Elementary - Call an ambulance!

SpanishPod Team

SpanishPod Team
De este lección aprendí que gente usa la expresión “venga” – “come on” aunque están tuteando. ¿estoy correcto?

In this lesson I learned that people use the expression “venga” – “come on “even if they are using “tu”.  Am I right?

La pregunta del día:

¿Has tenido alguna experiencia memorable con los servicios médicos de urgencia u otra oficial de la seguridad pública?

Have you had any memorable experience with the EMS (emergency medical services) or other public security official?

Un día había un olor horrible en mi piso... un olor quemado. Llamé 999, y en seguida vinieron como 10 bomberos, 3 agentes de policía y una ambulancia. Fue una situación embarazosa... Al final fue el olor del vecino mío que estaba limpiando su chimena.

There was a horrible smell in my apartment once... a burnt smell. I called 999 and like 10 firefighters, 3 police officers and an ambulance came immediately. It was embarrassing. In the end, the odor was the smell of my neighbor cleaning his chimney.

stevestrv, así es.  That's right!

Thank you JP

Hola Carmen,

Does Spanish distinguish between urgencia and emergencia the way (American) English distinguishes between urgent and emergent care?

Is the word piso (apartment) used in Latin America or primarily in Spain?

By the way, did you grow up speaking Spanish, did you study it in school or did you learn it from a group of brilliant innovationists* on the internet? :)

*I'm not sure if that's a word, but if it isn't, it should be!

Hey anna8!

I learned Spanish in school and living in Spain. My usage tends toward Castellano, so I say things like "piso" instead of "apartamento" as I suppose they do in Latin America.

I like innovationist! Even found an entry for it at freedictionary.com. Neat meaning, but no I didn´t learn from online innovationists.

gracias Carmen -

Para decir "apartment",  aprendí departamento o depa en México.

¡Pues eres tú una de las inovacionistas del internet de quienes estamos aprendiendo!

Hola Todos,

Ufffff, the reflexive sentence structure just kills me. I can’t quite seem to understand when to use it and when not. Can anyone help? Please! In the last sentence of the dialogue “Se me olvidó con los nervios.” Is “Se” referring to the telephone number?

Thanks,

Jeff (j-g-rob)

anna8

¡Muchas gracias! Cada día aprendo algo nuevo trabajando con las linguistas de praxis. ¡Ha sido un privilegio!

jgrob, yes indeed, the telephone number is both the antecedent of the particle "se," as well as the subject of the the verb. 

In English we'd say "I forgot it," but in Spanish, the direct translation is "it was forgotten to me..." or "it forgot itself to me."  Notice that "to me" is the victim of the forgetting, not the agent!  :)

Entiendo.......... gracias J.P.

Hey guys and gals,

OK, OK, I am sick (jajaja), I know. I just can’t settle for simply accepting that…. that is the way it is. I have to dig deeper. I know, I know J.P………… I am one of those students that would have driven you crazy. :) Yes, I am actually having to learn English all over, also. :\ Not, that I learned it very well the first time. Jejeje. Below is what I turned up to help me understand the inner working of the sentence “Se me olvidó con los nervios” and J.P.’s (above) explanation:

Antecedent - A word, phrase, or clause, usually a substantive, that is replaced by a pronoun or other substitute later, or occasionally earlier, in the same or in another, usually subsequent, sentence. In Jane lost a glove and she can't find it, Jane is the antecedent of she and glove is the antecedent of it. (dictionary.reference.com)

Particle - a. An uninflected item that has grammatical function but does not clearly belong to one of the major parts of speech, such as up in He looked up the word or to in English infinitives.

b. In some systems of grammatical analysis, any of various short function words, including articles, prepositions, and conjunctions. (www.thefreedictionary.com)

So I believe that “se” is the antecedent of the particle of the understood “to” in “to me” of “me”. As “itself” is the antecedent of the particle “to” in the translation “It forgot (olvidó) itself (se) to me (me)” ¿Verdad?

Jeff (j-g-rob)

Hi jgrob,

Actually, the pronoun "me" in that sentence is the indirect object pronoun, corresponding in Enlgish to "to me." 

The "se" just means "itself" (it's the direct object, happens to be reflexive, refers to the subject, the antecedent of which is 'the phone number.')  The "se" doesn't have anything to do with the English word "to."

J.P.

