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Lesson Introduction

In today's big podcast, we discuss

  • the pronunciation of /b/ and /v/
  • the regional pronouns vosotros and vos
  • how to say "to crack one's self up" in Spanish

Comments (27) RSS

Avatar Team
jpvillanueva says

¡Hola todos!

We had more ways to say "to crack one's self up," but we had to cut them from the show, to keep it clean.

;-)

Keep the great questions coming, amigos!

June 12, 2008 from the Web.
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donperigo says

eberyone?

carcajiarse,  presumably thats because one laughs, oneself "me carcajo ?" is theres a non reflexive carcajiar as well?

nice word, and great demonstration leo, are there other onomatopoeic spanish words?

June 12, 2008 from the Web.
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donperigo says

have just realised me carcajo is redundant as a simple statement , its easier just to laugh. I suppose you could use it ironically or say cuando me carcajo...
heres a link to the guatamalan quetzal couldnt find a recipe though :-)

June 12, 2008 from the Web.
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stevestr says

 

Who ever came up with the idea of Pa’ Que Sepas  should get a raise.  They are my favorite lessons.

June 12, 2008 from the Web.
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stevestr says

 

vos and vosotros

When I was in Antigua Guatemala, the man from my host family told me that in Guatemala, when men talk to each other, they will only use vos or usted.  Tú was fine when talking to woman and children but between men, only vos.  

Wikipedia has a page where they show the conjugation of verbs including vos and vosotros. The wikipedia page only shows regular verbs.  Remember that stem changes are not included in vos..  For example the verb vener.  Tu vienes but vos venés

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_conjugation

Jp

It looks like vos is only used in the present indicative, present subjunctive and commands, is this what you have found?

June 12, 2008 from the Web.
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thesmithtopher says

Informally, I've seen a lot of spanish speakers spell words with the wrong v/b, it seems quite common to mix them up as they sound the same.

Jpvillanueva, vi quetzales cuando estaba en Costa Rica, ¡son hermosos!

Leo, I've heard that in some parts of southern Mexico they use Vos (near the border to guatemala), es verdad?

Stevestrv, One interesting thing i found out about vos is that my boss uses it informally, he's from Maracaibo.  But his conjugations are different "vos coméis, vos tenéis", so it's more like vosotros in conjugation, adding in that "i".

June 12, 2008 from the Web.
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stevestr says

Hi all

If you would like to practice your pronunciation of v and b, try this. link.http://www.studyspanish.com/pronunciation/letter_bv.htm

June 12, 2008 from the Web.
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stevestr says

 

I like quetzal, it taste like a cross between bald eagle and California condor.  

June 12, 2008 from the Web.
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anna8 says

So if you're cracking up (...with laughter, I mean with laughter), you can say --

     carcajearse, partirse de la risa, me voto de la risa, me muero de la risa, me meo de la risa, lloro de la risa...

What about troncharse de la risa?

And just how vulgar is mearse?

    

     

June 12, 2008 from the Web.
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triciclo says

I have a friend from El Salvador I used to practice spanish with like every week, and when we first started she was totally lost on how to address me because she's so used to using voseo with friends ( and of couse I didn't know it) so we ended up using usted.

It seemed like a similar situation in Nicaragua too when I was there. If your a foriegner you kinda use usted with everyone except maybe the family pet. :p 

dunno. anyway if anyone's curious here is nicaraguan radio show that's kinda cool where the hostess uses voseo. http://www.puntos.org.ni/ssr/index.php

June 12, 2008 from the Web.
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thesmithtopher says

Thanks triciclo, I'll check out that link.

Personally I'd really like to become more familiar with the voseo conjugation.  The reality seems that it's not all that different but I'd like to familiarize myself with even just recognizing and understanding it.

