Pay Phone - Discussion

Lesson Introduction

This lesson for those times when you just have to make a call, but you forgot your cell phone, or there's no coverage, or you used up all your minutes... so you have to resort to the pay phone on the corner.

Comments (71)

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darda says

Oh by the way, MexicoBob Nice story =) I think I can remember that, because I think I'll use it a lot of times from now on ;) In the Netherlands we have almost the same saying, but we say that 10 cents fell instead 20 cents.. LOL =D

November 22, 2007 from the Web.

pegasus says

...gracias juanpatricio, pero no has respondido mi segunda pregunta: ...is it ...?no h a y ejercicios e n esta lección? or ...?no h a y ejercicios c o n esta lección? ...so which one is correct: "en" or "con"? Danke...

November 22, 2007 from the Web.

Team	lilianamata says Pegasus The right way is: No hay ejercicios "en" esta lección. Darda Primary school is "escuela primaria", but you can only say "primaria" and people will understand. November 22, 2007 from the Web.

yardbird says

Tengo unas preguntas (a few questions): 1. Sobre esta lección: A la izquierda, a la derecha. I'm familiar with these drirections. But in a SpanishSense lesson about shopping for Spanish books, a bookstore customer was directed to find something on the table *de* la izquierda, if I remember the direction. It got translated in the podcast as if it meant exactly the same as a la izquierda. But I had a suspicion that it meant, sort of, the table "of" the left as opposed to, I suppose, the table of the right. As if it was a way of identifying which of two tables nearby it was, each identified by its position. Más or menos, anyway. Sort of like speaking of a political party. The party of the left, the party of the right. It had that feeling, rather than general direction in the world at large. I'd never before heard "de" used like that, though, so I'm just guessing. Ayudame, por favor. 2. Not from the lesson, but from comments above. Hearing the 20 centavo piece drop. it's a charming story about how that gave rise to an expression meaning "ya lo entiendo," but now I'm curious about the grammar and vocab. First of all, is "cayer" (yes?) either drop or fall, but not "strike?" I've heard the expression, when someone impresses you nicely, to say "me cayó bien," meaning (in English, though some may think this formal or archaic usage, though I don't) "he struck me well." Does that literally mean "he fell nicely on me?" And, to back up a little, why is it "me cayó la veinte?" It sounds to me like "the coin dropped on me or struck me. It does *not* say, " I heard the coin drop or fall." This is one of those apparent reflexives that confuse me. I'm willing to accept learning that it's a very imprecise sort of casualism, literally meaning "the coin dropped on me" but not understood that way when it's said, because everyone understands the scenario. I just would like to understand where these slang constructions arise from. My question has nothing to do with "right" or "wrong," let me emphasize. Thanks.

November 22, 2007 from the Web.

Team

jpvillanueva says

yardbird, your first is a stumper, we're breaking our heads open here in Studio Fiesta to try to explain it. I'll have to get back to you. For now, we want to say that "la mesa a la izquierda" is whatever table your that's on your left side, whereas "la mesa de la izquierda" is one of two tables... hard to explain, we're still working on it.... As for "caerle bien a alguien," it is literally, "to fall well to someone.' If someone told you it meant "strike" they were just trying to give you a closer English approximation. As for "me cayó la veinte," you should always think of the indirect object pronoun as "to someone" or "for someone." So when you want to say that you finally understand something, you say "the twenty has dropped for me." There are other uses of the dative/reflexive pronoun that show surprise (i.e., se me cayeron las llaves; "the keys fell"). Frankly, this comes up more in speech than in print. The effect is that it wasn't the person's fault that the keys fell, the "dropper" is a surprised and there was nothing s/he could do about it. Anyway, when you hear this in the wild, you'll get it!

