Finish your homework - Discussion

Lesson Introduction

Our friend rodneyp asked us for a lesson on getting the kids up in the morning, and we were happy to oblige! In this lesson, we'll hear some strategies for how to motivate the kids out of bed in the morning, in Spanish!

Comments (41)

kaniaolsen says

¿Ya terminaste tu tarea? What does the "Ya" really refer to? ¿Terminaste tu tarea? is just as correct, verdad?

April 30, 2008 from the Web.

stevestr says

Hi Kaniaolsen Ya is an interesting word in Spanish. In this case ya means yet. So ¿”Ya terminaste tu tarea?” translates as “Have you finished you homework yet.” Ya can also mean already. For example “¿Ya tienes hambre? Means “Are you hungry already?” And a very usefully idiom is “Ya no” which means no longer. For more information on the word ya try the link below. http://www.wordreference.com/es/en/translation.asp?spen=ya

April 30, 2008 from the Web.

russhuntley says

Bueno! Otra leccion puedo utilizar con la familia! Estas puedo recordar. Mi nios recordar tambien :) Otra vez, muchas gracias JP y Lili ~Russ

May 1, 2008 from the Web.

luisita says

Me parece que la introduccion de esta leccion no es la buena pero la de una leccion anterior...

May 1, 2008 from the Web.

donperigo says

somethings awry and no mistake. i cant imagine many kids being motivated to get out of bed by the threat of homework. :-) nice lesson though. i find it strange that "y ingles" feels awkward to the spanish tongue or that "e ingles" is in any way easier and yet phrases like "va a acabar" are perfectly ok (i think) even though its got more a's in row than than aardvark!

May 1, 2008 from the Web.

cyberdiva says

Hola, donperigo. Actually, "va a acabar" is a conspiracy against Spanish learners, who will listen and wonder what a "vacabar" is! :-)

May 1, 2008 from the Web.

alma says

Hola. In the discussion section you two mention that in the dialogue the 'e' of the phrase "e ingles" is there because in Spanish the word 'y' changes to an 'e' in front of a vowel. I think, however, that it's not just any vowel that triggers the change, but only the vowel 'i' (which is the same phonetic sound as 'y' in Spanish). So 'e' is used instead of 'y' only when the word following the conjunction 'y' begins with an 'i' -- for example, "arena y ola" but "arena e isla." . . . Thanks.

May 1, 2008 from the Web.

hollis says

Si tendría tarea de Spanishpod talvez aprendo mejor. Cada semana me prometo que practico el vocabulário nuevo pero estoy perezosa y ya no lo hago. Quizás mañana ...

May 1, 2008 from the Web.

donperigo says

aloha a alma :-) thanks for the feedback, i now have a theory ok i can sort of see that, "y" is a whole word and you wouldnt want it being mistaken for the part of an adjoining word. but then so is "a" its not awkward for me to voice y - i , but then i probably have an atrocious accent . therefore, perhaps there is a very subtle difference between "y " and "I" that is trivial to anyone who grew up listening to a different language that gets lost when you string the two sounds together. alternatively a and a being "exactly" the same wouldn't suffer from the same problem. Hola ciberdiva a vacabar is a place where cows go to drink.

May 1, 2008 from the Web.

shep1582 says

Confused today, so I'm looking for help from mis amigos. The dreaded subjunctive verb tense, arggh! No me gusta el subjuntivo. Why use veamos? "Let's go" in spanish is "vamos", so could you use just "vemos" instead. I understand the subjunctive is a mood tense and I guess I'm not moody enough to understand it. Okay, I guess "getting in the mood" is for another podcast lesson. Gracias

May 1, 2008 from the Web.

anna8 says

Oye amigo, I think what we're looking at is the "we" form of the imperative: veamos = let's see It is identical in form to the present subjunctive, but as I understand it, it isn't exactly a subjunctive here. I don't know, maybe we're just used to hearing, "vamos a ver" (also a "we" imperative, but of the verb "ir") or: "a ver" to mean the same thing, ie, "let's see." So does that make any sense at all?

May 1, 2008 from the Web.

strelnikov1960 says

I urge the SpanishPod team to crush me underfoot if I am wrong, but it appears that the exact rules are: y becomes e before "i-" (or, "hi-"); o becomes u before "o-" (or, "ho-").

May 1, 2008 from the Web.

likelyconfused says

It's ironic that you didn't give us any homework on this lesson!

May 1, 2008 from the Web.

darda says

oh I always thought the word "deberes" was for homework.. Now what's the difference between tarea and deberes? Oh and another question.. Enseñame.. Is that the same word as "teach me"? But because it's in this sentence it means something else? =P

May 2, 2008 from the Web.

shep1582 says

Anna, amiga, ¿qué tal? You are correct. It is the imperative or command form as Lili and JP would say. I'm so use to the informal "tú" or the polite "usted" and "ustedes" forms. The "we" form seems so weird (tan extraño). Also agree that I'm more use to "vamos a ver" (let's see) or "vamos a bailar" (let's dance), etc. Really not important but "vamos" is regular form, indicative correct? No need to answer. Probably too much grammar discussed as our host would say. More importantly, however, not feeling confused anymore. Thanks again anna, you're the best!

May 2, 2008 from the Web.

shep1582 says

Likelyconfused I agree that no homework was ironic - maybe that felt we wouldn't finish it. Luisita, I also scratched my head too on the intro.... Hasta pronto

May 2, 2008 from the Web.

anna8 says

Por nada, Shep. Como siempre, un placer :-)

May 2, 2008 from the Web.

stevestr says

Darda There is a discussion of tarea vs. deberes on wordReference.com, see link below. But it looks like either word could be used to mean homework. One person said that deberes is used more in Spain. I know that I am exposed much more to Spanish form Latin America and I have always hear tarea used for homework http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=241111

May 2, 2008 from the Web.

Team	estibalitz says dear kaniaolsen, "Ya" means "already". You can also say May 4, 2008 from the Web.

elee8888cn says

Veamos

May 4, 2008 from the Web.

Team	estibalitz says dear Darda, "tarea" is the word used in Latin America for homework, whereas in Spain we use "deberes", so both are perfectly correct. May 4, 2008 from the Web.

oolung says

Cyberdiva, nice comment :)

May 6, 2008 from the Web.

cyberdiva says

Hola donperigo. ¡Me gusta muchísimo tu definición de "vacabar"!

May 6, 2008 from the Web.

donperigo says

cyberdiva gracias, tu estas demasiado amable creo que vacabar is muy Gary larson veamos si los vínculos funcionan ahora http://www.loudfrog.com/itemdetail.aspx?detailID=232296 or http://www.riverfall.com/img_new/blog/cow_poetry.jpg

May 6, 2008 from the Web.

manzanaverde says

Hola a todos Cuando yo era un niño, no me gustaba hacer tareas, ni estudiar. Entonces yo sacaba muy malas notas. Desafortunadamente, en aquellos añons, mi mama no estaba conmigo y yo jugaba demasiado con mis amigos. A menudo tenia miedo de ir a la escuela.

May 10, 2008 from the Web.

mowser says

Hola a todos ! I'm a little confused... In the main audio player when mum says "do it "(and you can tell she isn't messing !!!!) the verb hacer sounds SO like "hazlO !" but when I read the written dialogue it is "hazlA ! ".

I'm a relative newbie so maybe I'm missing something here?

May 11, 2008 from the Web.

Team	estibalitz says dear mowser, good listening skill, tienes muy buen oído. The dialogue should say hazlA too, we´re working on that, ¡gracias! May 11, 2008 from the Web.

russhuntley says