June 12, 2008 from the Web.
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stevestr says

I think Wikipedia can answer all of your voseo questions and some you haven't even thought off.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voseo

themithtopher

Check out this link.  I think that you will see your boss'  conjugation under vos(venezuela)

June 12, 2008 from the Web.
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thesmithtopher says

stevestrv,

He visto esta página hace mucho tiempo pero, en ese momento fue demasiada complicada de entender.  Ahora la entiendo, gracias por el vínculo  :)

I really like the vos conjugation, it's pretty straight forward, and dare I say that it's fun!  One thing I'm curious about is that I know that vos is used in mainstream media, but in official proposals, reports, government, etc is vos even used there in Argentina?

June 12, 2008 from the Web.
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cobre says

So if you're cracking up (...with laughter, I mean with laughter), you can say --

     carcajearse, partirse de la risa, me voto de la risa, me muero de la risa, me meo de la risa, lloro de la risa...

 

How do these translate into text abreviations like : Lol, roflmao etc?

Cobre

 

June 12, 2008 from the Web.
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thesmithtopher says

Pensaba que los Argentinos dicen andate, no andavos...

I'm also as curious as anna8, "And just how vulgar is mearse?"

Liliana, es "me voto" de "votar"?  O voter? O algo diferente?

June 12, 2008 from the Web.
Avatar Team
leoguerrero says

thesmithtopher, I've been to Chiapas and Oaxaca, which . In the places where I was they didn't speak with "vos". I guess they might say in the little towns right on the border. Does anybody know more about this? In my experience I've never heard a Mexican saying it.

June 12, 2008 from the Web.
Avatar Team
leoguerrero says

thesmithtopher,

Tienes razón, los argentinos dicen "andate" y en centroamerica usan mas el "andá vos".

Algo mas, es me "boto" de "botar", which means to bounce.

 

June 12, 2008 from the Web.
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oolung says

muchas gracias for the reply (or rather the replies) to my question! Que interesante oir tantas expresiones!

Unfortunately, I'm moving back to my parents' for now, so I won't be listening to Spanishpod every day (no internet) - como lo voy a soportar!!! - but I'll try to catch up whenever possible.

June 13, 2008 from the Web.
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donperigo says

oolung

¿hay un café internet circa de sus padres casa?
¿la biblioteca público puede tener computadoras?
quizas mcdonalds tenga un red inalámbrica.

hasta luego oolung :-(  ya te echo de menos

June 13, 2008 from the Web.
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dtang says

Magnifica leccion!  Great insight... I have certainly never come across vos from studying textbooks...

June 14, 2008 from the Web.
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jimoya says

Muy interesante. Después de oir las explicaciones sobre la /v/ entre vocales (cueva) me he quedado con la duda sobre cómo la pronuncio yo. A mi me da la impresión de que la pronuncio igual que la /b/ de burro o bobo. Quizás sea algo regional?? (soy española, de Barcelona) o es posible que sea una característica de mi manera de hablar (?)

De todas maneras me encanta escucharos! Ya le comenté a Leo cuando estuve por vuestra oficina que si no fuera por falta de tiempo os escucharía todos los días ^^

June 14, 2008 from the Web.
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thesmithtopher says

Lo que entiendo sobre la pronunciación de "v" y "b" en español es que los dos son totalmente igual.

Pero cuándo se dice una palabra tal como "bebé", la primera B se pronuncia con los labios cerrados, mientras que la segunda se pronuncia con los labios casi cerrados.  Así que cuando se dice "la bebé", la primera "b" cambia de suena en la misma que la segunda.

Para un inglesparlante, la suena hecha de los labios totalmente cerrados "bebé" (la b en negrilla) suena como la B inglesa, mientras que la suena hecha de los labios casi cerrasos "bebé" o "la bebé" (las b en negrilla) suena como la V inglesa.

En inglés se pronuncia siempre la "B" como la primera b de "bebé", siempre!  Se pronuncia la "V" siempre como la segunda.

Espero que te he ayudado! :)

June 14, 2008 from the Web.
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kaniaolsen says

Hola,

Tengo gusto de esta lección debido a los errores comunes de pronunciar "v" y "b" ¿pero la quisiera saber si hay regla general que ayuden a los errores comunes?

Cuando fui a la escuela en Oaxaca, mis profesores me dijeron que "vosotros" no esta según lo utilizado tan a menudo como otros países suramericanos.