November 22, 2007 from the Web.

yardbird says

J.P., thanks for the responses. I don't think you guys have to struggle with that left/right issue, because you are saying, above, approximately the same thing I was trying to express in my own way. The table at your left-- no matter how many other tables may be strewn about the space, just so that one is obviously the one on the left-- as opposed to the table sort of "of" the left, as opposed to the one that, whether or not anyone's looking at it or standing in relation to it at the moment, is the left one, as opposed to the right one of a pair, let's say. I don't feel as confused about this as I sound. I think I get it. Let's say there are two tables ahead of you and me, a little too far away for me to see the titles of the books stacked on them. If the book I'm looking for is on the table to the left in the pair, then it's on the left one. Which is more like what I feel this must mean. It feels as if it refers more to the objects in spacial relation to *each other* than to the observer. As for caer, cayó and the dative and/or reflexive se or me, I don't know. I guess it's just hard for me to make grammatical sense of. Sometimes I think I get it, sometimes I think I don't, and just trying to express what I mean makes my poor head spin. Pero a pesár de todo, sigo adelante tratando de leer más. ¿Se puede decirlo así?

November 22, 2007 from the Web.

yardbird says

I would say this in the Forum, but it's been having technical problems that have kept me from accessing it. So I just want to say, off topic, that I'm delighted with the new rumba/salsa intro music for the podcasts, because I love that music. it's possible to buy a DVD (from Amazon, or maybe from a stall in Tepito near the shrine of la Santa Muerte, of a PBS documentary hosted by Harry Belafonte called The Routes of Rhythm. it traces the music from its roots in West Africa's Yoruba past to the streets of Havana, and I recommend it highly. The little punctuation of that flamenco guitar riff is nice, too. How about mixing in some ranchera, or la musica jarocha, some Colombian cumbia, and some tango? I'm only half kidding. If I were the music producer for the podcasts, I'd actually find passages to extract from various songs and use, and alternate them. But I guess the consistency is a desirable quality, here, actually. Never mind.... :-)

November 22, 2007 from the Web.

Team	lilianamata says Yardbird I am a salsa fan, the song we use for the podcast is from "El Gran Combo" the song is called "se nos perdió el amor", which translates to " we fell out of love." Everything from this group is great music. November 23, 2007 from the Web.

Team

jpvillanueva says

Lili, I know I helped you with that translation "we fell out of love," but it just occurred to me that we have a song in English called "You've Lost that Lovin' Feelin'." So maybe "Se nos perdió el amor" could also be "We lost our love" or "Love went and got lost on us." It's easy to translate words, but it's hard to give just the right sense to a phrase, especially when it comes to translating lyrics or poetry. yardbird might be interested in this; the 'se nos' part makes it sound like an accident, like it's something that happened to us, like neither of us are at fault, we're both victims of this loss. Contrast this with "Nosotros perdimos el amor." The active sentence says that we did it, we lost the love, it's our fault, we should have been more careful.

November 23, 2007 from the Web.

yardbird says

Yes, I noticed that. But in my linguistic innocence, just looking at the third person preterite perdió, my first thought (I understand that I may just be blind to how these constructions are designed) is to think of the idea that love lost us. The image beig that of love as something a bit transcendental, a kind of spirit that lacks the power of an actual god because it can lose its subjects, whereas when religious believers fall out of their faith, it's they who are said to lose God, not the other way around. My vision of this is pretty romantic and sad, I think. No doubt, in this paradigm, Love is sad and bereft because he (or she, as you will) has lost another couple of lovers to that other, colder world of detachment and singleness. So Love is, in its way, as bereft as the separated lovers. Actually, this is a lot more sentimental than anything I'm usually liable to think about such things. Very sentimental, in fact. When we break our bonds of love, we break Love's heart. Perssonifying Love, is what I'm trying to say. Finally.

November 23, 2007 from the Web.

bababardwan says

¡ qué hermoso !

November 7, 2011 from the Web.

MexicoBob says

JP and Yardbird, When talking about the coin dropping in the telephone both of you said "me cayó la veinte?". Why did you both use "la" in front of "veinte" instead of "el" in front of "veinte" like I did? I double checked and I can assure you that the form that people use here is "el veinte" most likely because we are talking about centavos. In my original story I mistakenly said "pesos" instead of "centavos" but then I never really was very good at handling money :) About the "a la izquierda" and "de la izquierda thing. I think we use "a la izquierda" when talking about things in relation to the subject and we use "de la izquierda" when talking about an object in relation to another object. In other words The book is on the table "a la izquierda" - on the table to the left of us and The book is on the table "de la izquierda" on the table that is on the left (of another table or something else). Regarding love...with me it is the same situation as money...I am not very good with either :)

November 23, 2007 from the Web.