Yeah, thanks : ) ………. Duhhhhhhhhh, I see my ignorance. Half educated hill-billys can be dangerous if we actually try to think. Ahahaha. Thanks, J.P.

I am a steam turbine operator (produce electricity), and sit in a control room all day, or night (which ever shift I happen to be working). I describe my job some what like an ambulance driver (EMT)………….. hours of sheer boredom, followed by moments of sheer terror. You guys make the shift go by so much better. I have to listen with earbuds, so I imagine others wonder what the goofy smile is about, when y’all crack me up.

Keep up the good work and please be patient with our ignorance.

Has anyone seen my sandwich?

Jeff (j-g-rob)

jgrob, I've been teaching Spanish for 13 years; students always have theories, and I've seen them all!  Keep the questions coming!

Also, you should know, my family is from Ilokos, a mountainous region in the Philippines... they're from the "bundok," which is where the English word "boondocks" comes from!  There will always be room for hillbillies here :)

J.P. I have got to ask this question. How in the world did you become interested in Spanish? And do you speak Tagalog?

Yeah, the "boondocks", now that is speakin' hillbilly. I swear I have almost all my "toofs." (smile) jajaja.

Jeff (j-g-rob)

Llamé el ambulancia dos veces – el primero cuando la casa de vecino estaba en llamas, el secundo con vi una coche condujo de la carretera.

Estaba en el ambulancia solamente una vez.  Hace muchos años estaba implicado en un accidente de autobús de escuela muy grave.  Nos autobús chocó en una finca en un lugar rural y por que hay muchas niñas y muchas heridas me acuerdo del chofer de ambulancia estaba un de los agricultores de allí.  Los paramédicos estaban con nos, los tres heridas en dentro.  El agricultor debió conducir muy lente porque una de las niñas tuve una herido de espalda muy grave.  Tuve suerte con solamente las heridas menos.

Hola cutthatcity.

Se me olvidó is translated as "I forgot it".  Yeah, you can break it down to "it forgot itself on me" when you're trying to understand the construction, but once you understand how it works, you translate it as "I forgot it".

It only sounds awkward to your ears if you're trying to make English out of it.  "Se me olvidó" is very common spoken Spanish, it just sounds right.  Remember, you want to get to the point where you aren't thinking in English, where the Spanish just sounds right and you know what it means. 

Hola jgrob.

Reflexive verbs have se on the end.  When you're first learning construction with these verbs, you want to attach each part to something in English so it all makes sense.    I remember this well when I was first learning and I was trying to get a Mexican who also spoke English to explain to me the sentence...

se le va a caer....imagine a girl at the dinner table and her milk is about to fall off off the table....

She's gonna spill her milk....He couldn't explain it to me, was very frustrating as I wasn't sure what se meant in the sentence. 

Ok, we're in a deli looking at some sandwiches and I say to you...

¿Cómo los hacen?  How do they make them.  Hacer
¿Cómo se hacen?  How are they made.         Hacerse

You see the difference in how a reflexive verb works?  In the first sentence, hacen refers to the workers making the sandwiches.  In the second sentence, the verb is reflexive and refers to itself.

Now back to the first example with the milk...

Le is the girl, se goes with caer even though they look miles apart in the sentence, this is caerse.

So the milk is going to spill itself (fall) on to the girl, which sounds awkward as cutthatcity said, but really it just means that she is going to spill the milk.

If I just say....se va a caer....it's going to fall.  But adding the le changes it to falling "on the girl".

If I say "lo olvidé" it means that I forgot it.
If I say "se me olvidó" it means the same thing, but I'm kind of softening it up a bit by pushing a bit of the blame on whatever it was that I forgot, like I'm the victim of the forgetting.  In the first sentence, it would imply more that I forgot it intentionally, more on purpose.

The more experience you get with reflexive verbs, the more normal it will all seem.

Hope it helps.

hypersport

Muchas muchas gracias. Until I began studying Spanish, I completely took for granted how much is involved in developing fluency in a language. And have developed an incredible respect for those who (such as the Spanishpod team) have mastered two or more languages.