 

June 14, 2008 from the Web.
Avatar Team
leoguerrero says

Hola amigos! Una aclaración:

Recibimos un email con el siguiente comentario de la parte de una profesora de Español:

"Tengo que informarles que no hay diferencia semántica entre uno y otro. La diferencia no es gramatical sino geográfica. Si la madre del niño lo corrijió fue porque tal vez pensó que es el receptor no comprendería si el niño hablaba en "vos" ya que es menos común que el "tú". Esta es la única razón lógica por la cual la madre obligó al niño a usar el "tú"."

Investigué un poco con amigos costaricenses y guatemaltecos. Llegue a la conclusión de que ella tiene mucha razón. El "vos" es lo mismo que el "tu". La razón por la que dije yo en el podcast que el vos es mas informal que el tu, es porque en Costa Rica se utiliza menos el "vos" de lo que nosotros usamos el "tu" en México. Por ejemplo, en México generalmente usamos el "tu" para dirigirnos a nuestros padres, tios y abuelos. En Costa Rica, es casi inmpensable dirigirse a estos de "vos". Por eso llegue yo a la conclusión de que el vos era más informal.

Ademas me dijo mi amigo guatemalteco que en Guatemala también hay algunas partes donde se habla de "tu", pero que en estas partes no se usa el "vos" osease que jamás se mezclan. Se usa el "tu" o se usa el "vos" pero no los dos.

Si alguien tiene mas información sobre el uso de éstos en otros paises sería muy interesante que lo compartieran con nosotros.

June 16, 2008 from the Web.
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oolung says

donperigo,

no, there's just my sister's house, so I'll probably invade her from time to time :) To tell you the truth, I quite enjoy not being able to use the internet. I really don't like computers that much and the only reason I've been pressing the 'on' button every day for the last year was to listen to the podcasts. Now I'll have an excuse not to study! :) Instead I'll be drinking tea watching my cat and all the beautiful flowers in my parents' garden in a leisurely fashion. Can life be more beautiful? (yup, I'm a country girl deep inside). 

Thanks for your remark, it made me feel very special :)

(hmm, I've just remembered that our hosts had  some problems reading my nickname... and here I was thinking it was so simple and straightforward! I already have a surname AND and an e-mail address which is, very surprisingly, almost impossible to spell. I really thought this one would be easy!)

 

    

June 17, 2008 from the Web.
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nurdle says

Gracias! Thank you so much for this great lesson... I saw the title in my iTunes list for a little while now and I thought, hmm, maybe it has something to do with my question. I was so pleased to hear "nooordlay" - made me feel very special. And on top of that I learned stuff! Thanks again.

June 19, 2008 from the Web.
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jgrob says

¿Qué Pasaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa?

 

¡Ahhh mí Dois! Después de eschucar a esta lección ..... ¡Acabar de hice una epifanía! Tengo una amiga bueno de perú. Ella se educó en Argentina. Cuando empezamos a escribirse, nosotros nos usamos un traductor. Me di cuenta de que muchos de el verbos de ella no se tradujeron. También me di cuenta de que verbos como “saber” (en la segunda persona tiempo presente) se tradujo como sigue..... “sabés.” Ahora me doy cuenta que ella ha sido escrito con el “vos” pronombre. Uffffff! Como en todo español, el pronombre siempre más se omitió, pues nunca vi el “vos.” No se pueden imaginar el confusión que

 

OMG! After listening to this program, I just had an epiphany! I have a good friend from Peru. She was educated in Argentina. When we began corresponding, we used a translator. I noticed that many of her verbs were not being translated. I also noticed that verbs like “saber” (in the first person - present tense) was translated as follows….. “sabés.” Now I realize that she has been writing with the “vos” pronoun. As in all Spanish the pronoun is most always omitted, so I never saw the “vos.”

 

Guys, I know our questions drive you crazy, because we are “block heads” (jajaja) but, you can’t even begin to imagine how much we appreciate your time and effort.

 

Jeff (j-g-rob)

March 3, 2009 from the Web.

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