lvalmoria says

Have been drawn back to this discussion by poetry and love ;) JP--that explanation about 'se nos' was practically poetry in itself. Why is it that with loving a person it can be 'quiero'? I refer to one of my favourite lines from one of my favourite poets: "Yo la quise, y a veces ella también me quiso." Is 'amor' the noun, and 'quiere' (alguien) the projected emotion ...? Completely off topic, so to think of something halfway relevant ... was reviewing this lesson and realised that if I were giving directions to where I was, los cachorros wouldn't help (as gorgeous as they were) ... and I will also like to try some of these constructions and had una pregunta: Hay muchos viejos edificios en la esquina ... y una vieja iglesia a la izquierda de un hotel. Either I am confusing French and Spanish grammar again, but is there another construction to say 'de un'? Some kind of contraction?

November 23, 2007 from the Web.

yanxiang says

how to use the exercise part, when i click "exercises", there comes out blank.gracias

November 23, 2007 from the Web.

pegasus says

hello yanxing - look further above - I made asimilar coment a few days ago - apparently they are not up to speed yet (juanpatricio gave an answer)....

November 24, 2007 from the Web.

Team	jpvillanueva says Ivalmoria, In Spanish: de + un = de un : ) yanxiang and pegasus, Sorry for the delay regarding the exercises! We'll try to have those memory games and puzzles up and running for you after the weekend! November 24, 2007 from the Web.

steve says

Whoops - looks like this lesson's exercises didn't get uploaded. We'll get them fixed asap!

November 24, 2007 from the Web.

simmo971 says

Just a follow on from Mexico Bob and the story of the telephone coins. I guess most countries have similar stories to support the origin of certain sayings. Here in England the saying is, 'The penny has finally dropped' to show that someone has finally understood something. This apparently dates back to the Victorian era and the popular penny slot arcades. Often in the old slot machines the penny would stick halfway down and the user would have to give the machine a thump in order to get the penny to finally drop and the game to begin.

November 24, 2007 from the Web.

AuntySue says

[cheeky smug look] Actually, the correct English is "public phone", the same as in Spanish, however people in the USA always call them pay phones. For the English "mobile phone", in the USA they say "cell phone", and the USA dialect seems to have been taken into Spanish for that one.

November 24, 2007 from the Web.

Team

jpvillanueva says

AuntySue, you are so cheeky and smug! Did Americans ever have public phones? I think it's always been a private companies in the US, so correct English didn't work for us. Nothing new there! As for "cell phone," we do say "teléfono móvil" in the European variety of Spanish.

November 24, 2007 from the Web.

AuntySue says

I see, that makes sense about the public phones, I never realised that the USA didn't actually have public phones. When I first heard the term "cell phone" I visualised a chat service for prisoners or hermits. Of course I'm used to hearing it now, but those images remain! What I can't get used to yet is the simple word "phone" so often meaning a mobile phone by default these days, so that we have to say something silly like "home phone" or "landline" to talk about a NORMAL phone. Does that happen in Spanish too?

November 24, 2007 from the Web.

MexicoBob says

AuntySue, I hear a lot of people using the words "celular" and "teléfono" to differentiate as in “Llámame por celular” versus “Llámame por teléfono” or “Llámame a mi casa”. The first one means “Call me on my cell pone” while the next two mean “Call me on my home phone”. As in other developing countries many people don’t have home phones. They just skipped that phase and went directly to a cell phone. The cell phone with an Internet two-way radio feature is becoming more and more popular. Here in Mexico the company that provides this service is called “Nextel” so people say “Llámame por Nextel”. I have a phone like this and where I work everyone in management has one and we use them like “walkie-talkies”. They have also become somewhat of a status symbol because they are relatively expensive compared to a regular cell phone.

