gifted teacher and is totally enjoyable to listen to and learn from. I wish I knew he was coming to the DC/Maryland area to teach, I would definitely sign up for his class!
mgirll: Yes, I'll miss JP and Esti, too. They are amazingly talented. :)
@martinillo, ¡muchas gracias! por el enlace a las noticias de gramática. Me parecen muy útiles, pero todavía tengo que estudiar más las formas como “se me ha olvidado”. (Como ya he dicho, la gramática me matará! ;) )
@martinillo, thanks much for the link to the grammar notes! They look very useful, but I still need to study the forms like “se me ha olvidado” more. (Like I’ve already said, grammar’s gonna kill me. ;) )
@mgirll, estoy optando por estar optimista sobre SpanishPod y La Clave. Claro que son JP y Esti increíblemente talentosos, y que SpanishPod ha sido formado por las manos de los dos, pero además SpanishPod no es simplemente JP, Esti, Leo, o Liliana. Creando algo, a mí es muy importante asegurarse que sea capaz de seguir y incluso crecer sin sus creadores originales. Lo que vale la pena tendrá su propria vida, y me parece que lo tenga SpanishPod.
@mgirll, I’m choosing to be optimistic about SpanishPod and La Clave. JP & Esti are definitely incredibly talented, and SpanishPod has been shaped at both their hands, but then again SpanishPod isn’t just JP, Esti, Leo, or Liliana. Creating something, I’d say it’s very important to be sure that it’s capable of continuing and even growing without the original creators. Anything that’s really worth it will have a life of its own, and it seems that SpanishPod has that.
(Vale, seguro que he hecho errors. ¡Por favor corregidme! ;) )
flynn: Pues, no encuentro muchos errores. ;) No sé si "noticias" es la mejor traducción, yo habría usado "notas" o "apuntes".
flynn: Well, I don't find many errores. ;) (Difficult translation!) I don't know whether "noticias" is the best translation, I would have used "notas" or "apuntes".
Bueno, supongo que estas notas no son muy útiles para ti porque tienes un nivel mucho más alto. :)
Well, I assume that these notes are not very useful for you because you are on a much higher level. :)
Yo no estoy tan optimista sobre el futuro de SpanishPod. Pero bueno, creo que tendremos suficiente tiempo para preocuparnos. :)
I'm not that optimistic about the future of SpanishPod. But well, I think we will have sufficient time to worry. :)
Hi Guys
I agree totally with Donperigo. I’ve actually found the subjunctive [ which I was “terrified of” previously ] to be rather tame now, compared to the subject of reflexive verbs.
Reflexive verbs are one part of the subject of pronominal verbs.
I think the Spanish “Se” was put on earth to punish me. I have been battling it for over a year now. I have looked through just about every Spanish grammar book on the market. “Se” [ I’ll refer to all reflexive verbs including me, te etc as “se” to save typing ] is either covered too simplisticly or in way too much depth for a beginner like me.
The classic text by Butt and Benjamin can be “hard going” when reading about pronominal verbs [ and is expensive ].
Then I found this great little paperback book by John Butt [ Of B+B fame ] simply called Spanish Grammar.
Under the “verbs’ section, there is a section on The Passive and Pronominal [ including reflexive verbs ]. It neatly breaks up the whole business into little groups [ “The glass broke itself on me”, “You’ve eaten a WHOLE pizza” etc. ].
I have yet to find anything better.
You can buy second hand copies off the Internet very cheaply.
“Se” is no longer the “monster under the bed” for me now !!
Cheers
Dave
Gracias Dave!
Kikuyu: De nada
Lili
I love the expression "...how much water to put for the amount of formula and the amount of baby.." !!
I've never heard it put like a cake recipe before...."Take one baby......"
Congratulations to all you guys on an excellent product. I can see that you put a lot thought into each of these lessons. It is not easy to make little stories that are entertaining and informative. I put on SpanishPod first thing each morning, and always get a little chuckle at something that is said.
Dave