Last year I was in Lima, Perú. I took un autobús tour of the city. La señorita that was the hostess of the tour was amazingly fluent is both Español (por supuesto) and English. I felt amazement and envy (the good kind) for her ability to jump back and forth from each language (seemingly) effortlessly. Of course, the fact that she was one of the most beautiful girls I have ever met did help, also. Jajaja. The rich culture and language of Latin America and Spain have opened my eyes to a completely different world. I have developed a love affair for the culture. I feel their culture still posses many of the wonderful attributes that the North American culture has lost. (Family, politeness, etc.) OK, OK, I admit that the beautiful ladies also add interest. :)

A todos, I thank you for sharing your journey and your acquired knowledge with each of us.

Jeff (j-g-rob)

Jeff, that's awesome!

Yeah, I can totally relate.  I've been studying for 3 years now, and I started speaking with Mexicans right from the beginning, it was like this language allowed me a pass into another world.  Just the weirdest feeling when I first started speaking, like there was validation in the stuff that I was learning, like I could say something that I had learned, and the person would react as if I was speaking in English, was so cool.

I had no idea of the culture and how it varies, how many countries speak Spanish, etc.  So eye-opening!  I couldn't have told you where Machu Piccu was, or anything about Dia de los Muertos, etc.

Now I watch all my news and entertainment on the tv in Spanish so I get so much culture and different perspectives on current events here in the U.S. as well as abroad daily, again, so educational and so good.

I really think that's the key to mastering the language, to really take interest in the culture, to want to learn more and more and thereby continuing to strengthen your ability with the language.  Making friends, etc.

Hypersport,

Thanks, your exactly right. I'm trying to detatch english meaning from words as much as I can. It's just I get a little obsessive when I encounter a new dense(ish) phrase the first time.

I couldn't still understand

¡No preguntes y llama a una ambulancia!

When I tried conjugation.org for preguntar and llamar..

Preguntes - II Person Subjunctive (present) for preguntar

Llama - III Person Present or II Person Imperative for Llamar.

I thought it would have been ..

¡No pregunta y llama a una ambulancia!

ncmuck: for prohibitive imperatives (i.e., imperatives with "no"; also called "negative imperatives") such as "¡no preguntes!" you have to use the present subjunctive. That's why it's "¡(tú) no preguntes!" (don't ask!) but "¡(tú) pregunta!" (ask!).

It's a simple rule that you just have to memorize; it's valid in Spain as well as in Latin America.

¿Has tenido alguna experiencia memorable con los servicios médicos de urgencia?

Así es, por desgracia.  Cuando mi esposo y yo vivíamos en la Republica de Georgia, él estuve enfermo.  Vivíamos en un pueblo remoto que no tiene servicios médicos confiables, pero no había tiempo para ir a otro lugar.  La ambulancia vino a nuestra casa, y la médica le dio a mi esposo fluidos intravenosos.  Al día siguiente fuimos a un hospital en la ciudad capital.  Afortunadamente, se recuperó.

Sadly, yes.  When my husband and I were living in the Republic of Georgia, he got very sick.  We were living in a remote town that didn't have reliable medical services, but there was no time to go somewhere else.  The ambulance came to our house and the doctor gave my husband several IVs.  The next day we went to a hospital in the capital city. Thankfully, he recovered.

how does se me olvido differ from me he olvidado?

both mean 'i forgot'?  really can't tell the difference..:-(

Hola miguelchang.

You can say "I forgot" many ways. 

You can use olvidar.  Olvidé.  I forgot
You can use olvidarse.  Se me olvidó.  I forgot.

In the case with he olvidado you are using the helping verb haber (to have) and the past participle of olvidar...I have forgotten.

I'm sorry, I've forgotten your name.... Perdón, he olvidado tu nombre..

what about me olvidé for i forgot or would that be i forgot myself as in i made a mistake or had a bout of amnesia?

donperigo, aquí tienes unos ejemplos que Esti me dio hace un rato:

1.-Olvidé tu regalo. 

2.-Me olvidé de tu regalo.

3.-Se me olvidó tu regalo.

Great lesson.Couldn't get the vocab tab audios to play for some reason ,nor one of the audios in the exercises,but not a big deal or an urgencia.It's amazing what some people will construe as urgencias when they get con los nervios here[Pardon the French(btw is that English expression about pardoning rude language considered offensive to French? If so,honestly no offense intended.I'd really like to know though)]

Hola hypersport

Muchas gracias por tu 'explanation'..:-)

Miguel

Tengo una pregunata.

Por que en el dialgo, usaste la frase "frente ala casa" y no "en frente a la casa"?

Es "en frente" incorrecto, or es iqual que "frente"?