November 25, 2007 from the Web.

yardbird says

I appreciated Aunti sue's bit about imagining a cell phone as an ordinary telephone installed in the domicile, so to dignify it, of a convict or a monk. That's nice. as for the expression public phone, though, here's the American story: "Public phone" was always (I say "was" because they're almost extinct now in U.S. cities for several reasons)the proper formal name for them. That didn't mean a phone booth provided by the government, as "public" seems usually to mean in England, I believe. It just means a telephone located in a public area, accessible to anyone with a couple of coins to drop into it, as opposed to a "private" phone in someone's house or, these days, pocket. Similar to the expression "public restroom" meaning bathrooms that aren't either in the home nor within a restaurant or store. Again, hardly ever provided or maintained by government. "Pay phone" is the colloquial and common way to refer to such a telephone. Hardly anyone ever actually says "public phone," but as i say, that's not because it's not the "right" term. it's just not the one used in casual conversation. And, no, although there have been public restrooms in which one has had to drop a coin into a slot to open a stall door, that's not integral to what a public restroom is. Just one variety of same. restrarant SimioaThat's

November 25, 2007 from the Web.

bababardwan says

"SimioaThat's"...what's that mean?

November 7, 2011 from the Web.

intangiblentangible says

hey,I somehow was not able to find any vocabularies as i clicked on it. anyone can explain it? anything wrong with my account? thanks

November 28, 2007 from the Web.

Team	leoguerrero says Hello intangiblentangible, Thank you for notifying us about this problem. We already took care of it, now is up and running. Sorry about it. November 28, 2007 from the Web.

lvalmoria says

JP: gracias. I think what had me stuck was reviewing the contractions of 'del' (de + el) and 'al' (a + el), but those have more to do with direction, and not location ... I am sure I will raise that point again anyway when you have your new grammatical podcast :) On payphones/landlines/VOIP and what you call them--I think I've been to one or two places where people also call their phone service by their provider (i.e. MexicoBob talking about “Llámame por Nextel"). are there any other countries in Latin America with similar phrases/usages?

December 2, 2007 from the Web.

Team	lilianamata says lvalmoria Usually we say "celular" or "teléfono móvil." In the case of Nextel we use the term, because it is a very different type of service, that is why we specify this. December 2, 2007 from the Web.

fimperial says

Hay un delicioso restaurante japonés en la esquina. Someone in another thread mentioned they had a Spanish dictionary on their celular. Does anyone know which brand of phone this was?

December 13, 2007 from the Web.

jodibean says

Estoy en casa, y hay la calle al lago en la esquina (y la casa de mi vecino).

That was very interesting to read about Mexico being one of the first to implement prepaid phone cards. Definitely a good investment solution!

May 26, 2008 from the Web.

cobre says

Hay ocho letreros de parada en las equinas, cuatro para coches y los otros más pequeños para las bicicletas.

Hay huevos, no tenir huevos?

June 1, 2008 from the Web.

donperigo says

Puedo ser incorecto pero creo que
"¿Tiene huevos?" es uno de las frases para evitar.
"Hay huevos" parece mas inocuo.
"Huevos" es un eufemismo comun en españa.

Hay no esquinas aqui, solo los rincónes

June 1, 2008 from the Web.

bababardwan says

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=HUEVOS&defid=1450573

November 7, 2011 from the Web.

donperigo says

En la reino unido teníamos teléfonos públicos porque BT (british telecom) era un compañia estatal. Ahora, tenemos teléfonos de movil, y teléfonos roto, cubierto de grafiti y excremento :-)

June 1, 2008 from the Web.

Team

lilianamata says

Cobre:

This is a common mistake:

To say "Tener huevos" means "you don't dare, you don't have the courage to do something". This in fact can be offensive and a bad word, in any context.

If you want to ask if they have eggs at the shop then you can ask "Hay huevos".

When you say "tener" basically you are asking if that person has something "on them" or "with them". "Hay" you are asking if "there are".

June 1, 2008 from the Web.

jodibean says

Does "tener huevos" also mean something along the lines of "having the guts" to do something?

June 1, 2008 from the Web.

donperigo says

somethings like that :-)

June 1, 2008 from the Web.

evandar says

¡Hay la casa de mi mamá en la esquina! And a big yay for my first elementary lesson. :) Slightly harder the Newbie, but that's ok. Understanding all the comments is a lot harder, haha.

I wonder, when you ask "hay huevos", do you never include "aquí" at the end? It makes a little more sense to me, though it's more practical to omit it, I'm sure.

September 17, 2009 from the Web.

