Learn To Recount Your Imagination In Spanish

They say, imagination is the cheapest luxury one can afford. What few realize is that it can also be one of the most effective tool for learning Spanish. Whenever we deconstruct a sentence, we essentially break down an overwhelming behemoth of a sentence into tiny, easily understandable fragments that our minds instantly assimilate. The sentence that we are going to break down here has nothing grand about it but would prove immensely helpful if you ever try relating an account of your dreams and ambitions which in turn would build your Spanish, bit by bit. You see, imagination is also often the cheapest language teacher!

Imagine buying this Jag and write about it in Spanish!
Photo credit: Martin Pettitt licensed CC BY 2.0

If asked to let our imagination run unchecked without an agenda, most of us are most likely to imagine being capable of achieving or having already achieved what would otherwise be incredibly difficult in prevailing reality. Today’s sentence (given below along with its meaning in English which is, obviously, not very literal) should enable you to at least start giving words to such day-dreams in Spanish.

Cuando gano la lotería voy a comprarme un Jaguar y contratar a un chafirete que me lleve por todos lados. (When I win the lottery I’m going to buy myself a Jaguar and hire a driver to take me all over the place.)

The nuts and bolts

Let’s begin the dissection of this awefully long sentence:

Cuando – This is the Spanish word meaning “when” in a non-question sense. Place an accent-mark over the “a” and it becomes cuándo, a question.

gano – The Spanish verb, ganar means “to win” and when conjugated in the present indicative form for the singular first person, it turns into gano. So, this word essentially stands for “I win” (don’t forget that the subject pronoun is often omitted in Spanish and solely implied by the context). Not sure if ganar shares its etymology with the English word, “to gain” because other than sounding similar they are also quite close in their meanings. Anyways, the similarity should still be enough to help you remember the word and recall it painlessly.

la lotería – This one is a no-brainer. The English word, “lottery” becomes lotería in Spanish and the -a ending makes it a feminine noun which brings in the la.

voy a comprarme – Ir is the Spanish for “to go” and its singular first person conjugation in the present tense makes it voy. Thus, voy essentially stands for “I go” or “I am going”. The next word, Comprar is the Spanish for “to buy” and using the preposition, a (to) to link it with ir gives it the sense of someone “going to buy”. So, voy a comprar would mean “I am going to buy” just like vamos a comer would mean “we are going to eat”. So, what is the me doing attached to comprar? It is called a reflexive pronoun. Never mind the grammar; just remember that it gives comprar the sense of “buying for myself” just as comprarte would mean “to buy for yourself”. So, in short, voy a comprarme means “I am going to buy myself”.

un Jaguar – A Jag. Here we are talking about a ridiculously expensive brand of car. Dying to take one for a spin, aren’t you?

y – This is probably the simplest word of this sentence; it’s the Spanish for “and”.

contratar – The English verb, “to contract” can also be used in the sense of employing something or someone on contract or, in other words, “to hire”. Now, this verb shares its etymology with the Spanish word, contratar. This relationship should ensure you don’t forget the word easily.

a un chafirete – In Spanish, it’s a grammatical mandate to always introduce an object with an a if it happens to be a person or something personified, e.g., a pet, etc. So the word, a here introduces an object for the verb, contratar. But what, or rather who, is this object? Un chafirete is a Mexican slang for a driver. It should help to know that both chfirete of Spanish and chauffeur of French share a common origin.

que – Remember how we use the word, “that” to link clauses and ideas in English? We use que for the same purpose in Spanish though the usage is not exactly similar always. In this context, que stands for “to” in the same way it does when used after tener. So, just like tengo que ir means, “I have to go,” contratar que trabajar would mean “to hire to work.”

me lleve – So what is the verb que intends to introduce here? The Spanish verb, llevar means “to carry” in English. In this context, however, it is used in the sense of “taking someone around.” In Spanish, when you are not sure of an event’s certainty, you conjugate the verb in a slightly different fashion. The singular third person present indicative conjugation of llevar would normally be lleva. However, since we are only imagining and not sure of whether this is ever going to happen in reality, we conjugate it as lleve. Spanish grammar calls this the subjunctive form. And you must have already guessed that the word, me gives it a reflexive twist. So, me lleve would essentially mean, “he or she would carry me”; note the use of “would” in English to give it a sense of uncertainty.

por – Usually por would mean “at” or even “for” but avoid taking the meaning literally at all cost. Nothing can screw up your Spanish more. In this context, it carries the sense of “around” as in por aquí (around here).

todos lados – Lado is the Spanish for “side” but can also carry the sense of “place” depending on the context. In this context, it clearly means “place”. Todo means “all” and because lados is plural, todo becomes todos. So, todos lados stands for “all sides” or, figuratively, “all over the place”.

String’em together

Now let’s bring these pieces together. The phrase, Cuando gano la lotería means “When I win the lottery,” in the following sentence structure: Conditional word (“when”) - subject (omitted here) - verb (here, present indicative of “to win”) - object (here, “the lottery”)

The next portion, voy a comprarme un Jaguar means “I’m going to buy myself a Jaguar,” in the following order: subject (omitted here) - verb1 (here, present indicative of “to go”) - preposition (here, “to”) - verb2 (here, “to buy myself” in its infinitive, reflexive form) - object (here, “a Jaguar”)

The next piece, y contratar a un chafirete means “and hire a driver,” in the following structure: Conjunction (here, “and”) - verb (here, infinitive form of “to hire”) - object connector (here, a with no English equivalent) - object (here, “a driver”)

And the last phrase, que me lleve por todos lados means “to take me around all over the place,” in this order: Preposition (here, “to”) - object pronoun (here, “me”) - verb (here, subjunctive present indicative of “to carry”) - preposition (here, “around”) - object (here, “all sides” or “all over the place”)

Do note that unless the verb is in its raw infinitive form, any object pronoun must come before the verb (e.g., Me llamo Pedro); otherwise, it is just attached to the verb (e.g., Quiero verte).