Hola snkscore,

Others may be able to explain it better, but I'm pretty sure that 'frente a' translates to 'in front', as in directly infront of someone or something, while 'enfrente de' translates to 'across from', or 'opposite to'.
Think of 'frente a' referring to a front garden of a house, and 'enfrente de' reffering to across the road.

Hope that helps

Tengo una pregunta yo mismo,

¿Alguien me podría decir por qué hay un 'a' antes de la palabra ambulancia, es un pronombre personal?

cutthatcity

It was years ago but I remember a line form Mastering Spanish I which was similar to “Voy a llamar a una agencia.” “ I am going to call an agency.”  If I remember correctly, in the notes, they said that the personal “a” was used because the speaker was thinking of the agency as people.  You can kind of see this; you are dealing with the people of the agency.  Maybe the same principal applies to “llama a una ambulancia”.  Like I said, it was years ago and I can not find the book, but I think that was the idea.

Stevestrv,

I see what you are saying, thanks alot for the response.

cutthatcity

You are welcome but I am not sure that my answer is correct.

I've just noticed in the expansion section there is the following sentence:

No llega la ambulancia.
(The ambulance hasn't arrived.)

However when I hear the sentence spoken, it is actually: "no ha llegado la ambulancia".  I'm assuming they can be translated the same way, although a different tense is used?

kate1981

¡Wow! ¡Viviste in la republica de Georgia!¿Qué tal la vida allá?

rachelt

if you want to preserve the present tense you can translate it as

the ambulance doesnt arrive

Come on!

why are you guys so dead against thinking of venga as the command form of venir? it makes sense to me and fits nicely in a lesson so chock full of imperatives.

is it just me or does leo say se me olvído as opposed to olvidó? Would it still work in the present tense.

kikuyu

thanks for the info.

Donperigo,

Venga is the usted form while all the other mandatos are in the tu form.  That's why it's an expression, rather than a mandato, here.

I listened again and to me it really does sound like se me olvidó. 

In the present tense, se me olvida, it might theoretically make sense but I get the sense that the preterite form is used much more commonly when the verb olvidar is used in this "no fault se" construction.

anna8

a fair point :-) but they always make a point of saying dont think of venga like that. though i cant see another way that makes sense.

I suppose if i was teaching english to a spaniard I might point out that the expression "come on" doesnt literally mean move towards me. perhaps thats what they are getting at.  it seems to me that the two expressions and the meanings map across pretty exactly.

:-)

Hypersport,

I have struggled MIGHTILY with spanish reflexives, how to use them, when to use them, almost to the point of despair. I would tell myself that if I cannot grasp this apparantly "simple" concept then how can I possibly aspire to mastering even just conversational spanish. Now , after reading your explanation, it seems like the understanding is starting to seep in to my little brain! LOL I will re-read your explanation ten more times and maybe....just maybe..... I will have some small grasp of the concept of spanish reflexives. I can't thank you enough.  You have no idea how much distress this has caused me. Muchisima gracias.

Hey bluebird111, that's great!  They will get easier.

Hace unas semanas yo fui para un paseo en ambulancia.  Tuve un piedra de riñon (yo sé, es irónico).

El dolor era horrible durante cuatro horas y por fin dije a mi esposa que puede llamarla. 

Me dieron un inyección y un litre de suero y en media hora estaba todo bien. 

En la leccion JP y Lili preguntaron cuánto cuesta un viaje en ambulancia en Estados Unidos.  Voy a aprender pronto.  Sospecho unos dos mil dolares.    Afortunadamente mi seguro debería pagarlo. 

Este mensaje fue difícil porque tuve que decidir entre usando los verbos imperfecto y pretérito.  Hace dos meses no sé nada de los dos tipos de verbos.  Por tanto, es progreso.

Que quiero decir:

A few weeks ago I went on a ride in an ambulance.  I had a kidney stone (I know, it is ironic).

The pain was horrible for four hours and finally I told my wife that she could call it.

They gave me an injection and a liter of saline and in half an hour I was totally fine. 

In the lesson, JP and Lili wondered how much an ambulance trip cost in the US.  I'll find out soon.  I suspect around two thousand dollars.  Fortunately my insurance should pay it.

This post was difficult because I had to decide between using imperfect and preterite verbs.  Two months ago I didn't know anything about the two types of verbs.  So it is progress.