Team	lilianamata says evandar Muchas Felicidades y bienvenido al segundo nivel! Sobre tu pregunta. Si dices o preguntas ¿hay huevos? ya no hace falta decir aquí, está implícito. Si lo dices tampoco hay mucho problema. September 17, 2009 from the Web.

evandar says

¡Muchas gracias, Liliana! Y gracias por la respuesta. Honestly, I had to use a translator for "ya no hace falta..." and "si lo dices tampoco..." *blush*, as both falta and tampoco threw me off in their respective sentences. And, of course, ya always seems to confuse me. But now I've learned a couple of new expressions, so it's all good.

September 18, 2009 from the Web.

donperigo says

evander

Please dont blush, thats why you are here, the important thing is that you took the time to look into the grammar and vocabulary neccessary to understand lillis reply.

as you say, its all good.

September 18, 2009 from the Web.

evandar says

Tienes razón, donperigo. :)

September 19, 2009 from the Web.

donperigo says

truth is, it was new to me too. though ive since noticed lilli using tampoco in this sneaky negativising manner a lot recently.

e.g. A mi tampoco me gusta la comida rapida

personally, i'd expected a comma and a "no" in there

i.e. a mi tampoco, no me gusta la..
me niether, i dont like

wheras shes really saying niether/nor do i like fast food .

clever stuff

September 19, 2009 from the Web.

donperigo says

evandar

I too found the Ya superfluous and confusing "it already doesnt need"! If i were to add a Ya at all i would have put it later , "its already implicit" but then i dont speak spanish and lilli does so we have both learned something.

September 19, 2009 from the Web.

evandar says

Yeah, that's what I was thinking about ya, that it seemed unneccesary, but that's how they use it, so just have to learn it. :)

September 20, 2009 from the Web.

donperigo says

evandar

honestly, id forget my head it it wasnt screwed on.

I remembered today that Ya, when used in the negative translates as no longer so its not; that "it already doesnt need", its that it still doesnt need" which makes a lot more sense to me.

September 21, 2009 from the Web.

evandar says

Ah, yes, that makes much more sense, gracias.

September 23, 2009 from the Web.

donperigo says

por fin, ya me cayó el veinte

Si preguntaras a un dependiente, ¿tiene muslitos de pollo?, no podrías ser sorprendido si replicó, no, es solo la manera que caen mis pantalones.
Si preguntaras a una dependienta "tiene sandias grandes" es posible que, ella pudiera creer que, refieres a su pecho (especificamente si ella trabaja en una tienda de ropa.)
Si preguntas "tiene uno más grande" o "tiene uno que brillar en el oscuro" o "tiene uno frio" etc. etc. estas pidiendo problemas.

creo que, Es sólo que en cierto circunstancias hay doble sentidos. Si no hay, ;-) se puede usar "tiene" pero es mas seguro para usar "hay".

Finally, the penny has dropped

if you ask a shop assistant, do you have chicken thighs?, You would not be surprised if they replied, no, it's just the way my trousers hang.
if you ask a female shop assistant "do you have big watermelons? it's possible that she might think you were referring to her chest (especially if she works in a clothing store.)
If you ask "do you have a big one" or "one that glows in the dark" or "a cold one" and so on. etc. you are asking for trouble.

so, in certain circumstances there are double meanings. If not you can use "do you have" but it is safer to use "is/are there".

September 23, 2009 from the Web.

bababardwan says

"no, es solo la manera que caen mis pantalones. "

jajaja...muy divertido

November 7, 2011 from the Web.

marcobestgen says

Hola, quisiera saber si se dice mucho en España "teléfono inalámbrico". Gracias. Marco.

October 28, 2009 from the Web.

marcobestgen says

(el post de antes ..) --> quiero decir, si se usa mucho la palabra "teléfono inalambrico" (el aparato si, sé que se usa muchisimo) . Marco

October 28, 2009 from the Web.

bababardwan says

Hay uno mueble para libros en la esquina

November 7, 2011 from the Web.

kkosshernejad says

April 2, 2012 from the Web.

mudphud says

Algun telefono publico versus cualquier telefono publico...any thoughts? Equivalent or subtle difference.


	Full Lesson (Radio Quality, 5.74mb)
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	Lesson Transcript PDF

Hosts:	Liliana, JP
ID:	0009
Difficulty:	Elementary
Published:	November 22, 2007
Topics:	telephone
Functions:	asking for directions

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Elementary - Pay Phone

Lesson Introduction

Comments (71)

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